Tuesday 5 May 2015

(s)Training in the Wind and Rain

Preamble

Hobart is a windy place. It's a fact of life and, if one is a cyclist in this part of the world, something you've just got to take as part of the package. That package of course includes some incredibly beautiful and varied cycling terrain.

During the summer, our next-door neighbours Sam and Leonie had their son Evan, his wife Véronique and their baby Romy home for a visit. They are from Montréal, where Evan met Véro and has lived now for about 15 years. A keen cyclist, Evan loves getting home when he can and says that Tasmania in general and Hobart specifically has the best road cycling of anywhere he's been. Now I'm not saying that our cycling is better than some of the wonderful places around the world where you can ride a bike, but that gives you a bit of an idea of the calibre of terrain we have at our disposal.

Today

Seeking shelter from the storm
The forecast for today was a bit ordinary ...

There will be wind and rain ...

... but, because we didn't ride yesterday we really felt like we needed to get out today to spin the pedals around and keep our training regime on schedule.

Most of our recent rides have involved a certain amount of plugging away into a headwind. After we got up and had breakfast and looked outside and at the BOM site it was apparent that the wind had arrived a bit earlier than predicted. Di wasn't that keen to do the same old thing again this morning - with rain thrown into the mix for good measure - so she came up with a proposal to cheat the weather gods. 

Because the forecast was for strong nor'westerly winds with a bit of rain, Di's plan was to cycle south 60 kilometres or so to Geeveston with the wind at our backs, have lunch and catch the bus home. That sounded like a good plan. It didn't look like it would be that cold, which fitted with the winds coming from the northwest, so we dressed warmly - but not in our mid-winter gear - and tucked our lightweight rain jackets in our pockets.

Off we set in the sunshine just after 10 o'clock, thinking we might actually be a bit overdressed. Maybe the worst of the weather had already passed through? No such luck. As we started to climb up towards Ferntree the rain started to fall hard enough for us to decide to stop and don our jackets. At first it was just rain. Not that big of a deal. But then the wind really started to roar. With the rain now pelting down and the wind buffeting us, I said to Di that if the conditions persisted maybe we ought just go to Neika and turn around.

Here's  what the conditions were like in Hobart this morning while we were out, with actual and apparent temperature, wind and rain highlighted ...


... and this was what it was like on top of Mt Wellington ...


Fern Tree is at about 450 metres above sea level, with Neika at about 500 m asl, so the weather we experienced would have been somewhere in between Hobart and the top of the mountain. All I know is that we were pretty darn cold and wet when we arrived at Neika and decided that yes, we would turn around. Normally it's just wonderful heading out of town and up through South Hobart, into the forest and over the shoulder of the mountain and then further south towards Kinston and on into the Huon Valley. Not so today. As you might imagine, we were very happy to turn around and head back to Ginger Brown for a couple of hot drinks and an early lunch.

Warmed up from our repast we were relaxing before heading back out into the maelstrom when the lass serving us notice that there was a big puddle of water under our chairs and spreading out into the aisle so she put up the wet floor warning sign ...



... which made us think that maybe this was a good time to leave.

Anyway, this image from  Google Earth will give you an idea of the terrain we covered today ...

Home to Neika
The cross-section shows the dip into town from our place, and then the steady climb up to our turnaround point.

Strickland Avenue up through Cascades and Fern Tree and on to where it joins Huon Road was literally covered with leaves and limbs and sheets of bark that had been torn off the gum trees.  The wind - which sounded like a freight train at times - absolutely funnels through that area and water was streaming across the road. We came back the same way we went up but descended much more sedately than normal due the gustiness of the wind and the debris on the road. At 30 kilometres for the return journey it was much shorter than what we'd had in mind but bailing seemed the only sensible thing to do.

It may sound surprising, but I am actually really pleased that we got out today. This was first hill of any significance that I've cycled up since my Achilles operation so it was a bit of a landmark. My ankle behaved itself and we got home safely. And we have made a start on the week. The forecast for the next few days isn't very flash, but not as bad as it was today. We will endure!

Last Week

Anyone who's sick of hearing of our cycling endeavours might as well stop reading here. It's all about the bike for the time being as we ready ourselves for our big adventure which starts in just over two months. We have got a lot of work to do between now and then to ensure that a) we are reasonably placed to complete the task we've set ourselves and, b) we enjoy at least some of it!

Last week was a mixture of satisfaction, pain, pleasure, delight and acrimony. Paradoxically, the delight and acrimony occurred on the same day, which was the last day of the week. We decided to ride to Richmond and back via one of our favourite routes. Here's what the journey looks like ...

Richmond Loop

It's out through town via the bike track and then into some lovely countryside - including passing a number of vineyards. The weather was sublime: with no wind for the first time all week ... the sun was shining ... what could go wrong? Well, we had a little miscommunication about which route we were taking from Tea Tree on to Richmond. Di hadn't noticed (or had she chosen not to notice?) that I'd continued past her favourite route to go via the slightly longer version and when she suddenly did become aware she blew up. I was nonplussed that our wonderful day out was being spoiled by well, a temper tantrum. We had words, but managed to continue the ride without either of us committing homicide by multi-tool. Thankfully.

I mentioned earlier that today I did my first significant hill since getting back on the bike. I was encouraged to do so by the fact that I was able to get up Grass Tree Hill without any dramas. You can see it in the little peak in the cross-section in the image above. As hills go, it's a charming little challenge, and one that you can quickly improve on thanks to the short distance and relatively even gradient. Here's a Google image with a cross-section ...

Grass Tree Hill
That ride capped a week when we'd been on the bikes six days out of seven and covered just under 400 kilometres. Not a lot by serious cyclist standards, but more than we've done for a while. And much of it involved punching at least one way into reasonably strong headwinds. We took the bikes up the east coast and did three rides and it just happened to be very windy along the coast - as it often is, actually. But the terrain makes it worth the effort. Out on the open road, past beaches and vineyards, seeing Wedge-tailed Eagles and waterfowl, through woodland and past sheep paddocks ... just a great mix of visual delights. 

Here's an image showing where we have been riding over the past week ...

We Ride; We Rock!
By the next post we might have taken the bikes further afield if the weather is kind. But right now , as I sit here in the late afternoon I am pleased to have shelter from the storm with the wind roaring and rain lashing the landscape. Apparently the weather hasn't passed through quite as quickly as the experts predicted.