CHOC Cows Post #11 Momentum 947 Cycle Challenge

I felt it in my bones I tell you.

So there I was milling about in the paddock as cows will do, and lo and behold up comes Lisa Cow Bell (pink cow suit in below picture) and asks me if I will help with an Ice-cream bike, I mean what else am I going to say but yes, maybe she has been reading my blog I don't know (I don't think so though, it was more likely providence).  So brief introductions are done to Kim (on the bike) and Graham (left of Kim) and Grant (at the back between Kim and Graham), I'm hidden behind Graham in this shot.

And there I was roped (tyred?) in I wasn't initially expecting to tow but Grant Bain had disappeared somewhere behind us and it was time to start, so here I am yoked in, Graham giving me tips since I've never done this before and he is an old hand at it.

Graham and I towed where needed till the bottom of Joe Slovo, Grant did catch up with us and assisted with pushing as did the occasional temporary helper. Grant took over from Graham from the bottom of Joe Slovo.

Then later (I think at Conrad drive) Graham took over from me, shortly after that the Apocolypse Cows caught up with us again on their second lap and pushed and pulled the Ice cream bike the rest of the way, with me taking the lead every now and then and trying to get people to give us space as we passed them. Those AC's are strong. Unfortunately some of the slower very tired people got a fright at this herd of cows stampeding up behind them, and one poor chap fell against me and then hit the ground a bit hard, sorry chap I would have stopped except you looked like you were getting back up, and turning around would just have made for more mayhem.

Just for fun (and an interview) we stopped at Steyn city and the AC's joined the dancers on stage for a few minutes, before we tackled the last climb to the finish.

And so ended a brilliant ride 6h38 on the road for me, 9 or so hours for the AC's but more rewarding in fun than any other ride I've done. The encouragement from other riders and the spectators was awesome, and for all those that helped along the way, thank you.

It must not be left unsaid what this is all about. To raise awareness for CHOC and the children suffering from Cancer who are the real heroes for whom we ride. The funds raised by doing this really do go to a good cause and help these children and their families through difficult times by providing all sorts of practical helps, some small and some large.

PLEASE do open your wallets and give. You can do so by clicking this link  DONATE NOW!!  If you can't do it now you still have some time to do it but please do so.

This will be my last post on this topic for the year, please do have a Blessed Christmas and a Happy new year.

See you next year.

CHOC Cows Post #10 94.7 MTB a bust Road ride Next

Well helloooo again, just a quick report since it's 2 days till 94.7 Cycle Challenge.

The 94.7 MTB Challenge was a bit of a bust since my brakes failed (my fault for not making sure there was still pad left), but that was the straw that broke the camel's back of a bad week where things just kept going wrong,  tough week at work and then on Saturday I kept the proverb one of my MTB friends gave "If there isn't blood it's not an MTB ride" and crashed to the tar at about 35Km/h whilst trying to land after a ramp off dirt onto a road I was crossing, no major damage to me, just some road rash on my arm, shoulder, and hip and slight bruising.

The helmet did it's job and didn't survive...

Thanks to Westrand Cycles getting a replacement was fairly quick, so I had a new bonnet for Sunday.

At any rate I did cross the line in 2:21 unfortunately sweeper vehicles were involved

So this week has been a better week and I trust the road ride will be enjoyable, I've had a sort of preview of most of the route, some of on my bike a few weeks ago, and some of it in the van on Sunday. To anyone else riding I suggest you keep a bit of energy in the tank for the climbs of Cedar and Steyn Boulevard at the end.

My givengain project looks like this at the moment:

5,200 ZARraised from 5 Donors

137 DAYSto reach 20,000 ZAR

Thanks to all those who have given so far.. unfortunately this isn't sufficient to get me in a cow suit on Sunday... but I will be joining the herd and suffering a bit more heat ... or rain... as we will start riding later than I'm used too.

For those that haven't given yet NOW is your chance.

 Donate Now!

CHOC Cows Post #9 94.7 MTB & Road

Hi there folk,

Since the Karoo to coast I've had a fairly quiet time on the bike with one thing and another I missed a couple of weekend rides due to knee and tummy issues although I did manage to keep up on commuting to work.

I also participated in the Mogale Spring Race which is held in support of WRAPD (West Rand Association for People with Disabilities) which is just round the corner from where I live. This was in the middle of knee pain so I took it easy, still managed to break a few personal records though on the 78Km trip round Krugersdorp, Sterkfontein, Hekpoort, Magaliesberg and Tarlton back to Wessies.

It seems that it's 2 weeks to go for the 94.7 MTB challenge and 3 for the Road Cycle Challenge, so that means final prep time for me, I haven't done the MTB challenge before so I don't really know what to expect especially when they seem to not be revealing the route only the route profile, possibly because it crosses private land, and property owners rightly don't want people just riding over their land uninvited. Route profiles for MTB races rarely give the full picture in any case as the surface can make quite a difference, e.g. loose gravel, and sand, and washboard tracks are far harder to ride than hard packed jeep track.

It also happens to be a new route for the Road race, starting in Riversands, instead of Woodmead, making our way up to Summit Rd via Pooks Hill, then following the old route until we turn right onto the R114 off Malibongwe avoiding the N14 and instead going down and Up Cedar rd then through Douw Steyns Boulevard at the end of the race.

In one sense I'm a bit disappointed that the two races don't fall on the same weekend like they did a few years ago since it takes a bit away from the double accomplishment being a week apart, but I understand from a logistical point of view why it probably needs to be this way.

I rode as much of the route as I could this weekend, but started the loop at the Malibongwe, R114 junction, then not going through the 2 estates since they are still under construction and/or not rideable, also went up Louis Botha instead of the M1, oh I also rode from home to the junction mentioned and when I got back to that point turned left back towards home. Admittedly by Muldersdrift the afternoon heat got to me and by Pinehaven garage I had to admit that jelly legs wouldn't make it up the hill, still that was 146Km of riding and 1800m of climbing, so it was another Gran Fondo under the belt, that makes it 6 Gran Fondo's (+130Km) rides for me this year one of which was a 100 miler and another was just short by a few hundred meters of 100 miles on the MTB. I wanted to do 180Km yesterday but the heat beat me, I'll have to do that sometime in the future. Don't know if everyone can see this but my Strava trophy case is filling up nicely.


As I've said a few times before I will be riding the road race with the CHOC Cow herd which in effect means I'll be starting at 8h22 (a fair bit back from my K seeding 7h03) this also means I'll probably ride a bit slower than usual.

So that brings me back to the reason for all my posts this year, and although this may not be my last event, and definitely not my last post I was really hoping to raise enough to have the privilege of riding in a COW suit (see my previous posts to see the difference between suit and kit) by the 94.7 Cycle challenge. To do this I need to have raised R20,000 and at the moment I'm a fair amount short of that target. So here goes a big appeal to all and sundry.

 PLEASE DONATE to my CHOC Cows project by clicking HERE to get to my GivenGain Project and click on the donate button.

If you can't or don't want to use this method other arrangements can be made please just let me know.

So I expect I'll be giving feedback on the MTB challenge next.

Oh I almost forgot ... but no one seemed to have an answer or didn't bother to let me know, but the fellow scholar at Princess High School, who is a well known South African cyclist is Robert Hunter. (Disclaimer since Robert Hunter is somewhat of a public figure: using his name in this post does not indicate any endorsement by him of any of the content, it is merely a recognition that we went to the same school)

CHOC Cows Post #8 Update of Mad Cow activities

It's been a little while since my last post so what have I been up to in my Cow Kit...

Heia Safari Zero2Hero Check - got the T-Shirt, and met up with school mate Charles Els, here be a photo of the two of us after finishing:

For some reason this next photo of me at the start got a lot of attention from friends and family on facebook. BTW It was pretty cold and overcast that morning, and I had a bit of sniffles so didn't want to take the chance of catching a cold, hence the jacket.

Then there was the CANSA Lost City Cycle Challenge at which I narrowly missed being in the pile up of a large portion of the group I was in, coming away with another pink tattoo (small scar) on my calf, didn't have a particularly good day on the bike suffered a bit with aches and pains everywhere, but still did OK. Here is me nearly at the top of one of the few hills. If you look closely you can see the scratch on my left leg. I think I missed meeting up with another old school mate Ashley Gonsalves at this event... next time bud.




The following Saturday nearly ended up with me being murdered when I did this ride 'Breedts Nek via Magalies, Western Cane and back' 145Km route plan predicted 7h30 or something, I said it would be more like 8 at least. However after a 15Km detour and fighting wind on the way home I also dropped the planned stop at my Dad's house, my phone battery didn't last, and when I got to the bottom of my road Garmin said 158Km, there was no way I was going to leave it at that, so rode around the block a bit till it got to 160Km, when I came down our road my wife was standing in the street about to phone a friend to come looking for me this being 10 hours 20 minutes after I left home at just before 7h00. As it happens recalc of the route still had me a few hundred meters short of the 100 miles so I missed out on my 100 mile MTB ride anyway... still there is always a next time.



A couple of days before the Silverstar Mountain Bike challenge, which I had decided not to do in favour of doing some floating bridge practice at Heia Safari, I was getting SMS's informing me of number collection locations and times, which I thought was strange, but put it down to a bug in the event organisers system, but then I got a seeding notification?? I had forgotten I had entered months earlier for the little jaunt through Kings Kloof, it being so close to home I decided to warm up by riding there and doing a short 'recovery ride' back up Krugersdorp hill after the race. Ran into Mark Ehlers and daughter Nicola who were also taking part, and whilst chatting at the finish was surprised to hear Nicola's name called as she was the third lady in the 20Km race. Another acquaintance Nadine Visagie was second lady in the 40Km race. Here be a shot of me at this event.

Next Event was the Karoo 2 Coast between Uniondale and Knysna, I had heard about this event a few years earlier and had decided it would be good to do, and to double it up with a visit to my sister Emily, but didn't really have the opportunity (money) till recently, thanks to Geraldine for providing myself and Ria accommodation at 'Waves of Wonder' it was a blessing to stay there, with a wonderful view of the heads (well one of them anyway, and the second with a bit of a lean, I knew Niven Wood would pass me somewhere along the way, with all the mountain climbing he does around the Cape Peninsula, the lack of a seeding was really just a way we could actually meet up at the finish, in the end he passed me around the 85Km mark (I thought it would be sooner) but the slower riders at the back slowed him down a bit too.


















Just a bit of useless information since I mentioned a bunch of school mates, there is a rather famous South African Cyclist who was also at our school 'Princess High' he's a bit younger than this crowd of old farts and a lot faster (even if he is retired) If you don't know and can't guess who it is look out for my next post.

In case you have forgotten one of the reasons I'm nearly always in Cow Kit is that I'm trying to raise funds for CHOC, the main target for this year being to raise R20,000 .... so far I have 1 donor who has come through, there are are few promises but please do follow THIS LINK and donate to the project, none of these donations come to me and it is a worthy cause, providing all sorts of assistance to children with cancer and their families.

Choc Cow Post #7 5 Years of Cycling and other Mad Pursuits

Earlier this week I had an anniversary of sorts because on Monday August 3 2009 I started riding bicycle again after 15 years of doing practically nothing to keep healthy, in fact I'd been doing a fair bit of unhealthy stuff. Long story short at age 40 weighing 120Kg blood pressure through the roof, staring possible diabetes, heart problems and who knows what else in the face I decided it was time to do something about it.

A picture taken on Krugersdorp Hill

I bought a bicycle, a Raleigh Ridge, it was a few months before I actually rode it more than a few 100m and winter had started so I got a trainer to mount the bike on. So bike mounted on trainer in the lounge with everyone else behind closed doors (very soon after I started pedalling) I did 25 minutes of noisy pedalling, the knobbly tyres on a trainer make a huge racket, to get 7Km. I was finished, soaked with sweat, could barely breathe, my legs were jelly, but I had done it.

The following evening I got back on and did 8.5Km in 30minutes, I was hooked, I also rode the following 2 evenings 6Km/20min and 7.5Km/22min. I rested Friday.

On Saturday I thought it's a good day to take the bike out onto the road, I am a bit of a techno junky so I decided to track my ride with my Samsung Omnia, I had looked around and found an application to run on it to record the ride. After fiddling a bit to get the GPS locked and starting the track I 'bravely' but circuitously rolled off down the hill to the Police hostels round the back of the Krugersdorp Court and Police station and back up the hill home. http://www.strava.com/activities/88401173/

On Monday (a public holiday because Womens Day fell on the Sunday) I rode past Key West and was going to see how far I could get on Voortrekker, to see if a commute to work was possible, but by the first set of traffic lights I was finished and had to admit defeat turning around and making my way back home http://www.strava.com/activities/88401179

I was definitely hooked, by August the following year I had done 154 Rides covering 2627Km I had done my first ever race The Harmony Gold 2 Gold MTB race http://www.strava.com/activities/176951010 (this track was another persons result, mine got lost in translation) I actually took just under 2 hours. There are still orange stains from that mine dump mud in the cycling top I used that day. I had purchased bikes for the rest of the family but my enthusiasm didn't infect the rest of the family, I did this race on the Scott Aspect I had bought for my wife:

Since August 2010 was my 1 year anniversary month and most of the riding I had done had been on the tar, I decided to buy a road bike so on the 19th Aug 2010 I became the proud owner of this machine (Scott Addict R4):

And on 21 Aug 2010 rode my first Road race the CANSA Lost City Cycle Challenge http://www.strava.com/activities/176925079 (I ignored all warnings about not using brand new equipment) this was my first ride on the Addict also my fastest ride up to that point ever averaging 28Km/h over 70Km)

I might also mention that by this time I was weighing about 105Kg, I have never gone for quick crash diets but I had made a few small changes to my diet but was pretty much relying on the cycling to get the weight down.

As it stands right now I've done 27,907Km of riding in total, just over 15,000Km on the Addict, just over 4500Km on the Specialized Camber I bought in Dec 2012 and most of the rest between the two 26" MTB's (which I gave away to some friends).

Oh I've also done a few Km on this awesome bike which now belongs to my school friend Niven Wood but if you look closely has Amabubesi stickers which means it's done the Cape Epic a few times (not by me or Niven but the previous owner)

Oh before I forget these days I'm hovering around 90Kg and can often be seen wearing CHOC Cow kit in and not in events (actually pretty much when it's not in the wash)

I'm trying to raise R20,000 this year for CHOC - 10% of the way there there are 3 months till 94.7 and I would like to be at 100% by then, donations can be given on my GivenNGain project page by Clicking Here you don't have to wait you can do it now.

Events I'm doing between now and 94.7:
9 August Heia Safari Zero2Hero MTB 50Km
16 August CANSA Lost City Cycle Challenge (Road) 115Km
21 September Karoo2Coast MTB 96Km
9 November 94.7 Mountain Bike Challenge 55Km
16 November 94.7 Cycle Challenge 94.7Km?

I might squeeze some others in but please support my efforts to raise funds for this worthy cause.

CHOC Cows Post #6 TDF Ride every Day and Rapha Rising Challenge

Well I might as well update since I'm done with these 2 'little' challenges, for those that have seen this on Facebook sorry for the repeat but some of the people reading this aren't on FB, or might have missed it even if they are.

I suppose I could bore you with the daily rides, but since there are too many of those I drew up this little table:

	TDF Ride EveryDay				Rapha Rising
	Distance (Km)	Ascent (m)	Time	Avg Speed Km/H	Distance (Km)	Ascent (m)
Jul 21-27 (11 rides)	379.4	6467	21:11:00.00	17.91	379.4	6467
Jul 14-20 (7 Rides)	309.3	3004	12:41:00.00	24.39	215.4	2712
Jul 7-13 (8 Rides)	227.7	1623	08:41:00.00	26.22
Jul 5-6 (2 Rides)	103.9	1647	06:57:00.00	14.95
My Totals	1020.3	12741	49:30:00.00	20.61	594.8	9179
TDF Totals (Nibali's time)	3664	62803	89:59:00	40.72
Comaparison Me/TDF%	27.85%	20.29%	55.01%	50.62%

It should also be noted I was switching a bit between Road Bike and MTB, and used the trainer in the kitchen on some nights, but the last week was all on the MTB riding as much hills as I could 'on the way' to work and back home.

On Sat 19'th I did my longest ride ever of 164.2Km and at that stage also most climbing in one ride at 2039m, I did more climbing in the ride on Sat 26 with 7 repeats of Sterkfontein Hill (plus a couple of trips home to refill water bottle and a short lunch trip) totalling 2190m (also longest ride ever on the MTB at 119Km), for those that know the area the climb was from the Riet River bridge (Just before the Greensleeves Turn Off) to the traffic lights at the top which is 290m in 7.5Km.

Saturday's ride looks like this (map and elevation data) The Peak with the long bit is where I went for lunch, and back.

'Now what' may be asked... well I don't know, I've proved to myself I can go long (and high) but I could be faster, and technical stuff catches me out so I have room for improvement there. I've got a 50Km MTB race in 2 Weeks then a 100Km Road race a week after that and then 21 September 100Km MTB from Uniondale to Knysna, so I guess I'll just prepare for those for now and work on improving my MTB skills. Sounds a bit boring after the last three weeks I suppose, but I'll just keep Moooving on.

Please remember I'm trying to Raise R20,000 for CHOC this year please go and donat on my GivenGain Page by clicking HERE

One other thing, thanks to all those who have given encouragement and congratulations, word's like machine, respect, nutcase just encourage me, and if things really do get bad I'll just take a right turn up the hill one day (just kidding).

That's all for now, thanks for reading.

CHOC Cows 2014 Post #5 Hakahana, TDF, Rapha Rising

Hi fans and anti-fans,

So I'm sitting on my bed with laptop not doing much, reading through some news, when a ping alerts me that someone mentioned my name on facebook, only to find I'm being 'accused' of being 'under cover' because people only hear about me but don't see me, so anyway I respond about my endeavours over the last few weeks, to realize almost with shock that I've challenged myself to lots of suffering this month so let's just tally up the challenges:

1. Ride every day of the Tour de France (that includes rest days)
2. Day 1 of Challenge 1 happens to coincide with Nissan Trailseeker #2 Hakahana and sado-masochist had entered the 60 odd Km 1300+m marathon edition.
3. I signed up to attempt Rapha Rising challenge on Strava which is to do 8800m of climbing in 9 days which happens to coincide with last 9 days of Challenge 1.
4. Just for laughs I decided I would try for a 160Km ride to complete my 4th Grand Fondo ride (130+Km), I missed the first 3 in case you are wondering why it's Grand Fondo 7.

So let's tally up where I am on these:

1. Today (Thu 17 Jul 2014) is Day 13 of the TDF I've managed to ride everyday... quite a few of the rides have been on the trainer in the kitchen going nowhere fast, but there have been one or two longish rides in between including Hakahana (more about that next) I've managed to clock up 408Km in 20hrs with 3424m of climbing. One morning commute to work was rather cool with max temp of -2C and min of -6C. That of course is way less than what those guys on the tour do but the aim wasn't to match them just to ride every day.
2. Depending on how you count it I came 1st, 2nd or 5th ........ LAST on Hakahana, 68.2Km in 6h34m01s  okay so I did almost 4Km/20 minutes extra due to missing a sign board and spent another 15 minutes fixing my dérailleur which I bent somewhere along the line, not that 35 minutes would have improved my position much, but considering the climbing and my lack of technical talent I'm satisfied with that, maybe I bit too much off for my first seeded MTB race but hey I finished. Was really happy to see the Cows manning the halfway water point, got really loaded up on the CHOC Bars and encouraging words from fellow CHOC Cows.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Sooo this one starts on Saturday 19 July and finishes Sunday 27 July, 8800m (28871ft) in 9 days is a fair amount of climbing for someone like me who doesn't like climbing (that's partly why I decided to do it)  For those who want to put that in understandable terms that would be a building of roughly 2200 stories.
   For those that know some of the hills around Krugersdorp:
   
   • Hekpoort T Junction to top of Sterkies is 657m of climbing, 
   • Breedts Nek loop car park to car park is 905m, 
   • Sterkfontein Caves Rd to top of Sterkies 280m, 
   • Muldersdrift to Key West 277m. 
   • Mt Everest Base Camp to Summit 3523m. (Okay this isn't in Krugersdorp)
   
   How am I going to manage this feat??? Well I honestly don't know but I'm going to try 3000-4000m each on the 2 weekends i.e. 1500-2000m a day, at worst that will leave me the 5 days of the week to do 2800m which is 2 climbs of Sterkies (underlined above) a day. I haven't worked out what routes would give me 1500 to 2000 yet but I have time constraints as well so need to plan well and just see how the legs last.
   
   I might not make this one it's going to be really difficult for me but if you know how stubborn I can be, you can be sure I will be doing my best.
4. The way I see it this will happen on one of my 2 Saturday rides of Challenge 3 perhaps a few loops in the cradle and back up one of the 2 hills.

So that's probably (more than) enough rambling words for now... Don't forget I'm still trying to raise R20,000 for CHOC by 94.7 please do mosey on over to my GivenGain project page by CLICKING HERE TO DONATE If you want to know more about this worthy cause, please go read up here on the CHOC website