First race - back in the saddle and other things

Easter weekend  used to find me in various parts of the country for the Easter 3 days Orienteering Carnival, then when I moved away from that sport I could be found at Maryborough, Vic  for the VVCC "South Pacific Championships".  This year with various crocks and cripples around the house, I didn't feel I could afford to enter for the entire weekend's worth of racing and so opted for just the TT on Saturday arvo.

Alex was back to being able to get on the trainer

 and also work: doing the paving around the house..AKA re-paying his Mum, so I left him doing this while I drove off to my first race for...well for ever.....

he can't quite trust his his knee to hold for long periods at all parts of the range of movement hence the poor posture...but his work is really top class (Mum speak!)

The TT was only ~15km and the drive was long, but you have to start somewhere and I needed a base line to see where I was in terms of fitness.

The bike had to have a new set of bars since the previous set  were not UCI legal

and late last year I bought the updated Fizik chrono saddle, which at 24cm long is the shortest the UCI allows.

  This length will allow me to be less illegal wrt another of the UCI's ruling about position on the bike...something shorties like me cannot attain and so have to jump through hoops prior to each race getting measured and so getting position approval.

All these changes meant that the race was not only a test of my fitness but also a test to see if the new set up was ok....comfort, strength, aerodynamics etc etc etc

The course is downhill out and not downhill back!  If windy it can be a brute.  I sorted a few minor problems during the warm up..odd rattles, poor gear changing..the usual and at 14:02 I was away...last cab off the rank.  I hadn't a chance of catching my minute man but hoped to pass my 2 minute man.  I immediately found a problem I'd not expected....blasting out of the gate  and on a downhill stretch I noticed I was only going at 28kph  and since I was a threshold if not a bit above I began to despair...just how far down the fitness scale had I plummeted??...then I twigged...my Garmin 705 had for some unknown reason defaulted to mph.  For the next few km's I tried to work out what speed 23-28mph was in kph, then gave up and went by perceived exertion.

so there we have it...11 mins out..downhill is soooo much fun and 14 back.  A good race, coughed my lungs out after, position fine, fitness down, fatness up but....with 16 weeks to go I'm on track for great racing in Austria during August

and 73 days forwards

So plans for the rest of the year:

I've been off the bike for about 6 weeks as work and then invalids took up my time and I became exhausted.

April First race back is a TT this Saturday, and being too fat and very unfit I expect to set a VERY low base line.  Low base lines are goooood!

May/June After that I'll be racing most weekends in May and some in June right up to leaving the country on June 30th for an 8 week stay in Europe.

July I pick up my lease car at the Charles de Gaulle airport north of Paris and drive south to Italy via Austria (to pick up trainer, pump and tools from St Johann i Tirol).

The first 4 weeks I'm going to be at Urbania  where I'll be at an Italian  language school in the morning and some afternoons and  putting in some solid training in the evenings.  I could stay with a family, which might enhance my language skills, but I have decided to forgo that dubious pleasure as I'm not sure they could cope with someone who gets up at 5am, has food allergies, has 2 bikes in her room and will ride the trainer indoors if the weather is bad;-), besides which i hear that they dont always allow their boarders to use their washing machine??!! 
So.... I'm going to rent an apartment instead.

August  I'll be over in UK for about 10 days experiencing the Eurotunnel +car to get there and back and visiting family and my coach plus getting in a race or two.

I return to Europe to race in Austria, first in Deutschlandsberg near Graz and then St Johann i Tirol before flying home on about 27th 

October Back to UK  for the World Masters Track Champs which are in Manchester and once again I'm staying ay the Stables in Ashton Under Lyne..a totally superior place with a great host.

October/November followed by another language school session...maybe 2 weeks this time and perhaps in Florence.

Watch this space.......

73 days backwards ..warning gross pix of wound included

ok so the last post was ages and ages ago and if there's anyone left out there still reading this...you clearly have faith and perseverance!

Work
So where are we...well the project that I was doing is over.  A mix of great fun and teeth grinding awfulness - I seemed to have to deal with more irritating people than I really wanted to. Stirring the pot more than somewhat was a 2 week period of dramas at home that caused me to fumble and almost drop the ball somewhat.  So when I was not working retirement sucked, and when i was working...yes you guessed it...work sucked.

Family dramas
1.Ben's' fractured scapula prior to Xmas started the chain reaction.  I swear I've now had ENOUGH of injured family members.
2. Phil's fractured hip from August last year ended up with non-union and so he had to go back and have it re fixed with added bone grafting during early March.  The acute hospital was  difficult to get to and had appalling parking and so I was grateful when he moved to the rehab hospital which was much closer to home.  He'd only just settled in there when I got a phone call from someone telling me Alex had had an accident and needed to go to hospital.

Now let me think..when has that happened before!!!

3. So not to be left behind in the bragging stakes  it was Alex's turn .Alex had had a slow speed off from his MTB and managed to fall onto a long spike of wood which went into his knee.  He pulled it out with some difficulty and managed to find someone at a picnic ground who called the ambos. They did their bit and told him to take himself to hospital(!).

Long story but we got him to a private hospital since it was the March labour day  public holiday and I knew all the public ED's would be bursting at the seams.  A quick wash out,tetanus shot, standard grade ABS and 4-5 stitches later and we were on our way.

End of story???

NO..just the beginning!  5 days later it was clear there was something very wrong so back we went only to discover there was still a big bit of wood in his knee and he had a very bad infection.  One op later and instead of a 2 cm long wound it was right across the whole width of his knee and he was on IV nuclear strength ABS's.

He came home with an open (but natch well covered) wound which was stitched up about a week later and 31 days after his fall he was finally allowed to bend his knee.  Earlier today,  4 days later, he got on the bike for the first time...full range of motion albeit rather "rusty"  but lacking in strength and endurance.   His knee now looks much better...well it'd need to (!) and when it swells as it does when he does some exercises, the scar looks exactly like an old person with no teeth in...must try for a pix..its a classic.

Alex doesn't have private health insurance so what was initially going to be a quick trip to the private hospital for the wash out etc for $250 ended up costing us $7400.  He's going to do some paving at no cost for us by way of paying us back and also as a "work hardening" exercise.

So that's Alex and in fact me really since I've been nurse, mother, taxi driver, Physio, social secretary and cheer squad.  Not much fun with 2 people in different hospitals when your work is at a really critical phase, but I survived.

Long time no blog

Been too busy with "out of comfort zone" job. 
6 more weeks.
In the meantime..this little man is the newest member of our family..I'd been eying him since waaay before Christmas and he was even on my Christmas list.  I  finally gave in on Saturday.

Meet Aloysius the first of the 3 blind mice:

when this pix was taken he was guarding our front door but in keeping with the "Ernie"  tradition he keeps moving around and currently he's sitting on the balcony

Cat pix

caption options:

• ok so THIS one's mine
• no..this just doesn't smell right
• boo hoo  nothing for me...I've been forgotten

oh well I love Ernie and Ernie loves me

End of another phase

Well one thing's for sure...I cannot now work an 8 hour day AND train if I'm on my feet literally all the time except for lunch and a bit of computer time.  I'm just too stuffed by the time I get home.

• Thankfully I've come to the end of my 6 week clinical locum. Since New Year I've had to put in 8 hour days 'cos  the ward, which was s'posed to have  only 20 beds open, ended up with 25, 26 or 28 patients depending on the day and I was the only lonely Physio.

• For the next 13 weeks I get a bit of a physical rest but more  mental stress as I go through a vertical learning "curve" as a project officer. Wish me luck.

• Training was going well til this week, but hopefully I'll quickly get back on track :-) this weekend and next week as I start to prepare for the State Masters Track Champs in Feb.  I've given the women's Omnium the flick as I'm fairly sure I'll need a rest period afer my first week on the new job rather than a full day's racing...could it be that I'm developing a modicum of sense? I rather hope not.

• My European plans are still fuzzy due to not yet knowing if there'll be a European Masters Track Champs. I hope they decide soon...I need to plan for 2 weeks  in an Italian Language school in Italy to mesh in with them.

• And yet another slip of the tongue this time  from a social worker to a male nurse:  Hey Scott...you're really good with the ladies in the shower!    WE knew what she meant but a good belly laugh is always great medicine.

• I've just eaten my first home grown tomato and strawberry (not together of course)..yum!

2010 reprise..a year of trials and mixed success

2010...the year I decided to stop permanent employment (retire in fact) and the year I decided to try cycle touring. It was also  the year I discovered neither was right for me!

I was well and truly over being a slave to having to front up for work regularly and only having 4 weeks/year to do what I really wanted to do, but when push came to shove I realised that retirement sucks and actually I enjoy the work environment as long as I can engage with it when I want to ...so locum work is the go.  Currently I am coming to the end of a 6 week clinical locum and after that have a 13 week project officer job.  Then.....well who knows, but I'm going OS on June 30th and that's a ticket already bought and paid for.

Cycle touring...I adored Italy, just loved the hilltop towns and villages, the olive groves and the Italian people but discovered that touring for touring's sake didn't grab me at all which meant that riding through bad weather or boring terrain was not for me...I enjoy a physical challenge but I rapidly  lost my sense of humour when things got boring, went on too long or got really wet and/or cold, 'sides which too much touring wrecks my race legs.

So...2011 brings occasional work, no touring, racing on road and track both OS and in Aus.

goals are:

Track

Masters Nats  in March

Masters European  if it eventuates in Italy in July

Masters Worlds  in manchester in October

Road

racing in Austria for 2 weeks during August

and to make these goals happen  positively:

train consistently

manage fatigue levels

return to race weight

and finally just to demonstrate I'm not one dimensional(!) attend an Italian language school in Italy to supplement the classes I'm taking here.