Winding down with a few days to go before Sani2C. Tweaking our thoughts on nutrition. What flavour this and what concentration of that. Do we nothing in last three days or do we spin light? Typical pre race questioning for a team of clueless amateurs. Actually it is all part of the fun.
The Spruit was very wet this morning – huge puddles after last nights’ heavy rain.
Another fun day in the saddle. This time we took in a fairly gentle 43km’s around Delta Park, Emmerentia Dam and Albert’s Farm. Near the end, Mike’s back tyre literally exploded beyond repair – as a result he walked to Vida Cafe in Greenside while I rode home to fetch the retrieval vehicle and junior supports club (Tom (5) and Annabel (8)).
We have one week of training before the Sani2C. The hard thing to do right now is ease off the pace. We are both feeling pretty strong and we have to actively work at dropping our mileage to around 160km for the week. We are ready for race one of the year – by slowing down now, we save our legs. It doesn’t help to show up cooked and fatigued.
We are definitely getting stronger. We are meeting our training plan and clocking up decent mileage. The fitter we get, the more fun we have. On Friday morning I couldn’t resist filming Mike climbing through the single track’ forest’ at Emmerentia Dam. The clip doesn’t capture the steepness of the hill. Most people couldn’t walk it unless on all 4’s – riding that section really does take special skill. It was like we were 12 again. We even joked about going home to make an HTH chlorine bomb … I did that when I was 12.
So it is about the exercise and the bike so much of the time. It is also very much about the scenery and nature – we ride in the most amazing places. I have often thought to myself … ‘I wish more people could experience this’. This morning was just such a time … cruising through Emmerentia Dam we bumped into my Aunt Ada with her camera – she captured what I was feeling and thinking … and did a great job – far better than my skanky phone camera blog pictures. Emmerentia is in the middle of one of Africa’s biggest cities – probably ranks as one of the worlds bigger cities – yet right under our noses – riding from home – we find this. I love it.
The Spruit has dried up a little and some of the ‘Swampdogs’ have come out to play. This morning we ran in a few of them … all stretching the legs before the Sani2C which is only a few weeks away.
Pictured: Craig Wapo (Sani2C Chief Organiser), Broom Dog, Pat the Dog, the back of Mike and … is that Johnty Rhodes?
We clocked a decent 2 hours with a number of vomit tough intervals this morning. Interval training is new to us. Basically every so often we burst out of our skins and race our heart rate up past 170 or so – the burn and pain is nasty and afterwards we feel like we need to puke. We can’t even talk to each other afterwards on account of the slow recovery – this is not good. We did about 6 of these today. It hurts so much it must be helping us.
The wet marshy Spruit has resulted in a number of trees falling down. The root systems literally fail on account of the mush. I have seen this happen for the past 3 summers – this year seem worse though.
Tree down at top of Delta
Took an easy ride this morning – don’t want to set myself back by starting too hard too soon. Clocked a gentle 20km. The Spruit is incredibly wet and muddy – trees with water logged roots and water burdened leaves are falling over – I will post tree damage photos’s later..
Spruit Scene - Dam at the top of Delta Park
I went out in the mist and drizzle this morning. The thought of more indoor training left me uninspired. Clearly the weather scared everyone away and I had Delta Park all to myself. I couldn’t resist snapping a few pictures to capture the flavour of the outing. I had a blast. I loved it. 90 minutes of slosh and slop before work – unbeatable. Sorry I didn’t call Mike.
It is not unusual to have to spray myself down along with the bike because of the mud this time of year. The pictures hardly do justice to the extent of the muck.
Heavy Johannesburg rains have left the Braamfontein Spruit (the Spruit) incredibly muddy. We clocked 36km’s in the muck today. Proof: my dirty bike and Jason’s dirty knee.
Spruit rides usually start at the blue bridge at the bottom of 12st Parkhurst.
Mountain Bike Training Story : JoBerg2C 