Tristania's blog

“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever. That surrender, even the smallest act of giving up, stays with me. So when I feel like quitting, I ask myself, which would I rather live with?”
- Lance Armstrong... um... er... Anonymous

Won't say too much here as it was relatively uneventful other than it was a great course, great event with a great atmosphere to which I am sure would make James proud.

Four years ago, Nobmob (and other) social rides were a common routine. But when I saw this ride posted after a year of training and racing (among a few other things such a "bit" of study/work), I realized I haven't done any social rides the whole year. As much as nobmobbers tell me I have a lot to teach them about what happens near the front of a race, the reality is, you're the ones teaching me.

Below is a list of what you guys taught me (that maybe I knew once upon a time, but forgot) today:

Every now and again, particularly when I am on a post-race high, I get some sort of reflective thought regarding my cycling (and other various physical activities I do) that I ponder on and have tried to string these into words and share on my Nobmob blog. I refer to them my "cyclelogy" blogs - rather than a report on a particular race in which I have just destroyed myself, but about the activity of riding a bike and what it means to me psychologically, mentally and emotionally, so my buzz from last weekend's Highland Fling has gotten me wound up to write a new one.

Another year of racing gone by! Where does time go? Well, I suppose "All Good Flings" come to an end...

I did the Wollombi Wild Ride two weeks ago as a practice race for the Kowalski, which turned into a 90% solo effort with not a single other rider sight for the rest of the race. Despite it being about as different as a race could possibly be due to its 60km length, purely firetrail and dirt road with two very steep climbs, it was nonetheless an opportunity to get some racing under my skin before the much-anticipated "singletrack marathon like no other." But little did I know how important the experience of riding solo was going to be...

If you were to ask me how I thought I’d go in the Convict 100 at the end of April, I would have said this would be my strongest race yet. Training had been going well, I was well tuned into the reversed course and had had my mind set on it all year. After its unexpected postponement due to St Albans being flooded, things deteriorated, and circumstances meant that I found that it difficult to physically and mentally find the ability to spend much quality time on the bike, and my mediocre result in the 3 Ring Circus two weeks ago confirmed the effects of this.

I'd heard good reports about the 3 Ring Circus from trusted Nobmobbers, and enjoyed the variety of great singletrack at Wingello State Forest. That and the inclusion of some fairly hefty climbs (experienced at Highland Flings) made the whole concept of the race seem like a good one for me. There was one catch though. Being accustomed to having essentially all my races the marathon distance, I wasn't sure how I'd go seeing as I'd be up against some 50km 'specialists.'

(Before the death of Capital Punishment!)

(I wrote this two weeks ago but haven't gotten around to posting it until now. I thought people may enjoy reading the story of how I got to where I am now.)

This is a piece I had planned to write for my 21st birthday, but being in the middle of semester, that never happened, so thought I'd take this opportunity whilst I'm recovering from being separated from my wisdom teeth and not allowed to cycle to reflect on the years gone by and think about the future.