Its back !

I'm back on to  cycling...this time with a mission !! Alternating between misty and misby is working well and I'm enjoying my rides immensely. The weather is playing up a little bit now and then, but I have enough cold clothing for now.

Looks like the indoor trainer is going to be a garage ornament for at least sometime now :) Anyhow, the break I took from cycling has worked well for me. I can recall me gazing out at all the cyclists and smiling to myself and thinking that, yes, someday soon I will brave the cold, the wind, the weather and most importantly laziness and be one on the road in the bike lane, not stuck in the car. 

Just taking a day off biking and driving to work made me feel like I was stuck in some sort of an urban trap with no place to wiggle. Cycling in the bike lane, ironically feels like freedom !!

Misty goes for a ride !!

I had resolved on Friday that my roadie was feeling leftout  and therefore needed a good ride on Saturday morning. The excitement was so high that I could only about sleep for 6 hours that night. 

I researched on good ol' bikely the route I wanted to take. I generally don't stick to the specifics. I try to get a generic idea of where I wanna go and note the street names so that I can find my way back and then take on go by impulse and take short detoures along my planned route. 

I also thought it'd be a good idea to map my route on bikely and the result is below: 

The route is about 98% accurate and I'm still trying to work my way through it.  I thought it will be fun to post the route there, just for my reference and for anyone who is game ! 

The ride's actually quite a moderate effort. I went for timing on this one. Riding on Gungahlin dr is quite a pleasure. The bikeways are wid'ish and some very nice views of the roads below. There was some construction work later on the road and the bikeway was blocked. Fortunately it was downhill with a speed limit of 40. So I'm sure I wasn't holding up any cars. Having said that, I feel riders in Canberra enjoy a greater level of understanding with the motorists.  

Anyhoo, the keywords for this ride were: barton hwy, gungahlin dr, lady denham rd and then finding my way back.  I was actually hoping to go all the way to Yarralumla and back, but I was enticed by the black mountain peninsula and I just rode along from there. 

I must say, getting lost and finding your way back and finding things familiar things along the way is a great feeling.  As I was riding along the lake, I must confess I had no clue of where I was and where I was heading, apart from the direction. I stumbled across the ANU, Sri Chinmoy run , some musuemy thingie and finally, that park below commonwealth dr !!! That was a "all roads lead to rome" feeling. Of course, in Canberra, all roads lead to Parliament house, as they should !

Anyway, after confirming that it was indeed commonwealth dr, I started the ride back. I was absolutely sure that I will not take the same route back home! I got drawn to in this thing called the William Hovell Dr. Boy o' Boy was that a ride. It's a classic middle of nowhere kinda ride and I had no idea where I was heading. Half through it, I glanced at a sign on the opposite side and it said "City" in that direction ! I really didn't want to turn back, so I thought, heck, this is canberra, eventually I will get somewhere I know.

The timing really was "eventual" ! The ups and downs of that ride took a toll on me, but I found elixir in finding "Belconnen" way. I never knew it starts at a suburby area ! Cycling down that way, I was damn tired and about to doze off when a magpie attacked me ! That really woke me up and kept me going for the rest of the ride.

All in all, a great ride. Bikely/Google Earth estimates are between 45-53 kms.  I gotta say, this is the loooongest I've ridden on Misty. The longest ever, was of course the 100km briz-goldcoast ride, but that was on my hybrid. 

Ironny is such that, you buy an indoor trainer and it prompts you to more rides outdoor !

The naming ceremony..

For the sake of brevity and in line with the recent changes in my personal life (aka on the path of getting a [human] wife), the roadie shall now be known as "Misty" (short for mistress!)

The Mountain will be known as "Misby" which is a sort of a contraction/mashup of these 3 things"

1. Mistress (therefore the "mis")

2. S also stands for Saali, which in Hindi sometimes translates to Wife's (or mistress' sister) ..and sometimes its also somewhat of a slur

3. the B is from "behan" which is hindi for sister.

And we have Misty and Misby :) 

Mountain Biking, here I come

Okay, fall VII is a good introduction to this post !

Well, I bought the mountain bike within a week of moving in to Canberra with high hopes. But to be honest, once the roadie was here, it was gathering dust. Actually, I did wipe off the dust every now n then, lube it and keep the tyres well inflated to that day when I would take it on.

The mountain bike was not immune to the punctures as well and it stayed temporarily suspended partly due to that reason. 

Anyway, the weather is getting too perfect and my hiatus from outdoor cycling just HAD to end. So, I figured, here's an idea: let me make it interesting and use the roadie on my trainer indoors and use the mountain outdoors. But to really enjoy the ride, I need the proper shoes.  I mean come on, without the proper shoes, its just not cycling !! hehehe

Once I made the easy "sale" of buying shoes for the mountain, I just went out and did it. The first pair I got was 1 size short, but I did have a quick ride in it. Enough to awake the beast !!

I also discovered that there is an upside to being the bush capital of Australia. Its not the road as such, but what's along the roads. Small dirt trails and the like.

Or that's what I thought.

All this while, I never quite comprehended that there was a nature reserve right behind my house and that these reserves are usually restricted to walks and cycles. Anyway, I got my shoes exchanged today and set out to discover the tracks on Mt Majura. 

It was epiphany in motion. It was the first time I used my mountain bike to do anything remotely "mountain". I can't quite describe my joy in words or numericals. It was like the thing I have been waiting for all my life !! What immediately came to mind were the innumerable action clips I must've seen over the time which exemplified "mountain biking".  And this, this lovely mountain was it. 

I also admit that it was the FIRST time in my 6 years in Australia that I have seen Roos up close and personal. I'm a bit ashamed to admit that, but its never too late (cuz it is now!!) hehehe. Once again, I'm smitten by cycling and I'm simply awestruck at nature reserves. I'm in half a mind to kick myself for having missed out on this all this while, but oh well, a start is a start.

And besides, all good things start only after you buy cycling shoes for that specific bike type.

Fall VII

Date: 15/10/2008
Reason: Pedals not uncliked on time on Mountain Bike
Location: Mt. Majura
Effect on Body: A slight bump on the knee and some swelling
Effect on Psyche: "The mountain bike shoes have officially inaugrated me!"
Effect on Bike: Chain undone.
Lesson: Welcome to the world of Mountain biking (not just riding a mountain bike on the ROAD !!)

Going indoors

It is with a heavy heart that I say, I have bought an indoor trainer. Since the last puncture, I braved the chill in Canberra and went cycling to work a few times. The highlight of those rides was one day, I went out and cycled in the cold BECAUSE I heard that it was -4 degrees outside !! Besides one very very chilly ride, the others somewhat seemed easier.

The gear I needed was suprisingly minimal. A work-out shirt and over that I put on a Netti Jersey with thermals on the inside (i think) , Leg Warmers, wind breaker gloves, a large kerchief on the head and the usual stuff. That seemed to have done the trick. Although, I must admit, my face and toes were numb by the time I finished my 30 or so minute ride !! But it was fun and it did well to drive away my phobia of riding in the cold. 

Anyway, back to the point. I've got quite disheartened by the punctures to be riding outside and a bit lazy to go out in the cold everyday. So,  I bought a indoor mag trainer: JetPro by JetBlack. The price I got it for is a steal. My extensive search left with me a store in sydney that was selling it for almost $70 less(including postage)than all places in Canberra. I walked in to some of the stores and they just outright refused to "price-match". That left me wondering the whole concept of price-match itself, at least in cycling parts and accessories !

Anyhow, I got this unit, setting up was a bit of a challenge and I struggled initially. Once I got it going, it brought back some nice memories.  I tried putting my mountain bike on it. That was an even bigger challenge and totally not worth it cuz the resultant effect is a lotttt of noise. Understandable cuz the mountain bike's tyres are thick and don't have a smooth tread like the roadie. I put my roadie back on that thang.

Anyhow, all of this has been happening between my last post and now. Since I bought the trainer about 3 weeks ago, I've been on it about 2-3 times a week. The workout you get in a trainer is so much more intense than normal riding. This is considering the relatively flat riding surfaces in Canberra. I'm sure if I was riding uphill in Taringa or Toowong in Brisbane, I would beg to differ. That said, the trainer provides a targeted work out much like a spinning session. I enjoy it throughoughly, but of course there is the nostalgia.

These days, I notice that anytime I see cyclists riding past when I'm in the car I'm overcome by nostalgia. Thankfully my admiration for the cyclists hasn't had me losing focus on the road !! So, the point being, I miss cycling out in the open. The weather in Canberra is also getting much more tolerable for cycling. 

The ghosts of the punctures haunt me. Just for the record, in my year and half of cycling in Brisbane, I've had may be 2-3 punctures. In my 5-6 months of cycling in Canberra I've had about 8-10 punctures. 

For now, I'm resisting my temptation and sticking to the trainer. My love for outdoor road cycling won't say tucked in forever !