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January - 300km / 13hrs
February - 452km / 20hrs
March - 341km / 20hrs
April - 269km / 12hrs
May - 201km / 10hrs
June - 437km / 21hrs
July - 71km / 4hrs
August - 518km / 26hrs
September - 455km / 21hrs
Year to date - 3043km / 148hrs
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So my last two months have been my biggest two mileage months for the year so far. Happy with that - now to see if I can make it three big months in a row...
Sand, sun & surf...
One of the highlights of the month for me was a week down at Burleigh Heads for a family holiday. I took the bike down with me, and escaped for a couple of rides while I was there.
On the Wednesday night, I headed over to the Nerang Velodrome for "Road-track training". This is a winter training session they do, using road bikes on the track (doable as the banking at Nerang is very shallow). Basically, its an hour long session of 100 laps, building to a sprint every 10th lap.
Nerang outdoor velodrome
It was one of the toughest sessions I've ever done on a bike!! I was clearly a level or two below most of the other dozen riders there, so I spent a fair bit of time circling on the upper parts of the track trying desperately to recover. I was completely wrecked by the end, but had a fantastic time. If you ever get the chance to participate in something like this, you should totally do it.
I also squeezed in another ride, following the coastline north & south of Burleigh. There are a huge number of bunches riding the coast roads, so I just 'bunch hopped' for the morning. The views along the beach roads are stunning, and its no wonder cycling is such a huge recreational sport on the Gold Coast.
Finishing with a bang...
... but not a good sort of bang!! On the last day of the month, almost home on my cycle-commute, my rear shifting suddenly got very dodgy, very quickly. When I got home, I set the bike up on the stand to investigate, and the rear gear cable promptly snapped. D'oh!!
I generally do all my basic maintenance and repairs myself, teaching myself what I don't know via the vast resources of Google, forums, and YouTube. But its actually been a few years since my bike has been looked over by a genuine professional mechanic, so I decided this was an opportune time to book the bike in for a full service.
My bike is being looked after today at Planet Cycles, getting the full pro "Saturn Service". It basically involves the entire bike being pulled apart, everything cleaned out & regreased, bearings replaced, and then put back together. I'm getting all my cables replaced as well (they're all 4+ years old), and I've already gotten the call from the mechanic saying my headset bearings are in pretty bad shape, so they are getting replaced too.
Its obviously not cheap, but Planet Cycles have a great reputation for their workshop expertise. Given its been around 4 years since a mechanic has touched my bike, and it'll likely be a long time before a mechanic sees it again, I reckon it'll be money well spent...
Hopefully I'll get my bike back after work today. Will be good to give it a spin tomorrow morning and see how it feels.
October plans
Racing! After this weekend, I'm planning to race every weekend for the rest of the month. Depending on how I go, I may even have a crack at the Open criterium race in Toowoomba near the end of the month - the Be Better Psychology Open on the 27th October.
So that's it from me for now - time to shave the legs, pin a number on, and see if the last couple of months of consistent training will pay off on the criterium track...!!
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