Wet feet

Brisbane - easy, mostly

Quality time for the big plush

UTA tailgating - bike edition

Melbourne easy

Part 1 of 3. The easy day.

TL;DR – I rode a long way, I ate a lot of food. The last section was hard, and I felt pretty sick when I arrived at 0230hrs in the morning.

Training Peaks: TSS 607, CTL 141.

Some things seem better as ideas than in reality. Riding 600km in a loop over a weekend is one of these. Would I do it again? Yes. Would I recommend it? No.

The first day went reasonably well. The usual went wrong, I stayed up way too late packing, I didn’t get enough sleep, and I left later than planned. That’s almost a given in my life.

0500hrs Alarm goes off
0530hrs Get up
0730hrs Start riding

Within a few hours, I was further south than I had been on a bike, in an incredible part of the Royal National Park where the forest is lush, and the cars seem less aggressive. Just wonderful. From here I headed down the coast past Wollongong to head inland.

I came across my first proper climb six hours in where I had to get from the coast to the highlands (note this is Australia, really this is the lowlands on any other continent). If you have a look at my nutrition diary, you’ll be surprised, disturbed and frankly scared that I ate 1,033 calories whilst on the side of the major road then went and rode this hill the way I did. I decided to go for this section (having never ridden in the area before) and spent the best part of the next hour at 150bpm standing up and climbing a hill that took me from sea level to about 800m. A coach described my first 200km ride as a savage. This was savage. Six hours in, short on water to take this hill on in this way. Little did I know this would be easy compared for what would be coming.

I arrived on the outskirts of the southern highlands and met my father for what was meant to be a late lunch but became this weird early dinner. We stood on the side of road whilst I ate pastrami and cheese sandwiches as the sun set and the chill began. I then put on more layers than seemed reasonable and headed off into the darkness. I headed off in:

-	Long sleeve thermal
-	Short sleeve jersey
-	Fleece jumper
-	Wind jacket
-	Long leggings
-	Two pairs of gloves, two pairs of socks, buff and ear warmer

I made good time to Goulburn. By this stage I had ridden about 230km at an average of over 20km/hour with the best part of 3,000m of ascent. At one point instead of pulling into the truck stop and eating some food there, I simply stood under the bridge on the side of the freeway, ate my food then continued. Considering how long my breaks are off the bike I really could enjoy that time more than I do. I was super excited to have McDonalds for dinner at 2230hrs. They wouldn’t let you sit inside so I sat outside in the cold and this proved to be less enjoyable than planned. They also refused to give me a cup of water. Jerks.

I was confident heading off on the last section of the ride which was only 45km. Then I seemed to ride up an endless hill for the next three and half hours and I was becoming mentally broken down. By this stage the wind is picking up and I am, well a little bit tired. The stars were incredible to look at but alas I spent most of my time looking at the road as I had a sore neck. Just an incredible time to be out on a country road kind of in the middle of nowhere riding my bike. I finally listened to a podcast for the first time that day. I was on episode four of Dan Carlin’s first world war -  The story is so fucking horrendous it defies belief.

I came into my accommodation sometime around 0215hrs in the morning. I hadn’t been feeling well for the last 30 minutes of the ride, but it was only when I stopped that I realised I had a serious gastro-intestinal issue. My stomach was seriously bloated and I felt awful, I couldn’t pass this through either end and eventually went to bed at 0330hrs setting my alarm for 0830hrs on Sunday. I knew things were bad when my go to joy of peanut butter and dark chocolate did not make me feel better.

I sent a friend this email before finally going to sleep:

“For the first time I feel sick in my guts and left leg is still borderline cramping. I am going to need to think about what to do when I get up.”

I really thought I might not make it through the second day. I had no fucking idea what was to come.

Total time: 22 hours.
Riding time: 13.5 hours.

Nutrition

-01:00 Weet-Bix x3 (179 cal), 22.5g chai seeds (100 cal), Special K - 1 cup (152 cal), banana (95 cal). Total: 526 calories.

02:30 Carrot (30 cal), Table of Plenty Rice cakes x 2 (36 cal) Total: 66 calories. Calories since start of day: 592 calories.

03:05 chicken – 125g (156 cal), sweet potato – 125g (113 cal) ,avocado – 60g (123 cal) feta cheese – 25g (62 cal), Wallaby fruit and nut bites x 2 (132 cal), chia seeds and peanut butter mix - 3 tablespoons (282 cal) Bells & Whisltes slices x 2 (189 cal), Hammer nocciola gel (100 cal), Table of Plenty Rice cakes x 2 (36 cal), Hammer orange gel (90 cal). Total: 1,283 calories. Calories since start of day: 1,875 calories.

04:00 Carmen’s salted caramel nut butter bar (191 cal). Total 191 calories. Calories since start of day: 2,066 calories.

04:30 Wallaby fruit and nut bites x 2 (132 cal), Hammer vanilla gel (90 cal), Hammer Perpetuem solids strawberry 3 tablets (100 cal), Table of Plenty Rice cakes x 2 (36 cal), Hammer apple gel (90 cal), Clif ginger ale bloks x 3 (100 cal), Hammer espresso gel (90 cal). Total: 638 calories. Calories since start of day: 2,704 calories.

05:50 Clif ginger ale bloks x 3 (100 cal), chicken – 125g (156 cal), sweet potato – 125g (113 cal) ,avocado – 60g (123 cal) feta cheese – 25g (62 cal), Hammer Perpetuem solids strawberry 3 tablets (100 cal) Bells & Whisltes slices x 2 (189 cal), Hammer peanut butter chocolate gel (90 cal), banana chips (100 cal). Total: 1,033 calories. Calories since start of day: 3,737 calories.

06:55 Clif black cherry bloks x 3 (100 cal), Hammer banana gel (90 cal), Carmen’s savoury nut bar (184 cal), banana chips (100 cal). Total: 474 calories. Calories since start of day: 4,211 calories.

07:40 Helgas gluten free soy and linseed bread x 4 (420 cal), Pastrami ~ 200g (162 cal), King Island smoked cheddar 50g (190 cal), 1 avocardo (250 cal), Wallaby fruit and nut bites x 2 (132 cal), Special K breakfast biscuits (174 cal), We love cake gluten free brownie (178 cal). Total: 1,506 calories. Calories since start of day: 5,717 calories.

08:50 Helgas gluten free soy and linseed bread x 2 (200 cal), Pastrami ~ 100g (81 cal), King Island smoked cheddar 25g (95 cal). Total: 376 calories. Calories since start of day: 6,093 calories.

09:55 Clif black cherry bloks x 3 (100 cal), banana (95 cal), Hammer chocolate gel (90 cal), Hammer Perpetuem solids café latte 3 tablets (100 cal), Special K breakfast biscuits (174 cal). Total: 559 calories. Calories since start of day: 6,652 calories.

11:05 McDonalds grilled chicken salad (193 cal), medium chips (297 cal),.medium vanilla thickshake (352 cal), small chocolate sundae (347 cal) Wallaby fruit and nut bites x 4 (264 cal). Total: 1,453 calories. Calories since start of day: 8,105 calories.

12:30 Hammer huckleberry gel (90 cal), Lucho Dillitos raspberry (120 ca) Total: 210 calories. Calories since start of day: 8,315 calories.

Post ride: Pic’s peanut butter (178 cal), Lindt dark chocolate – 40g (226 cal). Total: 404 calories. Calories since start of day: 8.719 calories.

Hydration:

00:00-02:00 0.5L
02:00-04:00 0.5L
04:00-06:00 0.5L
06:00-07:30 0.75L
07:45 1L soda water
07:45-09:00 0.5L
09:00-10:00 0.5L
10:00-11:00 0.5L
11:00-12”00 0.5L
12:00-13:30 0.5L

Total water ~ 5.75L (probably not enough)

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Andrew Pratley

Sydney - Port Kembla - Goulburn - Crookwell

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Wet feet

Brisbane - easy, mostly

Quality time for the big plush

UTA tailgating - bike edition

Melbourne easy

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