Sunday, May 11, 2008
The critical 72 hours...!
The maddest weekend i've had in a long time... lucky there were no races!
Start with two assignments (due Thursday and Friday); two dinner appointments on Thursday; an early morning swim on Friday morning; a biggy road ride to play on the hill towards Kinglake on the P2C; and a long run to cap off Sunday morning.
Throw in a fantastic second-hand bike deal (for Ray) on Friday; more makan on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon; a desperate yearning for my adored MTB - and we have lift-off!!
The first dinner appointment involved a Keen post-race gathering. Big swap of photos, videos and cheerful recounting of the fun at the Keen Adventure Race last month. Great networking opportunity and i'm sure Melbourne Adventure got a bit more mileage out of that with a good number of our members turning up to talk about goings-on.
The second-hand bike was nice at $1800 (only thing i could really fault was the noodly FSA crankset; rest of the stuff is solid as they come) and i hope Ray is happy with it. It's all downhill from here...!
Oh yes, here's how Saturday went:
Early bird: met our lovely support crew Jan heading out on her first ride with Liam's crew. This is her beloved ute she's posing in front of (pity that Kaya, Jan's dog/car alarm was not around).
The main gang in front of Liam's studio prior to heading off. Nice and social, and with lots of good energy. We later split up so that the small group could pick up the pace and do a bit of hill work near Kinglake.
My P2C outside the coffee place at St. Andrews, post hill-repeats; later, it was a birsk-paced, caffeine-powered pull back to the city via Eltham, led mostly by Simon.
The crew that headed up to Kinglake, enjoying the cafe stop. Simon seemed to enjoy my snakes (giving me the thumbs up), and he put them to good use later enroute to Eltham, trying to break us with his tremendous power!
I was bloody knackered by the time i got to Clifton Hill, so some food was in quick order.... Speedy arrangments with the MUAC trio found me in a cafe at Victoria Market anticipating some much-needed brunch. Elaine, Iylia and Ray had just done their morning run at Bellbird Picnic area (the batty place on the Yarra) and had kindly waited for me to finish my ride before placing orders. Not wasting any time, we got stuck into our post-work-out pancakes.
That was just one lemon pancake, but it was a PHAT ONE - the equivalent thickness of three normal pancakes!
A Berry Bliss pancake about to meet its demise =P
Said my goodbyes after the very scrumptious meal and ambled home. Total ride distance: 160km with an average speed of a lowish 28kmh... quite happy with that considering the inclusion of the three 15-minute climbs.
Sunday (today):
Felt shite upon waking up, so slept in a bit. Of course, once i got out the door onto the scheduled 100min run, all was good. Finished just in time for a good brunch at Red Rhumba cafe. Quite relaxed during the meal, so spent some down-time in the cafe chipping away at "Flying Scotsman" and also having a browse through The Sunday Age.
Got my MTB back this evening from Andrew. My shout for dinner as Andrew had kindly taken apart most of the drivetrain for a thorough cleaning. We headed to Lygon for Ying Thai, but it was bloody chockers, so we settled for Papa Gino's instead. It was good to catch up with Amy and Andrew again for dinner, and i ended my day/weekend on a high note.
Oh yes... am still waiting on Ray >=) to pass me the rest of his photos, including the pancake shots!
P.S: I gotta get me a smaller camera.
Start with two assignments (due Thursday and Friday); two dinner appointments on Thursday; an early morning swim on Friday morning; a biggy road ride to play on the hill towards Kinglake on the P2C; and a long run to cap off Sunday morning.
Throw in a fantastic second-hand bike deal (for Ray) on Friday; more makan on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon; a desperate yearning for my adored MTB - and we have lift-off!!
The first dinner appointment involved a Keen post-race gathering. Big swap of photos, videos and cheerful recounting of the fun at the Keen Adventure Race last month. Great networking opportunity and i'm sure Melbourne Adventure got a bit more mileage out of that with a good number of our members turning up to talk about goings-on.
The second-hand bike was nice at $1800 (only thing i could really fault was the noodly FSA crankset; rest of the stuff is solid as they come) and i hope Ray is happy with it. It's all downhill from here...!
Oh yes, here's how Saturday went:
Early bird: met our lovely support crew Jan heading out on her first ride with Liam's crew. This is her beloved ute she's posing in front of (pity that Kaya, Jan's dog/car alarm was not around).
The main gang in front of Liam's studio prior to heading off. Nice and social, and with lots of good energy. We later split up so that the small group could pick up the pace and do a bit of hill work near Kinglake.
My P2C outside the coffee place at St. Andrews, post hill-repeats; later, it was a birsk-paced, caffeine-powered pull back to the city via Eltham, led mostly by Simon.
The crew that headed up to Kinglake, enjoying the cafe stop. Simon seemed to enjoy my snakes (giving me the thumbs up), and he put them to good use later enroute to Eltham, trying to break us with his tremendous power!
I was bloody knackered by the time i got to Clifton Hill, so some food was in quick order.... Speedy arrangments with the MUAC trio found me in a cafe at Victoria Market anticipating some much-needed brunch. Elaine, Iylia and Ray had just done their morning run at Bellbird Picnic area (the batty place on the Yarra) and had kindly waited for me to finish my ride before placing orders. Not wasting any time, we got stuck into our post-work-out pancakes.
That was just one lemon pancake, but it was a PHAT ONE - the equivalent thickness of three normal pancakes!
A Berry Bliss pancake about to meet its demise =P
Said my goodbyes after the very scrumptious meal and ambled home. Total ride distance: 160km with an average speed of a lowish 28kmh... quite happy with that considering the inclusion of the three 15-minute climbs.
Sunday (today):
Felt shite upon waking up, so slept in a bit. Of course, once i got out the door onto the scheduled 100min run, all was good. Finished just in time for a good brunch at Red Rhumba cafe. Quite relaxed during the meal, so spent some down-time in the cafe chipping away at "Flying Scotsman" and also having a browse through The Sunday Age.
Got my MTB back this evening from Andrew. My shout for dinner as Andrew had kindly taken apart most of the drivetrain for a thorough cleaning. We headed to Lygon for Ying Thai, but it was bloody chockers, so we settled for Papa Gino's instead. It was good to catch up with Amy and Andrew again for dinner, and i ended my day/weekend on a high note.
Oh yes... am still waiting on Ray >=) to pass me the rest of his photos, including the pancake shots!
P.S: I gotta get me a smaller camera.
