So near.... but so far.....

MTB Te Puke - Otanewainuku - The Lakes

I like exercise with adventure.  With purpose.  I don't like going out and back, as I find it very hard to expend energy moving away from home, knowing full well I will have to expend just as much energy getting back again, and feeling even worse.  I absolutely cannot run laps.  The moment at which I am near to my house or car again, is the moment at which my mental strength crumples and I stop.  So, I try to make the most of natural 'opportunities' to get somewhere through exercise.

With Tom and the girls taking part in a duathlon at the Lakes, I figure I'll get there under my own steam.  Reduced petrol, and a sense of purpose.  The reality was significantly less impressive.

Using Mapmyrun, I gauge the bike as being 45km.  That's quite a long way on my MTB, which I need for the gravel section through Otanewainuku.  I'm not much good at remembering speeds or averages, I think I try to forget my exercise as soon as I've finished it.  I ask Tom how long it'll take and he says "On your MTB - prob at least 15kmhr, even uphill?"  Sally "You're optimistic aiming to do that in under three hours!"  Manu "You'll knock that off in an hour and a half and you'll still have time to listen to the birds at Otanewainuku".

So, I reckon 2.5 hours.  I want to be there by 9 to help the kids get ready for their race at 9.30.  Alarm set early, need to be on my bike by 6.30. 

As per usual, I start quarter of an hour late, and what follows is a very stressful first hour and a half of this ride.  Check out this profile

Straight uphill for 20km.  Now, you can see the down, and the increased speed as a result.  But climbing that hill, regularly at 10kmhr, KNOWING I was going to be late.  WAS NOT FUN.  I doubted the length of the downhill.  I doubted my ability to get up it to get to the downhill.  I contemplated turning around and driving to the bloody Lakes.  I had to text Tom and beg forgiveness.  At that pace, the scenery changes so slowly I have very little to contemplate.  Although, there was a pearler when some bloke opened his curtains and stood semi clad in front of his sliding door with a cuppa tea enjoying the rural view, obviously not anticipating anyone will be passing at a speed slow enough to actually get an eyeful.

I had a trig pegged, once again involving some secret squirred spy work across farmland without permission.  I had to ride right past it, taunting me, only 10 mins away, knowing that those ten minutes might mean divorce if I don't get to the Lakes in time for Tom to leave me the kids and race.  

 

Relieved to make it to Otanewainuku

Anyway, I will endeavour to forget the endeavour of this ride.  And besides saying I will NEVER do it again, only 5% was on gravel and it was torture on a mtb on the road, I will only remember two things.

1  At about the 14k mark, I heard a funny 'woosh' by my right shoulder.  I glance back, and come eye-to-eye with a huge, nasty, black magpie, within arms reach of my head.  It was like something out of a Steven King movie, vicious talons and beady eyes, and a wingspan as long as mine (ok, that bit's an exaggeration.....).  I'm right underneath a stand of pine trees and it's nesting season.  I squawk back at it, hit out with my hand and breathe a sigh of relief as it flies back up to the trees.  It lands on a branch, looks down at my and holy shit, it comes back for a second attack.  It really was quite frightening to watch it come at me, wings all tucked in like a missile.  I'm pleased no one saw me cycling helter pelter down the road, trying to watch in front of me and above me at the same time, screaming and waving my arms. 

2  I love biking downhill.  Especially after losing my will to live on an up.  Very few cars around, and I managed to hit nearly 48kmhr.  Did some 'wooshing' of my own.