Off the bike – dislocated AC joint

Post Sani2c crash, I am wrapped in a sling for the next 2 to 3 weeks. A real blow for Joberg2c training. Tried one arm spinning today – better than nothing but not great.

Suikerbosrand :: tough as hell @ 35 degrees C

On paper this place shouldn’t be as tough as it has turned out to be. We only rode 52km’s, the climbing was just over 1,000m, the road is tar (which usually means easy). In fact we planned to cover the track twice today. Well well well – we limped in like wounded soldiers. I think Mike might have been crying … I know I was! The ride came at the end of a big week where we spent nearly 13 hours on bikes of some sort and covered more than 230km in total. An hour ago I was ready to give it all up. I feel better now though. The one thing that did throw us was the temperature – my heart rate monitor clocked an average of 35 degrees Celsius. I drank 5 litres of liquid without making a single pee – go figure. The graph shows the hills.  The video is a 13 second sample of what our 3 hours looked like – gripping stuff.



Suikerbosrand climbing profile

Pleasure and pain

Getting up early is VERY hard. Very very very hard in fact. My alarm this morning had a 4 as the first digit – 4:40 to be precise. When I set my alarm on my cell phone, it tells me how many hours I have left before ring time. That too sometimes starts with a 4. So this morning I felt quite sorry for myself – almost tearful. Exhausted! Sleep deprived and quite ready to give up. Then the spinning started … loud music, clear instruction, building pace 130 rpm 170bpm . Within 20 minutes I felt literally on fire … on top of the world, sheer bliss. Go figure! One minute so desperately disengaged, the next thing I can’t get enough. Judging by the look on Mikes face, he felt the same this morning. Poor Ali (my supportive wife), she gets the pain part in the form of early sleep disruption but no aerobic pleasure to make up for it.

Aerial view of spin bike, bottle, sweat towel and heart rate monitor - I see this view a lot.