AFL Finals

Other than the AFL Footy Finals between Collingwood and St Kildas ,Saturday is my Long Bike Ride.I remember my ride last year on Finals day.It was a eerily quiet morning.Not a lot of traffic about and a bright warm day.today ,there was more cyclist about but otherwise it was a great day .

I started off just after 6am and found that getting my heart rate up was very hard .For the first 63 km down the freeway bike course I was struggling with my HR at about  130-135.A good 10 beats lower than last week.I averaged 31.5kph down the freeway and I hung on to 4 cyclist for the last 5 km before I reached the 2 hour mark.

Had a  short break before the return ride. I was using my gels for the first time in 4 months and found that the orange cordial drink didn't really go down too well with the gels.I managed the whole ride on 2 Bidons or 1.5lt Will have to avoid that again.I had one bidon with Gatorade and for the first hour I had stomach cramps but they settled as the miles rolled by.It was reasonably windy but I did not have any real headwinds to contend with and was actually quite a nice ride.Probably had a few cross winds and definitely some helpful winds on the way back.

After the turn around I began to build a more consistent pace and managed to get my average up to 32kph by the end of the ride.By far my strongest result although I don't think i was firing on all cylinders with my low HR .

As I rode the freeway I saw a few familiar faces .Claudia Dohr was training on her own and heading back as I was riding south and on my ride back saw Trevor .I whizzed by screaming a hallo and again Tony was on the freeway course as well. I later learnt they both were trying to ask me a question ie where the other was on the course. Thought I had snubbed them but when I ride I am only focused on getting back as quickly as possible .No time to stop and chat.

I made it back just before the 4 hour mark .A distance of 126.5km in 3.58 hr.Unfortunately , I lost all my date on my Garmin when I changed to run mode and did not save it .The data would have been helpful but I did get to monitor my Hr and average pace throughout the ride so it was helpful...I just do not have a record.From the bike I went on to do my run .I did 28 minutes and ran just over 5km .It was a beautiful day with the Perth Skyline as I ran along the swan river in South Perth.Saw Claudia again as she was heading back from her run.

The rest of the day I was just hanging around the house Did lunch for JJ and then fell asleep watching the finals .Needed that. As the AFL Finals ended in a draw ,the saints and Pies meet again next week and I will be on the freeway again...a bit like deja vu. Go the Saints.