With BC Bike race creeping ever closer (117 days to be exact) things are falling into place. The main things that we still need to attend to are arranging Visas, unaccompanied bike transport from Vancouver to Cape Town after the race, shuttle service from Whistler to Vancouver Airport, New York and Vancouver City passes for public transport and sight seeing and Broadway tickets (my wife keeps reminding me...).
Last week I managed to check another box on my to-do list as I finally decided to replace my trusty Zula with the Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Expert 29. I decided against overhauling the Zula with new wheels, replacing key components and trying to turn a 120mm travel bike into a Trail bike.
I was truly impressed with the Stumpy as well as the service from Specialized at the ride-before-you-buy day Sunday a week ago. Since numerous shops and suppliers promised to arrange test bikes after I posted my blog on my Facebook page and a few online cycling forums last week and none of these shops and suppliers made good on their promises I decided to go with my gut on this one. I probably paid 15 to 20% more for a similarly spec'd bike from some of the other brands out there, but I ended up buying exactly what I wanted in spec and feel of the bike and I know that I will have no issues later with warranties, servicing and availability of parts in Canada.
The weekend past was a test of my resolve to do well in the Two Oceans Half Marathon. It was my last chance to do a seeding run with the Century City Express 10km on Saturday. Fast, flat and every chance of doing a PB would have made this a no-brainer any other weekend, but this weekend was different as there was a brand new Stumpy in my study that begged to be ridden. Saturday morning I woke up at 5am to get to the 10km run nice and early and almost canned the run to go for a ride. ALMOST!
We love to complain at cycling events about organisation or lack thereof. Running still seems like chaos to me. I arrived at 6am to ensure that I had enough time to get my registration card and that I could get a decent placing at the start line. Unlike cycling where there are often seeded starts and electronic timing, the runners still do mass starts and manual timing. The run started at 7am and the pace was hot right from the start. I knew that starting off too fast would cost me, but I also knew that my first 3km in every race or training run feels like hell anyway, so I just let rip. For once I did not have to weave too much to get past over optimistic walkers and slow runners. Today I was being passed by many more runners than what I was passing, so I guess I was for once that guy that didn't belong at the front of the race. After 2km I felt my rhythm was quite good and I decided to push to 5km to build a bit of a buffer for when my legs were to implode on me in the last 5km. I made it in 29 minutes to 5km. 1 minute ahead of pace and 2 minutes buffer to the 61 minutes cut off for a seeded start at Two Oceans. Miraculously my legs kept going, so I just kept running. With 2km to go I knew that this was going to hurt later. It was hurting now, but for once I decided to push through the pain to the other side where pain becomes a dull afterthought and where you feel like you float on endorphin and adrenalin into the finish. I ran a 58:23 which was by far my fasted 10km ever. As I crossed the finish line I felt the pain catching up with me. Another 200m and I would probably have stopped short to walk the last few meters in, but as it turned out I paced it to perfection. My legs were going to hurt on Sunday, but it was worth it.
Saturday was spent recovering and doing as little as possible. I checked my new bike for Sunday's ride and packed my gear. The venue was Jonkershoek where I met up with Werner and another friend who cycled in from Somerset West. We went up to the fire trail and I eagerly put the Stumpy through her paces. Apart from having an under torqued seat clamp and saddle clamp (I'm very careful not to over tighten clamps) she swallowed everything I had the balls to throw at her. Being able to drop the seat post helped me to negotiate some of the steeper descends with much more confidence and I found that the 130mm travel was more than what I was prepared to use right now. Werner had a nasty fall half way through the trail and after some more play time on the lower slopes of the mountains we made our way to Somerset West on the bikes where my wife picked me up.
With 117 days left the excitement seems to grow exponentially every week. Hopefully we will be able to cross off all the to-do's in the next few weeks so that we can simply focus on training for the race.
With BC Bike race creeping ever closer (117 days to be exact) things are falling into place. The main things that we still need to attend to are arranging Visas, unaccompanied bike transport from Vancouver to Cape Town after the race, shuttle service from Whistler to Vancouver Airport, New York and Vancouver City passes for public transport and sight seeing and Broadway tickets (my wife keeps reminding me...).
Last week I managed to check another box on my to-do list as I finally decided to replace my trusty Zula with the Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Expert 29. I decided against overhauling the Zula with new wheels, replacing key components and trying to turn a 120mm travel bike into a Trail bike.
I was truly impressed with the Stumpy as well as the service from Specialized at the ride-before-you-buy day Sunday a week ago. Since numerous shops and suppliers promised to arrange test bikes after I posted my blog on my Facebook page and a few online cycling forums last week and none of these shops and suppliers made good on their promises I decided to go with my gut on this one. I probably paid 15 to 20% more for a similarly spec'd bike from some of the other brands out there, but I ended up buying exactly what I wanted in spec and feel of the bike and I know that I will have no issues later with warranties, servicing and availability of parts in Canada.
The weekend past was a test of my resolve to do well in the Two Oceans Half Marathon. It was my last chance to do a seeding run with the Century City Express 10km on Saturday. Fast, flat and every chance of doing a PB would have made this a no-brainer any other weekend, but this weekend was different as there was a brand new Stumpy in my study that begged to be ridden. Saturday morning I woke up at 5am to get to the 10km run nice and early and almost canned the run to go for a ride. ALMOST!
We love to complain at cycling events about organisation or lack thereof. Running still seems like chaos to me. I arrived at 6am to ensure that I had enough time to get my registration card and that I could get a decent placing at the start line. Unlike cycling where there are often seeded starts and electronic timing, the runners still do mass starts and manual timing. The run started at 7am and the pace was hot right from the start. I knew that starting off too fast would cost me, but I also knew that my first 3km in every race or training run feels like hell anyway, so I just let rip. For once I did not have to weave too much to get past over optimistic walkers and slow runners. Today I was being passed by many more runners than what I was passing, so I guess I was for once that guy that didn't belong at the front of the race. After 2km I felt my rhythm was quite good and I decided to push to 5km to build a bit of a buffer for when my legs were to implode on me in the last 5km. I made it in 29 minutes to 5km. 1 minute ahead of pace and 2 minutes buffer to the 61 minutes cut off for a seeded start at Two Oceans. Miraculously my legs kept going, so I just kept running. With 2km to go I knew that this was going to hurt later. It was hurting now, but for once I decided to push through the pain to the other side where pain becomes a dull afterthought and where you feel like you float on endorphin and adrenalin into the finish. I ran a 58:23 which was by far my fasted 10km ever. As I crossed the finish line I felt the pain catching up with me. Another 200m and I would probably have stopped short to walk the last few meters in, but as it turned out I paced it to perfection. My legs were going to hurt on Sunday, but it was worth it.
Saturday was spent recovering and doing as little as possible. I checked my new bike for Sunday's ride and packed my gear. The venue was Jonkershoek where I met up with Werner and another friend who cycled in from Somerset West. We went up to the fire trail and I eagerly put the Stumpy through her paces. Apart from having an under torqued seat clamp and saddle clamp (I'm very careful not to over tighten clamps) she swallowed everything I had the balls to throw at her. Being able to drop the seat post helped me to negotiate some of the steeper descends with much more confidence and I found that the 130mm travel was more than what I was prepared to use right now. Werner had a nasty fall half way through the trail and after some more play time on the lower slopes of the mountains we made our way to Somerset West on the bikes where my wife picked me up.
With 117 days left the excitement seems to grow exponentially every week. Hopefully we will be able to cross off all the to-do's in the next few weeks so that we can simply focus on training for the race.
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