The Death of the Fanta Express

it has happened.

it only took three months, but i have succumb to the busy London traffic and had my first bike/truck incident. as a result, the fanta express fixie is no longer....

Last Wednesday i was riding to work - a 6 mile, 17min commute into town. Earlier in the morning i had been out with Captain on a training ride and was discussing being hit by cars, and the potential money windfall you can pick up.

long story short, cruising to work, go over a busy intersection and up ahead on the left hand side of the road is a garbage truck which pulls over and puts its hazard lights on. i choose to go around the truck (as he has pulled over) and continue on my way to work. it is then that the stupid Romanian driver decides he wants to perform a u-turn. without looking or seeing me he does this in front of me (hazards still on). i try to push around in front of him (other option was straight into the side of the truck) but he keeps going and i am unable to get in front. ending result is i have to drop my bike and bail out otherwise I'm going under this truck. i bounce off the truck and land on my feet fortunately relatively unhurt. the truck drives over the back of my bike and crushes the rear stay beyond repair. the back rim is also bent out of shape and the weight of the truck sheared the bolt off the rear hub.

i then have to walk the remaining 2km to work with the bike on my shoulder.

legal proceedings have commenced.

on the up side, im ok (a little cut on the ankle and a tight lower back) and i have bought a new bike - the FE2. this one is a similar fixie i picked up for £150. frame is bright orange! photos to come!

enjoy and ride safe!.

Fanta.

The new nickname begins... FANTA

And so it begins.... since the inception of Team Crank It! we have been on the hunt for a new nickname... Lets be honest, everyone in this exclusive team needs a nickname and Traeges simply wasn't going to cut it.... Enter the red hair jokes and one seems to have stuck. Fanta Pants... Well it has been shortened and accepted that Fanta is the newest nickname entry to the Team Crank It! list..

Geelong 70.3 Ironman 2008

Race overview: It was a beautiful day for racing.. not to hot, not too cold. Was a storm on the horizon that never actually hit us.. Was better prepared following on from the shep experience however still learnt a lot from this race as well.

Swim: Got off to a good start in the swim and got into a nice rhythm. Not much biffo which was surprising. Sat on some punters feet who was going a nice pace and he pulled me out to the first buoy. The biffo started as we rounded the first buoy and then bamn!! Blinded! The sun was rising and was right in the line of sight… for some stupid reason I chose my clear goggles so had no protection.. unfortunately this caused a bit of chaos and resulted in me coping a wack to the eye from a wayward leg which ripped my goggles off. Didn’t worry just refitted and was back in the game.. The sun had lead most of us off course though and we ended up taking a very wide birth around the buoy before heading back to the start line… although I got off to a good start, time slipped by a little and I finished the swim in 35:42 – better than shep but not as good as had hoped / or should have done.. only a minute quicker than shep.

T1: grabbed a water from the table only to find it tasted like pool water with chlorine.. no good for the guts… get to the bike and go to put nutrition in my back pockets only to find the new Team Crank It! Suit I purchased didn’t have back pockets!!! Aghh!!! Ok, just tuck them up the legs and go go go… Lesson learnt..

Bike: Oh no… stomach cramps… bike was a disaster.. after all the training you do, its so hard when it all comes undone because of stomach cramps.. it was a long and lonely bike course with ZERO shelter from the coastally winds that buffeted the course… the road surface was not smooth and all in all lead to a disappointing time of 3:02:00. Lap 1 was ok, but stomach was hurting.. when I started to try and have some food it just came back up.. I couldn’t stomach anything!! This was not looking like it was going to be a good race If I couldn’t eat or drinking any nutrition.. I kept forcing myself to eat and try to keep something down. As hard as it was, I had to sit up and slow down and hope the pains would go away.. if I continued to push I wouldn’t finish the race at all.. listen to your body.. Lap 2 was not much better but around the same time and then by lap three I was just begging to get off the bike in the hope that it would sort out my guts… Lap 3 slower by far and all ending in the disappointing time… appears to be around 16min slower than shep. Disappointing.

T2: Despite the stomach pains, felt good through T2 and now knowing I had no pockets was quick with the nutrition and out to start the half marathon.

Run: Started the run feeling relatively fresh.. the stomach pains were still there but the legs weren’t too tired… got into a good motion – it was a nice run course, a few hills but that took allowed you to think about other things rather than simply just the long flat grind. Found a toilet on the first last and went in for a stop then had a banana… bingo bango it seemed to sort out the stomach issues as I could keep down the banana. Back in the game. The support on the road was amazing and certainly helped to push through the 21km. I found out / learnt the hard way that I simply didn’t have the km’s in my legs that I needed and on the last lap I had to slow to a walk for a couple of minutes…. This lead to a slower time than I hoped and not being able to break the 2hr mark for the run, however I think it gave me a good lesson and better understanding of the sacrifice and dedication needed to complete these gruelling events.. Run time – 2:09:50

Crossed the line, happy with the day out but not satisfied… the overall time of 5:47:33 was not as good as I wanted or had hoped for especially given the better conditions than shep…

Post event – recovery was great.. no soreness, no dehydration… maybe I didn’t push hard enough!?!?! I learnt a lot from Geelong and now the goal is to look forward to a full distance of which more dedication and drive will be required to succeed. Completing it will not be enough for me.. I have to give it everything I have got and that includes training hard - something i dont think was completely up to scratch for the two half ironmans.

Until next time....

Shepparton Half Ironman 2006

SHEPPARTON IRONMAN 70.3 - The Aftermath...

Here is a little recap of the nightmare of a race that was the 2006 Shepparton Ironman 70.3

SWIM:
Feeling good.. water temp 21.1.. outside temp approx 22 (at 7am).. in the first wave and the race is off.. turn at the 1km mark and still feeling good - just trying to stay out of trouble and away from all the clampets who try and swim over the top/dont look which way they are going (one guy didnt look up and swam straight into the bank-what a loser). have a quick look at my watch and feeling on track. turn the last corner and out of the water in 36min. happy with that time seeing the swim isn't my best leg and wanted to keep a little in reserve for what was to come.

T1:
the transition times dont seem to be showing up on the net which is weird but i had a good T1. In, wetsuit off, legs were feeling good, bike shoes on, helmet on and then off on the bike. grabbed the nutritian (well at least what i thought was enough for the bike - i miscalculated and probably should have taken two more GUs with me.. no drama's, ill grab a hi5 at the first aid station and should be ok).

BIKE:
Starting temp - approx 26 degrees
Leave T1, on the bike round the first corner to hear the cheers CRRRRRAAAAANNNNKKKKKK IIIIITTTTTTTT!!!!! Team Crank IT was in full voice on the side of hte road in shep! great motivation... Open my first GU and take the first bit before i hit a bump and it pops out of my mouth... not cool... ok dont worry - just ride your race, get some water in you and work with what you've got... the first aid station, i have poured both water bidons over me leading into the first station to cool down grab some hi5 and water and crank around the first lap... very very smokey with visability around 100m at most... crank around the first lap and then as i come back into the transition area i pick up the speed to give Team Crank It something to cheer about, i roud the corner belting out a CRRRAANNKK IITTT and the crowd cheers.
Second lap is good, but am starting to feel the heat now and the smoke seems to be getting worse.. it felt like riding a bike whilst standing a coupld of metres away from a ripping fire with the smoke pouring into your face.. not cool. Nothing too much of not on the second lap, wind is starting to pick up and little and feeling the top part of the course getting slower.
Third lap, legs are feeling good - every aid station im getting two bidons of ice cold water and using a lot of it to pour over my neck and back to try and cool down.. very very hot now.. 25km to go and round to the second last aid station.. really need water - super dry mouth from all the smoke.. coming into the aid station i yell out WATER... only to hear NO WATER LEFT!!!!! my heart dropped... No Water!!!! i grabbed a hi5 but i was making me feel sick. the wind had pick up and now was in your face blowing smoke.. disgusting.. then to make it worse i need to go to the toilet but am getting major stage fright on the bike.. finally i let go and it flows freely down my leg.. last aid station grab one bottle of water (thats all they had) and push out the last 10km.
Ride took me according to my watch 2hr46 (i think the times on the web include T1 or T2).

T2: legs feeling good, straight in, rack the bike, runners on, slap on the suncream, hat and grab my GUs and then off.

RUN:
Starting temp - 39 degrees... wowee... HOT!!!!
The less said about the run the better, the first km felt ok, then my right quad start to pulsate, my core body temp was out of the world and everything just felt like it was going into meltdown... i couldn't take on enough water at each aid station and there simply wasn't any reprise from the heat or the belting sun.. fortunately with the wind picking up a little the smoke was lifting but it was still around. First lap, terrible, Second lap even worse, third lap - i just wanted to finish. and i did.

5hours 54min!!!
Finishing temp - 42 degrees!!!!! thats insaino!!!

The aftermath:
Felt ok - kept fludis up, or so i thought. early to bed on sunday night and then up to go to work on monday - sore muscles but that was about it... until the toilet bowl was calling, then the light headedness, then stomach cramps.. took myslef home yesterday arvo and jumped into bed.. severe hot and cold sweats... no energy... ended up being taken to the doctor to be told i had a case of mild dehydration kicking in from sunday's effort.. a couple of tests including of urine and confirmed i need to get some serious levels of water and sugar back in the system. all night in bed sweating it up and the day off work again today am slowly getting back on track...

Mum said well at least now you've done an ironman 70.3 you can cross it off your list and dont have to do it again.... to which i responded - No, this has just given me a time to beat next year!!!

CRRRAAANNNKKK IIIIIITTTTTT!!!!!