Alright... time to go touring!

I haven't been cycling much since around March and feel relatively tired from a slow 17km cycle at the moment. So, I thought I'd take a slow ride up to Coffs Harbour, 400kms over 1 week next month to get myself back into cycling. However, this morning I woke up with a bee in my bonnet and I think I need a slightly more challenging task. So... Brisbane to Newcastle it is!

Last year in September I cycled from Newcastle up to The Gold Coast. I was planning to go all the way up to Brisbane, but money was tight and when I set out to leave The Gold Coast on the last day the wind was howling and it looked like it would take me 1-2 more nights in motels, which works out pretty expensive in that area. Anyhow, so I cycled just over 700kms in 6 days.

I wasn't terribly fit last year, but certainly I had been cycling more regularly than I have been doing this year. As I mentioned, I currently struggle with a 17km ride and I weigh 8kgs heavier than I did when I started the ride last year. Struggle is probably a bit of an exaggeration, I'm sure I could go on a lot further than 17kms, just saying that it's not as easy as it's meant to be. So, next weekend I will attempt a trip to Hawk's Nest - 75kms on the Saturday and 75kms back the Sunday. If that goes alright, I'll book my flight from Newcastle to Brisbane. If I can't make 75kms in a day now, then I may have to settle for a shorter overall trip

Wind direction
Last year my biggest complaint was my butt hurting on the saddle... next to that was that it felt like I had a permanent headwind. So... this time I'm flying up and travelling North to South:) Hoping it'll make a difference coz that wind sometimes slowed me down to below 10kph, which is very depressing. I'll believe it when I see it, but it would be great if I have that same winds against my back this time!!!

Preparations
Last year on the weekend before my trip, a workmate and I cycled up to Hawks Nest (see previous link). To get a feel for what's lying ahead, I packed my bike with tent and sleeping bag and everything I planned for the big trip. Turned out I could hardly get up an average hill with that weight and I ended up leaving the majority of that stuff. I'll do the same this year... I'll travel as light as I can. Due to the bike shop putting the wrong tubes (wrong type of valves) on my bike at the last minute, I ended up with a huge floor pump tied to the bike, which also turned out being a pain... will ensure I have a small fitted pump this time.
I ordered some Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres this morning. Said to be the best for puncture resistence!
Need to get regular peddals for my new bike and I'm not going to struggle with knee-pain on this ride!

Check List
Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tyres - Received
4 x Schrader Valve Inner Tubes
Non-cleat pedals
Tested, fitted pump
Sandals
Pedal spanner (to take them off at the airport)
New cycling shorts x 2
50Km Ride
75Km Ride
90km Ride x2
120km Ride


DONE
Plane ticket - booked

Here's a Youtube video of one of the volunteers with some of the kids from Thamsanqa.

I think she's from Be More in the Netherlands. Those people have done (and continue to do) so much to help Thamsanqa. Thank you Be More!

Thamsanqa boys

MFA would be Missing From Action, as I have been for the past couple of months. I've been doing the odd cycle here and there, but mostly struggling with pretty short rides.

I cycled in to the office this morning and was happy to have a bit of light when I had my shower. In the two years that I've been at this company the light in the shower has been out and in winter it is pitch dark in there when I shower in the mornings. WHEN I happen to cycle to work that is. This morning it was pretty light in there even though it was still a little bit cold on the bike.

Anyhow, we'll see how it goes. Hopefully I'll get back to cycling more regularly now. Unfortunately I've said that a few times already and have not made it happen. Still, I want to do my 200km ride before the end of the year, so I better get to it.

Alright,

So I had been making pretty good progress up to February when I did my maiden imperial century, a 160km cycle which took me 10 hours to do.

Soon after that I realised that I wouldn't be able to do the Perth to Sydney ride this year and, while I still managed to do Loop The lake in March, things just went downhill from there and I had not cycled at all from Loop the Lake on the 14th of March until last week. I picked up around 6-7kgs in this short period and it felt like I was starting over when I got back on the bike last week. I'm still only doing 5km rides now, but I'll attempt either the 12km or 18km route over the weekend.

Point is, as soon as I lost my goal I went backwards quickly. So logic dictates that I need a new goal and mine's going to be to do a 200km cycle before the end of the year.

The 160km ride was a big achievement for me and if I had continued training then I probably would have been able to do a 200km ride by now, but... I didn't. I'm hoping I'll recover quickly and be able to ride long rides again soon. I was terrbly disappointed when I struggled so much with the 5km ride last week (not as much as when I originally started cycling in 2008, but still!!), but I'm already finding it easier this morning. The extra weight probably has a lot to do with the struggle :(

I'm also busy setting up an appointment with a dietician. I know how to lose weight and when I'm focussed I am able to lose a lot of weight quickly, but it's time to admit that I need help with the discipline and hopefully with some tips on how to stick to my diet. I've already lost 2kgs of that weight that I had picked up and must just keep it up now. If I can lose enough weight, the 200km ride will be a breeze.

PROGRESS

14 June 2010 - 16Kms (50 minutes)
11 July 2010 - 30Kms - with a breakfast stop in the middle

What:
Going through a month without wearing a jacket or Jersey

When:
June, which is winter in the southern hemisphere

Where:
I don't own a car so I cycle or walk to and from the office every day, however I occasionally take a taxi and will continue to do so. Over weekends I may also go around to cold places and walk around in short sleeves, like the Manly ferry in Sydney.

Why:
As a reminder that some people don't have a choice and are forced to live on the streets and go through winter without warm clothes.

The original post that I wrote when I came up with this silly idea follows:

Alright, I wonder whether I'm going to regret this, but here goes.

Since I'm not going to cycle Perth to Sydney this year anymore, I need to do something else to draw people's attention to the Thamsanqa orphans.

With people starting to complain about winter on Twitter and in the office, I thought I might go through June without wearing a jacket or jersey. The idea is to serve as a reminder that many less fortunate children don't have warm clothes or a roof over their heads.

Anyhow, so here's the deal:

I won't wear a jersey or jacket or any long sleeve shirt outside of my house or office for the month of June. That includes cycling or walking to and from the office as I usually do.
I'll also get some pamphlets printed to explain what I'm doing and go walk around, Jacket and Jersey Free, in cold places at cold times and hand out the pamphlets on weekends - The Manly Ferry in Sydney comes to mind and probably the Nobby's peer/lighthouse here in Newcastle.

Hopefully I can remind people that we have A LOT to be thankful for.

I was going to put a condition to this. Only do it if I get x number of people joining this forum and posting at least one post. Doesn't work that way, so I'll make the commitment without that, but it would be nice if you join this forum and just say "go for it Dirk" or something.


Register here, it's free


Two weeks until I start :) I'll let you know once I have some pamphlets printed.

Alright ladies and lapdogs, dieting time!!

This morning I weighed 132Kgs and we went for lunch at Scratchley's this afternoon. However, on the way home this evening I stopped and bought some foods for the Dukan diet.

Gonna stick to this for a week and see how it goes. Also going to go see a dietician next week and starting cycling again this weekend, I should make some progress soon. Didn't work very well last time, but as of tomorrow I'll be back to recording my diet and exercise on a daily basis again.

Have you seen Law Abiding Citizen yet?

Interesting movie and interesting theme. I have found myself dreaming of being a vigilante like that because "the system" just doesn't work.

I read a news article about a rapist who was set free in South Africa because a judge insulted him - http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Judges-let-rapist-go-free-20100525

How sick is that???? So I should just go kill and rape people and hope that I get a judge who loses his temper, calls me names and I'll be let go because the judge violated my rights!! There's something wrong with this picture and Law Abiding Citizen makes a good point.

I weigh 132.5 this morning :( !!!

In my last post, Quiet on the blogging front, I said that I whould start posting on here again and that I was still riding even though I had not been updating the website. Unfortunately that was just about the time that I stopped riding.

There was an opening for a more senior position at our company, but that position has a lot of responsibility this year and I would not have had any chance of securing the position if I requested 5-6 weeks of leave in August. So, I've had to postpone the Perth to Sydney trip till next year. I really do want to do the ride, but I am also trying to start a new life in Australia and I need to get my career back on track. The good news is that I got the job, so the risk was worth it.
Further good news is that my application with the Australian Computer Society changed status to "Case finalised" this weekend. That means I'll get the result letter within the next week or so and, trusting it'll be a positive result, I can then apply for permanent residence in Australia!!!


When I realised that I was not going to do the big ride this year, I went into a bit of a slump and haven't cycled at all since then. My last time on the bike was for Loop The Lake on the 14th of March. I also managed to eat like a pig and now weigh in at a lovely 132.5kgs... heaviest I've ever weighed myself at.

Anyhow, so yesterday I cycled 5kms and this morning I cycled 5kms. Hard to believe, but I struggled with that short a distance. I think I'll get back into it quickly, but it is amasing how quickly I've lost my ability to cycle. I'll take it slow this week and just cycle the 5kms in the morning and afternoon and decide next week whether I want to increase the distance. For now I certainly don't want to push too hard, just want to enjoy the riding.

So, 4 months before September and while I'm not able to take 6 weeks leave this year, I imagine a 2 week break would be acceptable. So, no commitment yet, but I may do a shorter ride in September and maybe take on the next section around Australia which would be Brisbane to Mackay. I'll see how I go over the next month or so and then decide.

My manager did say that they are aware that I want to do the Perth to Sydney trip and that he will approve my 6 weeks leave for next year if I apply early enough.

Now to figure out how to get my weight down... I really do have an eating disorder and need to make some kind of a plan with this.

In other news, Eric is in South Africa!! They're on the last stretch and should be finishing in Cape Town soon. The guy's had a rough ride of 12,000kms through Africa with kids throwing them with stones and all kinds of trouble. I think it turned out a lot more difficult than he had expected, but he kept on riding for the sake of Thamsanqa. Please visit Eric's blog and cheer him on.

Yesterday we had the first of a 2 day conference at Crowne Plaza in Newcastle.

Beautiful setting. Amasing settings actually!! It's right on on the waterfront of the harbour and the water gives it a very peaceful atmosphere. I've previously walked or cycled past there when a big ship was entering the harbour and it's quite therapeutic watching this metal giant slowly sailing past. Didn't see one from Crowne Plaza yesterday, but I can just imagine they see a lot of things like that.

So the setting is quite good and as a guest on a higher level it might be pretty good, but the conference room was a bit of a disappointment.

Firstly the room is right next to Honeysuckle Drive and in the morning we had a few trucks reversing that sounded like they were delivering something to the conferenc room's back door. You know that loud beeping sound some trucks make when reversing? Very distracting. Didn't happen the whole day long, but I'd say at least twice during the morning. At times I could also hear people talking outside quite loudly. It's a bit of a distraction.

I must say, I was looking forward to a bit of a variety of finger foods for lunch or something interesting like that, but unfortuantely we only got sandwishes. I don't think this is Crowne Plaza's fault and probably just a result of our company's specific order. Actually nothing wrong from either party, I just had the wrong expectation. Salmies were pretty tasty though, so once I made peace with the fact that I wasn't going to have cocktail sausages, meatballs, samoosas and the likes, it was actually quite okay.
The staff were quick to take away dirty plates and replace the empty sandwich trays and quietly stayed out of our way.

So really my only complaint is with the noise distractions in that conference room. I wonder whether it won't be worth their while to soundproof those rooms. Certainly it would change my perception of the place.

Small things

Twitter is huge. My colleague and friend, @davecathcart refers to it as the lazy man’s facebook and quite a lot of people talk about it as a revolutionary Web 2.0 business tool. I’m not certain how much truth there is to that, but certainly I have quickly noticed mistakes people make in trying to use it as a business tool.

Twitter, in my opinion, is probably the most responsive online platform out there. If someone likes something you said, they can broadcast your message to all their friends as well as a whole bunch of strangers who might find their posts interesting with the click of a button (retweet). If those followers’ followers like your tweet, they may very well start following you. In fact, if they really like your tweet they may even retweet the retweet and, following the principal of six degrees of separation, it’s mind boggling how quickly a simple tweet can cover the globe. This is the power of Twitter and this is why so many experts are saying Twitter is big, pay attention to it. Please understand that I am a Twitter n00b and in this case the fact that I started this article with “Twitter is huge” together with my previous sentence does not imply that I am an expert, not as all.

Back to the responsiveness of Twitter. The opposite side of the coin is that it is equally easy to unfollow someone on Twitter. If I read one of your tweets and I find it boring or offensive or just confusing, right there on my screen next to your tweet there is a simple little button that I can click without any trouble to unfollow you. And that’s my power on Twitter, a single click to make you famous with a retweet or a single click to remove you from my universe. That makes Twitter “the most responsive online platform out there“. Also, there’s no reason I have to follow you if I don’t like your tweets. It’s so easy to find someone else to take your place, whether I want to follow someone in my city or with the same interests as me or whatever, they’re easy to find through my followers’ followers.

So the point is that if you want to use it as a business tool you’re going to have to find a way to keep your followers. How you get people to retweet your tweets, well that’s up to you. You need to say something worth repeating, whether it’s humorous or profound or in your face or current or simply expressing a mood that your followers can relate to, it needs to be something that they find interesting enough to share with their friends. Bla, bla, bla, the point is that unless you have people following you, your tweets won’t be retweeted no matter how interesting they are.

Now I’ve come to the point I actually wanted to make about keeping your followers and I realise that I don’t have much to say. I want people to realise that Twitter is a slightly different beast to any other tool you may have used for your business before, which I hope that I have explained above. The rest of it, really, is that you need to keep your timeline interesting enough for me to keep reading them. Same as any other advertising medium, you need to balance “advertising space” with giving something useful to your audience. The great thing about Twitter is the definition of “useful” on this unique social network. Twitter really is a place to share random thoughts on and that is all that people expect on there. You don’t have to prove that you are an expert in your field all the time. You don’t have to spend hours and hours on researching an article or topic before posting. You can simple share some random thought, situation or occasion and people might very well find it interesting. What you need to learn is to balance those random thoughts with whatever advertising you want to shove in front of your followers’ noses. And the key point, in my opinion, is that the random thoughts need to be more than the advertising – if not, I’m going to move on. Also, the random thoughts really need to be random. It’s really not that difficult, but please don’t insult my intelligence by making up stuff just to gain visibility. To the contrary, on Twitter at least when using it as a business tool, less IS more.

And finally… My personal little rant. Don’t follow people for the sake of getting them to follow you and then try to sneak an unfollow in when they don’t notice. Probably they will notice and if it’s someone as vindictive (is that the right word? I’m trying to sound like an expert) as me, they’re going to mention your bad #twittiquette to their followers.

@SpeckleOD