Cookie Monster's 2012 Log

Cookie_Monster · 29-12-2011 5:46am #1

So after last years very successful log and the second not so successful one I’ve decided to keep going again this year. I think it’ll help keep me more motivated tbh as the back end of this year I’ve been lacking the commitment at times and having to write it up might push me that little bit more.

So 2012 then, the goals:

Cycling Goals:

7,500km (recorded via excel as not all my commutes etc get logged on the garmin)
70km in vertical height as recorded on Strava
5 Sportives*, if not more
Get to 75kg (lose 7 from where I am now after Xmas)
Cycle the coast around Wellington (it just looks great)
500 Laps of the new track (1.7km)
1000 Laps of the new short track (333m)
This segment is 18mins or less: http://app.strava.com/segments/751923

Non Cycling goals:

Climb Mt Taranaki
Walk into Mordor, yes you can do it, the mountains that were used for Mt Doom are hikable :pac:
25km of sea kayaking, a modest goal but one that might get me out a few times none the less.

* For the Sportives I already know 4 of them, round the mountain in Taranaki twice in Jan, round the lake in Rotorua next Oct and round Lake Taupo in Nov. Have to find another here or abroad in the meantime.

So an average of around 150km a week and 1.5km climbing or so. Means I need to get out a lot more often than I have been and for longer cycles, due to the hills I’ve been doing shorter spins than at home so need to back to it, 150 a week should be no bother to me at this stage.

My commute is only 1.9km so that won’t add much, about 900km in the year though so not too bad.

Equipment has not changed, Canyon Roadlite 6.0. Hope to upgrade during the year, give the current to the missus and get her to come out more.

All this while taking on more sports than I did at home; lot more out doorsy here and the beach is fantastic for messing in the waves. Would like to get out sea kayaking semi regularly, get back into hiking a bit more, also taken to playing beach volleyball on Fridays but this is more about taking it easy and having a drink or two rather than serious sport.

In regards the laps, what’s the best way to record them do you think? I’ll set the laps as segments on Strava anyway but not sure will that be easy to make out the number of times I’ve done it in a session. Can you set a position in the Edge itself that it’ll record as a lap every time you pass it so it comes out on Garmin Connect for example?

The track will be more for the winter I think, so I’ll have somewhere I can just drive to, do some laps regardless of weather and head off again with ease. It’s not even open yet anyway.

Finally for those of you not aware I’m now based down in New Plymouth after moving back in August, to some it’ll make this log less relevant as it’s not ROI based and indeed that’s what happened to me with the last one tbh. But hopefully I’ll have enough good reading, photos and maps to keep ye all interested.

Beasty · 29-12-2011 9:20am

Good luck with it Cookie Monster - looking forward to the reports from the other side of the world

In terms of recording the track laps, my Garmin (500) has no problem with Sundrive (although it's a bit longer - 460m - the laps are easily discerable). I also use it indoors (Manchester) with GPS turned off, relying on the speedo to simply track distance - it works well, and tallies with some "independent" verification (in the form of transponders you strap to your leg which record every lap as you pass a certain position on the track)

Cookie_Monster · 01-01-2012 3:21am

So Week 0 then; zero cause it's only the Sunday, week 1 starts tomorrow for me from a recording point of view. I don't need this distance on last years and it's 2012 so should be here anyway.

It'll be in week 1 on my records to keep the spreadsheet simple. Also I weighed myself this morning for a base level and I've gone back up to 83.5, too many beers, crisps and mince pies over Xmas. So that's 8.5kg to lose this year. I'd like ot think I've lost more than 5kg last year but put on some extra leg muscle to somewhat offset the fat loss to come from 89 to 83.5 last year.

Today's ride was nice, didn't think I'd go out cos the weather is crap but decided to just go for it.

54km from NP (New Plymouth) to Egmont to Inglewood to Bell Block to NP

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/137871054
http://app.strava.com/rides/3003919

Strava for altitude and segments but GC for everything else as it's more accurate I think now that it uses google maps once again. Will do the same for every ride.

The weather today was overcast, there's a cyclone moving down the Tasmin and we've been dumped on for the last 3-4 days. Thankfully this morning was dry enough, It rained at points today but nothing too serious and it was quite warm too so dried off quickly enough.

I've a few snaps to help give ye an idea of the area, I'll try to keep it a snap heavy log too keep ye happy:)

The cutting on the road up to Egmont from NP

Most hills on the main roads here have 2+1 lanes, it means that you get a lot of room from cars apart from when someone is overtaking the guy overtaking you which is scary as hell. EDIT: you can't really see the dual lane in this

Inglewood, nice little place, railway running up the centre of it. Renamed Jinglewood on some of the signs with Tinsel

Camera went away fro a while then in the rain and I missed pics of the emu farm.
Here's the cycle park in progress

Probably the best bit of the coastal walkway, smooth, twisty, fun

Sculpture making on the Foreshore Walkway in the middle of town

A good start to the year

Cookie_Monster · 08-01-2012 12:49am

Week 1:

240.4km, a good start, the weather today is gale force winds so am losing out on another 30km or so that I would have managed today.

Monday: 101.3km
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/138152547
http://app.strava.com/rides/3027189
strava link

A great start to the year, esp after yesterday’s 50km. Forced myself to get up at 7 in order to take advantage of the one supposed nice day of the week. Headed out the door at 8 into light wind and a growing cloud base.
The first stretch to Okato is not a particularly pleasant piece of road; undulating, into the prevailing wind and boring. This, coupled with the ever increasing cloud and winds tempted me to turn around before I got soaked. But I hung in and got to the turn at Okato without getting rained on. The ascent proper begins here, up through farmland to the bottom edge of the National Park on perfectly surfaced and quite roads.
This is about 1km from the top of Oxford road, looking up at the mountain hidden in the clouds, it’s quite dark too with all the heavy grey clouds that were about at the time.

A left at the top of Oxford brings me onto Carrington for the next 20km or so. It brightened up a bit too

Once I get past the junction with Pitone Rd the ascent levels out and the next 17km or so is my favourite bit of road over here. Hugging the mountain, tight and twisty, one way bridges, cuttings through the rainforest (yes, it’s a temperate rainforest), it’s amazing and give me enough of a buzz to up the ante considerably from earlier in the climbing (the downhill bits help too)

There’s a national garden up there called Puketi, owned by the region, has one of the most important collection of rhododendron in the world apparently. They also have lovely coffee and decent soup and good views from the cafe:

It’s a short 6km from Puketi to the junction with Koru road after which it’s steep (fun) downhill for a good few km, a chance to bump the average back up to a respectable number. A quick stop and call to get the missus to check google maps to let me see where I need to go to get to the hundred now that I’ve covered 60 and the day is getting really nice. That done it’s back in the saddle to Inglewood, coffee (below) and on back down 3A and home via the coastal walkway.

The wind really picked up after Inglewood and just made the rest of it slow and annoying as I was wrecked by then. Got home, fired down half a litre of water and then sat in the sun drinking a pint that I totally deserved for my first hundred of the year

Ended up getting slightly burned, esp a nasty ring where the bottom of my shorts leg obviously moved up and down a bit giving a rash on top. Quite a bit of chaffing from the shorts too, sore and annoying, hasn’t happened in a long time.

Tuesday
Kayaking 4km
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/138489238
Just paddled around the harbour with the missus. A bit rough to go out of the harbour, certainly for our comfort / skill level.

24.7km Cycle
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/138521931
http://app.strava.com/rides/3053827
Just a short cycle up and back to deliver some locomotives

One of those really annoying one with wind in my face on the way up and when I left an hour or so later it had swung around and was in my face again

Friday: 33.2km

http://app.strava.com/rides/3117774
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/139230881

This was a really good day, pushed the whole time and it felt considerably faster than I usually manage. Given the hills I'm impressed with the 26kph average

View of the mountain from Frankley Road

Saturday: 71.7km

http://app.strava.com/rides/3117774
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/139230881

This was stupidly tough. Climb from sea level up the mountain to 945m, over 1000m climb due to a few descents all in 36km

I did at least know the distances so could count it down rather than hoping it's the next corner, I find this really helps me to keep going especially on the tough bits.

I got sunburned on my face cos I sweated so much it washed all the cream off on the way up :pac:
Here's the view from the cafe looking back down on the coast

Had meant to take a pic of a cool looking tree growing horizontally over the road but wasn't going to risk stopping on the way up due to the incline and the difficulty in starting again and wasn't gonna stop on the way down cos too much fun

The road back down was amazing fun, bit of hand cramp from the brakes and some dangerous bends at the top but a bit lower down they eased and were beautiful sweeping bends. Did 10km in less than 15 mins on the way down, first time I've clocked that, under 20 is usually good enough.

Next week is the first big one, 153km around the mountain; here's hoping the weather is better than today. Have also ordered some overshoes and a cadence sensor; the shoes should help make it slightly more appealing to go out in the rain and I'm not sure if the cadence sensor will be any more than a toy:P

Cookie_Monster · 15-01-2012 7:42am

Week 2: 267.2km
Total: 561.7km

Another great week, I am now aiming for 1,000km in Jan. To accomplish this I need 250km in activities, the rest covered by 40km of commuting and 150km or around the mountain if all goes well. Should be doable

Tues: 24.3km
http://app.strava.com/rides/3230985
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/140493827

A spin up one of the common routes I use, was still a bit sore from the previous Sunday's efforts and cut this a bit shorter than I would have liked. I really should have turned right onto Carrington and gone up the hill but just didn't feel like it :rolleyes:

Weds: 21.2km
http://app.strava.com/rides/3255008
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/140748665

This a prob the latest I've been out over here in a good while, need to get back into the habit if I don't go out straight after work for whatever reason.

Another common route I use in various variations. This one passes a pig farm at one point, the smell is horrific

Have noted that despite the non stop hills around here my average speed is generally above 24 these days, used 22 as average for first 6 months last year, then 23 and now up to 24-24.5, so obviously the hills are doing good, horrible as they are.

Fri: 19.8km
http://app.strava.com/rides/3278184
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/140979541

Another spin up the walkway, nothing new really over other spins up there.
Here's an example of how not flat it is over here, even the railways are up and down. Not as zoomed as I thought at the time but you can make out the drops and rises...

Sat: 159.3km

http://app.strava.com/rides/3318598
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141388129

The first big one of the year! 153km around the mountain and a bit of a commute both ends.
Not a great day for it unfortunately, started out wet and windy with the wind coming from the West/North West for the day. But cleared and only had a little bit of rain after the first half hour. Wind stayed consistently though

I was aiming for around 7 hours and am frankly amazed at the 5h 45min 39 sec official time:eek: From NP to Opunake I was in groups most of the way and was grateful for that as I hate the first stretch to Okato, after that the roads smooths out a lot and is much nicer. Was with one group for the first 15km or so but they were a little slow so went off to try catch the group in front. Despite struggling to within about 50m of them I just couldn't close the gap and eventually fell back into the group I had left.

Once turned inland from Opunake that group dropped me too and I met up with another guy by himself, we chatted and stayed together till Stratford where we'd both take turns in dropping off or pushing on. From the turn at Eltham we were now into the wind and the speed dropped hugely, really strong wind and absolute pain in the ass, so much so that despite all the downhill from Stratford on without the GPS I really wouldn't be able to tell it was a down slope, no help from gravity at all.

The Fiance joined my for the last leg from Egmont to NP, only 14km and nearly all downhill but it's the most I could get her to do

But in fairness to her she pushed much harder than usual and me being wrecked by then meant we kept a similar pace without much effort.

With doing so well I decided to pass on a lunch stop since nothing but water is offered by the event organisers. Plan was to just stop in a cafe but by Eltham we were looking at maybe 5h 30 so stop went out the window. If the wind was good to us, may have made that deadline.

Here's me looking totally not wrecked at all :pac:

Sun: 19.3km

http://app.strava.com/rides/3352982
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141720044

Slow, easy spin on the Walkway again to loosen up after yesterday. Nice and sunny but windy (again!)

Also signed up for my third sportive, in March. Short enough at only 100km but huge numbers!
http://100kflyer.co.nz/
Aiming for less than 3h 30 on this one, hopefully even better, it's quite flat after the start for a lot of it.

Cookie_Monster · 22-01-2012 5:21am

Week 3

This week: 138km
Total: 699.7km

I faded this week in comparison to the previous two, especially today. Woke up tired and sore and not bothered, should have done 100km or so but have done nothing. Still only 300km in 9 days to get to 1,000km, with one 150km+ in there.

Tues: 49.5km
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/142418001
http://app.strava.com/rides/3409397

A nice medium length circuit that I've done in both directions and kinda like. It was a nice day too, see

I even did a little bit of train racing

(click for vid)

Another good average speed, 25.2kph with a decent amount of climbing too for the distance. The 3A is a great road, perfect surface, wide shoulders and not too steep.

Weds: 29.1km
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/142650857
http://app.strava.com/rides/3430768

This was a very enjoyable ride, breezy, sunny and warm, looks see:

As I said it was; right up until this point:

The paved road simply stops and turns to gravel for a few km. I tried it for 20m or so, nearly died and gave up. Needless to say this put me in a bad mood and the return trip was just a trudge back to the car :mad:

Fri: 14.7km
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/143104293
http://app.strava.com/rides/3477776

Didn't go out until late so just did some laps around the block. Useless strava lowers the height each lap, I doubt New Zealand was sinking at the time. First time out late enough to be dark, made me realise I need new batteries for my lights.

Sat: 24.9km
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/143554695
http://app.strava.com/rides/3515993

Casual spin up and back to Paraite,very windy which was great on the way up, not so much on the way back though.

Cookie_Monster · 29-01-2012 10:18am

Week 4

This Week: 277.1km
Total: 967.8 km

Another great week, 2 days left to do 32 km. New tyres on the bike this week too, back to Conti GP4000, despite the cost totally worth it, the ones I got here only lasted 2500km before the inner started to show through in a lot of places, the last set of contis did over 6.5k km and were in just reasonable shape when replaced.

Mon: 49.5km
http://app.strava.com/rides/3545210
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/143965235

A very similar route (but reversed) to last Monday but up the main road rather than the quieter Egmont road. Not much to say, nice day, not too windy. I feel great at being able to do 50km routes as an evening spin rather than just at weekends. Don't feel wrecked afterwards and can do them fast enough that it's not a chore to get done. It's also a nice enough route, a decent climb in the first half and lots of downhill in the second.

Tues: 32.4km
http://app.strava.com/rides/3621161
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/144684859

Don't remember much of this apart from meeting 4 guys herding cows down Henworth road.

Sat: 147.5km
http://app.strava.com/rides/3661032
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/145062467

The second around the mountain event in two weeks. This is by far the more popular one, with over 1,100 people. Lined up for the start in the 5-6 hour section in glorious sunshine at 7.15, finally got started at about 7.50 or so, start was stupidly long and badly organised. They insisted on releasing very small groups at a time rather than just let everyone off to clear through the city as quick as possible. Extremely frustrating shuffling forward waiting, listening to some muppet from More FM repeat the same sponsorship message over and over.

Got off and through the city without issue, stronger headwind than the last time and SW rather than W so a pain for the first 60km. The group I was part of had no interest in doing it properly and it was a mess, I just sat at the back trying to avoid the crazy young guy who insisted on sitting 2 inches behind whoever was in front of him and swerving all over the place at the slightest movement of the wheel. Eventually spent about half the first 60km by myself.

A quick stop at Opunake to remove a layer and throw it at my fiancé (who was part of her company relay and driving support for the first few sections). She seemed to think I was going very fast despite me not being as bothered as last week.

Push on from Opunake back in land with the wind at my back, slight climb and plenty of motivation to up the ante. The hill after turning left at Kaponga kind of killed me, fierce side wind and slope was a pain in the ass. Thankfully it wasn't too long and plenty of downhill after that

The route from Stratford to Inglewood was so much better than last time, wind was from the side, slightly behind at times, a big difference to the full in the face of last time. Caught up to two riders and a forth caught up and we stayed together and took turns on the front for about 10km into Inglewood. Got passed by a Budget Rental Truck at one point, gave no clearance, girl in front was actually sucked towards it a little and almost went down. Really really dangerous ignorant stuff. The race organiser mentioned that several others had similar issues and that an off duty police officer was behind him, after seeing the dangerous overtake decided to follow him and arrest him for dangerous driving.

Inglewood to New Plymouth was a struggle as the wind was straight in my face. Struggled through it a best I could and finished it off in 5h 19m and 39s. Fantastic!

Worked it out for the same dist as last time it would have been 5h 29 compared to 5h 45. So great improvement even if it was mostly wind related

Sun: 19.7km
http://app.strava.com/rides/3695731
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/145398327

Just a short slow route to keep loose after yesterday. It was another very windy day, even stronger than yesterday. The only photo this week, the city from the top of Mt Motorua (only a little hill)

Cookie_Monster · 30-01-2012 9:38am

1,000km in a Month Done

Yay! :pac:

Cookie_Monster · 31-01-2012 10:05am

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

1,000km in a Month Done

Yay! :pac:

hmmm.... if had bothered to track it last year I would have realised I came pretty close twice

Jan 498.26
Feb 316.03
Mar 575.95
April 435.93
May 317.74
Jun 694.17
Jul 550.06
Aug 332.18
Sept 692.08
Oct 954.07
Nov 823.20
Dec 955.78
7,145.45

Ah well

Cookie_Monster · 02-02-2012 4:34am

Two more sportives lined up and booked:

100km Rotorua to Taupo in March (partly on private roads no less)
http://100kflyer.co.nz/

and 160km Manawatu north of Palmerston North in April
http://www.eventsmanawatu.co.nz/events

Bike is in the shop this week and I'm picking up a friend from Hamilton tomorrow and concert on sat so this week is going to be terrible :pac:

Cookie_Monster · 06-02-2012 12:06am

Week 5

Weekly dist: 69.6km
Total dist: 1,046km

Not a great week for the biking, went out on Monday to clock up to the 1,000km mark and then did little else. Bike had to get some spokes replaced on weds / thurs. Did some running on sat and sun for the first time ever basically and that has me totally wrecked. Had plans of going out today and covering some reasonable distance but am still really stiff and sore.

Monday: 30.7km

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/145835009
http://app.strava.com/rides/3735041

The plan was to drive up to Bell Block, short spin and go play trains, but no one was there to do that so I just kept going to clock up to the 1,000km mark. Didn't want to go too far so it's a bit back and forth but I blew away my previous time on the airport loop which was good.

Sat: 18km + 2.2km unrecorded

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/147193930
http://app.strava.com/rides/3893094

I stopped the timer and forgot about it which is the extra 2.2km on this one.
It was just a casual cycle bringing my newly emigrated mountain biking friend out on the road. I know it's criminal to be seen with those types, esp on the road but I he does road bike too so I'll put up with it till the road bike arrives on the ship :pac:

The heart rate monitor seems to be on the fritz a bit, I find it very hard to believe I hit 200 bpm and didn't notice my chest exploding. New battery was put in the last day so maybe something to do with that, it went mental when I was running to.

Running: On Sunday, 6.9km
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/147163919

Not impressive by anyone definition by am pleased I can actually do it now that my knee finally seems to be fixed

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/147163919

Cookie_Monster · 24-02-2012 3:55am

2, nearly 3 weeks of SFA :P

Spent most of the last two weeks back home in Irl on a surprise visit and climbed Mt Taranaki the Sunday before so was unable to walk for two days :rolleyes:

I'll update those weeks all in one go when I'm not falling asleep from 33 hours on a plane

Cookie_Monster · 27-02-2012 9:26am

Weeks 6-8

A rather pedestrian total of 97.1km for these 3 weeks

However I do have an excuse or two!

Excuse 1 was that I climbed Mt Taranaki on Sunday of week 6. Started at 950m and climbed to 2518m and back down again all over about 8km of distance. Going up wasn't to bad, coming down was horrid. We apparently went up the difficult way, which was pretty easy, no gravel and sand. Coming back down we went the the normal way, through the scree field. 800m+ decent through sandy rocky madness where sliding down backwards on your hands and feet were the best options.

For loads of photos see here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.178477675588337.25090.100002783173115&type=1
(let me know if doesn't work, you need to be logged in and I can't be arsed re-uploading all of them to photobucket)

That hike ensured I could not walk for 3 days, and could only manage my short commute with extreme difficulty.

The rest of the time was spent on a trip back home to good ole IRL to surprise my entire family and my fiancée's entire family. It was awesome (except for my liver :pac:)

Suffice to say I don't remember too much about the 3 cycles I managed 3 weeks ago but here they are anyway:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/147557299
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/147806116
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/148227772

All variations on a theme and routes I've done before several times

So today finally got back into the swing of things with a 34km ride, but that'll be in next week

Cookie_Monster · 11-03-2012 3:04am

Weeks 9-10

Another annoying couple of weeks, another total missed, only 256 out of 300 managed.

Week 9 was good, 158 but this week was poor, mainly due to the weather, high winds and wet and horrid today.

The pick of the cycles being these two

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/154633513
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/156621341

The second one was supposed to continue up the mountain to the ski resort but the rain was just to bad and would have only gotten worse with the higher up I got. A miserable return cycle back to Inglewood, just spent it all wishing I was already there. Left the gps running too so file is a bit hacked up.

Cookie_Monster · 12-03-2012 5:39am

I've a nice photo of the first snow of the season on the mountain somewhere actually, must dig it out.

The bit I forgot to mention is I finally broke the 80kg mark, weighing in at 79.9! Wo0t:D Haven't weighed so little in about a decade

:D:D

Cookie_Monster · 02-04-2012 10:58am

Week 13

After a couple of shitty weeks I finally put in a reasonable distance this week. 175km after two sub 50 weeks.

Most of it was just the usual variation of routes around the local area but I did take part in the Avanti 100km Flyer from Rotorua to Taupo.

As events go it's a shortish one at only 98.5km but the speed was huge, averaging over 31! Fantastic day too, slight breeze, perfectly sunny and warm. Well impressed with my 3h 10m, was aiming for sub 3h 30.

Despite 2500 people doing it didn't find a decent group the whole day and drifted between groups trying to keep up with one or two individuals which was mostly successful, right up to the last hill of the day where I just died totally. Crawled up it and had a bit of a race down to the end all by myself too :pac:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/163141766
http://app.strava.com/rides/5965817

Lake Taupo

Cookie Monster's 2012 Log

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