TTW day 8 I think

Bad: vv hot out of Benmore and in oturehua. Tough to start farm climb after that in heat of day and feeling v in dark place…

Good: …but then walked up with Dulkara and rest of up and down was lost in conversation. Nice to talk properly to someone for first time for over a week and she is an awesome adventurer. We decide to tackle big hawkdun climb into the night loading up with water as none up there so v heavy bikes arghh. But it was OK and we went well into dark. I got tired and camped at 10.30 v long day having started riding at 4! The morning in the dark was great, sunrise on aoraki. Then amazing sunset on aoraki from Hawduns. Slept OK. Up at 5. End drawing closer….

TTW day 7

Good: Dawn climb up stag saddle was fine! So lucky with weather still. Nice and warm overnight despite freezing temps, good sleep.

Bad: pretty much the rest of the day after the saddle. Slidling to descending ridge was not easy and did a nice land in knee in the few metres requiring first aiding. Then tried to re true rear rotor which had got bashed on rock in climb for a while. Descent on compromised wheel not fun but it made it!! V hot. Hated section from hut in creek to start of mtb track – really tough with my set up. Took pedals on and off several times arghhh. Chris previously accurately described then as meat cleavers. Cut thumb badly while checking brake pads at creek hut, more first aiding. V hot. All of this meant bad mental state all afternoon! Made it to tekapo felt bad about stopping. Spent a while hopefully fixing rotor and falling to fix busted frame bad zip.

But it’s a new day, my clothes are clean and my gear is dry and I’m awake and ready to go.

TTW day 6

Good: rear wheel still holding! Awesome day, felt happy and enjoyed better speed up till mesopotamia. Nice cafe in peel forest. Trail angel giving out coke! Really enjoyed listening to music for first time in race (since charging going well. Great to see familiar faces at Royal hut and make just before dark.

Bad: pretty hot climbing through mesopotamia but I took it easy and drank lots.

TTW update. Days 1-5

I had a chat with Amanda this morning as she was riding out of Methven. Some highlights and lowlights from the first five days:

Day 1

The good

Went out feeling really strong, enjoyed a meal with about 12 other riders at the Tapawera pub. Found a good campsite for the night and slept well.

The not so good

An unhappy stomach on the ride into Tapawera and for the rest of the day. Threw up in the bushes when riding up the hill in the evening.

Day 2

The good

Made it to Boyle in good time to resupply. Kept riding after Boyle, found a nice campsite and got a good nights sleep.

The not so good

Struggled with some stretches of mountain biking, still felt sick and couldn’t get much food down. Took ages getting over a difficult swing bridge, a minor ankle sprain at the end of the day.

Day 3

The good

Not applicable

The not so good

Hardly any rideable track, got a stick stuck in the back wheel on one of the only rideable sections. Spent about two hours trying to re-true the wheel and deal with bent spokes. Track to Lake Sumner had trees down every 20 metres or so, impossible to ride and lots of bike carrying.

Day 4

The good

Much better headspace than yesterday, really enjoyed the afternoon. Greeted by two trail angels at SH73, had a good chat and nice snacks. Really enjoyed lots of the afternoon riding.

The not so good

Dampier range was really tough. Had a cold, sleepless night part way along the Cass track.

Day 5

The good

A nice chat with a TA through-hiker at Cass saddle, and a great ride into Methven. Spent the night in a motel and had two pizzas for dinner.

The not so good

Carrying the bike up Cass saddle, numerous river crossings. Still not sleeping well.

TTW training

Since I applied to enter TTW in September 2020, it’s consumed an increasingly large portion of my consciousness. It’s also inspired substantially more training, including many walks-with-bike and sporadic weight lifting.

In early December, keen to keep up momentum after HBAT and the Mega, I drove up to Pongaroa and spent a Friday a riding roundabout to Dannevirke. I love the ride up Puketoi road but it was followed by hefty cross and head winds into Woodville. Adding in Wharite peak for a bit of climbing was no better an idea now than it had been on my last training weekend up here in October. Maybe I even walked more this time, despite being in better condition and both times being similarly gale force… Zooming back down and then northwards, I wasn’t optimistic my will would last to complete my planned route. But a tailwind and some good podcasts pushed me on, and I made it to Dannevirke around 6pm, just in time for an icecream sitting in the park before Brendan arrived. Some company – including a cameo from Guy – over the next 2 days was very welcome, and Brendan also did a nice write up of the rest so I’ll stop there!

While I felt relatively confident about long days on road and gravel, TTW needed toughness. During December I hatched a plan with Pete M to lump together multiple difficult bits around Wellington/Wairarapa, including the no8 wired route, and I wrote up some of this in detail.

Just before New Year I tackled the Karapoti loop again – successfully this time but not really recommended fully loaded – then headed to Waiotauru hut for the night, which I really enjoyed. Apart from gaming over in a cement-like bog while practising carrying my bike. Have since added quick release buckles! The quick-mud was caused by a very recent slip and I was impressed to see 4wd tracks through it.

The next day I retraced my steps – and wasn’t hugely surprised to see a 4wder now stuck in the bog. I promised to flag down help if possible (and later find some). After heading back to the hutt i went up to the Incline via all the nasty side climb, before bailing on my intention to camp and heading back home!

After that, there was lots of local pushing/climbing/hills. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve done the Skyline this summer, I discovered many local difficult-pushing tracks and did them multiple times, and repeated day 1 of my trip with Pete in reverse. This proved just as hard! Actual brake smoke occurred.

In mid January I felt suddenly tired, and eased off on training for a few days just when it was supposed to be peaking. By the end of the week i felt better so went (again!) to the wairarapa at anniversary weekend, spending a very windy and sleepless night near lake ferry. The next day I went round the coast past Ngawi again – at least I knew about the gate hatch this time, though I still ended up taking bags off to get over.

Grinding up the valley, a disturbing noise developed and consumed my tired brain. After several fruitless fixing stops, I became convinced the chain rings needed replacing. (While this noise diagnosis was of course wrong, it was serendipitous). Back in mobile coverage on top of the big hill with the wind turbines near Martinborough, I googled chain ring availability in a somewhat stressed manner. And I decided to go home rather than head for Holdsworth as planned, because the noise combined with the wind were driving me mad! Another windy climb over the Incline followed…

Several hours of elimination in the garage next morning eventually revealed a misfitted bottom bracket, oops. By then I’d ordered the thankfully available chain rings – and fitting them definitely proved a good idea.

The past few weeks have been a blur of more working on bike, sorting gear, planning/route logistics and the usual pressures of life. But now the deliberations are finished and there’s nothing more to pack…

What have I learned from this training period?

  • I’ve loved the mix of training including the difficult/pushing. I’m happy pushing though less happy carrying!
  • There is so much training terrain for this type of race close to home – it’s been awesome discovering new places nearby.
  • The balance between training and overtraining is fine, especially when the rest of your life is not restful. I’ve erred on the side of taking it easy for the past couple of weeks so hopefully that was the right call!

Sitting here in the beach in Puponga, the day before the start, it feels lucky and challenging just to have got to this point. There’s so many things that can go wrong in an event build up, with Covid adding another layer of uncertainty. I’m thankful to be here and have this opportunity, no matter how it goes!

No8 wired +

The weekend before Christmas, Pete M came down to Wellington and we headed out for 5 days, intending to intersect with Kate at campsites. The Skyline from Karori to Johnsonville was a retrospectively easy (if typically windy) taste of things to come. As we rolled through Newlands suburbia, we were distracted by a dairy and I took the chance to ring Richard and get him to drop forgotten chain lube to Kate. Wrapping up a tough week (and year) at work had not having been conducive to good packing. This was our only resupply opportunity today; amazing given the route’s urban proximity. But we were both carrying plenty of food as training ballast!

Somewhat bizarrely, apart from the Skyline, today’s route was as new to me as to Pete. One of the awesome things about TTW training has been discovering my difficult backyard, rather than driving to do yet more gravel circuits in Tararua District or the Wairarapa.

In Grenada, we veered up the inconspicuous Grindatron then down a steep bridleway into the back of Belmont, interspersed with me executing acrash-like stop to check weird-noise brakes. Next was an even steeper ascent to Belmont trig, nearly all pushing; following by another steep descent down to Stratton street, then a thankfully ridable climb up 4 degrees and a mostly ridable descent down Bull Run. Time for lunch.

After climbing around the farm, descending down Belmont Road was very welcome. We endured a couple of traffic filled kms along SH58 before heading down Moonshine road towards the Akatawaras. Despite the seal and gentle gradient, this was the toughest part of the day for me, probably because I hadn’t got eating/drinking quite right, and I rode along in a daze.

We hefted our bikes over the gate into Bulls run road and I again resolved to do more weightlifting. Then it was up up again, at least in the bush this time, before heading down to McGhies bridge on the Karapoti circuit for a rest and some realistic conversation about our plan, which had included the Karapoti loop. It was just after 3 and getting to the fish and chip shop in Birchville before it closed at 8.30pm felt increasingly out of reach. Reluctant to eat our dehy BCCs and thoughtful about Kate hanging out in the campground, we resolved to head into the Karapoti but turn back around 5. While the next bit was flat, our motivation to hit the hills was gone, and after walking the warm-up climb, just a glance at the trudge up Deadwood trigged a swift and unanimous decision to turn around. We had a rest – probably our longest one of the day – and then happily zoomed down to the campsite.

After a patchy sleep, another day of toughness dawned. Pete and I headed up the Incline – taking in Goat Rock road, which had never really appealed to me before – and down to Martinborough. After an early lunch, we bowled along the no8 wired route down past Ruakokopunta, which proved a lovely valley. Nearing Sutherlands hut, the 4wd track degenerated to sketchy. We found the hut in a clearing and enjoyed a couple of minutes shelter from the now blazing sun, refilling our water. I drank a whole bottle, trying to carry less water/weight.

And then we started the heinous climb up the Aorangi range. Both its gradient and condition make it unrideable, and the beating sun enhanced this torture. There were multiple “push bike, brake, move legs, repeat”. We started to have stops. At one of these, about halfway up, Pete peered into his water bottle to see swimming worms. This became an unhelpful mental niggle for the rest of the climb.

The top was followed by steep downs and more ups. Many of the descents were rocky, loose and near the edge of my riding ability, which was not improved by my weird-noice-induced reluctance to brake heavily in the rear. I had several happy-survival moments. Both my front suspension and braking disability kept me ahead of Pete downhill, so at least I knew I’d get help if I crashed! Finally we joined the main road to Ngawi at Te Kopi. The crossing had taken us over four hours, including two painfully slow hours up that big climb. We ground out a fast hour on the road to the new camping ground at Waimeha, and the happy discovery it had a café serving gourmet food.

In those first two days, we’d only covered about 230km and notched up around 5000m climbing, but they felt like the toughest days I’d done all year. (I resolved to spend the next few weeks pushing my bike up hills). We set off again, around the coast to White Rock, which included some helpful bike-over-gate practice. A key lesson learned was to assess the situation before leaping into lifting. The first gate had some uphill fence that would have been easier to get the bike over – the second gate had a small hinged hatch, only discovered by us once we were past…

We rode up the valley and past the wind turbines, our minds on Martinborough lunch, where we also enjoyed a reunion with Kate. After lunch was a gruelling round of Admiral Hill that I found particularly unenjoyable. But in Carteton, Kate made pizza for dinner and life improved again.

With bad weather coming in, we decided to head home the next day, around the big coast, rather than doing more random hills. By the time we got to Eastbourne, we were freezing but satisfied we’d done enough difficult over the 4 days.

After this trip and leading up to Feb, I did a lot of work on my bike. New rotors removed the weird braking noise helped by a patient bleed. I replaced the cassette, freehub body, chain, bb, 2 chain rings, serviced the pedals and replaced the spindle, replaced gear cables and housing, grips, serviced the headset, rebuilt the suspension fork, replaced the tyres. I also bought a new front wheel (and thanks Oli@Roadworks for last minute retruing it after I somehow fell over on to it!) Big thanks also to Jonty@Revolution for mechanical reassurance and wisdom, and Mud Cycles for random parts and advice 🙂