So if it’s okay with you all I thought I’d start a thread for roadie rides I am doing in order to get fit enough to haul my arse up a couple of mountains in January. I’ll just be posting the basic deets; start time, meet point, planned route.
The reason I am doing this is that there seems to be an increasing level of interest from people to get fit and improve their climbing ability, I also know of many people who have hinted at doing the Alpine Classic in January, so this is a place for people to see if they want to tag along with me mid-week. Weekend rides will still get posted in the ‘occasional weekend rides’ thread in the Melbourne section.
Please note that I am trying to get fit, these rides aren’t anti-social and I’m not super fast, but if you can’t ride 30kms in about an hour, you’re gonna get dropped.Ask me nice and I may wait for you, but I don’t wanna spend all my time waiting for people, if you’re worries about getting dropped then I suggest you do some secret training and tag along when you’re feeling strong enough. If you drop me on my own ride, well then I won’t invite you back
Also these are my rides, generally speaking this isn’t open for discussion. I’m doing the rides that suit me and what I am trying to achieve at times that suit me and my lifestyle, if you want to do a different ride at a an alternative time, go ahead, just don’t talk about it here.
So all that said – tonight I’ll be riding Mt. Pleasant with a few others meeting cnr of Chandler and Heidelberg rd’s at 7.10 for a 7.15 roll out. You’ll need lights, it’s about 55kms and takes about 2 hours. It’s very undulating, lot’s of climbing, lots of descending, then lot’s more climbing. None of the climbs are very big, but there are plenty of them. This is probably my favourite 50-60km loop near Melbourne.
After a week or two rest after Bright, I would be keen for some of these. I have vague intentions to race the Baw Baw classic in April, and some of these rides might be quite good base stuff.
I lived in Melbs all my life and had never seen those roads before, so close to the cbd and oh so nice.
I’ll be be back for more.
Total distance for me 69.2kms. clickety for route map
Tomorrow night, Wed 7th December - Mt. Pleasant with a few others meeting cnr of Chandler and Heidelberg rd’s at 7.10 for a 7.15 roll out. You’ll need lights for the last bit, it’s about 55kms and takes about 2 hours. So far I have about 4/5 people coming, happy for it to be more.
Also I wanna do some flat stuff Thursday morning, I’ll either do laps of the Richmond Boulie or get up really early and do a Black Rock run. If I do Black Rock, it’ll be about a 5.30am roll out from the city.
Something about putting lights on in the summer really shits me, But I think I should be able to do it for one day a week if it’s going to make me a better rider, see you there.
train to drink and eat, straight forward endurance training advice but many people don’t do it. not easy to eat when climbing for an hour at a time at high heart rate in the heat but you have to do it.
you need to be doing long seated climbs for training. unless you go to Donna Buang the hills aren’t long enough. I use the spin bike at the gym, great for long climb training close to home no matter what the weather conditions.
on the day:
pace yourself, you against the mountains not other people.
eat and drink all the time, force the food in. you’ll probably drink 1 bottle per hour.
toilets as you ride into Mt Beauty, on the right next to the servo.
food supplied on Falls is usually a banana, creamed rice maybe 1/2 a muffin. take money if you want to buy a coffee, coke or snack from the cafe.
fill up water at the servo on the way back to Tawonga.
if you are staying in Bright freeze 1 water bottle. stop at your accommodation and get food and fresh bottles before Buffalo. the frozen bottle will be ready when you need it on Buffalo just as your other bottle will be too hot to drink.
they give you lunch as you ride through Bright, best to have food you like at your accommodation as you never know what or how much they’ll give you.
fill up at the first Buffalo water stop, it’s a long hot climb to the 2nd water stop.
focus on the icy poles at Dingo Dell when times get tough.
my favourite food on this ride is fruit cake, you don’t need to eat much to keep you going.
if you suffer from the heat you’ll struggle on Buffalo. this is where the ride really begins. train in the heat or layer up to simulate it.
