Starting to see results

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Steve at U-Turn fitness has been working not only on a cycling program & weights but also keeping an eye on my mental strength/fatigue. "I want you to have a second rest day today dog!" Oh man, that is harder that the most difficult session you have dished out.

As a result of Steve maintaining a holistic approach to my training I had 2 big days on my bike over the weekend & made the comment to him "If I could show up to a race as good as what I felt last weekend & ride as well as I did I would be really, really happy!"

I am starting to learn a little more patience. Especially when I am able to see the benefits. Thanks Steve. I am looking forward to getting my arms & legs ripped from my body again next year when our weighs sessions continue.


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Full Steam Ahead...XPD is back on track

After many back & forth emails with, at the time a potential 4th team member, we managed to convince Kreig we were decent group of 3 & talked him into joining our team.

Kreig's current career allowed him enough excuses to become unhealthy & overweight. A few changes, a 1/2 marathon, then a full marathon, now ultra marathons... I have seen these crazy, obsessed ultra marathon runners on the long, undulating fire trails in the Brisbane forest park. They are about 55kg with a back pack on & never stop! He will do just fine on our team.

Welcome to Team 145 L-Attitude Kreig.


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XPD May 2010 Queenland. Anyone?

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My next big adventure is to head to Cairns in Far North Queensland in May 2010. Team of 4 is required. It started out as 3. I signed up making 4. We have since lost one for personal & injury reasons. Post a comment under this title or email me mattpowell72(at)bigpond(dot)com

It doesn't matter where in the world you are, just so long as you can get to Cairns for 10 days or so in May.

Here is a little about our last (my first) adventure race



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When the going gets tough...

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It is awesome to have a champion by my side

Alcoa Dust to Yawn, done & dusted.

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Dust to Yawn is just how it was. A 6pm start. It was still too warm to ride off with anything more than a jersey. Oh, I did have nix on too. After a few hours it had cooled so I had to put my magical, long sleeve Icebreaker top on.



The laps were about 17kms long. After 10kms we came past the transition area then headed out for the other 7km loop. I was getting them done in about an hour. Shortly into the second lap I heard a loud, vibrating noise when I went to use my front brakes. It's ok, I have only lost one of my brake caliper bolts. The second one was loose to. The only reason I can think this happened is because I didn't tighten them when I put the bike together after the plane trip. No bike shop mechanic to get grumpy at & blame only myself.

I took the second one out, wrapped the caliper around the other hose line & did the next 15kms with only a back brake. This was a really good thing though. I found that when riding on marbles (pea-gravel) front brakes bring you down. As I came through the transition at the 10km mark I asked my dad (support person for the race) to find me one of these please, grabbed a fresh biddon, mouthful of fruit cake then continued on. The 'old-fella' found one. It took me a few minutes to fit & adjust.

My dad commented that one of my lap times was not as consistent. I said "that was probably the one when I head slammed & tree & sat down for a couple of minutes to make sure I was ok. oops, sorry tree.

I was in 2nd place for a short while. On about lap 14 or 15 3rd place caught me. I stuck on his wheel & had a casual chat. He then must have realised it was a 2nd/3rd thing. The pace picked up. I wheel sucked. It got a little faster, I wheel sucked. He then backed off a little, so I attacked. Along came a short climb, so I attacked it hard. I hope he pops soon because I am about to. I then see his lights getting a little further back. When the trail flattened out he caught me again. He was certainly stronger & faster than me on the night. 7kms of attacking each other was AWESOME x 10!

I have made some improvements to my race nutrition & didn't get an upset stomach all night! Now that is a first in a long time. This is one of the major benefits of using Infinit Nutrition I can adjust it to suit.

What is it like to single speed for 12 hours? I loved it. All you do is pedal. If a hill comes along pedal stronger, if it's flat just spin it out a little, if you're going down, stop pedaling & enjoy the ride. The hardtail hurt my feet this race. Other than that & my poor choice of rubber the bike was the perfect assault weapon.

On 3 separate occasions I started working on excuses to quit. This always happens for me at least once. My body wants to stop the hurt & go to bed.

In this interview Jens Voigt says "Sometimes you can hear like your body start talking to you. It says, I can't do it anymore I can't do it anymore! Your mind then goes Shut up body & do as I tell you!!!"

I will track down some more photos & update this post when I do.

Time to visit U-Turn Fitness for a session & get back on track with training.


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Alcoa 12 hour Dusk to Dawn done!

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Quick one. The track was out to smash me. Little round gravel the size & shape of peas. It was like riding on marbles. I set the single speed up with a 32 x 18. for a couple of hours last night I was in 2nd.

I ended up with 3rd in open mens with about 187 kms. I also won the highest ranked single speeder for the race too :-)

Race report to follow once I get back to Brisbane.

Until next time, smooth flowing lines!

Dog


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Dusk to Dawn Perth, Western Australia

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Road Trip. Only this time I am flying & by myself. As I have said previously road trips with good people... I just hope I like myself?

Here is the event link Long way to travel for a 12 hour bike race? Maybe. From what I have heard of the trails & the organising of Simon I am confident it is not too far to travel.

Race mantra: along with the "Smooth flowing lines dog!" especially as I will be on the single speed this race, I haven't worked it out. I do know that I have hours on a plane today so plug in the ipod & the appropriate one will come to me.

What is my race mantra? My very first one for the Merida 24 hour earlier this year was "No Excuses!" I have found that my mind wanders & can often go into dangerous territory. Thoughts that don't do anything to keep the mind motivated to smashing out more kms. When my legs hurt, "No excuses", when I started hallucinating, "no excuese"... you get the picture. I just keep on saying it & the mind then gives up resisting & allows the rest of me to ride!

Until next time "Om Namah Shivaya"


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Dog Pie Recipe

Dog Pie

Take 1 dog, roll and ride with it until smashed,

and add the following ingredients:

1 bicycle

1 cup patience

1 cup understanding

2 cups of good coffee

1 pinch correction

1 cup hard work

(1/2) 12 x cups pain

a pinch of praise

Heaps of fun

Blend well. Heat with the warmth of friends until the
consistency is such that dog and his friends are one.

Ay Up End of Year World Wide Sale

10% off the entire range of kits for any customer, anywhere in the world!

<<<<<<========== Banner Link ===============

U Turn Fitness (Steve)

I will keep this one short. Steve at U Turn Fitness is the man behind the scenes for my training leading up to some big races in 2010. Including XPD 10 day adventure race. Grafton to Inverell 228km road race. 2010 World 24 hour championships at Stromlo.

Cycling, Nutrition, Weights, Strength & my least favourite, REST.

There is room for more racing too. Isn't there Steve? Please?!?

I will say this, Steve is a professional in every aspect of his approach to smashing me for the next 11 months.

<<<<<================ Check out his website
<<<<<================

100 Mile Fling has been flung

Well, Huw & his crew again put on a world class mountain bike race!




Early Friday morning I drove to pick up Rhino, Marnie & my new best mate Herbie.


850kms later we stopped for food, sleep, shower & put the bikes to bed. They have a big weekend ahead.



Saturday morning we drove the last 300kms arriving at Bundanoon. This town is about 1 1/2 hours south of Sydney. It is a beautiful town know as "Australia's first bottled water free town" Find out more about that www.bundyontap.com.au

We did the registration thing. We did the Ay Up, sell some lighting systems with a race day special thing. We ate, got most of our race stuff ready then racked out for the evening.

Sunday morning saw a perfect day for a roll around the forest. So here is a race report.

1. Lined up at the front with Rhino. The two Ay Up jerseys looked great.


2. Race is on. 30kms to the first check point & the start of Wingello State forest loop.
As I climbed a slow pinch, Mark Fenner (finished 2nd in the 100mile) climbed passed me. "Hey Mark you have a stick stuck in your derailleur". So I jumped off my bike, jogged beside him, pulled the stick out, gave him a little shove up the hill & jumped back on my bike.

"Hey Rhino, I feel nauseaus" Rhino's reply "Me too! I have already vomited once"

3. 54kms loop of awesome trails in the Wingello State forest. This is when my vomiting started. Quickly turning into dry retching because there wasn't anything left in my guts.

Hey! is that Troy Glennan Rockstar Racing tough guy wheel sucking off me? Sure is!!! Only the 100 mile dudes started 30 minutes before him hehehe... just don't tell anyone. shhhhh...



4. How cool is this, we get to do another awesome 54km loop of the forest! I had the best part of the forest to myself because the 100km riders had left the forest (most of them)

5. There's Rhino at the last check point. "Hey dog! do you want to do the last 25kms together?" dog "fuck yeah!"

6. The last 25 kms Rhino & I hooted up, down, around corners, laughing, hooting & dry retching all the way home. I managed to reel & overtake two more 100 mile riders.

7. Job's done. Australia's only 100mile mtb race. Tick that box. Home in 8 1/2 hours & 9th place.

Craig Gordon took out first place for the second year in a row. ROCKSTAR!



I love road trips. Road trips with good people are simply as awesome as a well executed 'jaman attack'

Road Trip! Highland Fling 100 mile xc race

Tomorrow Rhino & I are driving for 14 hours South of Brisbane to Bundanoon. Race 162kms. Then drive home. Thank you in advance to Marnie for feeding us.

Road Trip!

Some photos from 2 years ago.

What the Hell's Hells Bells?

Hells Bells is a 24 hour adventure race organised & run by Geocentrics Outdoor Adventures






The race saw a little walking/jogging, mountain biking, ropes course, abseiling, canyoning/swimming, no sleep & a huge amount of fun.






This was a great 'shake-out' for 3 out of the 4 team members we have for XPD. A 10 day adventure race up in far north Queensland in May 2010

Oh, the person on the left, above is our team captain. That is the look she gives us when we are not paddling hard enough. "Paddle Dog or I'll smash you next time we go for a mountain bike ride!!!"




Once we had reached race HQ, had 2 x egg & bacon rolls, 2 x coffees I was unable to keep my eyes open. Aaaahhhh, that cool, hard, concrete slab right under my feet where I am sitting looks like a great place to sleee....zzzzz

Scott24 hour, jobs done (photos now added)

Final position. 13th in the open mens. With 18 laps (about 325kms) I did enough laps to secure a position in the world champs next year to be held on the same course.

Spending the Friday night with TR & Rach was a lot of fun. Those guys area a great reality check.

Race Start: 50 mins for my first lap. Smooth, not too fast however not sustainable. I then settled into a more sustainable pace ;-)


After my first lap it was clear the service & seal replacement on my forks didn't fix the leaking problem. They stopped leaking before the sun went down. I would suggest because they ran out of oil. Oh, well. At least I have my eye sight.

At about 6pm I got a small stick that flicked in behind my glasses. The vision in my left eye became instantly blurry. As the night laps went on my left eye vision was fully a blur & I was unable to see out of it. So at 2am I went to the emergency tent, they sent me to the hospital, the wait at the hospital was 6-8 hours! WTF is that about?! I made a self assessment, went back to the race emergency tent, got them to put on a sealed up eye patch so no dust or crap could get in & make it worse. All the while this was happening I was fuelling up!!! 2 1/2 hours later I was back on my bike.

I went out for a night lap with one eye & it was fucked! I finished it but decided I would more than likely axe myself. So I sat back for 20 minutes & waited for the sun to come up enough. I went out & smashed out some more consistent laps. Jason English with 23. Matt_dog with 18!

It was going to be the last lap that TR yelled at me on some of the fastest & most fun part of the trail. "Keep riding dog, there are more hills!!!" I was so cranked up & hungry to eat some more climbingdidn't stop at the transition before heading out for another lap just before the course closed. I simply turfed my empty biddon, my awesome girl saw what was going on & just held out a full one for a hot swap.

When Jason English first lapped me sometime before midnight he gave me some kind words of encouragement (bloody nice guy!) I then told him "Hey Jason, I have been sitting back resting & I am going to put in my attack on you soon!" A little cheeky but a lot of fun when tired. I am sure he had a little laugh too.

Man, that guy rides so smooth. I guess that's how you become the worlds best!

So when you ask “what am I doing in October 2010?” I am going to line up for the world championships! Yeee haaaa….. So get back on your bike so you can smash me up those hills!


Lessons learnt.

My Scott Scale 20 hardtail is a beautiful bike. I now must get a full suspension bike. My legs & head were still strong, my back, neck & shoulders were smashed!

Tubless tires with UST specific rubber are an absolute must for this course. I have never seen so many people sitting on the side of the track changing flats! There were so many, it looked like a hill top crowd on Le Tour!

Pizza is fucking awesome race food!

GU gels are shit in cold weather. They are so thick. Shotz were awesome gels in the cold.

Merino under shirts are awesome! My 2XU jacket saved my race. Easy to zip down when climbing & zip up on the freezing cold descents.

There is always room for one more lap.


A spare bike/100% redundancy is a great idea!

All the stuff I have just typed above is not nearly as important to me as this next bit. My partner, Kirstie, was an awesome pit chick. We both had an awesome road trip & established a new level of mutual trust in our relationship.

Road Trip!

http://www.scott24hr.com.au

I love road trips. One with a bike race in it is even more awesome.