Category: Ride

Today was another day off work so I rode back out to Baring Head, as my knees are quite sore and I wanted a fairly long but flat ride.

Highlights included:

• scoring a free, but slight worse for wear, kids bike on the way to the ride;
• feeling pretty solid throughout the ride, in the past I have felt fatigued even on the first leg;
• the sky and yellow grass at Baring Head were stunning;
• the cliffs are also stunning;
• the old WW2 observation bunkers were a cool detour;
• I returned from the head to the carpark in less than 35 minutes which I was pretty stoked about. It would have taken about an hour to get out there, but I did stop a few times to take pictures and explore.

I had a day off work and made the most of it with a fantastic ride up the peak today. I figure I made it to the top in less than an hour, perhaps even 45 minutes or so, I was taking it reasonably easy through some sections.

The ride down was fantastic also – there is a section of Peak Flow that is immensely enjoyable. Smokin’ and Three Brothers also felt the best they ever have.

The regular commuting up through Polhill Reserve is paying off in terms of uphill fitness, although I do want to do a lot more downhill.

Last week I did the Ikigai morning commute three times. It was fantastic and I noticed improvement. It was hard going though, as coming back up in the afternoons meant by the weekend my legs were shot. But it was five consecutive days riding over some decent terrain, and up to an hour and forty five minutes on some days, so I was pretty happy with the effort.

I used the morning commute to tackle Ikigai, and it was wonderful. It is a fun ride and while sections are challenging for me, I take it nice and easy (as much as circumstances allow). It was about 45 minute ride to work, and about an hour on the way home.

The way home involved Clinical and Highbury Fling. I was really stoked at getting up Clinical without the usual issue I have at the quad switchback, and it was more or less easy riding from there. The new flyover was open on the Highbury Fling, and it is very nice.

It was great to be back within a week. I rode the Koru + Lazy Fern combo twice as I didn’t have a great deal of time. It was fantastic, and while I can reasonably confidently get around the flat switchbacks on Lazy Fern one in particular still feels borderline.

But it was pretty fun and nice to go down Lazy Fern again for the first time in a while.

A note on my nemesis corner. I have made it around once on the first attempt, and now retry the corner if I fail to get around it, but it is getting better. I still can’t figure out why it is so difficult. But anyhoo, it’s progress.

Lovely ride up and down Makara Peak with Julian. It had been over three weeks and was great to be back. We took the climb in a fairly leisurely way. Coming down was good fun, parts of Peak Flow felt fantastic and fun. I also managed to get around one of the gnarlier corners on Smokin’.

I rode Transient again today after a hiatus of over three weeks. I managed all the switchbacks bar a silly mistake on one, but most importantly I made it around the nemesis corner (on the second attempt). And it was SO EASY, I have no idea why it was such a big deal in my mind.

I also made it up without stopping.

Unfortunately the track has changed and a favourite challenging switchback has been removed. It looks fairly permanent too, and has so far been replaced with a fairly pedestrian stretch. Certainly much less physically taxing too. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I do miss the old corner.

It did serve as a reminder that when you’re stuck, a break is best.

It was also quite liberating not feeling tied to the segments and overall ride times by Strava. I have no idea how fast I was and I don’t care.

The Kathmandu Mono tent performed very, very well. It was a classic west coast rain night – while it didn’t rain all night it was much heavier rain when it was coming down.

We decided to leave the group and head back to Kohaihai as it was clear we were not going to be heading further – and we had a long drive ahead of us.

The ride back was great – not much rain, and it was rather humid. The views were so stunning, and overall the riding was pleasant.

We noticed that the streams were a little higher than the day before, and there were was a small slip on the track, and the track had washed away in a couple of very small places.

There are a bunch of pinch climbs on the way, some of which we needed to dismount and walk. I was pretty knackered at the top of some of them, they were intensified by the mud and loose sand, and in places rocks and roots.

It took us just under three hours to cover the 16km.