The Honeymoon Is Over

Where have the last three weeks gone?

They seem to have flown by in a haze of working, some racing, very little recreational riding, and what I remember to be a fair bit of rain and crappy weather.

Into week 2 of the BMI Challenge, and fair to say that the weight is not falling off me. Possibly the fact that I am sitting here typing, with a glass of red wine, plus crackers and hommus (it's healthy, really, I promise it is), or the fact that I have ridden to work precisely once in the last fortnight, resulted in the graph heading in entirely the wrong direction last week. I am not holding out great hopes for this week either, but resolutely will not be looking at the scales until Monday morning.

Boss is back in the country on Tuesday, and the place hasn't fallen apart without him, and to a certain extent the autonomy has been a good thing. I'm not saying he's superflous, neither am I saying that we crashed and burned without his guidance. Wasn't better, wasn't worse, just different. Personally I think we did a bloody good job in his absence, and will be interested to hear his opinions on his return.

Of course, he's only around for a week, and then OS again for another 3 weeks. And we'll get another chance to prove ourselves.

On the Solo 24 Hour front - not much sleep had last Sunday. The race started at 4am Sunday morning our time, and I was up pretty early (for me) to follow the results. Damo charged out of the blocks, holding 2nd in his age group for a good chunk of the day. Things started to get a bit rough - temps were a big issue (an unconfirmed source has the ambient temp at 36 C at the start line) and he crept back to 3rd, and started to fade rapidly. A tactical decision was made to take a break, get some zzz and come back charging, which worked. Falling to 5th while napping, he managed to reclaim 4th position and hang on until the end. An absolutely awesome result, close to 350km ridden and by my calculations 11,000 metres of climbing for the 24 hours.

Very much looking forward to seeing the man in person and getting the dirt first hand.

Aussies once again dominated proceedings, with Jason English taking out the Elite title (22 laps), after Kiwi challenger Tony Hogg overcooked himself and collapsed on course. Australian Female Champ Jess Douglas fought valiantly, and while she couldn't overcome the competition, came away with a very well deserved 4th position.

I am completely in awe of these guys. If you've got a copy of this months MBA Magazine, read very carefully the article on Arran Peason. This guy is going to be my Everyman Hero. Going from 120kg ,and living on a hamburger and beer diet, to qualifying and competing in the Elite category at the Worlds - this guy is seriously hard. His starting point is not too far off where I was 12 months ago - could I emulate where he is now?