Riding (yes!)

I've kicked off my riding again with the R&R Sport 30th Birthday ride.  While I'm "between jobs" I figure I should take these opportunities for weekday rides.  R&R was offering a goodie bag and a 30km or so ride up the River path to do a lap of the Pukete MTB track, then back down the river path and back to the shop.

Where's my bike?

I did a running race.  Yes, going fast without a bike.  Okay, so I don't go very fast without wheels, but I did it all the same.  Megan asked me to do the City to Surf run with her, but I said "no thanks", that the 5km Surf to Surf would be a big deal for me and that I wouldn't want to pay to run such a small distance (can do it for free anywhere, really).  So it was never marked on the calender... until I won two free entries to the damned thing!  I offered my spare entry to Megan and we signed up for the 5km Surf to Surf.

RAD

I went for a hoon with Megan at the Hamilton BMX track one morning.  It was so much fun.  The day was beautifully sunny with not too much wind.  The track was mint - newly asphalted berms made it quite a bit quicker and easier to maintain, or gain, speed through the turns.  I was having quite a bit of trouble with the third and fourth straights, where my legs would get tired and I'd find it hard to bend them to pump through the rhythm sections.  My legs just wanted to stay straight and I'd be getting bucked around instead of smoothly pumping and flowing over the rollers.

Committed

I went along to the Hamilton Mountain Bike Club AGM to listen to an amazing talk about the construction of the Pureora Timber Trail.  The guys from DOC did a very interesting presentation including the conditions encountered during construction, the huge and impressive suspension bridges, and a brief bit of history of the area.  Inspiring stuff and another ride added to my "To Do" list.

Velo Espresso night racing series

The Hamilton Mountain Bike Club "Do It In The Dark" night racing series ran for about 12 weeks over winter.   10 races in total - held in some atrocious weather - plus the final "finale" event.  The final was held in the parking garage behind Velo Espresso in Garden Place.  Andrew and a team of helpers had laid out the most awesome and sketchy looking skills and obstacles course, utilising recycled timber, pallets and even a couple of trailers.  The wall ride was pretty impressive and quite tricky to actually get up onto to 'ride'.  It was tight, but speed was your friend.

Winter hibernation

Spring is here at last and I am slowly emerging from hibernation.  I didn't intend to slow down so much over winter, but for whatever reason it happened that way.  Now I need to claw my way back to some sort of appropriate fitness level to cope with riding more often.  I guess just riding more often should fix that.

The next few posts will be a bit of a catch up on the last few months happenings...