Sunday, May 31, 2009
austria 70.3 episode seven!
Race morning kicked off with 4.30am brekky at gasthoff bohm, everyone a bit quiet and guzzling nervously. Drove to race venue, luckily had left plenty of time in case i got lost again, was glad i did as parking took forever. It was a bit chilly and drizzling at this point. Went to prepare Mr Felt...this is the bit i have been told not to tell anyone about - my not so secret any longer pre-race strategy!! On the morning of a race my nervousness seems to manifest itself into an inability to not be able to inflate my tyres - whatever i do the air just comes out! So i usually get someone to help me, and so as not to appear Totally pathetic i have a Strategy. Some time ago during a flight my bike pump got broken - it works, but looks appropriately damaged. So i claim that it's just broken ('oh no!') and get some passing unsuspecting person with their own pump to inflate my tyres for me!! It has worked every time so far, however having admitted this i may become known as the Girl with the 'Broken' pump and people will just ignore me and snigger, or maybe i will ask the same person and they might say 'didn't you have a broken pump at that race back in 2005?' haha!
Anyway i got some poor frazzled guy to sort out Mr Felt's race feet, gave him a pat (mr Felt, not the guy...maybe i gave them both a pat in my blur of churning nervousness!) and headed off on the long trek to the swim start...
austria 70.3 episode seven!
austria 70.3 episode six!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
austria 70.3 episode four!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
austria 70.3 episode three!
First off on a race trip, you have to get there, and the physical journey is all part of the bigger journey! Travelling with a bike can be quite an experience depending on the airline and the airport. I swear airport designers do not have people with luggage in mind when they do their airport designing jobs. Steps and tight corners to negotiate, narrow elevators, silly post things stuck in the ground which are just a few inches too close together to accommodate a passing bike box on a trolley, fellow passengers making quips as to what's in the bag, and ferocious check in staff who seize the opportunity with glee to charge you excess baggage while allowing the person beside you on with a set of golf clubs and a whole lot of scuba diving equipment with hardly a comment. Anyway Emirates now have a bigger luggage allowance, yippee, so no problems there this time. Had a joyous air steward person attending my row who couldn't believe no one was drinking 'what's wrong with you lot, it's free booze!' i pointed out it was only 8am but he didn't seem to see my point! Landed in Vienna, picked up the hire car, headed off to the car park armed with the knowledge i had to drive 100ks away from vienna but had no idea in which direction or what the name of the town was i was headed for. Then my phone bleeps - the flipping car company had blocked 900 euros off my card! I only have a low level credit card anyway for car hiring/emergency purposes only so that was all my funds gone. fab! Decided not worry about the minor detail of suddenly having no access to money and instead focus on finding my way to the guesthouse. Luckily Austrian roads are very well sign posted so even blonde pigtailed girls can find their way. Mr Felt was happy to be out of his box and the travel bandages off and resurrected into a bike shape (see pic above).
austria 70.3 episode two!
So, Austria 70.3 was supposed to be a training day in preparation for IMUK, which has now turned into a 'training day' - more about why another time. The week before austria that original training day intention turned into a 'go get it girl' day. I thought austria would be good preparation for the UK in that it could be chilly and wet (it wasn't) and hilly (it was). I really wanted to challenge myself on a hilly course to see if i could climb and if i could get over my fear of descending (see 'julie's triathlon demons' below for more on this!). It has taken me 8 years but with a bit of magic dust chucked at me on a recent Hatta-Kalba ride I am starting slowly to get over the fear! Good quote coming up: 'a lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could'. I guess it's a lot to do with trust but I was wondering if I could do the same painfully slow hanging onto the brakes for dear life teeth grinding descent (this IS the improvement by the way!) when out there on my own. You will have to read on to see if i could!
Austria 70.3 Episode One
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Mr Felt - a wheely well travelled bike
mr felt having a rest while his rider takes pictures of road signs (!)
mr felt ready to race
Mr Felt is having a bit of a mixed time of it. He's getting to go out and do exciting things like, er, well go for bike rides! Up hills, down (some) hills, into the wind, out of the wind...the rest of the time he has a nice lie down in the beetle and recharges his cranks for the next outing. He's been everywhere with julie - several times to Australia, Singapore and the UK, he went to China and Brazil, he went to Malaysia, the USA, Cyprus. He's been to more countries and on more planes than a lot of people have! So he considers himself pretty special. He IS pretty special. So he was a little perturbed lately when he went to the bike shop for a fixing of what he thought was a minor problem and then gets told he needs replacing with a younger model!! He was a bit sulky for a few days - stuffed his brake pads in his ears and put his pedals up, refusing to come out of the beetle. But then pulled himself together and is currently proving himself up to any road put in front of his wheels. His opinion is that it's his rider that needs improving, not him! Go mr Felt!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
how julie spends her day - part two of a hundred and one: Learning Choreo!
Saturday, May 9, 2009
julie's triathlon demons part one - downhills on the bike
So this is the sign that strikes fear into my heart! Most triathletes i'm sure love the sight of this or at least prefer it to the 'up' one. Sigh. I even have Down Escalator Terror - i either take the lift or the stairs or i apply the 'tuck in behind a bunch of people and only look at their feet' strategy to get onto the moving horror steps. 'Lost Cause' i can hear you sniggering. Anyway believe it or not i AM improving and some downhills i am even starting to enjoy! Today someone even remarked 'but you were going quite fast' (that must have been the bit where i had my eyes shut). I still have no feeling in my hands and brake lever indentations in my fingers though from yesterday where i managed to descend the top and bottom part of one vertically (to me) downward stretch but still had to walk the middle bit (Really Steep - honest even someone else agreed with me - so there!). During which time i did my usual 'just checking my bike' act which attracted a passing local in a car who wanted to take me for breakfast, a pleasant lady in a car who bombed past me only to drive back up to see if i was ok, and two more cyclists who thought i was struggling going up and clearly didn't believe me when i said i was going down, actually! Mr Felt (my bike) disowns me at times like this and pretends he's waiting for his real rider who is totally fearless. I have six days until my next downhill challenge and i am not going to sleep all week!! Actually that may help, as I at least won't have nightmares!
Friday, May 8, 2009
bringing it up to date
Time also to face two of my triathlon demons - wetsuits and downhills - which to most triathletes are Good Things rather than Bad Things! More to follow tomorrow on these issues with pictorial back up!
More pressing now though is dinner with my tri camp crew, one of whom is celebrating his 56 years young birthday. we have had a great day of mountains, pool and grass and now off to trough to fuel up for tomorrow. Who exhausted who more - the coach the crew or the other way around is up for debate, but hopefully they like me more than they said they did earlier in the pool!!!! :-)