The green jacket has been retired

The past week has been a bit busy in my cycling life with a new jersey, 2 rides and a bit of a self image crisis to report on. Rather than crap on for a stupidly long post, I will "try" to keep it short and too the point for a change. :)

A day off and time to hit the Boulevard
With work pretty under control this week, I took most of Thursday off to go for a ride and generally chill out for the day. So buoyed but my noticeable increase in hill climbing ability from last weekends ride, Polka Dot Lisa (PDL) and I decided to do the Kew Boulevard with maybe a bit of extra riding beyond that.

As we headed down Heidelberg Rd towards Chandler Hwy I was prepared to do a hook turn after our last attempt here freaked PDL out, but as I came to a stop, PDL told me she felt comfortable enough to change lanes and turn right with the traffic. Not only that, but PDL dealt with the ride over Chandler Hwy bridge with no stress what-so-ever. I’m so proud of her having overcome her fears of the traffic. She is moving ahead in leaps and bounds!

The Boulevard ride went smoothly (well, about as smoothly as the Bouli’s surface will allow!) however for some reason all the uphills were into a headwind just to make it that little bit harder. Grrrr! We rode without break until the Studley Park overpass where we stopped for a drink, photo opportunity and natural break. While I found the hills hard work, not once did I feel like getting off the bike while just a few weeks ago, I had to force myself to stay on the bike and keep pedaling (even with several breathers along the way). I can really tell I am getting stronger with each passing week and that is an awesome feeling.

We decided to go all the way to the end of the Boulevard and then roll down to Richmond to drop into some of the bike shops. The last climb to the Richmond end of the Bouli was not nearly as bad as I had expected.

Down Burnley St and we peeled off to have a look in Richmond Cycles. Mmm, Colnago’s and Pinarellos… it’s nice to dream! Back down Burnley St to Swan St and the traffic was all bumper to bumper. Traffic down there was a bit nuts, with cars trying to park, trams, trucks etc. It was pretty easy to deal with for me, but I think it was all a bit much for PDL, so I comforted her and assured her she was doing fine and not to worry about keeping up with me.

Back on the bike after having a look around at Total Rush (more drooling) and it was straight up and over the Church St hill which was a surprisingly hard slog that I didn’t expect. As we came up through Collingwood and Fitzroy we were hit by a mega headwind that saw me having to drop down a gear or two to keep going. It was pushing me a bit sideways and I had to cycle on a lean into the wind. Ouch!

Just as we we’re riding up Queens Pde, PDL pointed out a MASSIVE black aircraft approaching us pretty low and slow. It was some sort of bomber or cargo plane and everyone around us on the street was looking up and pointing.

Ride Stats 27-09-07 - Northcote > Richmond via the Bouli > Northcote
Dist: 20.00km
Time: 01:00:00
Max: 46.9kph
Average: 20.00kph

New Cycling Jersey
Later that day (Thursday) after the Bouli ride, I received a call from Liz at Startline Cycle Fashions who called to tell me she had a jersey for me to try on. So Friday morning we drove down to have a look. It was plain red and despite Liz and PDL’s assurances of how good it looked on me, I felt super conscious about it showing my rather ample gut. But I threw caution to the wind and decided to get it on their advice, along with a pair of Pearl Izumi arm warmers.

Later that day I was feeling very dubious about wearing the jersey and I feared I had wasted my money. I felt really ugly in it and didn’t want to be seen in public wearing it. All I could see was that it showed every bulge of my gut, and this just made me feel fatter and uglier, causing my self confidence to come crashing down like a house of cards. Urgh!

After a game of Badminton that night, PDL urged me to try the jersey on with the rest of my kit. I felt a lot better about it and had to admit that I did look a LOT better in it than I did in the old green jacket. So to everyone who knew me by the green jacket out on the road- sorry, that was the old Vidman! The new Vidman is now in red (red goes faster remember!).

BBC Ride - Saturday
Saturday morning and after the worries that it was going to be wet and windy, we woke up to an almost clear sky and not a breath of wind. Thanks big guy in the sky! We set off on the Northern Stopping All Stations, picking up Gregg (Gregga from BV) and Ian (Parawolf from BV) at the old cannon and then collected Snuffy and another guy who’s name I have forgotten already (sorry!) at Johnston St. I led the way down Punt Rd, through Gosch’s Paddock and was left for dead up Anderson St hill. Some things never change… LOL. Down through Fawkner Park (trying to make sure I was going the right way having never actually ridden this path before), onto St Kilda Road and before we knew it we were at the BBC with plenty of time to spare. Cool!

The BBC group was pretty big this time with over 30 riders. It was funny to think this time last month was our first time on a group ride and it was all so new and slightly scary to begin with. Now just a few weeks later, we felt like old hands at the whole thing, knowing how the hand signals work, group etiquette, and even just having familiar faces to chat to.

As we took off, the guys on the tandem got a puncture just on Fitzroy St which was a rotten way to start the ride and wouldn’t you know it, the street sweeper was just a few streets ahead sweeping and blowing any broken glass in the gutter, straight out onto the bike lane. Nice work.

As we rode south towards Black Rock, we had a tail wind slowly picking up behind us and the pace was swift as a result. I rode mostly with Matt and Gregg until Matt dropped me at a set of lights. From then on Gregg and I rode together and at one stage we were cruising along at about 40-43kph on the flat (a new record for me)! However as I was to discover on the return trip, that was probably mostly as a result of the now sizable tail wind that had sprung up, so that record is officially marked in the books with an asterisk for "wind assisted".

We cruised into Black Rock and my back was giving me a few twinges so a few stretches and it was fine again. PDL rolled up with Dave (Percrime), Rey and Katrina so I waited about for them to refuel and catch their breath. Dave was worried about the whereabouts of his partner and brother-in-law so we hung about wondering where they were. Eventually we figured they must have turned around somewhere so we took off back into the headwind.

I was the first to get going and for the first half of the rise out of Black Rock I was leading the way until Dave pulled around me with the comment “you will be very popular in the peleton, thanks for the draft” LOL. A few more passed me up the hill (Matt, etc) but I caught back up to them after the hill and was looking forward to hanging with them the rest of the way.

Unfortunately a set of lights caught PDL behind me, so I soft pedaled for a quite a while until PDL caught back up to me. She was exhausted by the time she caught up (the headwind was dropping our speed a fair bit) so I led the way to give her a draft in the wind. What a gentleman I am! LOL

Apparently Rey and Katrina were behind us with Katrina struggling with the wind so PDL promised to save them a seat at the BBC. We rode on just the two of us, passing a few riders and being passed by a few as well. With the headwind we were sitting on about 24-26kph the whole way which wasn’t too bad considering we had no pack to work with.

At one set of lights I pulled up next to a guy who I got chatting to about the headwind. He was telling me about his ride the previous Sunday from Frankston back to St Kilda and how the headwind was so bad it took them 4 hours to ride the 50 km! Ouch! As we took off, he offered to give me a draft for a while but I said I didn’t think I could match his pace and he blew off into the distance. That will be me one day, I thought to myself.

As we rode up Fitzroy St, I saw Dave pootling along with his partner (Kathy) and Brother-in-law so I accelerated up and tapped him on the back as I rolled past. Hehe A little later as we made a hook turn, I felt someone fiddling around with the back of my shirt and shorts. Looking around I discovered that Dave had snuck up behind me and was trying to dack me. Fat chance mate- bib shorts!

Breakfast time and like a good boy I stuck to the fruit salad and juice, while everyone around was having waffles with chocolate sauce, danishes, croissants, etc. Rey and Katrina made it back not that far behind us and we sat with them.

After breakfast we decided to do a few laps of Albert Park with the girls but as we started our first lap, the wind was freezing and hitting us in the face. It looked like it was going to rain and so deciding that dry was better than km’s, we piked out and headed home. The city was full of feral footy fans (Grand Final day!) so we took it extra gentle, up through Carlton, along Brunswick St and home the usual way.

When we got home we felt like we hadn't had much of a work out at all. I didn't mind though as I had intended on having an easy weekend after the punishing we gave ourselves the past month. Next weekend- Frankston most likely again with perhaps Hopes Rise as an extra challenge!

Ride Stats 29-09-07 - Northcote > Black Rock > Northcote
Dist: 53.03km
Time: 02:22:32
Max: 50.9kph
Average: 22.3kph

Lazy Sunday
I had arranged with Matt to meet up with him and Stu for a few laps of the Kew Bouli but upon waking Sunday morning and txt-ing Matt, Matt had chickened out of the ride and after lying in bed all warm and comfortable, we decided the bed was a better option. Later in the day PDL and I decided to drive out and check out the 1 in 20 ride up Mt Dandy (for future reference of course). Man, that looks like HARDWORK, but I no longer doubt that I would ever be able to do it. In fact, I am sure that I could make it now, even though it would take me a ridiculous amount of time... LOL. Anyway, I will keep that challenge for another time and another lower body weight!

Speaking of weight- Sunday mornings weigh-in and like clockwork- another 1.1kgs lost. I can now start to feel my clothing getting looser on me, my shirts hanging better and even my belt has gone a notch tighter. The road to a healthy body weight is long but I am traveling well and I’m enjoying the view!

The green jacket has been retired