Karen writes: Of pigs and optical illusions
Just home after 5 hours 40 and almost 130km on the bike, and a 20 minute run which felt surprisingly good, could have kept going but there were children I needed to say goodnight to, and visitors, at home.
The ride was just plain long, and while I might complain about boredom (inevitable when choosing a route where the same 20km circuit from Clevedon to Takanini is done over and over and over again), I do wonder how all those people cope who live in places where there aren't easily accessible roads for distance riding. How do city people train for example?
Anyway, it is a long time today just pedaling and pedaling. You take what entertainment you find, and I still think the Ardmore Airport is the best entertainment around on a long ride, provided you are a bit careful about avoiding lingering directly under where the planes fly in to land, unless you want to do some serious rocking and rolling on your bike. I rode round and round that block for a while because there was an optical illusion at the far end of the runway which fascinated me. There were these oval green blobs which appeared to just float, and it turned out it was the trees, I'm guessing distorted by some effect of the heat and the tarseal when viewed from a distance. Small things amuse small minds they say...
Speaking of small things, I'm not sure if I should be in mourning. I used to get dropped off at Clevedon to run home the 15km or so, and when I did that I would inevitably run past a small, fat pig, who resided in his paddock, smorg-like, on a pile of apples. I called this pig...you guessed it, "Apple", and we would communicate when I ran past. Actually it was more a case of I would say hello, Apple would perhaps twitch, or blink, or maybe do nothing. Anyway, riding further along that road today I saw a pigskin on a fence, whitish, with black spots, just like my old friend Apple. Ah well, I guess we weren't really that close!
So I wonder how Kate is doing at Ironman camp now? Have the others discovered that crate of beer she was threatening to take yet? Or the 2kg of potato crisps packed for an emergency junk-food stash? Nah, Kate is taking these things worryingly seriously now... it will be high quality carbohydrates, fruit, vegetables, good protein and shakes with interesting sounding special ingredients, and definitely no alcohol to upset delicate energy balances! I might just have another plate of icecream...
The ride was just plain long, and while I might complain about boredom (inevitable when choosing a route where the same 20km circuit from Clevedon to Takanini is done over and over and over again), I do wonder how all those people cope who live in places where there aren't easily accessible roads for distance riding. How do city people train for example?
Anyway, it is a long time today just pedaling and pedaling. You take what entertainment you find, and I still think the Ardmore Airport is the best entertainment around on a long ride, provided you are a bit careful about avoiding lingering directly under where the planes fly in to land, unless you want to do some serious rocking and rolling on your bike. I rode round and round that block for a while because there was an optical illusion at the far end of the runway which fascinated me. There were these oval green blobs which appeared to just float, and it turned out it was the trees, I'm guessing distorted by some effect of the heat and the tarseal when viewed from a distance. Small things amuse small minds they say...
Speaking of small things, I'm not sure if I should be in mourning. I used to get dropped off at Clevedon to run home the 15km or so, and when I did that I would inevitably run past a small, fat pig, who resided in his paddock, smorg-like, on a pile of apples. I called this pig...you guessed it, "Apple", and we would communicate when I ran past. Actually it was more a case of I would say hello, Apple would perhaps twitch, or blink, or maybe do nothing. Anyway, riding further along that road today I saw a pigskin on a fence, whitish, with black spots, just like my old friend Apple. Ah well, I guess we weren't really that close!
So I wonder how Kate is doing at Ironman camp now? Have the others discovered that crate of beer she was threatening to take yet? Or the 2kg of potato crisps packed for an emergency junk-food stash? Nah, Kate is taking these things worryingly seriously now... it will be high quality carbohydrates, fruit, vegetables, good protein and shakes with interesting sounding special ingredients, and definitely no alcohol to upset delicate energy balances! I might just have another plate of icecream...
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