Rookie Rider 101 - Part Three

There's just so much to share in this Idiot's guide to motorbiking so the lessons continue:

Leave in the mist but well kitted up for the chill.
Stop for roadside coffee to warm up.
Ride 100km on tar
Arrive at 7:45 and nosh a huge breakfast at the hotel and plan the day's riding.

Put Garmin on bike and attempt to navigate out town - Two Strikes, almost out.
Follow route into the middle of some houses - ask local to push bike up bank to avoid a hill start.
Ride into a single track descent of -23%, slide for about half in a semi controlled fashion then wait for @onegiantride to come back and take bike the rest of the way.
Settle adenalin.
Find correct route and head out along river on path.

Proceed to experience the following.

• Technical single track ascents avoiding boulders and ditches
• Pushing and lifting bike over log bridge too narrow to ride
• Rapidly learn to use 1st gear to descend gnarly descents
• Find out how to use back brake
• Cross ride paddies with a little help from locals
• See @onegiantride fall worse than me
• Ride loose sand
• Ride up and down massive boulder outcrops following a 8 ton six wheeler going somewhere
• Eventually graduate to 2nd gear on some of the descents
• Race the rain
  
• Buy warm cokes from village shop
• Cross streams
• Spray painted with sand from @onegiantride's wheel trying to help him up a bank
• Re-use all the old paddling muscles lifting bikes over bridges and bracing against handlebars on descents
• Count bruises on shins
  
• Learn how to hill start
• Find gears are suddenly easier when back on tar
  
• Avoid chickens, children, zebu, rickshaws, pedestrians, cyclists, scooters....
  

All in one day.
Graduate to Rookie Rider 202

Hot shower - count the bruises
Drink copious amounts of tea
Eat huge dinner
Sleep

Mountain biking skills

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Rookie Rider 101 - Part Two

The How To Guide continued:

• Wait all day for replacement bike to arrive.
• Swop to replacement bike which is smaller
• Finally load luggage on back of bikes and backs of riders
• Prepare to depart.
• Quell nervous tension at pulling away in four lanes of traffic around a small circle.
• Chicken out and ask @onegiantride to take bike to other side for a downhill start.
• Negotiate Tana rush hour traffic again and navigate out the city on the road to Antsirabe 180km away. (Ambitious!)
  
• Ride into the dark again.
• Forget to extract warm kit and borrow from @onegiantride
• Four kms further on spot hotel and pull in. (Being sensible???!)

Check in.
Eat three course meal for about R72
Sleep.

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Rookie Rider 101

The How To Guide to off-road motorbiking:

Take one day to learn how to ride a motorbike courtesy of Roto Rookies then head for Madagascar three weeks later.

Day One
Collect bike (Honda 250) and ride in rush hour traffic looking for a hotel for the night. Remember to stay on the opposite side of the road you're used to.
Ride around until it gets dark and don't make eye contact with gendarmes - look like you know what you're doing.
Find out you don't know how to hill start then practically wheelie up the hill out of control.
Stall the bike 20 times because you'e afraid you'll do the same on the next hill and hit a car or pedestrian.
Get rescued by @onegiantride who rides bike to top of hill.
Arrive at hotel wide eyed.
Eat.
Sleep.

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Mountain Biking in Madagascar

I was privileged to be invited to Madagascar to check out the mountain biking potential. It was just a week so no bike. What a pity - I was itching to ride. Next time. Here are a few pics to show you what riding in the Southern part of the country is like - in and around the Fort Dauphin (Tolianaro) area.

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Wild Trail

I just don't understand how people survive without adventures.  Its this step out of the ordinary that makes the day to day living and grind of domesticity all surviveable.

Wild Run was my second big adventure this year.  It was a long haul to get to the start line but I really looked forward to the experience. Aileen (@gardengodmother) and I had been upbeat about the event. This was probably to disguise the fact that we knew we hadn't done enough long runs. But there is also time to just get on with what you have - and this was one of them.

We flew into East London and then were transferred to Thatches in Kei Mouth just in time for briefing followed by dinner at the Green Lantern.  There we met Brett and Francis. He was running and we ended up doing a lot of miles together and she (a physio) provided Aileen with a lot of plaster for blisters. The few people we had spoken to all seemed to have fallen into our category of training but were they spinning a yarn?  Exaggerating the deficit in case things fell apart?

The next morning was stunning and the 80 runners loaded onto the ferry across the Kei River for the official start.  7.30 and we were off jogging down the beach accompanied by thundering booms as massive spring tide waves crashed onto the shore.  The high tide crimped our running space onto soft sand which ended up giving lots of people blisters amongst other niggles.  Then there was the camber.  Picture running 45km on a steep camber while sinking into soft sand.  It did some damage.

I decided to keep my feet dry for as long as possible on that long first day which meant some time wasting at the two big river crossings.  Note: river crossings equal swimming.  This, together with my fabulous (new) trail shoes (Inov8 Roclite 295) and handy gaiters meant I had absolutely no problems with blisters or toenails.  Upfront, I'll tell you that by the last day, I had quite bad tendonitis in my foot from the sand and camber but nothing else wrong.  As the day wore on, the headwind increased but the tide eventually went out giving us a much firmer footing and easier running. Aileen and I made a little train of two to give one person respite from the wind by drafting.

The scenery was spectacular.  Long empty beaches, brilliant green headlands, black jagged rocks and perfectly blue water.  I guess this is what keeps you going when you're tired.  Honestly, I don't remember much other than the approach to Mazeppa Bay and being able to see the finish about 5km away.  I remember the final swim across the Mbashe River and the 100m stumble to Kob Inn.  I remember my the tiny muscles in my feet feeling like they were cramping while I lay on my bed dozing.

I remember being gratified that everyone was hobbling - without exception. Oh yes, and I remember seeing the wreck of the Jacaranda at some point.  The pictures will have to tell some of the story.

We mingled and chatted to others throughout the afternoon and evening in a camaraderie of shared suffering. It was early to bed after a five course meal with a hope and a prayer that the feet would be ok the next day.

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Three More Sleeps

The next big Event is only three nights away.  @gardengodmother and I head off the beautiful Wild Coast for the three day Wild Run.

Its been a long haul to get here. She and I both sat eagerly at our computers in January waiting for entries to open. It was a frantic few minutes trying to fill out forms and submit them and hoping we'd got ours done in time.  It took twenty minutes for all the entries to be taken, but we were in!

Then we "appointed" a running coach as neither of us had enough running background for a staged trail run of between 33km and 45km per day at that.  Marcel Viljoen of Fitness From Africa did his best.  He had a programme to build us up to appropriate mileage but he had not reckoned with the two of us having bodies that stubbornly resisted a smooth run up.

Between backs, legs, calves, feet, we stuttered and stumbled our way through the months to bring us to this point at last. I juggled mountain biking with the running knowing that at least I was remaining fit if not running strong.  Once Ride 2 Rhodes was over, the bike was put away, still with the mud of the ride on it, and out came the trail shoes and a three month cramming session.

Mileage flucutated wildly from 2km(worst), to 64km (best) per week. Ja, ja - not ideal but hey, we worked with what we had.  The best part of the build up were the twice weekly track sessions under Marcel's guidance. Our improvements have been phenomenal through this discipline.

The Wild Run begins at Kei Mouth (just north of East London) and finishes three days and 112km later at Hole in the Wall.  The distances are intimidating for us novices but the spectacular surroundings will get us through.  The event is so popular that they have two races back to back. Although, our event is not a race - its the social version so we hope to not be last!

Events are what keep my going.  A big goal to take me out of the mudane and a friend to share it with.  The pain won't last but the memories and the experience will be there forever.

Watch this space for reports or follow on Twitter : @santacruzrulz and @gardengodmother

Try not to be too envious....

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There was a day six

Yes, there really was. The Ride2Rhodes is all of six days but this rider got so caught up in the drama of the Race Across South Africa (RASA), I completely forgot to finish off the saga. But finish it I must as the most significant sports event so far  this year in my personal calendar. I'm about to embark on the next Event so I have to clear the decks.

I'm scraping the barrels of my memory now.  For possibly the first time in two R2Rs and one RASA. I hit the snooze button twice that morning in Vuvu. I felt drained. The polite knock on the door by our hosts galvanised me at last and @gadgetrules and I trekked back to the school to collect our stuff and push through the final day.  I knew it wasn't going my way when there was no hot water for tea and the kettle didn't boil in time before we left!

Last to go, the usual four suspects, Derek, Andries, Pawel and I, plodded out the door into a strong wind. Its 8km to the turnoff to Lehana Pass and the wind seemed to grow more ferocious, the closer we went. At times, I couldn't move forward into its teeth and I was standing still unable even to push let alone ride.

Having experienced Lehana twice already and once with strong winds, I was seriously fearful that I would get blown off the narrow path that wound its way up the ridge spine.  A long and complicated debate with myself ensued and in the end I succumbed to the fatigue which had sapped my mental edge and took in the sites of Mount Fletcher by road.  The two hour doze helped and I hopped on my bike on the other side of the mountain and rode back to meet the team.

I felt less bad about missing out when two of them said they would not have been able to help me if I had got into trouble. They were so busy trying to keep their own footing on the mountain in the insane wind. Some of the other riders opted for a longer route around hoping for a break from the pounding but all it meant was longer exposure, less recovery time and more exhaustion and for some, race ending injury.

We rolled into Rhodes with our own paparazzi - multiple RASA finisher, Trevor Ball - and celebrated with a wide range of drinks and huge plates of crispy chips. "Our" two RASA riders from FNB had a quick bike service and parts swop with Andries and Derek and were set to go the next morning on substantially better performing bikes.

I thought I might be envious of them setting off for the rest of the adventure but I was happy to have finished. Lack of long rides had taken its toll but the awesome cameraderie of our group had more than made up for the efforts of the previous six days.

And I can't close off this chapter without singing the praises of our guardians - Dave and Dawn. Nothing was too much trouble and when the going got really tough, they brought out the banana bread or fruit cake!  Its worth going back just for that. You guys rocked.

To the group - muchas gracias. I hope to ride with you again.

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