My Weekend in Heaven
The last few weeks have seen a huge amount of travel. It's been a challenge to keep my training on track but I have managed. Around the middle of the month, it became clear to me that I would be heading down under for business. It turned out that the only way it was going to work would be at least three days in Sydney. I decided to treat myself, bring my bike down under and stay for the weekend. A few minutes on the Internet [ http://lornet.com/sgol ] turned up a 50-meter pool in the middle of Sydney. The Philip & Cook Aquatic Centre is located very close to Hyde Park. A little more work found a hotel that was less than two blocks away. Things were looking up for at least some decent swimming. Thanks to the folks on RST who took the time to respond to my posts on riding. One thing everybody mentioned was how cold it was and that I better bring my full winter cycling gear. This seemed a little different that what I was seeing on weather.com but I trusted the locals and brought my Hong Kong winter cycling gear (pretty meager). I arrived in Sydney on Wednesday and learned the joy of Maxi-Taxis when you have a monster bike box. Hit the hotel. Grabbed my speedo and headed off to the pool for a quick 4K before my first meeting. Even though it was lunchtime there was hardly anyone in the lane. They also had the lanes split between slow, medium, fast and breaststroke. Fantastic. Clean showers, I was in the Lucky Country and loving it. Thursday morning was gray and raining. I awoke at 4:45 a.m. to make it up to Centennial Park to ride with John Hill's group. Killer early as that is actually 2:45 a.m. Hong Kong time but, as many of you know, it takes a lot more than rain, cold and a lack of sleep to prevent me from getting my training. Rode up Oxford Street and surprise, surprise it was totally deserted, except for the Roadie that blasted by me. Made a mistake of turning into the park too early and had to ride across in stealth bomber mode with only my LEDs to guide my way. Managed to make it without wiping myself out with a park bench. Made it to the York Road gates in time to see John's group heading out. Picked them up. A great recovery ride followed in the dark. One nice thing about riding circles in the dark is that it doesn't really matter as you can't see anything anyhow. Around 7:00 a.m., it started to get light and also rained a little bit. Even though it was raining and a little cold, it was clear in the distance. The park is on a little hill and I could see the bright reds and pinks of the sunrise in the distance. If you look hard enough then you can see something beautiful in most situations. When I am on my bike, everything's all right. We did a little faster stuff for a while and I was given the chance to TT the loop. I can't remember my time but John said it was respectable. Coming from a guy that's raced 10 hours in Kona, I felt that I had done my little bit for Hong Kong on the morning. Most of the group headed off around 7:15 a.m. and I immediately flatted. About that time Ally from TNO pulled up to say good day. Up to that point, I didn't realise it was her, and was actually dropping the hammer to get some faster work in before heading back to the hotel. So the first flat was actually quite fortunate. The second and third were less fortunate. Picture the scene. Morning rush hour, soaked, dirty, smelly triathlete trying to flat down your cab. It's your call. Would you stop to help this shivering soul or drive on to the next block and grab that guy in a suit? Exactly. I rolled down Oxford Street on my rim and managed to get back to the hotel without taking myself out in rush hour traffic. Even made my meeting without being too late. Later with the help of the LBS boys, I found the ten pieces of glass that were embedded in my tire. Brand new Conti with less than 100K on it. Toast. Still, it was worth it. Friday morning was another early start to hit the pool for 10x500. Felt very strong. Around the middle of that afternoon though, I hit the wall and had to declare a couple of "timeouts" from my meetings. Each timeout consisted of walking down three flights of stairs, around the block, lots of deep breathing and then back up stairs. I think it was a combination of the travel, the Tagaman, a change in diet and lack of sleep. The run planned for Fri PM was binned and I had dinner with a buddy. She's got three kids under four but that is another story, about dedication to little people you love.
Saturday was the main event! The reason I had brought my bike to Sydney. The weather forecast was pretty good. Sun with afternoon showers. I took a taxi with my bike out to Mike's place. Mike had very kindly offered to take me on his long ride for the week. I had requested "hills" and he said that he should be able to work something out for me. Arrive at Mike's place with my brand new Dragon Cycling Jersey. It is too hot for me to wear in Hong Kong, so I was stoked that it was cool enough to wear in Sydney. Funny, but just putting on the Jersey makes me feel powerful. It is a fantastic design (not mine, I didn't get the numbers to do the custom jersey I posted about). We were off. Just before I left, Mike recommended that I bring my wind shell along. Top Tip. It was a beautiful day, and we immediately hit a series of steep rollers and I was thinking that this is going to be interesting coming back. Not wanting to give Mike the mental edge, I kept these thoughts to myself. Mike is a lean dude and typically these boys deal me some serious punishment in the hills. Needless to say, I was relieved to hear that he was at the end of a 24-hour build week and had done a track session Friday night (while I was eating pasta and drinking VB at my buddy's place). Many folks ask me about training in Hong Kong. How do get your rides in? What is it like? Well, typically me and my training pal (Mr. John Newsom - beat Peter Reid in Phuket last year, I always introduce him that way) hit the roads for two mid-week rides of 90-180 min duration. These start at between 4:45 and 6:00 a.m. to beat the traffic and the worst of the heat. One neat thing that we have recently discovered is that when the heat index hits 40C during the day, all the air pollution lifts away due to the heat. Frankly, that is the real challenge of training here. Air pollution in the winter, spring and fall. Heat in the summer. Nothing you can do but take the air pollution, or leave. ;-) The Australian air was clean, crisp and there was virtually no humidty. We came up to a highway and Mike told me to turn on to it. On the taxi ride out, the driver asked me where we were going to ride and I said I had no idea except for the fact that there was no way I was going to ride on the highway. Well, there I was on the highway with semi-trailers whizzing by me at 110 kph. There was a slight drop, no wind and I was not feeling very comfortable with a variety of thoughts going through my head (Karen Smyers, the poor lad in Melbourne, Brad Bevan). The power of positive thinking I was not. On the drops and it was hammer time. Perhaps Mike could sense my discomfort because we were off the highway at the first exit and back on the side road, complete with bike path and frequent "caution cyclist" signs. Throughout the ride Mike had been a little cagey about the route and now he was coming clean. Two 1,000-foot climbs, rollers the whole way and an optional bit at the end. The way he was positioning the optional bit was excellent. We may be a little short on time, we would have to see how it goes, maybe if we set a good pace then we might be able to make it. He did everything but come right out and say, "if you are man enough then you get the extra bit". My recovery had left my legs fresh for the first time since my race the previous weekend. I was soaking up the sun and loving the power up the climbs, the smell of the trees, the smell of the water and everything else Not much excitement had happened yet, although I did manage a short climb in my 53-13. We arrived at the junction (after Mt White for the locals) and Mike gave me the good news. We had enough time and I was up to the extra bit. Yessssss! The extra "bit" was another two 1000 ft climbs and more rollers. The roads are great for riding. Lots of up and down, winding, technical but not dangerous. Unfortunately, that means that the petrol-heads also like them and bikes were occasionally buzzing us. Still, they were pretty good and didn't freak me too bad. On the way back after the two climbs, one bike flew by Mike and me going into a corner hard and fast. The guy was breaking and changing gears in the corner. He lost control in the middle of the corner, did a compression skid, lost the back end and flew off the road into the trees. I can't even remember what Mike and I said to each other but we were hammering up on the scene before either of us really had time to think. Visions of mayhem were going through my mind. I am not 100% proud of this but my first thought was, "Jesus, that guy's probably dead and how are we going to get back before dark." We get up to the corner and the guy's pals come flying up the road as Mike and I try to waive them down. Mike is nearly taken out himself, trying to get them to stop. They just blew by. We come up on the dude and I can smell the gasoline in the air and hear the engine still running. The bike is trashed with plastic everywhere. The rider is on his back, not moving, face up. Off my bike, one of us ask if he is alright and he groans. He gets up, shuts his bike off and collapses back on his back. OK, resume breathing. He mutters a bit, with probably a huge amount of adrenaline running through his body, he is not making sense. He is about nine feet below road level. If we hadn't seen him go then he would have been invisible. Mike and I manage to get a bike to stop (by standing in the middle of the road, slowly raising and lowering our arms above our heads). Once one bike stops, others follow and soon we have six riders and bikes. Turns out that our boy went right between two trees. Nine inches either side and he was a paraplegic. One lucky dude. His collarbone is most likely toasted but his friends have it under control. We say our good-byes and head out. I am in a bit of shock for the next 20 minutes or so, nearly having watched a guy kill himself. Mike tells me that he used to be a top bike racer in his younger, crazier days and that gives me something else to think about. All that separates us from home is one mega climb and two hours of rollers. Around the four hour mark, it starts raining a little but immediately a huge rainbow appears. I think that the rainbow is God's idea of a good joke. I can smell the trees again and spend the next twenty minutes cranking along admiring the rainbow. I talked about that rainbow for the rest of the day. It was huge, had all the colours (ROYGBIV) and spanned the entire valley. Sounds strange but the rainbow made me happy to be on that ride, alive, cranking away, working hard on the hills and living. I had one of those increasingly frequent "there is nothing that I would rather be doing that this right now" thoughts. Some day I will figure out the right way to convey the joy I get from the simple act of exercise. I imagine that you guys know what I mean. Still, I will keep searching for the right metaphor. Not sure if Mike was feeling the same level of joy because with all the excitement of the crash, he forgot to eat for about 90 minutes. Not fatal if you are my size but those lean boys have to keep the carbs going down. We pull into a store and buy Mike a coke. I buy a green banana. Why? I wonder the same thing when I had to chuck it after one bite. It's getting late and we decide to take the highway home (oh noooo). Once on the highway, I tell Mike to get on my wheel and I will drag him until the coke kicks it. Mike is such a purist that he refuses to draft even while dying (a true IM). After another twenty minutes, he's back in the game and leading us through those evil rollers to his place. We arrive at Mike's as it gets dark, shoes on and out on a run. By now it has cleared and towards the end of the run there are tons of stars overhead. I ask Mike to show me the Southern Cross. He shows me and my day is complete. If you ever get the chance to train with Mike then take it.
Managed to sneak in a 1:50 run on the Sunday. Visited the Opera House, up Oxford Street, Moore Park, Centennial Park, checked out the roadies (they were doing more sitting that riding in the middle of the park) and then back to the hotel. Pack the bike up, one last swim (I love that pool) and then off to the airport for the return to Hong Kong. I had such a good time that I have decided to spend Nov-mid Dec in Oz training up in Queensland. I hear the weather is a lot like Hong Kong only with clean air. On the road and on the net, gordo |