Round the Bay

I first did "Round the Bay in a Day" last year, the 210km option from Melbourne to Sorrento, ferry to Queenscliffe then back through Geelong to Melbourne. I did it with Dan and Mark and Andrew and I struggled, it was 34 degrees and I didn't eat or drink nearly enough and really found it incredibly rough in the second half, I just couldn't keep up.

This year i was back for revenge. I wanted to do the 250km option but didn't book in time and it sold out extremely quickly. So I did the exact same ride as last year, along with James, Dave, Rob, Hamish and Daz.

Flew down Saturday and we all put the bikes back together and took a test ride along the Yarra in almost 30 degree sunny heat, past flocks of dolled up women in cocktail dresses and hats and their drunken besuited boyfriends, all just come back from the Caulfield Cup.

Sunday morning dawned overcast, windy and chilly. Perfect conditions actually. About 12 or 14 degrees and freezing to stand around in, but ideal riding weather. We rode down the first half with a couple of other guys, Nick and Tom, and fragmented a little, but made it to the ferry in good shape about 9.15am

Everyone hunkered downstairs out of the wind as we ate our little packed lunches and agreed that it felt like a long day already, with 100km down it certainly didn't feel like the time we'd normally be arriving at work. We hadn't stopped once on the way to the ferry and my arse was completely numb, it was a bit disconcerting actually.

After disembarking on the other side it was straight into a freezing rainstorm that thankfully only lasted about 10 minutes (and that was the only rain we had all day). We got a great team dynamic going now and powered through together, two by two, from here until the end of the race. Between us we took turns pulling at the front and for the entire second half of the ride we dragged along an enormous bunch of freeloaders behind up who never once tried to take a turn up front. Cheeky buggers! We didn't really care at this stage, we were having a pretty good time.

The pace was solid and constant and I certainly went through a couple of dark patches, especially along the endles freeway. My legs were never dead like last year, and I never felt like I couldn't keep up, but there were a few times when I felt like I just needed to not be riding! Of course I know that these things pass, so I just waited them out and often a turn at the front helped reignite me. The more I do these longer events the more interesting it gets to try to watch your emotions as a disinterested observer without buying into them, knowing that things will get better.

And they did, we hit the hill of the Westgate Bridge coming back into Melbourne and I turned it on up the hill, with Dave and James right beside me as we dropped everyone around us and powered to the top. It was just the best feeling coming over the crest on a surge of adrenaline with the cityscape stretched out ahead and only a couple of kms to go to the finish.

All the boys crossed the line together (well apart from some maniac yelling "sprint finish!" and everyone going all-out for 20 metres) and went off for dinner and beers feeling happy and triumphant.

Then Monday it was the flight home, straight up the road for the most glorious massage of my life, then directly from there to the physio for some more massage. Best day ever!

THOUGHTS
Two things I did differently to last year and I believe made an enormous difference to my enjoyment of the ride (apart from just having more training under my belt)

1) Nutrition and hydration. I forced myself to eat and drink constantly. I had more than enough food and tried to keep a pattern of eating something every half hour and drinking constantly in between. I think it made a huge difference not only to how I felt on the ride, but being able to recover perfectly (I rode my single speed bike the next day and felt fresh as anything).

2) Spinning. Dave told me last week about saving your legs and using your cardio system by keeping in an easier gear for most of the ride, so I did almost the entire ride in the small front chainring. Unfortunately my cadence sensor fell off on the flight and was lost, but I estimate I was doing 90-110 rpm the whole day, I made a concerted effort to spin. And it's true, my legs never felt that deadness at any point on the ride.

I like it when I actually try things and they work. Me learn stuff.