Disappointments and dreams.

It has been an eventful month, but not in the way I would have liked – on my bike.

The first couple of weeks, I was trying to slowly build up my strength and distance after my knee operation, and it was going well. Then the winter frosts began. It would be a gross understatement to say it was too cold to go for a long ride starting in the morning, so our rides were only afternoon rides getting back before the dew froze in the early evening. The days are lovely, but the short rides frustrated me, it was only to get worse. It’s no wonder I like to go away cycle touring in the Northern Hemisphere in our winter.

 I had to go to Christchurch for my post - operative appointment – that was two days out of my days off written off, but I found out some interesting news – that I have been trying to walk around for two years with a fracture (and other injuries) in my knee – not just a cartilage tear. That explains why I have had trouble walking and standing, but could ride my bike without any problems.

I thought I could make up the lost exercise the next week. Little did I realise that plan would go up in smoke by having an encounter with a Pig.

After encountering a pig on the road in the dark.

I was riding home from work in temperatures hovering around zero. It was pitch dark. Now this is in the country-side, there is no overhead lighting, when it is dark – it is very dark, there wasn’t even a moon. My bike light admittedly was pointing on to the road in front of my bike wheel instead of up ahead, as my battery was running low, and I could see better that way; when this shape appeared about 1 ½ meters in front of my wheel, my brain registered that it was a full grown pig standing in the middle of the road ½ a second before I slammed into it.

I was lying on the ground in incredible pain in the pitch dark as my light was now shining into the heavens, and I wondered if the pig was hurt. I didn’t know where it was, was it still beside me? Had it run away when I hit it? Had it rolled onto the grass road edge angry and ready to bite me? I had no idea.

As soon as the pain became bearable I tried to push the bike off of me – it took several goes as everything hurt. Then I had to stand up – very difficult as both arms where in severe pain and one knee felt like it was grazed and the other knee had only had an operation not long ago. My left ankle hurt like hell and my right shoe was falling apart as it had scraped along the road.

As I was walking my bike home, I realized that another week of exercise had just been written off.

After a trip to Accident and Emergency the next morning, I had a broken finger on my left hand, and a graze with a hole down to the bone on my right elbow, bruises galore on my left leg and a graze on my right knee. I asked Niel in desperation if he would get the tandem  out of the garage, check it over and go for a ride with me (on the back) – I could turn my legs without having to use my arms.

Our tandem is quite old (1980’s) and we don’t use it very much. Back in the 80’s tandems were all the same geometry, with the assumption that the man in front was bigger than the girl behind. I am bigger than Niel, so he has his saddle virtually sitting on the frame and mine is on its highest setting possible. He wrestles with the front and I feel cramped on the back.

The other reason we don’t use it very often, is that our cycling  styles are so different. He likes to ride off the saddle a lot, I don’t at all. He likes to push big gears and I like to spin smaller gears. He rides in the crap on the extreme left and I like to ride on or beside the white line on the side of the road. The person on the back is stuck in the leg speed and way of riding of the person in front, and I cannot stop pedaling to relieve the pressure on my backside.

We have worked out that he can lift his butt off the saddle while I stay seated, and I have to yell out when I want to stop peddling to relieve my rear end. It is amazing how fast we go up hill with him in control, and the double leg power is quite a buzz.

So while my elbow was recovering, and in between days of persistant rain (which makes a change from the frosts), we went tandeming.

I am better now and riding my own bike again, catching up on kilometers. Actually we are seriously reconsidering our intentions for next year, instead of the Paris / Brest /  Paris, we are now keen to do the Trans Am or the unsupported race across America, no help or support is allowed, everything you need you carry with you, as oppossed to the Race Across America where everything possible is done for you - all you do is ride nonstop.

Niel on the west bank and I am on the east side of the Motueka river on a frosty winters day. 

Autumn washed out.

It rained and rained and rained

 – The average fall was well maintained,

 And when the tracks were simply bogs-

 It started to rain cats and dogs.

 After a drought of half an hour,

We had a most refreshing shower.

And then the most curious thing of all,

A gentle rain began to fall.

Next day also was fairly dry,

Save for a deluge from the sky,

Which wetted the party to the skin.

And after that-

The rain set in.

One of the streams feeding into the Motueka River.

Autumn was washed away in continuous rain that caused flooding in certain areas. I was going insane with the weather and being house bound, so I had to get out even in the heavy rain. Niel was not going to be shown up by his wife and he joined me. The streams were raging torrents cutting of houses and even taking out bridges. The apple orchards had their ripe fruit stripped off the trees and the apples had floated away to be caught into puddles of apples. The main Motueka River where all the streams feed into, was a brown raging force with whole trees floating down stream and all the paddocks beside the river under water. I had never seen the Motueka River like this before and it was very intimidating. At one point I saw a goat tethered to a kennel. This kennel was half in the water and if it started to float away it would take the goat with it. The goat was standing with its chain at its most stretched, and it was looking at the raging river and looked very frightened. I had to do something, so I went to the nearest house to tell them about the goat; it was only a matter of minutes before that kennel would be taken by the river and therefore the goat, as the streams entering the river were making it rise by the minute.  Fancy tethering a goat next to the river for 2 weeks of torrential rain and then forgetting about it! I left the householder to contact the owner and for something to be done about the goat.

Soaked to the skin and warming up with a coffee at Ngatimoti Hall.

While I was getting something done about the goat, Niel had gone across a bridge to the other side of the river - as he likes it better on that side. He was up to his thighs wading through flooded roads when his attempt to cycle through it came to a stop. He was enjoying himself and acting like a school boy, and was buzzing when he met me in the shelter of a hall porch for a hot drink and a chocolate bar. It hadn’t stopped raining, in fact the rain got heavier still and quite cold to boot. It continued to rain for a few more days until the sun made a begrudging appearance.

One bandaged knee on the Nelson cycle trails.

Now at this point in time I was about to go into hospital to  finally get the cartilage tear in my knee repaired, so I wanted to do one more big ride before that happened as I knew it would take a month or two to get back to doing long rides  again.

It is no longer autumn – we are officially in winter now. The days are getting shorter and shorter, although not particularly cold; so long rides have been reduced from 200kms to 150kms. So off we went 5 days after our last ride on a rare fine day. We retraced some of our ride from last week and I checked to see that the goat had been moved – yes it was now in a paddock away from the river, and we checked out the flooded areas. The roads were covered in mud in some places, and there was debris at head height on the fences about 10meters above the present river height. There were whole trees lying on patches of river bed, and massive piles of debris around the pylons of the bridges.  The tide surge that had left drift wood and beach stones all over the coastal part of the road, had been bulldozed to the side, and there was generally enough of a mess to need two weeks of fine weather to clean up.

After effects of fall this rain - mushrooms everywhere.

Apples lodged in fences at head height after  the flood.

I have now had my operation, and am quickly getting back to my old self. After 48 hours I was on my bike again, 72hours after my operation I was riding 50kms around the cycle trails, and 4 days later, I was pulling my trailer to the supermarket to do the weekly grocery shopping. On day 5 I was back at work and within 30 seconds of starting, the workplace bully had already denied me the use of the stool to sit on as she – get this – had a sore knee and wanted to sit on it!

Day off today and guess what? It is raining again and there is already surface flooding. Weather like this makes you ponder future cycle tours and gets my head spinning on where and when to go. We are already considering our options for a short late winter cycle- tour to kick start us for spring, and the Qualifiers we want to do then for the Paris / Brest / Paris next year.

Option 1: The length of Australia. It gives us the long distance per day that we are after. Australia is cheap to get to, but has very expensive accommodation.

Option 2: Bangkok (Thailand) to Singapore. It is bound to be wet as it is the tropics, and not so easy to do long distances, but it finishes South East Asia – which was literally stolen from us, with the theft of my bike and all my stuff when we were last endeavoring to ride from Hanoi (Vietnam) to Singapore in 2012. (I will never ever forgive that thief). It is darer to fly there than Australia, but accommodation is vastly cheaper.

Meanwhile I am still fighting the Accident Compensation Commission for the cost of my surgery. I might be fighting a losing battle, but I’m not giving up. They must be the most hated Government Department in New Zealand.  

A Perfect Day.

I’ve just completed my second official Randonneurs event, actually I didn’t just do it, I also hosted it, and it was one of those perfect days when everything went right.

Gethyn on the right, like a tethered race horse eager to get going.

It was a 200km ride and I am now finding that distance easy, I need to do a 300km event now. The ride had a section of steep hills, a section of riding down valleys, a section of riding along the coast, often right next to the beach, and a section of fun cycle tracks. We left at sunrise and finished at sunset, as we have now passed daylight savings, and the days are getting shorter. The weather was perfect – fine, warm and not a breath of wind the whole day. We all rode at the same speed – no one got left behind, although our friend and neighbor – Gethyn, was so strong he went off ahead and finished two hours faster in an awesome time of 8 hours 45mins. So a great day was had by all.

Craig, Niel and I at our Kohatu stop.

The café at Kohatu was an oasis in the ‘middle of nowhere’. We had a pleasant stop in the sunshine there, where Craig got a belated breakfast. The hills and farms are very dry and brown from the lack of rain, but it was still a very scenic route. Our second stop was at Riwaka, and we had a third stop at Ruby Bay beach reserve. The Great  Taste Trail from Rabbit Island and along the edge of the Waimea Inlet to Richmond and back to the start / finish at Brightwater was a lot of fun, and you almost feel like a kid on a BMX bike.

So anyone out there, who would like to do a scenic and fun all day ride – look me up.

Niel, myself and Craig at the lovely Ruby Bay beach reserve.

Niel is doing a 600km ride the week after next, so while he is away doing that, I will do a ride of at least 250km. That will be my last big ride for a while as I have surgery at the end of the month on my knee, and then it will be winter. But I already have training plans for the end of winter and spring.

Vindicated

“They are all idiots” said my surgeon. I was explaining about how much flack I get about riding my bike long distance, but have trouble standing and walking. “Riding your bike is the best thing you can do” he said.

ACC have declined my claim again for the fourth time, because – get this – I am too active (amongst other reasons). Doesn’t that strike you as contradictory that they reckon I have degeneration, but am also too active!!

I’ve had enough; I’m getting this cartilage tear fixed if I have to find the money myself. So in a month’s time, 20 months after the accident that caused it, I’ll finally have normal knees again.

Sunrise on the hills on leaving Hanmer Springs.

It hasn’t stopped me however. I rode home from seeing the doctor in Christchurch, a mere 535kms in 3 days. Day one: from my Mothers place south of Christchurch through the city – which was weird as they had rebuilt the place after the earthquake so much, that none of the roads looked familiar, as they had different buildings on them and I thought I must have gone the wrong way. Anyway I got through to the northern towns and on to Hanmer Springs. It was raining and very cold there, and you could even see your breath. I had a cabin booked there at the camp ground and got warm, fed and rested after 160kms. Day two: was an early start as I had a big day ahead of me of constant up and down hills – I counted 30 hills by the end of the day.

Tired and having a rest and food at Maruia Springs restaurant.

 After finally summiting Lewis Pass I was shaky with fatigue and lack of food, so stopped at the very beautiful Maruia Springs restaurant for lunch. I have to admit I was rather saddle sore today, but 8 applications of my best friend – anti chaff – and I was able to keep going to Murchison and a ride of 180kms. Day three: Murchison to home sounds easy enough, but I was sick of the traffic and decided to take the ‘dry weather road’ to Tapawera. It was rough and corrugated on my skinny road tires, but I got through without getting a pinch puncture on the stones. From Tapawera it is a bit further home than if I had stayed on the main road, so after135kms I arrived home tired but very pleased with myself.

Kawatiri Junction - just before the dry weather road.

With that effort, I’m halfway to being fit enough for the Paris / Brest / Paris. I need to be able to 1000kms in 3 days. I still don’t know if I can do that, but then a year ago I wouldn’t have been able to ride 535kms in 3 days.

I can now plan my next year or so of cycling. Riding the length of Australia may be a possibly in late winter to set us up for spring fitness, and the qualifiers for the Paris / Brest / Paris next year.

ACC staff are all idiots, but my doctor and I aren’t and riding my bike is the best thing I can do. So why can’t I get any of my cycling friends to do a 200km ride with me?

Food and a rest - what every long distance rider looks forward to.

I hate ACC.

You know I just wish people would think before they opened their mouths to speak.

Do I sound annoyed? Well yes, you could say that.

It’s been 18 months now since I had a bad accident on my bike in Vietnam. And I have been battling ACC this whole time to accept my claim for a cartilage tear in my knee.  Now for those of you who don’t know what ACC is, it is an entitlement to all New Zealanders to treatment after an accident. Entitlement – not a gift that you have to prove yourself worthy of – an entitlement. ACC insists that my cartilage tear is degeneration. I have a letter from my surgeon saying I have no degeneration, I have photos of the inside of my knee taken after surgery to show it is a ‘perfect’ knee, and I fit into their own description of a sports induced trauma, but do you think that changes their mind? No. I have a lawyer battling them and I’ve had a trial hearing, but I still suffer constant pain while they deliberate and procrastinate.

Now 18 months is a long time for my other knee to take all my weight. Standing at the counter at work for 6 to 8 hours a day on one leg isn’t easy – try it and you will find out. If the frustration of ACC and the pain and discomfort of standing one legged for so long isn’t bad enough, I’ve just had 3 weeks of working, and standing one legged for 5 days a week instead of the usual 2, as a colleague is away. So the consequence of this is that my ‘good knee’ is now so strained and inflamed that is ‘burning’ and I cannot put any weight on it. So I have one knee with a cartilage tear that won’t support me, and the other knee is now so wrecked with pain that it won’t support me either. Now this is where the frustration really lies. I need to sit on a stool at the counter at work, use a walking stick to walk and pop Anti-inflammatories to cope with the pain, BUT I CAN ride my bike – very well in fact. Every doctor and specialist I’ve seen, even the emergency one I saw yesterday, all say “get on your bike”.

Swellings and lumps and bumps all around my knees, and all my weight on one leg, t Rabbit Island beach. 

 

Now this is where I’m going mentally spare. Everyone sees a walking stick and I constantly get smart aleck comments. The one that grates the most is: “You won’t be able to ride your bike”. Then there’s the other stupid ones like: “Where’s your skis”, and “Don’t hit me”. Do they make stupid comments to older people with a walking stick? No they assume something is wrong, why don’t they assume the same with me?  

And yes someone with a  walking stick can ride a bike, can ride a bike really well, even if they can barely walk, what is more it is doctor’s orders to ride a bike. So think before you open your mouth.

And I challenge all of you to stand on one leg for 8 hours 5 days a week.    

How it feels to ride 225km non stop.

I know a lot of people can’t understand or relate to long distance cycling. I don’t blame them; I would feel the same way if I wasn’t doing it myself.

It was Niel’s birthday this week and therefore his choice of where to go for a bike ride. He has chosen some hard and awful rides over the years and he knows I can’t say no to them because it’s his birthday and his choice. So I was a little bit worried about what this one would be. His choice was to do his favorite 225km ride but in reverse so that I didn’t have to ride up to St Arnaud, but instead it would be down from St Arnaud. The ride went from home in Brightwater to Motueka, down the Motueka river valley to Tapawera, on the quiet back roads through Tadmor and over the 15kms of ‘dry weather’ gravel  road  that comes out on the south side of Hope Saddle, onto Kawateri Junction, St Arnaud and finally down ( but still over 2 large hills) back to Brightwater. Having just successfully finishing this birthday ride, I thought I would tell you how it feels to actually ride for 12 and ½ hours virtually non - stop.

 

The old railway line with a town called 'Kiwi' used to run along this quiet back road.

My workmates don’t really understand why I need time to recover. Well it’s not surprising really, none of them do any strenuous exercise, but I’m not writing this to show off, merely to help them and you to understand.

With all things, the more you do them, the easier it gets. A year ago, I would never have believed you, if you said I’d be cycling this far in one day, and I’ve only just begun on this long distance journey.

The first 75kms you feel magic, nothing is hard, you frequently over take other cyclist with ease, there is no need to stop unless it is a ‘call of nature’. But by 75kms you need to eat, and eat well to sustain that feel good feeling. I have allergies to lots of foods so I tend to eat gluten free muesli bars with a pottle of yogurt and a chocolate bar and a drink with sugar in it, it is also a good time to reapply anti chaff cream and pop an anti-inflammatory for my problem feet.

Just a quick word here – anti chaff cream or chamois cream is essential. A wee niggle at 75kms can turn into unbearable pain without cream in a very short time. It is very possibly my best friend and I don’t leave home without it. Constant bottom wiggles and getting down on to the drop bars can also relieve the pressure on your nether regions. And a comfortable bike and saddle is essential. (That doesn’t mean a big chunky saddle – I couldn’t think of anything worse – that wouldn’t give any part of your nether regions a break from being in contact with the saddle at any time) – I mean a female saddle that you feel comfortable on all day.

Passing the 100km mark and still feeling good is a boost mentally. Actually a lot of long distance riding is mental.  How about riding for 11 hours and you get to a big hill? Well that is when your head takes over. The voice in your head is always there telling yourself you can do it. You can do that hill; you can do that gravel road.

 

Niel on the gravel section at the 100km mark.

By now my feet are hurting, from a combination of hot feet, and my bone and nerve problems. I have had this problem for many years and learnt coping mechanisms for when the pain comes on. If you can only stop for a few seconds – pop an anti – inflammatory pill, if you can stop for a couple of minutes then take your shoes off and rub some anti – inflammatory cream into your feet and change from the clipped in side on the pedal to the flat side, and ride moving your foot around into different positions and then when the pain has diminished  do the same thing with the other foot, always keeping one foot clipped in, so that you don’t lose the pedal rhythm  of clipped in feet.

By the time you get to 150kms, you need to eat again, it is essential, even if you are not hungry. If you ignore this need to eat you will ‘hit the wall’ big time, and be stuck in the middle of nowhere too tired to move. Always take emergency food like muesli bars and chocolate, but nothing beats real food like a hot pie (I take the pastry off and spoon out the meat filling) or cold cooked sausages, and more sugary drinks. It is amazing how much your energy returns after eating. And of course reapply your best friend of anti – chaff.

By now you should be feeling good still, but no longer ‘magic’. Use every trick to keep feeling good, use the drops to change position on down-hills and to go fast. Use small gears on the hills and simply spin your legs to prevent cramp setting in. And drink – a lot – all the time. Water keeps cramp at bay and you will simply need it due to hours of exertion and dehydration from the wind. That voice is back – you CAN keep going, you CAN go faster, and the more you do it, the more you CAN do it.

The last 20kms are when you tire, you know you are going to make it, and your body just sort of does a big physical sigh. That is when you start feeling all the discomforts and pains that you have been ignoring with the help of the voice in your head. It is a case of counting down those last few kilometers, and I often do them quite fast to get them over with, after all you can collapse on a comfy chair when you get home, the faster you ride the sooner you will be in that comfy chair. And when you get home; immediately you feel that buzzy feeling - like a freshly opened bottle of fizzy drink. A natural high that stays with you for the next few hours, until tiredness overcomes you and you can’t keep your eyes open.

And you do need to recover, all the books and magazine articles on training recommend that you stretch when you finish a ride to prevent cramp, but being the women in the house I am too busy making a meal, and stretching never happens; and therefore in bed that night I always get cramp and toss and turn and don’t sleep well – I stretch before I leave on a ride – I MUST remember to stretch on return.  There are not many sports that are as full on for so long as long distance cycling. Iron man events, epic multi - sport events, mountain climbing are a few but there’s not many. And yes they also need periods of rest and recovery. So next time I get asked to cover someone at work straight after a mammoth bike ride, I hope they can see why I night say no, and be a bit more understanding.   

Greymouth 200km event.

Christmas is over for another year thank goodness; we managed to escape into the hills and then got lost – literally. The track we were following turned into a ridiculously steep firebreak, but we could hear vehicles on a road, so we reasoned that if we kept going in the direction of the road noise, then we must surely emerge somewhere. After 6 hours (when we were only supposed to be away for 3 hours) we finally emerged out of the bush. It was a late turkey meal at 10pm, but at least we know we burnt off enough calories to justify going to bed with full stomachs.

Climbing up onto Barnicott ridge.

Looking down onto Nelson city and the Boulder bank from the top.

 

After working all the statutory holidays I was looking forward to a 200km event on the first Saturday in the New Year. It had been raining virtually non-stop for the whole silly season, so I was psyched up to ride for 12 hours in the rain, but the day luckily dawned clear and with no wind, and stayed that way all day. It was perfect cycling weather as it wasn’t hot or cold.

Lake Brunner and 'Dax' my bike.

 

When do you know when it’s time to try a 250km ride? When the 200km ride you are doing feels too short. 

For the 2 weeks before the event, the organizer kept emailing me to check what sort of riding I do, where I go, and what distances do I ride. I felt like I was being interrogated a bit with the insinuation that this is a 200km ride, not 100. I can’t help but feel like I’m being judged, as I’m sure Niel wouldn’t get this scrutiny if it was him doing the ride.

Duncan (the organizer) and I at the 100km mark.

 

Anyway, at the 100km mark, I was as fresh as a daisy and full of chatter, Karen (my support person) who met me there with a thermos of soup, said the organizers face was astounded. I didn’t notice his expression, but I think she was right. I met him for the last time 5kms leaving the town of Hokitika, as he was heading into Hokitika; and he did look amazed that I was so much ahead of him. 200kms ticked off – the next challenge is 250kms, on my way to building up to 300kms.

‘Dax’, my new long distance bike, was perfect in every way. Fast up hill, fast downhill, comfortable for all day in the saddle, and at the finish, no part of my body hurt – tired yes, but not sore.

The accomplishment feeling afterwards, is one of the reasons we do long distance riding. Is it the Endorphins? Is it Adrenalin? I don’t know, but it is addictive. It’s like being high on life. And you wonder why others don’t do it. I know I’d be a different person without this natural high and pride in myself, I think I’d be a more depressed person. I feel like I’m living rather than simply existing.