Life on the Road – Week 16 – Aushiker: Bicycling & Bushwalking in Western Australia - Aushiker: Bicycling & Bushwalking in Western Australia – Aushiker: Bicycling & Bushwalking in Western Australia

The purpose of this series of posting is to summarise my week on the bike and exercising in general. My week runs from Thursday to Friday, so Week 16 for 2010 is from April 16, 2010 through to April 22, 2010.

Date	Exercise	Comments
Totals for the Week	Total Bike Kilometres: 154 km for the week; 5,034 km for the year. Weight: 99.2 kg; No movement. Total weight loss for 2010: 3.6 kg. BikeJournal Rankings: Australian Cycling Forums Club – 8th. Dropped one place in the rankings. BikeJournal overall ranking – 75th. Dropped 11 places. Not riding enough!	Short week on the bike as playing Dad on the weekend. Weekly average is 315 km a week. Would like to get back up to 400 km a week by year end. On the weight front, I started the year in a less than healthy position at 103 kg. My weight at the end of the week is 99.2 kg. My target for the month end is 98 kg. On BikeJournal.com I have achieved my short term goal of getting back into the top 100. Now shooting for the top 50. In respect to the Australian Cycling Forums Club at BikeJournal.com I have now got back into the top 10, so maybe the top 5 is a possibility.
Friday, April 16, 2010	0 km on the bike 0 km running	Playing Dad so no bike time.
Saturday, April 17, 2010	0 km on the bike 0 km running	Playing Dad so no bike time.
Sunday, April 18, 2010	8 km on the bike 0 km running	Road around Herdsman Lake with Cameron
Monday, April 19, 2010	30 km on the bike 0 km running	Churchlands to Joondalup via the Coast on the Look 555. It turned out to be a very nice ride north along the coast; blue skies, water was looking fantastic and the wind was 11 km/h from the SSW (tailwind). I did loose some time on the early stage through to the coast as I still have a brake shudder problem plus the speed magnet decided to start clicking. Took a couple of stops to work out what it was hitting (sensor bracket itself, rather than the sensor as I thought initially). Outcome of all this was that I was 2:40 off my goal time for this ride. Oh well, always next time.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010	43 km on the bike 0 km running	Joondalup to Fremantle via the Coast. Headwind 24 km/h from the south-west. Despite the wind beaut riding conditions down the coast only marred by female driver a black Chrysler PT, registration PTKRULZA. Apparently when turning left as one approaches an intersection on a single lane road, pulling up alongside a cyclist, left indicator flashing and then edging ahead of them as the intersection comes into play is "waiting" for the cyclist to pass. I thought waiting meant staying behind the vehicle proceeding straight ahead and then turning left from the left side of the road. Yelling a warning, well a bit more than a warning got me a blast on the horn in reply! I really wish I had a video on the bike as I would love to have known if the front left wheel was turning in just before I yelled. Anyway Police report to be filed. Balance of ride was good but it did put me off my pace
Wednesday, April 21, 2010	44 km on the bike 0 km running	Fremantle to Joondalup via the Coast. Great riding weather again this morning; light south-easterly at 11 km/h helped me miss out on my goal time by 13 seconds. A couple of Ergo500s helped as well. "Won" one and "lost" one The only negative was a group of five cyclists who seemed to not understand that wearing a high-visibility vest DOES NOT mean you own the dual use path which should be shared responsibly and that gee whiz I can pass you as we approach a sharp left corner and then dip down a short sharp 5% decline into a blind right hand corner and then nearly clean up a guy with his puppy. To the guy in the stripped jumper, you really need to learn how to brake. Locking up the back wheel in the sand was not smart! I exited the path a few minutes later and dropped back on to a short section of road and passed the group before going back on to the DUP for the transition through Scarborough. Of course, the group had to "force" its way through the pedestrians and other cyclists so that they could hang off each other wheels. Yep it is smart to pass just as I am coming up behind a pedestrian and need to go right and wide to pass safely! North of Scarborough I exited back on to the road at Trigg Beach, whereas the group continued on the DUP. Once I passed them again I didn’t see them again. Overall a really impressive example of why people have such issues with cyclists. Here is a thought … get on the road if you want to ride hard and slow down and take it easy on DUP.
Thursday, April 22, 2010	30 km on the bike 0 km running	Joondalup to Churchlands via the Coast: The south-westerly (Fremantle Doctor) is back! I thought this was autumn, not summer. The headwind was around 35 km/h straight off the coast this evening. For some reason it was moving me around a bit (riding the Look 555). Other than that a pretty straight forward but slow ride home in the dark.