Leg # 1 Tullamarine to KL

After LOOOONG negotiations at the airport we managed to get on the plane after copping (only) $1000 in excess baggage fees. Which the airport staff assured us was a really good deal. Now after 8 and a half hours on the Melb-Kuala Lumpur leg KEEN Torq'ers cramped up like tetris pieces we are preparing for another 14 hours to Cape town. At this stage the movie tally is Grant= 4, 9 holes of Golf and 2 games of Galactica (yes in just over 8 hrs) Luke 3 movies 2 documentaries and some cyber golf Stew= 1 movie couple of rounds of Galactica and half a book.. Del 1 movie, and lots of sleep. So with some duty free chocolate, a bowl of noodles and several chocolate muffins we're off to the boarding lounge for leg #2.

Packing and schmoozing..

Some of us got some sleep last night, and all of us are nearly on our way to the airport... we've packed absolutely bare minumum to avoid excess bagage fees of $30 per kilo ( if we run out of clothes it will be cheaper to buy new ones there!) It looks terrifyingly little - but lets face it we'll probably wear the same jersey for the whole race, few thermals and couple of pairs of shoes.. easy! All have our fingers crossed that we get a friendly person at checkin; SA here we come!!!

What taper week is really all about.

After off-loading the to-do list in his post below, Stewie resorted to the infamous Cowey spreadsheet (6 pages) to whip us all in to shape. I'm anticipating the updated versions in flow-chart and spider diagram format any day now ... Thanks to the spreadsheet at least we know who to blame if anything goes wrong!

We are hunting for new accomodation in Cape Town because in between Tuesday, when we paid for it, and yesterday, they sold the appartment we'd booked! The Cape Town adventure gear shopping list is growing VERY long since we discovered that 1. Excess baggage fee is $30 per Kilo, and 2. the biggest adventure shop in CT is in the Stellenbosch wine region 3. "ZAR" the South African Rand is a wonderful currency to do business in.

This weekend:

• I learnt that when paddling in zero degrees, the boys are not as tough as they like to make out.
  


• We decided that KEEN Ridgelines are great shoes, and come in fancy colours (see picture) but my pink laces won't fit in Grant's size 13's
  


• We confirmed that catching a chill can be remedied by eating a lot - and we are all doing good on that front of late.



• We put all our faith in coreflute ("plastic cardboard" explains Lukie) spending vast amounts of time and energy building deluxe bike boxes which will not disintegrate in the rain.

Overall KEEN Torqers are having a ball. We've done all the hard work, will all surve our to-do lists, and in spite of practicing our sleep deprivation over the next few days we're going to be in South Africa in less than a week rejoicing in the fact that the world is a beautiful place..

NOW GET ME ON THAT PLANE!!!

:-)

Del

The Taper

It's just as well you're meant to taper before a big event,because there isn't much time to train. Going away for three weeks, there is always the inevitable rush to get things finished at work. I could quite easily be doing 12 hour days and still not get everything done that I would like/need to. Unfortunately, in getting ready for the race we don't have the same luxury....stuff just has to get done. The 'to do list' has been cut done dramatically in the last week or so, but there is still a myriad of of minutiae that needs to be dealt with. Everything from vaccinations to building bike boxes, from chasing up that last spare part for your bike to finding your headtorch, from naming 10 pairs of socks to re-stan'sing your tubes, from finalising accomodation to organising hire cars.....you get the picture. In amongst all of this you are trying to fit in 10-15 hours of training, it just doesn't all fit. And I haven't even mentioned trying to stay awake each night to watch Le Tour.

During the course of the week, we all recieved two new pairs of Keen Ridgeline trail running shoes. I tried mine out at the You Yangs last night, in two words; "Bloody Fantastic". I've been hanging out for these puppies since my Wasatch's finally died after the Keen Adventure Race, and they haven't disappointed. Hopefully I'll write a full review after the Bull, where I'll put them through their paces.

Another highlight was recieving not ONE, not TWO, but THREE boxes of Torq stuff. Heaps of new kit so we are once again the sexiest looking team out there. Enough electrolyte, natural energy, bars and gels to keep us powering through 6 days of racing. Due to excess baggage restrictions we have to post this stuff over ahead of us. It will be a nervous wait for all of us (including Gen) until we hear from a friend of a friend who is picking it up for us in South Africa. If something goes wrong with the post, I'll need Gen to calculate the energy equivalent in creamed rice. I really hope it's there to meet us when we get to East London.

I'm so looking forward to getting on the plane. All the organising, preparation and training (or lack of it) will be behind us and all we'll have to think about is racing and enjoying ourselves while we do it.

Stew.

Wednesday Night Jumaring

Last night saw the Keen Torq'ers and friends trade our Wednesday night MTB for a Jumaring lesson at Geelong's climbing gym; 'The Rock'. Lukie had done a bit in a recent race in Ireland, but the rest of us were complete newbies. Thanks to Richard at The Rock, for his expert tuition. We're all confident we'll be able to handle any rope work that's thrown at us during The Bull, which is only three weeks away now. Thanks also to Brain who came down from Melton to impart his local knowledge on the Transkeii. I'm sure it will be help as we race through this stunning part of South Africa.

July Training Weekend

With just under three weeks to go before we head off to Africa we decided a team training weekend was just the thing to help us sharpen up. Sheepyard Flat just outside of Merrijig was the chosen location. Grant towed the camper trailer up as a consetion to worldy comforts. This was most appreciated when we arrived at sometime after midnight on Friday. The weather in the week leading up to the weekend had abviously been pretty wild as there was lots of snow visible a long way down the mountains.

Saturday morning was cold, but clear and we headed off out of the Howqua Hills towards Mt Stirling. The plan was to ride around the Stirling circuit road to Bindaree Falls and return along the river track. Typical of recent history, after an hour of riding we found ourselves back at camp due to a flat tyre and a realisation that we had no workjing pumps and had just used the last CO2 cannister.

Not good when your heading up above the snow line. Back to camp and we grabbed another pump, more Co2 and headed back up the hill out of camp. We got to telephone box Junction on Stirling only to find the road was unpassable past this point due to heavy snow falls. Our route had to change from loop to an out and back. The local snow patrol were somewhat bemused to see four MTB's arrive and the riders start warming up chocolate muffins and cooking fruit toast on the pot belly stove.

The ride down was cold, very, very cold, and muddy, but good fun. It made the fire baked potatoes on the fire that night taste even better. The smell of Del's poloypro thermals couldn't even dull the appetite.

Sunday was a casual 25km hike. We left the road at 8 mile gap and then headed up Eagles Peaks ridge. By the time we got to the top we were pushing through knee deep snow. Stewie (aka the plough) broke trail to the top. The steep slope and gnarly trail made sure he was pretty stuffed byt he time the second summit was reached. The others had had a relatively easy time following his footprints, so it was time for Grant (aka Dozer) to take over. By this time Del had measured her length in the snow at least 6 times. The only thing funnier was watching her untangle walking poles and try to stand up again in the soft snow was her trying to leap from one thigh deep footstep to another.

The late afternoon was spent racing the setting sun back down the spur to the campground. With the ski fields of Mt Buller to the North East and the setting sun in the West the trip down was spectacular. Racing down a 25% gradient slope, the quads were well and truly trashed. Mission accomplished. Another truly memorable training weekend, and one which will have us nursing aching limbs and catching up on sleep for the rest of the week.