Iron Jack

I had an amazing bike ride today around the stunning countryside of Hawkes Bay - and a great time to boot!

We’re away for the weekend visiting old friends from Rotorua. We used to spend nearly every second evening with Lou and Aaron when we first moved to Rotorua. Our four year old adores them, and their three year old, and Toby has quickly joined the fan club. They left Rotorua in February - just after I became addicted to triathlon.

Aaron has always been a huge cycling fan, often taking off for four hour rides on both days of the weekend, and fitting in a cool three hours after work during the week. We’ve always given him grief for it. That was before I got bitten by the bug. Not only was I gutted when my best girlfriend left our town, I lost a potential riding buddy as well!

So naturally one of the first things that got packed before we left Rotorua was my bike, shoes, gloves and all other accompanying accessories. The first thing Aaron did when we arrived was take the bike to pieces to clean it, grease it, and generally give it the once over that apparently I should be doing every week. Ooops.

We saddled up just after lunch, I was pretty nervous about heading out. Fortunately I had one thing going for me - Aaron is recovering from major knee surgery. He had a serious workplace accident nearly a year ago when he got felled by the tree he was meant to be felling. Twelve months, major physio and eventually knee surgery later, he’s back on the bike and heading for the Round Taupo Cycle Challenge. A huge inspiration.

The other thing I had going for me was the fact that Hawkes Bay is beautifully flat - not dis-similar to the cycle leg of the Tauranga Half Ironman. A good chance to spin my wheels and test my legs after the hard work I’ve done over the past few weeks.

We headed out. Amazing scenery - unbelievable to ride past literally miles of vines - and several historical churches surrounded by old cemetries. The sort of scenery and places you just don’t notice so much when you whizz by in the car.

As I said along the way, now I get it.

Of course I had to pick a few sandflies out of my teeth on the way around, and I had to stop to use the toilet at a tavern in the middle of nowhere, but a fantastic ride. Forty kilometres in 1h46 - a great time for me, giving me a massive boost of confidence for the Half.

Just wanted to finish with this quote from Lance Armstrong that was posted by my dear friend, Lisa Whyte (and fellow cyclist - but again, I caught the bug after she left the country!). Thanks Lise!

“Pain is temporary, it may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year. But eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever” - Lance Armstrong

Saturday morning dawned cold, bright, clear and windy - very windy. But having postponed a ride the day before, I knew it was time to literally get on my bike.

I looked spectacular, if I do say so myself. Reebok compression tights, Reebok compression top - both on the bottom layer. Next layer, olive green thermal top, padded bike banks. Next layer, Reebok windbreaker jacket, purple stripey long johns - the sexiest pants you have ever seen. Next layer, fluro yellow cycling top. Boootiful.

I met fellow RATs club member Irene in town just after 9am, dropping Oli at a friend’s house on the way in. We saddled up and headed out of town, deciding to ride around Mt Ngongotaha. I hadn’t done this ride before, but had wanted to for a while, I just didn’t want to do it on my own. We live in a suburb just out of town called Ngongotaha and our block looks onto the mountain. Even though I grew up in Auckland, we are so at home here that I claim it as my maunga - or mountain, which is what anchors me.

We took a slightly longer, less busy route to get there. This route ended with a nasty hill taking us onto another very nasty hill that was the beginning of the around mountain ride. Nasty. Irene absolutely kicked my arse. She has been riding a lot longer than me and this was really only my second proper ride, but even so, she cranked up the hills. At some places I felt like I was practically going backwards! But I’d get around the corner and she would always be there waiting for me.

There were about three killer hills on that lefthand stretch of the mountain. Cold, icy, up. Then we whizzed down into Paradise Valley - very carefully given some of the ice patches around.

“That was a bit better,” I breathed as we rounded up at the bottom.

“Yeah, but you know what - now that we’ve come down, we’ve gotta climb out!” she said cheerily.

We both agreed that the way out and up this side was a lot easier going than the initial hill sections. And it was. Stunning actually. Sunny, views out over farms and native bush. Just gorgeous actually. I loved it. There were still some hills, but I was finally brave enough to try and get up on my pedals - what a difference. I can’t go for very long standing up, but it was a bit of a breakthrough. Every hill we can across for the rest of the ride, I stood up. Awesome.

We eventually came out on the main highway and rode back into town - into a head wind. We eventually made it back to the cars two hours and 31 kilometres later. Way too slow for me for the Half Ironman in January, but a good breakthrough ride and definately a confidence booster. Looking forward to the next one.