When are we heading Northwest?
Update on when we leave to head way out West (Steep Point, 251kms west of Monkey Mia).
We will leave from Melbourne around the 4-5th of July to get to the most western point of the continent we live in around about 30 July.
The reason why we are travelling the 4200km stretch at such a relatively slow pace is so we can trial what works and what doesn't in the ‘routine’ and also I will get to maintain my fitness. Maybe also we will get to set up some extra “chat” sessions along the way.
Now touching on the Training Talk, I've slightly slipped with regards to week 4’s training so I'm going to take it as a ‘maintenance week’, I've only managed 1200m of elevation…. Still, it's more than week 2 so cannot complain.
I rode down to Williamstown on Friday, it was into a slight headwind but even so, I was absolutely flying, the fastest I've been riding since the Great Vic Bike Ride - 14.1kms/hr!! So happy.
Anyway, the reason I rode down there was to trial riding on the sand with the aid of either matting, flywire and/or meshing to see which worked best to get traction on the beach.
With the single wheel at the back of the trike and my weight it digs in pretty easily even with the tyre pressure down. We found the best was flywire but also it does help going on an angle up the hill. It will still be bloody hard yakka to get up and over the sand dunes but with these tricks in mind it may be an achievable goal!
Lastly, Series 2 of social inclusion is well underway so stay tuned for it, it'll be hitting your screen in a week or so!
The 2.0 version of week 3
Trying to keep the training talk brief, I’m writing this with 150m of elevation to go (. I’m very confident that I'll get that done and take it up to 1500m.
Although I’m slightly worried about the soreness I’m getting beneath the knee/patella, hopefully, it’s just general and nothing ongoing. It was worse a couple of days ago so that is a positive! I am going to have only a slight increase of load next week (1600m) to let my legs play catch up.
One of the really good signs however was on Thursday when I was absolutely knackered I put in one last effort on the Monash segments and made a PB and shaved off 22 seconds, so I am heading in the right direction!
Made it BIG now!
In other news, I made it big time in the Herald Sun, and happily got a fair bit of traction in all areas, e.g. people joining me on the ride and taking the funds raised to over $10k! So I just want to say a huge thank you to the people who have donated! Alongside that, April 6 it was my 15th anniversary of having my stroke and I wrote a little poem to celebrate, see below.
Note I got my years wrong, the message still rhymes though!
Lastly is sponsorship, we are making some progress with it, which is a huge step forwards and I’m liking the momentum we could potentially be creating!
I wrote this yesterday (10th), so I’ve just finished off the last few meters, literally an hour ago!
A poetic anniversary
A little update on training.
I’m going into week three and it’s going to be a rough week. Three days of 500m of elevation, is the plan. We will see how I pull up by the end of it!