Join in some training rides for the Great Escapade

Hi everyone, as many of you probably know Deb Meredith and I have joined forces to complete The Great Escapade, (729km BIG ride from Katoomba to Newcastle, taking place at the end of March). As relative newcomers we are looking for support in our training regime, and as Deb is currently away on holidays I'm searching for even more support to keep me going whilst she's away.

I thought the BLOG might be a good way to let you all know what I'm planning and everyone is welcome to join in. If you have suggestions for rides, they'd also be appreciated. Here's the current plan:

1) On Saturday 19th I'm going to do a double of the community ride. i.e. I'll do the normal ride, have coffee and then I'm doing it all over again - so roughly 60km all up. So anyone want to join me for the 2nd loop? I'll probably do this every week.

2) I'm going to continue doing the Coramba to Nana Glen and back via East Bank Road on a Tuesday and next Tuesday, the 22nd, I'm considering a double loop. The way we did this last time was from C to NG and a short break in the park, then back to C for coffee, then back to NG for lunch and then back to C. Finished about 2pm with all the leisurely breaks! Might take shorter breaks this time. 7am start, should be back at Coramba before 10am so 2nd loop probably starting around 10.30 (maybe 10.45). It's 60km all up and it's a hill run. So I'm thinking some might want to do the first loop and those who like to sleep in the second and possibly some brave souls might tackle the whole 60km.

If you want to read more of what Deb and I have been up to - head for our journal:
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/escapade08

I'll update my training rides regularly. Thanks to all who've joined in so far and to those of you who will join for here on in! Cheers Cheryl

88 km to Grafton!

Last Sunday five CH BUG members (Jo, April, Mark, Ian and John) plus 2 other riders (Lee and Katie) rode 88km to Grafton as part of the inaugural Westlawn Camp Quality Charity Ride.

It was great having support vehicles giving security front and back. Red Hill made the start challenging but the rest was easy and we averaged 20 kmh. It wasn't hilly, just undulating. Lunch was provided at the "Golden Dog" at Glenreagh and bottled water (and a free bike water bottle) and energy bars were always available.

The highlight for most of us was being escorted across the Grafton bridge at the finish. At Grafton dinner was provided and a band entertained us. Other riders had ridden from Ballina, Yamba and Glen Innes(?) Most of us expect to be there again next year as it was an enjoyable day. Thanks to Jim for transporting us back and Ian for the bike transport.

John

"Using" our bikes!

Well, now that we are members of a Bicycle User Group, I guess you could say we have been inspired to be "using" our bikes more. In other words, compared to last year, Marc and I, at any rate, have really been making an effort to get out and on our bikes.

We'd love to be able to say that riding our bikes has replaced using the car, but our locality and practicality (carting 3 kids around) does make that difficult. I should make an effort to ride into Woopi from Sandy occasionally though... something to work on.

As some of you know we have managed to ride our road tandem into Coffs from Sandy down the dreaded highway - 23km each way to the City Centre for the Community Ride. (Last time we thus totalled 82.7km, and, yes, Garry, Marc flogged us all the way home that day so that we made the 30 kph average speed mark.) That will get harder to do as the sun rises later and later each week, despite having bought good lights.

After piking out of riding in the rain last Saturday, this week we have risen early two mornings to ride down the highway again, up Bruxner, back along Central Bucca road, and back up home, which at 45km isn't too shabby. If you ever wanted to know why we ride tandems, (and particularly a road tandem) I can give one of the reasons as being "speed". This morning we got a new max speed record of 90 kph (on Bucca Road). Yes, it did feel FAST!

On Sunday we took to the mountain bikes (yes, single bikes!) and headed for the hills west of Sandy. We feel quite ashamed that it has taken us 10 years to start exploring the state forest a mere 5 km from home. There's actually quite a lot of it out there!

We did a 28km round trip, first heading south, then west and around to come back 'out' up at Woopi near the Flora Reserve (Woolgoolga Creek Road). There were a few hills in there.. some rideable ones (one of which Marc has now dubbed 'Gasping Hill' in honour of my lack of aerobic fitness - and stupidity in not actually engaging the lowest gear when I thought I had). We had to push the bikes up 'Boyd's Hill', (and it was steeper than that hill we pushed bikes up on the Repton ride, John!). We'll keep exploring the area, checking out different forest roads, with the aim of maybe leading a MTB BUG ride out that way next year maybe! Or if anyone is interested in any 'unofficial' exploratory riding out that way with us, let us know. We have reached the point of leaving the sloths kids at home for a few hours on a Sunday while we go out and enjoy ourselves.

With all the different types of bike riding options available, we've now decided that too many bikes is never enough, and we're getting single road bikes. Marc's bought himself one on eBay - picking it up on the weekend - and we're investigating one for me. I've heard about a group of girls intending on doing some road bike rides on a weekday morning, so I'd like to see how I go with that.

All in all, we are certainly bigger?...better?... bicycle users than we used to be. And undoubtedly a bit fitter as well.


Anyway, enough about us... I basically posted this in the hope that it might be a catalyst for some more contributions from BUG members. It would be interesting to read how others 'use' their bikes in between BUG rides.

Send your post to this email address: trace(at)exemail.com.au - replace the (at) with @ and I will ... post it!

Tracey Schmidt

PS. Our apologies re this Sunday's breakfast ride. We have to be at a netball carnival all day.