Black Flash's blog

Ok. So it wasn't my smartest decision. But it was my decision. To ride with a crappy chest infection whilst on all manner of "medicine", and completely against all medical advice. But such is the draw of the Kowalski.

My prep had been good, as was everyone else's on the team, but a family weekend away the weekend prior didn't see me finalising my training. What's worse is I returned with an URTI... Bugger. The best chance of riding well was to get as much rest as possible.

Well that hurt.
We started with the best of intentions. 12 mates, weekend warriors, commuters and wannabe action heros. All hairy legged and well under prepared for the race. Sorry, I mean ride. The only way to convince the boys to step up, was to set the rules. We ride as a social group, at the slowest persons pace. But even that scared off 4 fellas before the start line arrived. So then there were 8.
As I said, we had the best of intentions, start as a group, cruise as a group, help each other through the difficulties and finish as a group. Simple. Well no. Not really.

Decided to bite the bullet on what could be the muddiest ride to date... Perimeter / long trail after 200mm of rain 2 days ago. The organised full moon ride was postponed to next week, but I was still keen. Dragged out the old Raven, not wanting to bugger up the gear on my premier ponies.

The much anticipated video of our Boys Weekend Away mountain biking. A few nobmobbers, MGL Tipriders and a few other mates hit up Awaba, Glenrock then off up to Kirarrak in Taree. Temperature were hot, humidity was hot, riding was - awesome! i have linked together a few clips of the ride into a soundtrack that best reflects our age... I hope you enjoy! If you dont - im sorry, it is only my second attempt at this sort of thing... : )

http://youtu.be/UCglDkaqjo0

Got my helmet back... Going to be needing a new one after my stack at the Convict. Ive already ordered a 2012 version, as the 2011 one worked pretty well in my opinion - after all, i am typing this...
The top is dented and all the damage is to the left temple area!

If you can see on the close up, the cracks going through the foam - spread the impact load very well IMO.

I'll keep this brief. Kind of.
The Convict 50 was going to be my best ever race result - lots of training in the aim of a sub 2 hour time.