On Friday evening we had a fairwell dinner at Hogs' Breath restuarant for two of our colleagues. After starters, a pretty descent piece of steak, 2 desserts and a couple of beers, I was pretty certain that I wouldn't do a cycling trip this weekend.
However, I left fairly early in the evening and actually felt okay when I woke up on Saturday morning.

So I packed my little convenience pannier bag and and left the house at 7:00am. At the time I didn't feel too strong and actually thought that I'll cycle for a couple of kilometers before deciding whether I'd go all the way to Bulahdelah. Surprisingly the trip went fairly well. It was the first longish trip I did on the Specialized Sonoma saddle and it seemed to be manageable at first. I didn't stop as often as I usually do and by the 60km mark, I thought I was going to reach Bulahdelah in a record time, at least by my standards. haha, but then the effects of the previous night kicked in... Actually, until I started writing this topic, I didn't know why I hit a downer on Saturday. I was doing so well for the first part of the trip and then just before 70kms, I bonked. Bonked is not my own word, but seems to be a word cyclists use when you quickly lose all your energy. Well, this is exactly what happened to me and I actually lost a lot of time just sitting on the grass at a rest stop trying to get some life back into my bones. I eventually got back onto the bike, but the last 20kms just wasn't fun. They've been busy building on that one stretch of road since forever... bla, bla, bla... not a nice stretch and absolutely no fun trying to cycle while breathing dust from all the trucks and machines involved in the roadworks.
Anyway, I got to Bulahdelah at 13:00, which means that despite the time resting, it was still pretty good time by my standards.



You've heard of "the city that never sleeps"? Well, Bulahdelah is the town that does all the sleeping for that city. This place is REALLY, REALLY dead. In the afternoon I had a burger from a coffee shop where two really stunning girls work, but that was about the extent of my excitement at Bulahdelah. Went back to the "main street" at around 17:00 and everything was closed, except for the IGA. I wasn't too concered, cause I was headed to the hotel where I had the best steak that I've had in Australia yet last time, but lo and behold... their restuarant section was closed!! Closed at 17:30 on a Saturday afternoon!!!
The IGA had a sign saying they're open from 7am to 7pm, so I thought I'd go for a walk to see if I find anything else before settling on buying something boring from there and nuking it in the microwave.
Found a Mobil petrol station with a fast foods sections and... I got food in my stomach. Next time I may chose the IGA frozen food instead, but anyhow.



The evening I watch Australia's funniest home videos and decided that I'd marry the presenter of that show. Eish!! My alarm went off at 5:00am, had a shower, got dressed, but when I stepped outside, it was still pretty dark and I'm not too keen on cycling on a highway in the dark, especially one that's half it's normal width due to roadworks. So I put everything on the bike ready to leave, but got back into bed for another 30 minutes.
The trip home went better than expected and I finished in 5:45. There was a light wind against me though it wasn't too bad and I was happy that my legs kept their strength okay for a second day on the bike. The saddle was a lot less comfortable on the second day and clearly my butt had not recovered completely from yesterday. I think I may actually put the Brooks saddle back on the bike and give that another go.

All in all, it was pretty good cycling for a weekend and I'm quite happy with my legs' progress. They're still far from where they should be, but I could certainly feel a huge improvement in endurance since my last trip up to Bulahdelah.