Fact #1
If you have been resting as hard as you usually train ("Shut up, liver!") it can happen that you see a chuck walking into your front door. But when perfectly sober it can only mean one other thing.
Fact #2
Two weeks off the bike are a perfectly good reason to go crazy.
The TV was running while I was cooking last night and I ran from the kitchen into the lounge room when I heard Mike Tomalaris' voice and words like Melbourne ... Australian team ... announcement ... World Championship. I only caught the last snippets of the report so I still don't know the line up of the Australians. There is some talk in this household to make the trip to Geelong next month ...
Disappointed that I had missed the report, I was about to make a beeline back to the kitchen where the lid was rattling on the boiling pot, when the next images on the TV screen caught my attention. An Aboriginal women in black socks was dancing around an odd Merida racing bike - odd because of the dotted paint job of Australian indigenous art.
I was intrigued and did some more research online while the pots kept spitting milky boiling water all over the stove.
If you are going to Melbourne for the World Championship next month, you will be able to admire and even bid in an auction for the race-ready dotted artworks.
The money will buy bikes for indigenous communities in the Bikes for Bush project. When I looked at the pictures I loved seeing the expressions on the faces of the kids riding a bike for the very first time.
Skinny little legs - champion material? Tour de France or not - in any case a great project if only for the kids to enjoy riding a bike.
I love bread. Hey, I'm German, I grew up on bread. Maybe I also have some Italian blood because I love pasta, too. I thought I could never live without bread and pasta.
The great thing about cycling is the guilt free carbo loading ... until I started reading about inflammation in the body. Not all carbs are the same.
I only caught onto it because apparently one should test for gluten intolerance when diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Often the two go hand in hand. Inflammation in the body causes the autoimmune function of your body to kick into action. If the autoimmune system is already screwed, well, anything upsets the fragile balance... but I don't want to bore you with the details (there is plenty of good reading out there on the net if you are interested) and better get to how this may relate to everybody.
Research shows that inflammation in the body apparently is the main cause for aging!
Got your attention here, hey?
Inflammation in the body also doesn't help with peak performance. You reckon?
Well, the chef of the Garmin team is onto it: "Pasta in general is a good carbohydrate ... but ... creates inflammation so what we try to do is replace pasta with other very efficient carbohydrates like rice, couscous, other grains that don't create as much inflammation and is better for their (the rider's) recovery."
Over are the days of guilt-free indulgence. Label reading has become one of my most hated pastimes. But I still love cooking up a feast, a gluten free semi-vegetarian feast. Tonight on the menu:
Roasted Salmon Stuffed with Spinach, Feta and Ricotta and Broccolini Bake
Maybe not the food for peak performance but with a glass of Australian Sauvignon Blanc from Margaret River it was food for the soul.
The Queensland State Road Championship also came and went - without me.
So ... yeah ... it pains me to say ... but the upcoming Masters Nationals ... you guessed it ... not for me ... not this year!
After the latest setback I won't further press the matter.
I fail to find the words that express how disappointed I am but it's better this way!
While the 'world' is having a fruitful discussion (read: the claws are out) about how women's racing can be helped (views I share and a topic close to me, too) I realise that in times like this I would be glad to just race at all.
But I will stop hoping to come good for the next race, or the one after, or the next. At least for a while.
A squeaky clean racing calendar; however, will not stop me from enjoying crystal-clear azure August skies on my bike though. Stay tuned for cycling stories while my body is dealing with the effects of messed up hormones.
Last week an email arrived from Stephen asking me whether I also write film reviews. I replied that I had only reviewed books so far but would, after checking their website, be keen to watch Bicycle Dreams.
Perfectly timed, the DVD arrived last Friday, only a few days after my email exchange with Stephen, and what better way to spend a cold Friday winter night snuggled up in front of TV with a glass of red wine, enjoying a cycling movie.
If you share your life with a man or woman who you would describe as a dreamer - bicycle dreamer - you will do well hiding this movie. Don't share the experience if you are not prepared to listen to wailing "Can we do this, pleeaase?" before the movie ends.
Should you be the dreamer - go ahead and watch and you will start training the very next day. Although: How do you prepare for an ultra endurance event such as The Race Across America - RAAM?
The movie documentary reminds of similar style movies like Hell on Wheels and Overcoming. The riders and crew are presented likable and much less eccentric than the trailer suggests. I enjoyed the pace of the opening sequences, allowing me to get to know the riders and their motivation.
As the dramas unfold, the camera simply follows. It's not hard to make a good movie with the material. The breathtaking landscapes are beautifully shot. The recipe is simple: Put people under extreme stress - sleep deprivation, dehydration, exhaustion - and watch what happens.
What is hard; however, is to create a movie that - unlike reality TV - allows observing unobtrusively and respectfully the true mental and physical battles it takes to ride over 3000 miles from San Diego to Atlantic City in less than ten days.
The movie achieves this beautifully and it captivates the dreamer and the realist alike.
Some might be put off by the heroic music, which fits the emotions though. Some might dislike quotes like "You have to loose yourself to find yourself" and other shallow cliches. It's easy to be critical when people struggle to define something so hard to define, the desire, the passion, the drive.
But there are intensely beautiful and true sentences worth looking out for, too.
"At the end of your life if people say you were kind, that is enough."
Dr Bob Breedlove
I liked the movie a lot and watched it a second time. What the movie did not do for me was to create a desire to participate in the Race Across America. I know already what lack of sleep and heat exhaustion do to me. My mental toughness can be tested on a Sunday morning 130 km bunch ride.
But I am in deep admiration for the riders … and I am inspired by the movie. Inspired to ride my bike across continents! America? Europe? Asia?
Remember for example my Powertap readings? According to those numbers I'm right up there with the best in the world. My Powertap is now on it's way to Saris in the US (again?!) and fingers crossed I will eventually get a Powermeter that shows correct numbers 'cause you and I know that I ain't world class. What I do know is that I haven't had a working Powertap since January this year.
What other numbers have betrayed me of late?
Well, there are blood test results confirming that T3, T4 and THS are within normal range and that I'm perfectly healthy but my body has other ideas and doesn't give a shit about numbers. The harder I push the more my body fights back and objects to high intensity training with cramps, muscle twitches and muscle weakness. No 'mind over matter', no harder training, no discipline in the world can overcome that.
And then I read Joe Friel's post about climbing and I calculated my body mass because that's what the competitive side of me keeps doing. I wanted to see whether I fall into the 'climb better seated' or 'climb better standing' or "climb better not at all" category. My body mass number is 1.8, which means there is a climber lurking within. "Hey, climber girl, if you are there somewhere, next time we hit a hill ... can you help pedalling, please?"
It sounds all very logical and I've always been told that numbers don't lie so let's sum this up: I'm a healthy worldclass climber! What's not to trust?
Best to let numbers be numbers for now and just enjoy the ride in the meantime. Like for example the ride this afternoon with AMR along the waterfront and across the new Houghton Bridge.
The sun was out and when my tyres rolled over funny little blue crabs I was able to let go of that pressure that I inevitably, inescapably put onto myself ... and smiled.
By the way, the cycling cap I was wearing today is a present from Richard and Carolle. Thanks so much and I love it. If you don't have one or are looking for a really cool present for a cycling friend, this may be it!
Do you always take the same routes on your training rides or do you sometimes go and explore?
I tend to take the same routes but routes are not the same.
Some roads are pure training ground and I would not even suggest one of those for a social outing. Take for example Mt Coot-tha! Mt Coot-tha, with a cafe on the top and scenic views over Brisbane, lends itself to an ideal social ride but no, always work - never play!
Brisbane's Riverloop on the other hand is social ride for me. It would never cross my mind to 'train' on the Riverloop. Why? I'm not sure. I just don't. I have no problems riding by myself, all the way to Mt Mee and back, 100km round trip, with only my iPod for company. I even prefer training alone but the Riverloop, being the social loop it is, I only ever ride with friends. It's like going to the movies. I just don't do it alone.
So when the other morning I was riding to Park Rd, the communal meeting point for Riverloops, and the text arrived informing me of the lure of the bed being too strong for my usually reliable riding buddy, I stopped for a few pedal revolutions, then rode on, slowed down again, texted back, pushed on for another few minutes but then turned around and headed north ... I love riding the Riverloop, the same way I like going to retaurants, cafes and the movies, in company.
I've taken the red tape to my training program and cut two hours of my weekly workload. I also added an extra rest day and only ride five days per week now. Forced rest!
Winter returned for a brief couple of nights with gusty, chilly (south-easterly?) winds that ripped right into me, and the other hundred or so cyclists, going up and down the dark side of Mt Coot-tha, turning the otherwise quiet and dark roads into a fancy flickering light show. I loved the lights, I loved the company, I loved turning the pedals, loved looking for harder gears. How can someone feel so happy while doing strength intervals on a cold dark winter morning?
Maybe I'm going insane but more likely I'm on the up again, a little tail wind on the Health Road, with more energy and more strength. A gym session Monday night and some solid climbing intervals on Tuesday left me wanting for more and I felt like skipping the extra rest day that I really didn't need because I felt so good ... but I resisted the temptation.
It's going to be cold again tomorrow morning, seven degrees they say, and dark, and P asked me to let her know if I bail in the morning but I won't. I know I won't. Because I'm dying to ride my bike...
Oh, and just before I go to bed: Wouldn't you buy the crappiest house in this street just for the address?
