Back to the mountains!

On a cold and raining day I woke up anxious about the day ahead. A return to the mountains. We are not talking Alpe d Huez here but as much as my area has to answer. Dean messaged me fairly early, "you good to go? How you feel about the weather?" Cold, cloudy, rain had stopped but the threat was there for it to return. I had already had to cancel last Wednesday, nothing would stop me this time around. "Good to go, lets hit the mountains."

I wasn't exactly sure how far I would be able to go today, I hadn't been hill climbing for quite some time. Gazing out at the mountains as Dean drove us to the base of Canungra for the start I was nervous. It would be remiss of me to even suggest that I was tough and ready for anything. Parts of me wanted to call it quits after and hour, parts of me wanted to use the wet roads as and excuse. But the part of me that wanted to be greater than ordinary trumped all my doubts.

The look out from the car to the mountains - cloudy and wet!

I started off at around 6:45 up Canungra. This always served as a warm up so I didn’t have Dean follow me; the road was safe, no fear of cars hitting me. It only took around 20mins or so to get to the base of Beechmount. I'm not too sure how long the climb is I think around 5km at an average gradient of 8.5% from the websites I have read.

The climb started well, but shortly into it I was hurting already. I guess I am lacking a lot in conditioning more so that I thought. About 2km into the climb the road turned to compacted mud due to road works. My back wheel kept slipping out which made it difficult. Dean followed patiently easing up beside me from time to time offering support, asking questions etc. We only had about 5 or so cars which is normal for this climb so it’s easy to do solo, due to the wet though I needed Dean there to block.

At the top I grabbed something to eat, before commencing the ride to Binna Burra. It’s about a 10km stretch of Rolling before 3km hill climb. I hadn't pumped up my tires enough so the ride was hard, felt like there was a weight on the back of my wheel. Not too sure if that was purely mental or a combination of both. It was in the stretch it really started to rain, at some points Dean lost sight of me and I could see. The rain was pelting against my face, glasses were useless so I just squinted.


Riding off into the rain

The climb up Binna Burra was fairly uneventful. At the top all I wanted to do was stop. Dean urged me on, not with encouragement really but more so by not acknowledging my fatigue. I knew he could see it, but he knew I would say stop when it was really enough. He suggested the 28km rolling descent down to Nerang. Once we got there we would roll out past Hinze Dam and head to the NSW border.

The descent was crazy. I was so glad I took Deans suggestion and stuffed my jersey with newspaper as I was freezing! It really works well as an insulator. Although you might find a nice mirror image print of the writing left on your stomach!


Part of the descent


Me on my aerobars getting some speed

The remainder of the ride after the descent was just hell for me. Rolling hills with 11% gradient mini climbs. 3hours and 45mins after I began I called it quits. I literally couldn’t believe the agony my legs were in. Straight away I massaged them with deep heat, and then ate 4sandwiches and some fruit. I think it was a combination of lactic acid and not fueling myself properly.


Feeling the pinch

The descents in the rain where tricky, I learnt a lot of things about how to handle my bike, and also a valuable lesson on fueling; I never want to be in that much pain again unless its after a PB race.

I will upload some picture I took of the ride as soon as I can get them to work - for some reason my computer isn't recognizing the drive.