garyinoz's blog

This was my 3rd race in as many weeks with the Wylde 4hr and Husky 100km having been completed the the previous weeks. This meant I was either going to be on form or knackered.

On Friday afternoon I headed down to Canberra with Dave (doc), got to registration just after 4 then headed out to stromlo for a quick lap in the hope of spotting the shortcuts to use the next day. After that it was off to dinner to meet Michael and Brian and a long wait!

I was brought up to believe if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all. On that basis I have nothing to say about this years Fling.

Some points I will mention, the 1st stage went well, I managed to stick with the lead groups....just! When I set off on the final stage I was 15th in category and then gave up another 14 category places not to mention numerous overall places.

My legs still hurt!

Some dark moments intertwined with some fun. A tale of two halfs where the second was a struggle. Followed another rider up a hill that turned out to be a wrong turn early on the second loop, that cost a few minutes. Need to work on eating and drinking whilst on ST as I didn't consume enough. Glad to have completed it, maybe next time I'll do the 50km....

Well done to all on riding what was a tough course.

An early start on Sunday with Dave (Doc) to get a quick look at the new ST, we got there around 8 and so it seemed did a lot of other people. After a quick chat with the other SXC boys (Graham and Wayne) Dave and I headed out for a quick look, 10km later we were back at the Event Center and ready to go.

I did the Willo back in 2012 a week after the convict when I'd had a fairly big stack and was still feeling the effects. The time that day was 2hrs 50 so I was hoping for an improvement on that.

This was my first time at the CP so I wasn't quite sure what to expect but I knew there would be some great singletrack having previously ridden the Mont. I'd never ridden Stromlo much to the amazement of Dicko, Dave and Michale at dinner. Don't know why I'd left it so long.

In the lead up to this event I had seriously stepped up my training in the last couple of months and in the month prior I was on the MTB every weekend. The aim was to finish in 5hr30 which would have been a 20min improvement on last year.

The end result was finishing 10mins slower but with a higher overall and category placing, it was indeed a tough day.

The 3 Ring was my first mtb race back in 2011 when i scraped in under 3hrs after a leisurely blue lap. With that in mind I was determined to be closer to the front this time and straight away that disappeared. (Clearly another one who's too polite to push in).

This was my first Full Fling after doing the Half last year. I had memories of hurting after 40km last year so wasn't sure what to expect this year but I'd spent a lot more time on the bike in preparation.

Thursday before the event I decide to commute on my 29er hardtail just to make sure there are no issues. On my journey home I discover that my bottom bracket is stuffed - great! Turns out it's actually eaten part of the carbon frame so its a warranty claim. Plan B is to get the 26" dually out.

Was a late entry on this one as I haven't done much riding since the Husky and hadn't been on the dirt since then.

Plan was to find a suitably paced group and stick with them in the aim of finishing around the 3hr 30min mark.