Half Way Home
Less than 3 months left in Australia. Given that February is a short month, I'm roughly half-way through this trip.. or half way home.
I'm so glad to be missing out on the awful things about the Canadian winter:
- -35 days with nasty windchill
- icy roads and running paths
- the short days that leave you begging for more sunlight.
- sitting on my bike trainer for endless hours
But, on the flipside, I miss the good things:
- all of you...yeah you!
- the soft crunch of snow and the bite of the cool air as I run under the moonlight
- wasting time (or sometimes working!) at Starbucks or Oolong Tea House
- running crazy-hard cross country races and the good soup and goodies afterwards.
- watching hockey games in the bars/pubs on 17 Avenue (cricket just doesn't cut it!!!)
I'm sure I can think of more points for each, but you get the picture.
So anyways....
The Tour Down Under was great to watch. The last pro race I was able to catch was part of a stage in the Tour of Denmark in August 2005. There isn't much chance of catching pro cycling in Canada. I managed to catch the first and last stages and part of stage 3. This race only keeps growing in prominence each year... it will be a world class event someday. There was also women's crit series and veterans race series as part of the event. All this road racing has me thinking about possibly getting a road bike again when I return to Canada.
Unfortunately, the usually perfect South Australian weather was not so perfect. A 1 in 50 year monsoon rain trough descended from the Northern Territory and inundated central and south Australia, and even sent rain as far south as Melbourne. Some areas in the outback received 150mm of rain in less than 12 hours! Despite the deluge, everyone was happy to see the rain in the middle of a long-term drought. There is plenty of talk here about how most of the major cities in Australia face serious water issues... and by that I mean completely running dry!
Training has been going very well, as I hit my first big week in January with over 20 hours of training. A couple easy weeks to recover and get a massage, and now this week I'm going to try and hit the magic 30 hour mark. It's been a slow month at work, so I have had plenty of time to get out and enjoy riding and running in the hills. With none of the distractions of being in Canada, I get to bed early every night, eat well, and feel great, despite the volume. Honestly, I'd prefer to be a little busier at work though, gotta make money! If anyone is looking for a part-time webmaster...
Tour Down Under
Labels: cycling, tour down under
Tribe Club Triathlon
Yesterday, Heather and I rode up to Woodside to compete in the Tribe club triathlon. Distances were 400m/13km/4km. It looked like it was going to be an ugly day as we were ascending Greenhill Road. I was wearing arm warmers and my toes were cold! But, as usual, the cloud cover burnt off, the winds settled and by race start it was warm and sunny.
Sprint races are always classified as "easy", but I find just the opposite. It's an all out hammerfest to the finish, and they usually have me feeling just as cooked as a long course race! As well, we haven't found a massage therapist here yet, and the accumulation of volume has given me more than a few muscle issues. Despite the protesting muscles, I gave it my all, and managed to just catch second place before the finish line. I had no chance of catching Scott, no surprise there! (fyi, he won IM Korea last year).
After an easy cool-down swim and a quick ride over to Balhannah for some breakfast at the bakery, I was planning to go for another couple hours riding with Heather and Helen. Something was funky with rear dérailleur though.. and after a quick inspection at Scott and Helen's place, I found it was toast. No wonder my gears were shifting funny during the tri... uggh. With a buggered dérailleur, all I could do was borrow Helen's car to get back to the city. Luckily, this morning I was able to find a used dérailleur for only $50 at International Cycles. WOO!
Tour Down Under starts tomorrow with a street circuit in downtown Adelaide. Will be there, and hopefully get a lot of pics of the action. I'm hoping to get a good spot about 200m from the finish line. :-)
Off to find a massage therapist now... my muscles are in such poor shape that training is almost impossible without pain.
Enviro Rant #2 - Reusable shopping bags
Australia seems to be one of the leaders of shoppers who use reusable shopping bags. Over half of the customers I see at the supermarket use these bags. Simple... everytime you go grocery shopping, you bring these bags with you. Australia still uses approx. 7 BILLION plastic bags each year for 20 million people... can you imagine what North America uses? Well, we need to start changing attitudes in Canada (and USA) towards this waste problem. It's hard to believe a country as wasteful as Australia is ahead of us on this....
I encourage everyone to make it a habit to bring some sort of reusable bag each time you go shopping. You could really reuse and take one of your backpacks or duffel bags... I know everyone probably has one or two kicking around they don't use. Keep it in your car.. or better yet.. walk or bike to the grocery store with it.
And one more thing... do you really need to bag those vegetables? I've shopped for several years now without using any bags for my veges and fruit. It's not much more convenient, or even more sanitary.. you're going to wash them all anyways.
That's my enviro rant. Back to my regularly schedule triathlon updates.
A typical ride in the Adelaide hills
