Training Diary 03/05/2013

Charity Ride Stats:

• Weeks until Bridge 2 Bridge ride - <1 day!
• Donations collected - $3,703.45

Training Stats:

• Distance YTD - 4,074 km 
• Elevation YTD - 36,567 m
  
• Ride Hours YTD - 167hr 53min
  
• Current Weight - 78kg

Well its nearly ride day! Geez that crept up fast! I can still remember the day I was down at the coffee shop under my work and first spotted the Bridge 2 Bridge webpage. I sat there for a good 30mins pondering whether I could do it or not, and finally after remembering my friend Eddies words I pulled the pin and committed to doing the ride. I had a nervous but excited feeling in my belly at that moment. I have the same feeling now.

Training Plans

Training leading up to an event like this is very very important. However, no matter how well I plan - it seems that I can never fully stick to the original training plan. Admittedly, my original training plan was rather ambitious (pencilling in 500km/week for 6 weeks straight) so it probably was never going to work. I think the key things to remember when doing a training plan are:

• Be realistic. You have to be brutally honest with yourself about how much training you can actually fit into a week. If like me, you have a day job and a (very forgiving) girlfriend - you will need to take these into account time-wise. No good putting yourself down for 5hrs a day on the bike - chances are you will end up unemployed and single before the training plan is over!
• Be flexible. Sometimes things don't go to plan. You get sick, have to travel away, or just plain don't have motivation for a big week of training. That's okay (to a certain degree) - just make sure you either catch up on the missed kilometres or do alternate activities like running or stretching. Some activity is always better than no activity. 
• Diversity. Make sure your training plan has a mix of training. For me, I got pretty sick of doing riverloops day in, day out. As nice as the scenery was, it just got plain boring. Mixing it up with group rides, climbing hitouts, 'just for fun' rides and rides in new places was great to keep boredom at bay.
• Be Inspired. Especially in winter, its all too easy to sleep in and put off the morning ride. For me, it was important for me to keep up my motivation and inspiration to get back on the bike and train my butt off. This mainly involved watching replays of my favourite cycling races, reading magazines on riding tips and of course visiting the local bike shop and browsing the fancy new bikes!
• Talk the talk. This is something I found out by accident. A great way to keep up the training and to self motivate is to tell all your friends and family about your goals. This helps in a few ways. The first is that once you tell people (and if you tell alot of people) you feel the obligation to go thru with the challenge instead of pulling out. If no one knows about it, its all too easy to give up! The second way it helps is that you will find that everyone will want to talk about your training, how you are going with fund raising and just general interest in your challenge. It really perks you up and gets you motivated to keep going. This type of crowd support can really gather momentum and you will find fund raising will become easier. 

All in all, my training for this event went well. There were low weeks where I didn't get to do as many kilometres as I had hoped - but I usually made up for it the following week. I am also counting on the old 'race performance' factor, where you tend to be able to perform faster/longer/better in a race-type situation than in training. I am pretty confident that I will make it to Sydney just fine.

Packing for the Ride

It looks as though I will be one of the more experienced cyclists on the trip in terms of mechanics, so in addition to my standard riding gear I will be bringing along some tools/spares to help the team out. So far, I have included the following on my ever-growing list of items:

• Puncture repairs: 3x spare tubes, 2x spare tyres, tyre levers, CO2 bulbs and head, patch kit
• Common tools: screwdrivers, Allen key set, chainbreaker, chain lube, grease
• Special tools: cassette remover, chainwhip, pedal spanner, pliers
• Misc: electrical tape, zipties, rags, rubber gloves
• Spare wheelset, spare chain, spare gear/brake cable

I have also dropped my bike off with a reputable mechanic for a once-over to ensure theres no big problems on the ride. It looks like all the training I did may have used up the last of my tyres, so I will be buying some new ones tomorrow to fit. Better to be safe (with new tyres) than sorry (by getting flat tyres all the way to Sydney)!

Other important things for me to bring are:

• Baby wipes - these things are a godsend. Great for cleaning yourself if you cant make it a shower for awhile. Great for wiping the bike down. Excellent for getting grease and dirt off your hands after you've been working on the bike too!
• Small amount of laundry detergent - Just in case we cant find a laundromat along the way, Ill bring some of my own laundry detergent so I can wash my kit in the shower. Nothing is worse than riding in a dirty kit (guaranteed way to get saddle sores) so clean kit is a MUST.
• Familiar hydration and energy gels - a long ride is no time to start experimenting with food and drink mixes. You can imagine the horror story if you find out that the energy mix you decided to 'try' actually doesn't sit well with your intestines. Not many roadside toilets out west! So I will be bringing along my own stash of High-5 Zero hydration tablets and Winners Energy Gels - these are the same ones I have used in training and know they work for me. I'll also bring my own box of muesli bars in case I need an emergency energy hit.
• Tablets - To minimise any annoying health problems I will be bringing my hayfever tables and an assortment of Fish Oil, Garlic, Magnesium and Zinc tablets. I have found these to be of some benefit to me after big rides and I figure they can only be helping my immune system in times of stress (eg. 150km rides). 

Fingers crossed I dont forget anything!

Thankfully I dont need to carry it all myself!

Final Fundraising

At my work I have been spreading the news about the ride and fund raising for the Cure for Life Foundation. Rachael, the mother hen of our team, really went out and took on the role as my official fund raising coordinator. It was great! As a naturally shy person, having someone willing to 'spruik' on your behalf is really nice and the support I got was amazing.

My branch at work collected all their spare change over the last few months and threw them in the fund raising tins. We also had a morning tea/bake sale yesterday for the ride. The end result was a MASSIVE collection of $1,003.45 which made me really, really happy. I know for a fact that the men and women at Cure for Life will be very grateful for the money we raised. To date, we have raised a total of $3,703.45 for the foundation. Amazing work everyone!

Donations:
Big thanks to the following people who have donated - It really means alot to me to have your support!
Simon Coombs, Lex Dewar, Darren Evans and BCC's City Projects Office.