There’s snow on them thar hills…
Absolutely stunning morning in Rotorua this morning. Woke up to snow on all of the ranges around the area, and a significant layer on Mt Tarawera - one of those mornings where you feel very very glad not to be living in Auckland!
So given it was only three degrees, what better way to warm up than by a mountain bike ride in the forest! Brrrrrr.
Actually it was meant to be a mountain bike ride followed by a 1km swim as I have a bit of catching up to do on the training front this week. Unfortunately I didn’t make the swim - but that’s a story for a bit later in this post!
So I once again donned my sexy riding outfit - stripey long johns with bike pants over the top - and my old training shoes, just in case it was a bit wet and muddy. I had been pre-warned on that front. Gorgeous drive to the forest with stunning views of the aforementioned snow on the ranges. The car’s temperature gauge was reading a frosty 3 degrees - sometimes slipping to two degrees depending on where I was.
I pulled into the Waipa Mountain Bike carpark and drove through some ice puddles. It appeared that my brisk morning ride in the forest was going to be a very cold exercise.
Nonetheless, I pulled on the gloves and bike helmet and headed into the forest. Lesson learned #1 - freezing!!! Like icicles hitting my face. Lesson learned #2, very wet and very muddy and puddles that seem just one inch deep are in fact a foot deep.
Lessons taken on board, I pressed onwards - and had an absolute blast. Freezing cold, completely wet and muddy, and loving every minute. If this is training then I want more!
My plan this morning was to do my bike interval training on my mountain bike in the forest as I have a MTB duathlon coming up in a few weeks. I had planned to be in the forest for around 40 minutes at the most. I still needed to fit in a 1km interval swim before an 11am meeting. Unfortunately this wasn’t to be.
Somewhere along the Tahi Track I managed to connect onto the Big Dipper Track. I thought I was still on the Tahi when all of a sudden I came up to the Big Dipper - a significant gully that they advice beginners not to attempt - that’s one piece of advice I’m definately taking on board! I have absolutely no idea how I got off Tahi and onto Big Dipper, but I was already running out of time.
I exited the bush onto a forestry road track and promptly set off towards the carpark. Or so I thought. I completely lose all sense of direction in the Kaingaroa Forest and the road that I thought would take me back to the carpark in fact took me in deeper. I had a brief panic moment and decided to just go back and follow the tracks back to my exit point and work back from there. I rode for about another 20 minutes in my efforts to get back onto the main carpark track, taking into account the stunning bush, the large ice puddles and the fact that I was completely on my own in the bush - a wonderful feeling actually.
I eventually made it back onto the main track and headed for the carpark. Another 30 minutes later - no swim for me today!