SATURDAY, 27 SEPTEMBER 2008
I had my last bike ride today before it gets tucked away in the bike box for the flight to Kona. I set off equipped with a fantastically fast set of carbon fibre wheels curtsey of really good mate. Again it isn’t what you know it’s who you know, and a phone call on the ‘old boys biking network’ came up trumps with this incredibly generous offer from Bill. Earlier in the week my husband had been to the bike shop to get some new peddles for his bike and he’d tried his best to trade two wheels for some Soggy Bottom Christmas hams! It was a no go, so it looks like Bill will have to make plenty of room in his freezer.
On Monday I’d phoned Ange (my coach) to negotiate today’s 6 hour bike and tomorrows 3 hour run. You see, I’d broken my rule of not looking ahead too far and I was mortified by the km’s and hours sitting at the tail end of my scheduled weeks training – he’d kept saying the big weeks are over – almost!!!! He said (like a good parent!), “No problems, we’ll review on Friday, just give me a ring when you have done the next few days!” The next few days were tiny – a day off, 2k swim, 1 ½ hr bike, and 1 ½ hr hour run. After such a light training week Ange phoned to check if I was ok for the scheduled (6hr) bike, I declared I was fit to go (as he had known I would be!).
On refection though, a few things make me think my bike ride was destined for some kind of catastrophe! It was my last ride on NZ soil before the race, I hadn’t been rained on in a while, I was on new wheels and they weren’t mine, and yesterday an unusually high number of people said “Take care!”
I suppose it had to rain and half way round Naike the heavens opened and I got soaked. The ‘piste de resistance’ however, was having a rather spectacular wipe out. In the split second I realised I was going to hit the tarmac, I thought “OK, I’m going down…my choice is bike or body…bike or body…!” In the end it was actually both that came a cropper!
I stood up and surveyed the damage to my bike. My rear derailleur, gear levers and brakes were all at funny angles, but I knew my right buttock had taken the brunt of the fall. As I stood there acting like a headless chicken panicking about the state of my bike, my cycle buddy yanked and pulled it all back into shape – it was almost as good as new! Fabulous! When I got home and told my husband his response was one of concern, but he also said it was “Typical!” of me – He knows me so well!
The bike needs looking at, but the wheels are sweet (please don’t worry Bill!). I’m now nursing my elbow, shoulder and gravel rashed buttock which luckily is the most padded part of me at the moment. The down side of the injury is I’ll be getting in an out the car like a Grandma for a few days but the upside is being able to illicit gasps of concern every time I flash my wounds at a few privileged people - including (to my son’s complete horror) half the customers at Nagaruawahia BP when I showed my butt to my friend Saskia, who works there!
I had my last bike ride today before it gets tucked away in the bike box for the flight to Kona. I set off equipped with a fantastically fast set of carbon fibre wheels curtsey of really good mate. Again it isn’t what you know it’s who you know, and a phone call on the ‘old boys biking network’ came up trumps with this incredibly generous offer from Bill. Earlier in the week my husband had been to the bike shop to get some new peddles for his bike and he’d tried his best to trade two wheels for some Soggy Bottom Christmas hams! It was a no go, so it looks like Bill will have to make plenty of room in his freezer.
On Monday I’d phoned Ange (my coach) to negotiate today’s 6 hour bike and tomorrows 3 hour run. You see, I’d broken my rule of not looking ahead too far and I was mortified by the km’s and hours sitting at the tail end of my scheduled weeks training – he’d kept saying the big weeks are over – almost!!!! He said (like a good parent!), “No problems, we’ll review on Friday, just give me a ring when you have done the next few days!” The next few days were tiny – a day off, 2k swim, 1 ½ hr bike, and 1 ½ hr hour run. After such a light training week Ange phoned to check if I was ok for the scheduled (6hr) bike, I declared I was fit to go (as he had known I would be!).
On refection though, a few things make me think my bike ride was destined for some kind of catastrophe! It was my last ride on NZ soil before the race, I hadn’t been rained on in a while, I was on new wheels and they weren’t mine, and yesterday an unusually high number of people said “Take care!”
I suppose it had to rain and half way round Naike the heavens opened and I got soaked. The ‘piste de resistance’ however, was having a rather spectacular wipe out. In the split second I realised I was going to hit the tarmac, I thought “OK, I’m going down…my choice is bike or body…bike or body…!” In the end it was actually both that came a cropper!
I stood up and surveyed the damage to my bike. My rear derailleur, gear levers and brakes were all at funny angles, but I knew my right buttock had taken the brunt of the fall. As I stood there acting like a headless chicken panicking about the state of my bike, my cycle buddy yanked and pulled it all back into shape – it was almost as good as new! Fabulous! When I got home and told my husband his response was one of concern, but he also said it was “Typical!” of me – He knows me so well!
The bike needs looking at, but the wheels are sweet (please don’t worry Bill!). I’m now nursing my elbow, shoulder and gravel rashed buttock which luckily is the most padded part of me at the moment. The down side of the injury is I’ll be getting in an out the car like a Grandma for a few days but the upside is being able to illicit gasps of concern every time I flash my wounds at a few privileged people - including (to my son’s complete horror) half the customers at Nagaruawahia BP when I showed my butt to my friend Saskia, who works there!