Forward planning taken to extremes and other stuff

In order to get onto early bird fares, those of us living in God's own country have to plan waaaaay ahead.

So....my plane tickets for 2012 are already booked and paid for and this week or next, depending on when they are posted, I'll have my lease car booked and the deposit paid.  The first 2 weeks of my time in Europe will be another Italian language learning experience and is already booked..no deposit required for this.

Also, in a race to at least get a bed that won't break the bank, I've also booked accommodation for the following: the Masters track nationals in February (Parramatta), the AVCC Easter carnival at Maryborough, the Hume vets  Queen's Birthday weekend 3 day tour at Benalla in June, and the Masters road Nationals at Goulburn in October.  !

You might think that booking  this early  is a bit of overkill but when you are aiming for the budget end of the scale it's the way to go and in fact I was lucky,  I got the last cabins at both Benalla and Maryborough.  Somewhat amazingly, I didn't have to provide a deposit for any except Parramatta where I had to pay the whole amount upfront.  

Other stuff

For the last 4 days I've been wearing an accelerometer as I am taking part as a healthy subject  in a research project on the amount of exercise people with lung cancer do. The  version of accelerometer that I've been given slips into a pocket or a bum bag however it's turned itself off twice, so I'm not sure it's the best version.

Normally I would be somewhat of an outlier for my 10 year age range   but since 2 of the days were "rest" days for me, the 3rd day it poured all day and so my 3 hour mixed pace road ride morphed into a 1 hour sufferfest on the ergo and the 4th day was a gym day, I wont be.  My body composition was also measured  (def an outlier..more muscle than most 60-70 yr olds) and in a couple of weeks I'll be doing a VO2 max test on a bike.  Muscle testing indicated what I already knew..ie that I'm significantly stronger on my right side  except, somewhat strangely, for grip strength.

Back to regular work
Still as a casual, but I'm doing some clinical work  for at least 2 possibly 3 half days a week until the end of January.  Slow stream rehab..not something I've relished when working regularly, but something I'm happy to go with at this stage of my career.

Gym work
is something I find crashingly boring and it doesn't take much for me NOT to attend, but if I'm to get the improvement in my pursuit and TT it's some thing I just HAVE to do...dammit.  I've found a somewhat different gym+ personal trainer nearby.. part a boxing gym, part not, with  never more than 5 people in the "not" part  at any one time.  So far so good.......

Dramas and non dramas

DRAMAS

1. returning from a ride on Beach Road and following a visit to friends in Bon Beach, I couldn't find my SRM PCVI and at $A700 to replace it, I was somewhat upset.  I searched the car 2 or 3 times, checked up that I'd not left it at the friends' place and searched the car/washing machine/driveway and the house AGAIN.  Then the friends went to where I'd parked the car while I was on my ride...still no luck.

The next day after more car searches by me and Alex  I drove via my parking spot (to check again)  to the police station to report it lost prior to putting in an insurance claim.  After I got home I did a final check of the car..with fingers this time rather than eyes and there it was...yet another case of "black on black".  Phew!!!

2. The battery of my HTC Desire smart phone which is part of my Telstra contract and was provided by them has been running down far too quickly since about June. I had tried to get it checked before I went OS at that time but Telstra wants you to make an appointment to see the tech person and with no time for that  I waited and finally started to get it seen to  last week.

Visit 1..went into Telstra Eastland and made an appointment for the next day
Visit 2 tech person said he could do nothing until I had contacted HTC for a test and that HTC could lend me a test battery.

Phone 1 to HTC who had never heard of the test battery thing, but put me onto their tech who got me to do a battery run down test, which I did the next day.  The test showed that after 2 hours with nothing working the battery dropped to 77% of capacity.
Phone 2 to HTC to report the above.  They said..fine...now you have to go back to Telstra and tell them the results and you need to get the tech to do a test..  We'll put it on your data..here's the reference.

Visit 3 to Telstra to make an appointment
Visit 4 tech said there was no ref number but the details were there under my phone number (phew)....he did the test and said ring this Telstra number and they'll provide you with a new battery since this one is clearly faulty..gives me phone number.

Phone 3..ring number...wrong one.   Given another number...phone chick says noooo they dont do that you will have to buy a battery and they can re-imburse me.  Go back to Telstra shop  and they will provide......(I got a bit hot under the collar during this phone call....!)

Visit 5 I refused to get appointment and said something like ....see me now I'm totally pissed off..this is the 5th visit and you are bouncing me around..it's no wonder there are always annoyed people in this shop...etc etc etc. The  tech saw me at once(squeaky wheel syndrome at play here).  Ha!..no batteries in shop...buy online at Telstra accessories and provide the invoice for refund.  He gave me details.  I checked.  No stock until 6/12/2011.

The noise you can hear is my teeth grinding/gnashing

Non dramas

• Earlier on following the comment about the TT I emailed   the Torino World Masters Games re the  road race and it will  NOT be as shown on the web site, but will be " a little up and a little down" and of an appropriate distance for all ages.
• I'm back doing Italian classes, training hard and working 2 days a week max.
• Ben and Melissa are house hunting and we're sorta in on the act a bit.

Cycling Australia's Cyclist of the Year Awards

As a previous 2 time winner of the Female Masters section award...I'm delighted to congratulate Lise Benjamin on winning this year's version.  She looked the goods in Manchester and did us all proud with her podium places there.

Congrats also to my "old" mate Shirley Amy who deservedly was awarded the Victorian Volunteer of the Year. Shirley's work at club level (along with unnamed others, I've no doubt) has brought Castlemaine CC up to the forefront of all the country clubs.  Well done Shirl!  Not just working at club level, she's also been keeping up the fitness and competitive side of things too with good results at the Aus Masters Games held in South Australia during October.

Me?..well I keep posting that I'm over jet lag, but I'm still taking nanna naps at about 4pm......I've tried to get to the track twice but haven't woken up in time.  BUT, today I'm up, I'm also awake and what's more I'm packed and ready to roll!  And at work I've tramsformed from a very quiet person to my more normal level of chit chat and verbal sparring....and it's been commented on!

Follow up on my World Masters Games 2013 (Aug 2nd to Aug 13th) comment in a previous post...this prompted another friend to email the cycling contact and apparently there WILL  be a Time Trial.

Road info so far: parcours of 117km

;

Track info so far:

400m outdoor track..hmm 400m that should be interesting for the 500m TT!

and finally MTB...the pix show an extremely benign area...maybe I could think of entering this too(!) and there's Orienteering too hmmm..spoilt for choice.

Now I have to start scouting out good accommodation before other equally overly/stupidly well organised people snap up the best there is.

A week later..random comments and plans for 2012

finally... I've emerged from the dementing fog of jet lag, travel fatigue and  the scrambled digestive system that habitually  haunts me for about 7 days after long haul flights in cattle class.  The only living thing to be sad about my departure from this state is my cat who just loves to have a human being to snuggle down with during the day, ending up as a furry scarf during my frequent day time naps.

And so to planning for the next  season.  One thing is for certain, I'm not going to freight my bikes over or back  again, it'd be cheaper to go business class and pre purchase extra weight allowance.  Getting the bike over to Europe was extra work but wasn't all that expensive...getting it back was a ridiculously expensive money grab.

Since I've had 3 weeks off the bike, I'll not be entering the Women's Omnium or the Metro champs later this month but will aim to peak for the States and Nats champs in February and then will plan to have a solid road season returning to Deutschlandsberg and St Johann during August.

I will not be going to South Africa for the UCI  Masters thing since I continue to consider that format  not to be racing. Also I wonder how it's possible to police the "qualifying " mass participation events so as to prevent women from being paced by their male friends  in order to get a good enough time to qualify.  Of related interest ... in Athletics women's world records in the Marathon can now only be set in Women only races.

Planning well into the future I see that the Torino World Masters Games 2013 has only 1 very hilly parcours of 100+km for the road race (no TT) and given the games habit of allowing age classes up to and including W/M100+ this seems a bit odd.

Rome

Always plenty of ruins in Rome

From the top of the tour bus (and before I fell asleep!)

The end of October and the queues were still infinitely long

The one plus about jet lag is that I'm awake at a time when the more interesting
TV programs are on!