Fatbike On The Fly

I was hoping today would become a "long ride day" because I hadn't been keeping a good schedule and had just 2 days to make up 123km.  It was also going to be exciting because there was a mail package with clipless pedals and riding shoes waiting for me at the post office.  Keen to get underway I arrived at my regular kick off point at 8am which was to early for the post office. So,  I just rode an 18km loop to full in time.  The loop would take us past the PO. Ok,  underway and I was feeling good with just a little tenderness in my right wrist.  I trusted that this would fade as I warmed up.  The weather was pretty ideal,  calm but with rain clouds mustering.  They held of for most of the ride and actually produced perfect riding conditions.  Huh! With a long day planned my main aim was to pace myself, or hold myself back. The first 10km  flew by and I was again happy that I'd returned to riding my Jamis Coda Sport instead of my Ko...

 When I saw the Penguin bag advertised as packing down to 9cm around by 17cm long,  I got interested.  At this size it would go alongside my sleep pad and hammock easily in my new handlebar bag.  Something was irritating me about the size claim,  so I wrote to the company and asked directly,  "" you claim the Penguin sleeping bag compresses to 9 x 17cm, is that correct?". 'Jelly' writes "yes that's right"  so I tho ahead with the purchase.   My new "compact" Penguin arrived today.  The coffee jar is 9cm x 17cm   Oops!

 Today was a  designated long ride day. That's when I set out to do as many k's as i can reasonably comfortably do. I can estimate the distance based on recent long rides,  how I'm  feeling and the weather. Seeing as though I am always feeling great on these days and being lucky to be home before a stiff wind stirred up the afternoon,  I was aiming for 50 plus, k's.     Each week of the September Challenge 500k, I also do two shorter "recovery" rides.  At the start of the month  I would do  20km  something kilometres on the long rides and nearly the same on the shorter days.  But  just a couple of weeks on my distances have increased and continue to do so as my fitness skyrockets. I see posts on  social media of people boasting massive weight losses and feelings of pride,  wonderment and joy.  It'sthron by days end I'd had very sad news that this is not always true.    The route for each day i...

 As every day flies by I get ever more keen too go bikepacking. Last Friday a Soul seat post bag arrived.  Soi far it looks solid and well made,  how it works in the wild is yet to be determined.  My hope is that it will hold kitchen, clothes and personal care luggage.  The Soul handle bar bag will be deployed to hold camp  gear, hammock,  pad and sleeping bag. I will use a small pack for food.  We should then be ready for  overnighter trials.  That is some interesting guides on bikepacker.com that are much mindset to the novice cyclist.   A "Motivated Bikepacker" should be cycling between 7 and 10 miles an hour on all surfaces,  with daily total of about 120k for pavement and 100k for serious off-road.  These are distances I should be aiming for,  not those I read about for road or ultra race cycling that hit between 2-300k a day. The goals for Novice Bikepacker were even more modest,  20 to 60k a day....

  Whoa! Today's ride was my most difficult hit out by far. I cannot  believe those hills, even though  I have driven the route almost every week for the years or so. There were hills of every variety; long low,  long steep, long hard followed by a pinch near the top.  A one point,  south of Lostock Dam I was in granny gear and still needed to zig  zag to make headway.  Phew! Now the downhills were  really something. I see to speed on Strava was 54kph, my fastest yet and I was probably at Terminal Speed for some time.  Even then there was some stress with worry about mechanical failure that may have sent me skidding down the road.  But it all worked out and I almost made it to work before I got picked up by my daughter (3k  short of my destination).  As much as the hills were difficult to negotiate,  they were also the most majestic aspect of the ride. The traffic was very light, road quality was gravel or poor quality...

 Yesterday my Soul B brand handle bar bag arrived at Paterson post  office. without delay,  I collected it,  took it home etc. This morning I fitted is up to Cliffy and was moderately impressed.  The construction looked quite fine.  Attachment to the bars and headstock was by Velcro straps.  Once in position though there shouldn't be a great need to remove and replace the forcing section of the bag.  The other pasty,  a long slender dry bag clips into position with 2 pairs of clip together straps.  All good as far as front wheelclearance goes,  and the cables are only lightly affected.  My soul issue is with the size of the dry bag,  I'm guessing it's is about 140mm in  diameter,  which is fairly skinny.  Length is about 400 to 500mm.  I was hoping to store all my sleeping gear in there; air mattress,  hammock and sleeping bag.  The elephant in the room? My current sleeping bag which rolls up ...

 First, an update.  Last Saturday I rode a recovery loop to Paterson and added 18k. My total for my 500k September Challenge is 177km. Sunday was a "rest" day on which I did some fencing at home.  Monday I worked,  bought horse feed and groceries around a lot of driving.  And today it's pissing rain, but it is supposed to ease later and I need to be off to add some k's. It seems that everyday I speak up motivational thoughts from Facebook posts or from podcasts (mostly Adventure Cycling with Chris Penasky ). Just now I heard an interview with long term ultra cyclist and runner Chris Bennett.  Wow! He makes this caper so accessible to people,  non airs and graces,  no bombing people's ambitions, just full on Go For It attitude.  This statement,  lifted from the Buddhist Wisdom page,  encourages the novice cycle tourer to go within for motivation and truth.  To street clear of any notion of trying to please others rather than you...

 Woohoo. Well yoohoo for me. I know I aint no Lael Wilcox,  but its my longest single ride  so fast. The main reasons I'm so happy is this number is in the ballpark for daily bikepacking and I feel like I could back it up tomorrow. Not another 50 odd km's, but something.   According to what I read on FB about training for cycling long distances,  I need to do one longish ride followed by a recovery ride say 5-10km, a moderate ride and another recovery,  each week.  This week's total was ambitiously set at 100km, and I've got it in the bag.  The totals will be extended slightly each week for the month of my challenge to make up 500.  So,  obviously today was always going to be the longest ride ever.  I just didn't have any confidence that I could crack the 50 mark. Another issue is finding a route of about the sought distance.  Initially I only had two roads in mind to start with and I  had a figure of eight,  but...

 Wow! Went to the pharmacy to have my first Jab and then to the Common for a bit of spinning.  I have been doing a lot off riding on my Coda touring bike out late,  so the chance to be back on Cliffy the Fatbike was much anticipated.  I was totally impressed with what the Dungog MTB Club have done with the trails.  I rode the Flow Trail and even cycling up hill was enjoyable because the track weaved up contour with many groovy switchbacks. There were many boulders about to keep you alert and it was mostly up or down the whole time.   It was such fun,  that when I finished I was quite surprised that I had added over 10km to my tally.  So previously a running tally of  95km, now it's up to 107.69km, on day 7 of the challenge. 

 Today i bagged 37km in 2.5hrs for a total distance of 95km. That leaves 405km to go and barring any problems,  I'm going to ramp up my mileages for the next three and a bit weeks.  For sure I am feeling fatigued,  but after food, sleep and a stretch I am ready to go again. Morpeth,  the turning point.  .    Lucky it was only a baby dinosaur.   Some gravel at Duns Creek, trying to get some miles up. 

  This week has seen the beginning of a breakthrough in my riding.  Previously, I've ridden may be 50km over two days on the Central West Bike Trail over two days,  and I once rode a loop to Morpeth total ,about 50km. But honestly,  they were numbers based on generous map reading. The Elephant in the Room  was that I was only riding about 30km a week. I wanted to do better,  or so I, keep telling myself.  But the reality is that in cycling "the numbers don't lie". Meanwhile I was reading about cycle touring and recently iscovered bikepacking podcasts Wasatch were super motivating .  I knew that it I was serious about doing longer trips I had to start upping my weekly  numbers. But,  being 60 years of age,  I also knew I needed to build up steadily and  take time too rest and recover in between.  There'd be no use going out and doing a big number then pulling up with an injury.  I wanted to harden myself up without bre...

  Well, I could dream about  "doing something on a bike" with all the fantastic intentions in the world,  but that won't get the goal achieved.  To achieve any goal the actor needs to take measurable steps towards a firm destination. So here I will nominate a firm destination. It doesn't have to be my ultimate destination, just a desirable goal that will keep me motivated.  Once I reach this goal,  I can reset and add-on for something bigger and brighter.   So,  my goal is to ride The Tasmanian Trail.  That means I need:- . about 2 weeks of free time . solid camping experiences . fitness So, to meet intermediate needs I have to undertake some bikepacking adventures of about a week's duration.   A week long ride would look  the Central West Cycle Trail. To get to this level I need to do  few 1 or 2 nighters.  The last need, having 2 weeks time, is not that difficult to arrange around my work especially the quieter...