Karen writes: Another Taupo Cycle down

We only have one more big event before Ironman having on Saturday knocked off the Taupo cycle challenge for another year.  Kate...mutter mutter mutter....no competition here...as predicted, thrashed me, coming in with an amazing under 7 hour performance of 6 hours 57.  I managed a respectable 7 hours 13, knocking half an hour off last years time.  These times might not sound great to some people, but remember our first effort in 2007 took nearly 10 hours and we have gotten progressively faster and faster each time.

It was an interesting experience in more ways than one.  The anxiety in the week before about the likely impact of the volcanic activity came to nothing, the only real reported impact seemed to be in one of the enduro riders (multiple laps of the lake) pulling out on Thursday night because of ash in the eyes, but otherwise we saw no evidence that something big was going on.  That was in spite of looking hard at the peaks in the distance hoping to see a plume of smoke or something heading skywards (preferably away) to add a bit of drama.

the bikes didnt mind the accommodation
Probably the most dramatic aspect of the event was our accommodation which was memorable for all the wrong reasons.  You know we had an excellent stay at a backpackers last year, well this year we stayed in a different backpacker right in town.  The first sign of trouble was having to leave the car in a distant carpark which was a bit of a downer, hoping that it wasn't going to be subject to vandalism or theft or over zealous parking inspector type people...never mind, we parked in easy view of McDonalds and hoped it would work out ok...it did.  The next thing was actually going into the building which was old and dirty and depressing, unlike last years which was old and clean and cheerful...some of that was dealt with with the trusty disinfectant spray, the wearing of jandals in the shower and spending as much time as possible elsewhere.  The last most significant, and least solvable problem, was the proximity of an enormous kitchen air vent outside the window which made airplane noises until 11pm each night. You couldn't just block your ears because then you felt it in your bones, and when it finally went off we could then hear the band playing really cool rock songs...for hours more.  We were actually thankful we got the fan noise and weren't in the rooms directly over the bar with the band.   It wasn't all bad though, there was a huge deck overlooking the main street and we got to watch the criterium cyclists while eating our snacks on Friday night, and cheer the cyclists coming in after us on Saturday afternoon.
Inaugural armed forces criterium from the deck 

The ride itself, we got down earlier than the 9am start time and pretending ignorance ended up in a faster start group which had the advantage of putting us with better cyclists.  It makes such a difference when people are experienced and skilled enough to not pop out in front of you without looking, actively inviting you into a faster moving line of bikes, pointing out hazards or calling out if cars are coming.  It started out cool but the temperature rose quite quickly and there were patches where you could feel the heat from the tarseal but nowhere near like it was a few years ago when the tar was actually melting and sticking to the bike tyres.  I ate pretty much as planned, just not in the right order, for example I had thought to eat my banana early on as they turn to warm slush tucked into the back pocket of a cycle shirt for too long, I paid for that by having to practically drink the thing 5 hours into the ride...yum...warm brown banana soup...but I enjoyed the marmite sandwiches and especially the vanilla coke I treated myself to at Turangi which gave me legs to get up the big hill, Hatepe, and finish the last dash home.  I made a mistake by not taking some sort of electrolyte drink along as my legs threatened to cramp in the later stages, the powerbar sold gels just don't seem to have enough kick to them for me even if I do like the taste.

Hatepe Hill
The most memorable things for me though, I wore a pair of fluorescent (I mean REALLY fluoro!) compression calf sleeves and through the whole ride there was a continuous stream of comments, "go pink socks", "love your legs sock girl", "my wife wanted those", and I even heard kids commenting from the roadside as I rode past.  Every so often someone would wolf whistle and eventually a guy overtook me and said "it was me whistling all the time" and I said back to him "oh no, just you, I thought it was lots of people" which got a laugh.


 Finally, the pain from the shoulder bursitis was manageable, but I had taken non-steroidal anti-inflammatories before on the instruction of the physio which I dont normally do, and being paranoid about these things I stopped regularly for extra water to avoid dehydration which meant more toilet stops too. I couldn't find a comfortable position towards the end except for arm across my chest but today it isn't any worse than it was before the ride so swimming starts tomorrow again.  It was a good weekend away, but it's good to be home with the whanau again too, roll on the half Ironman in 3 weeks!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Still...swim, cycle, run...walk

Karen writes: Swimming pool blues

Karen writes: Obstacles