Enter an event you have to train for and suddenly every ride, no matter how short, has potential to be claimed as training. It’s a great way to motivate yourself to jump on the bike.
Whether your style is Around the Bay or the Great Vic (or both) you’re a whole lot more comfortable if you ride regularly before the event. You don’t have to do a 100km in a session, in fact the current theory is that you’re better off with short sharp burst than a long leisurely trundle to improve your fitness. However, if you’re not interested in setting any records, any riding will work your heart, condition your riding muscles and toughen up your backside, all of which will make you more capable for your event.
Eventually training becomes training for the hell of it – without any specific event in mind. You could probably craft some Zen saying about that along the lines of “It’s not the destination that’s important but the journey”. After years of training for the yearly round of events I get a bit cabin-feverish without a regular training ride and I’ll train regardless of whether I have an entry in anything.
Anyway, if I want to see my riding mates and the best way to catch them is by bike.
One-day challenge rides
Brisbane to the Gold Coast 9 October 2011
Around the Bay 16 October 2011
Sydney to the Gong 7 November 2011
Tour Down Under Breakaway series 20 January 2012
3 Peaks Challenge March 2012
Five Dams Challenge / Three Dams Challenge April 2012
Riding holidays
Cycle Queensland 10–18 September 2011
Great Victorian Bike Ride 26 November – 4 December
Great Escapade New Zealand February 2012
Outback Odyssey South Australia May 2012
Tip – De-glass your tyres
Most punctures are caused by glass pieces that are already embedded in your tyre burrowing through to pierce your tube. It’s rare that you run over something that goes straight through the tyre and tube in one go. So if you inspect your tyres regularly (every couple of weeks) you can extract the glass that would otherwise be causing you a puncture in the near future.
Grab a flat-blade screwdriver, deflate the tyre and, starting adjacent to the valve (so you know where you started), inspect every little slit. Squeeze them open as much as you can and I bet you find at least a little grain of glass in each. Dig them out and say good riddance.
This post is for day six of Ride On‘s June riding challenge.
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