Old Coach Road

As mentioned in my previous post, I had a decent mountain bike ride planned for last Saturday.  Mark and I were on the road early with the bikes on the back of the car and heading for Ohakune.

After a quick stop in Waiouru for some Subway to take along for our lunch we pulled up in Ohakune at the carpark at the start of the Old Coach Road.

After gearing up we hit the trail and were straight into some hill work on a reasonably rough bit of track through some farmland.  Along the way there were plenty of information signs to look at and some great views to take in.

Nearing the top there was a turn-off where we got to check out an old tunnel - it was fairly dark inside...

After another short climb things leveled out a little and we road under the new viaduct and got a great view of the old Hapuawhenua Viaduct.

Just around the corner we got to take a side-trip to cross over the viaduct.

On the return trip I flicked the GoPro onto video so you could enjoy the trip from your armchair...

Next up was another climb up through bush with the odd level or slightly downhill piece to give us a rest.  Riding through here we came across another couple of riders - one with a broken chain...no, we did not have a tool to help him out...

We then hit what we thought was quite a long downhill and had a blast tearing it up all the way down to a little bridge crossing a stream.

We then ended up on a short climb under another rail bridge and carried on up the hill until we got to another abandoned rail bridge where we stopped for our lunch - just 3km short of Horopito.
 

Lunch finished it was time for the return trip.  A short squirt down the hill to the bridge then got us onto the downhill section that was now an uphill.  It turned out not being too bad and we were rewarded with another downhill section.

The rest of the ride to the farmland section tended to be mostly uphill but still it didn't seem to be quite as steep as the trip in.  And then of course we got to take in the long final downhill section.  This was very fast but also very rough.  Six and a half minutes later we were back at the car after a nice final shot of adrenalin.

I was fairly happy with how I coped on the ride, my uphill pedalling muscles were fairly tired but overall I managed ok and was right as rain the next day.  Both Mark and I really enjoyed the ride and are already thinking about our next excursion.  I've also had to put on a new front tyre (the other was looking fairly old when I got home) and also need to do something about brake pads...

Time for an update

Ok, so I've been pretty slack at both my fitness activities and posting on this blog.

For one reason or another I haven't been going to the gym that much lately over the past few months so now I've finally got back into it a bit.  Since restarting I've found that I have put on a little weight and have definitely lost some fitness and strength.

The first few times I went to the gym I didn't get through everything I wanted to, was knackered and then sore for days.  On Monday I made a few changes and feel a bit better for it.

My warm-up on the stationary bike is a piece of cake - 15 minutes fairly hard out on the cardio setting.  Then when I hit the weights I dropped the weights I was working with quite a bit.  This let me do full sets of all the exercises I wanted to do plus one extra.  I was still working pretty hard and keeping my heart rate up but didn't take as long to recover between sets.  When I had finished I felt great and was pretty pleased with myself.  I plan to follow this routine from now on and only increase the weights once I feel I've made some gains.

I was fairly fairly good on Tuesday night but didn't want to push my luck at the gym two nights in a row so I rang Mark and we went for a bike ride instead.  It was fairly windy so hard work at times but I still enjoyed the approximately 15km ride.

I decided to have a rest night tonight and intend to hit the gym again tomorrow night.  Friday will probably be another day off as we are planning a decent mountain bike ride on Saturday - this will be a good test of my fitness...

Good to be doing something again and enjoying it!

At it again

This morning Mark and I cut another lap around the city and along the Bridle track.  Compared to last weekend the weather was a lot nicer, no rain and very little wind.

This made things quite a bit easier and we got along at quite a nice clip.  As a result we cut it out quite a bit quicker:

	Last Week	This Week
Distance	30.34	30.35
Total Time	01:48:52	01:37:37
Moving Time	01:42:33	01:33:03
Stopped	00:06:19	00:04:34
Average Speed	16.72	18.65
Average moving Speed	17.75	19.57
Max Speed	33.52	33.75

The weather should be like this every ride...

Another lap

So it's been a long time since the last little excursion along the Bridle track but today was the day to fix that little issue.  The weather was not the best but we went anyway - this time in an anti-clockwise direction.

Leaving Mark's place it was pretty chilly with the odd spit of rain so we were both sporting light jackets and wishing for gloves.  Not very far up the road the rain stopped and we warmed up a bit.

Depending on which direction we were heading in or what sort of shelter we had the wind made itself familiar with us but besides that it wasn't too bad.  Down along the river front the damage to the tracks we saw last time had all been fixed and it was only pedestrians using the entire width of the track that slowed us up.  We only took one wee diversion off the main track to enjoy a little blast through the trees:

By this time we'd done 20 or so km so I was feeling it a little - especially heading into the wind - but we kept on trucking.  We ended up getting one last shower as we neared the turn-off that would take us away from the river and up the hill to Mark's place.

Another pretty good pedal of just over 30km.  The hot shower at home afterwards was pretty good too...

The Bridle Track

Yesterday I finally got out on the mountain bike.  I met up with Mark at his place to take in the Bridle Track which follows along the Manawatu River.

We then took in a bit of road followed by the nice tracks along the Mangaone Stream.  Plenty of damage to be seen after last weeks flooding.

Very muddy!

That used to be a nice limestone track

When I got home I noticed a small issue:

No, not the muddy bike...

After a quick look today, I found the issue - a nice hole in the tube.  Unfortunately my glue had dried up so the bike is going nowhere for a little while until I get some...

Here's a wee slideshow of the 1200+ pictures the GoPro took along the way...

It was a great ride of just under 2 hours and 31.3km at a moving average of just under 18km/h.  Not bad for a fatee who hasn't been riding much at all over the last while...

Chickenhawk

One side-affect of being crook last weekend was that I had a bit of time on my hands to read a book.

I had wanted to read Chickenhawk by Robert Mason for a number of years and finally got my hands on a copy.

As expected (I like this sort of non-fiction) I was hooked as soon as I started reading the book.  Things started off with the author starting his helicopter training and then he was shipped off to Vietnam.

The book pulls no punches, Mason describes all of the horrors associated with war, from the awful deaths and injuries to the ways the things he saw and did affected him later.  It also, obviously describes the heroic actions that not only the chopper pilots but grunts on the ground performed in order to achieve their objectives or simply to save lives.  All through the book is described the madness of war and the mistakes made by those directing it.

It is a fascinating read and regardless of how one feels about war (and perhaps the Vietnam war in particular) you cannot help but feel for all those involved and also to respect the men that went and put it all on the line.

Robert Mason's Iroquois

Highly recommended reading...

As a postscript: after reading the book I nosed around on the net for more info on Mason and the book.  I stumbled on his website and there were a large number of photos taken by him (he was a keen photographer while over there) and others.  Unfortunately in just the last few days the website has vanished...it appears the bill hasn't been paid...But, you can find him here on Facebook.

MTB Fail!

In my last post I had got my mountain bike all ready for a ride on the weekend.  Alas, it did not happen as I came down with a cold - I was quite disappointed as from all accounts everyone had a great time.

I'm pretty much over the bug now and have a mate getting keen on getting his MTB out again too.  So...perhaps this weekend...

A bit of preparation

With no physical preparation and my last mountain bike ride in February, I've decided to go along to my work's social club ride next weekend...

So this morning I gave the bike a bit of a going over.  I fitted the new rear tyre that I've had sitting around for a while - I decided I better have some knobs for the ride.  Then I fettled the brakes and gave it a bit of a test ride around the section.

I had intended to go for a short ride this afternoon to see how unfit I am but I ran out of time as the Connie also needed some servicing for the ride I'm leading tomorrow.  And then the lawns needed mowing etc, etc...

Fingers crossed for nice weather next weekend and that I'm not too fat and unfit for it...

Too cool!

To be this guy...

3D printed jet engine

Hmmmm, technology...another topic for this blog I guess...

I came across this article on the Kneeslider and had to share.

Truly amazing what 3D printing is starting to achieve.  I'd suggest that development in this area is going to continue to get more impressive and will make us rethink how we manufacture and transport items - why ship things when you can make 'em locally.

I wonder how long before we've all got some sort of 3D printer in the home making basic items...

That's it

Yep, our walking challenge has finished so I can put my feet up eh?

I ended up with 441,994 steps in 6 weeks for an average of 10,524 per day - so I just scraped in to meet the 10,000 per day.

Because I'm a geek I also converted the steps to kilometres using the same multiplication factor as I used on my pedometer - 80cm strides - which I think is about right according to some GPS tracks I also took.  Anyway, the magic total number ended up as 353km.  That's a fairly decent walk eh?

So now I have to decide whether to carry on including increased walking (more than a simple dog walk) or put more work in at the gym.  Currently I'm thinking of a mix of both but am really keen to get back into the gym more often and to push myself.  Time will tell...

Lest we forget

Walking update

We're 5 weeks into our walking challenge and after a couple of weeks where I didn't do so well (I was sick for a couple of days) and the odd bit of bad weather I've picked the pace up a bit.

I'm still getting up early on every work day and quickly knocking off an easy 3,000.  There has only been one day when I flagged that and that was because it was fair chucking it down.  I've a few other wet starts where the rain coat has been pressed into action and the walk done regardless of the weather.

When I get home from work I check out the pedometer and work out how much more walking I need to do.  As long as I'm over 8,000 steps then I generally get my 10,000 just wandering around at home.  If I need more steps it's generally a short walk or sometimes a trip to the gym and some walking on the treadmill.

Last weekend I was determined to bring my average up after a couple of slack days.  So on Saturday, Bart and I knocked out about 4,500 steps in the morning and then in the afternoon a went out for another big walk of just under 6.6km.  I did this in just over 1 hr and the phone's GPS reckons an average speed on 6.18km/h - not too shabby I reckon!  I finished the day with just over 14,000 steps and followed it up with another 12,000 on Sunday.

This week I've been busy at work and covering a lot of ground while working so haven't needed to do any extra walking (except for the early morning trot) to get my total.  Tonight, mowing the lawns gave me an extra 2,000 so I'll end up over 12,000 again - sweet!

One thing that hasn't been so good is that I've been fairly tired (the early start and not following that up with an early night and a good sleep) and this has meant that I haven't hit the gym as much as I would have liked.  When the challenge is over I've got a few ideas on how I'll mix things up a bit so that I can still do plenty of walking but not miss out on the weight training which I enjoy.

Good to know

Still walking

So far so good.  No sore legs either...

Walking challenge

At work we are doing a walking challenge as a "well-being" activity.  The aim is to walk 10,000 steps a day.  I've done these before and they are harder than you might think - time is really the issue.  But this time around I'm going to try as hard as I can to hit the magic number.  We also get credit for other exercise although you don't really get much in the way of credit for going to the gym and throwing weights around...

One of the things I have to think about is my poor old dog.  I don't want him to miss out on his walk but I also don't want to push him too hard - our walks are normally limited to 30 minutes per day in the cool of the day.

Anyway, yesterday was day one and for some reason we had to reset our pedometers at lunchtime and start recording from them - goodbye 2-3,000 steps for me...Never mind, I went pretty hard and when I got home grabbed Barty McFarty and we hit the road doing approx 45 minutes.  He seemed fine although took it easy for the rest of the night.  I ended up on about 7,600 steps for the day.

Today, I set the alarm for o-dark thirty and after a quick brekkie the two of us hit the road again knocking out another 30 minute walk before work.  At work I got around a fair bit and by the time I got home had less than 2,000 steps to go to hit the magical 10k.  Sticking to my plan for the day I got the mower out and mowed my back lawns which got me up to the target.  A bit more wandering around now has me on 11,800 with not long before its time to hit the hay - not a bad effort.

The plan for tomorrow is to do the pre-work walk again.  I'm not sure what I'll do after work - I should go to the gym but whether I'll need a wee walk prior to get my 10k we'll have to see.

So not a bad start but I can see a couple of days coming up soon (motorcycle riding) where it may be hard work.  I'll just have to make a decent effort to get a walk or trip to the gym in...

Just for something to do (other than walking) I might update the blog as the challenge continues (8 weeks of it planned).

Damn car!

On Tuesday night my car decided to blow a radiator hose on the way home.  It must have gone not far from home as the temperature gauge didn't hit the redline and I didn't cook the old girl.

I ordered the replacement hose the next day but due to the dealer stuffing up the order I didn't get the hose until Saturday.  This meant that I rode the V-Strom to work and around (and got hosed on on Thursday) for the rest of the week which was fun but there were a couple of times that I could have used the car...

So, on Saturday afternoon I fitted the new hose.  This was the hardest bit as it takes a bit to get them on over the pipe inlet/outlets.  To do it I had to clean the gunk of the fitting and then lube up the inside of the hose with a bit of detergent.  It was still a mission and I ended up with a good few nicks and scrapes on my fingers and knuckles.

Then I topped up the radiator with fresh coolant and let it sit for a bit.  An hour or so later I came back and checked to see if the level had dropped.  It hadn't so I fired the car up and let it run for a few minutes.  While it was running I checked that the thermostat was working by checking that the return hoses got warm.  All good there so I shut her down and let things settle down again.

After another half an hour or so I checked the coolant level again and as it hadn't moved I went for a short drive to the supermarket and back.  The temperature got up to about normal and the car seemed to behave itself so I guess she's all good now.  I still think I'll keep an eye on the coolant for the next week or so.