North Range Road

Well I've just completed my first wee bike ride of 2016 - a short little 11km route that didn't take me to far from home - so I thought I'd better do a quick write-up about a great ride Mark and I did just before Xmas.

North Range Road has always been a favourite ride of ours and while we've both motorcycle it the full length, we've never done the same on the mountain bikes as you either need to get dropped off or have a vehicle at each end - unless you're a lot fitter than us anyway...

Lucky for us, Shelley was able to drop us at the top of the hill and then pick us up again once we'd finished so finally we were able to tackle the full distance of just under 25km.

From the top of the Pahiatua track it's a steady but not too steep climb of about 3km until you get to the first downhill.  There's some great views to be had pretty much for the entire ride so a few photo stops are generally worth it - and it's nice to get a wee breather now and again eh?

Next up for us was 2 short downhills split by of course a short uphill.  These downhills are on pretty smooth dirt but the track is full of humps, hollows, dips and massive puddles that you could drown in.  They're great fun and the downhills in particular are way too short...

Start of the first downhill to the right.

After the 2nd downhill the track levels out a bit but still stays fairly uneven in places and there is still plenty of puddles to either avoid or splash through depending on your preference.  Really nice, easy and fun riding.

Once through this section you get to an area where there is a small farm dam.  It is here that we used to normally turn back (about 10-11km in) and the boggy conditions used to carry on for a few more km but with the installation of the wind farm the road is now a nice wide gravel highway from here on.  A bit further on up the road from here we stopped for elevensees and some more pics.

More good gravel followed along with a few short downhills and some uphill work which was starting to get a bit harder for me - my uphill legs need to get their act together a bit more...

Finally we got to the top of Hall Block Road and the start of a fantastic 5km descent down into Ballance.

Yep we're heading down there!

  

There's not a lot to say about the descent except that it is awesome!  We hammered it down there hitting speeds over 40km/h and hanging it out a bit on the odd corner.  There was only one small uphill to ruin the fun but the rest was truly awesome!

We ended up back at the car after just over 2 hours (a lot less than Goggle reckons) including all our stops, covered in mud, hungry but happy.  A truly awesome ride!

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.