Jells Park

This morning, it took a little prodding from hubby before I rolled out of bed ready for another day of riding. It had been a late night last night, compounded with a couple of beers and several glasses of wine had made for a tough time getting out of bed.
I wasn't disappointed with hubby's perseverance in getting me up though. It was a beautiful morning and although the route turned out to be the farthest thus far in my "10 days of riding", it wasn't the most strenuous. Plenty of gliding along and parts of short uphill with long downhill paths making it truly enjoyable. The greenery and peaceful surroundings were a definite plus.
We stopped by Jells Lake and I took a few pictures with my dad - hubby is notoriously camera-shy. There was even a beautiful black swan with a red beak.













Definitely a favourite route in my point of view and I will definitely request for more journeys to Jells Park - though I'm sure I'll hear no end of it from Mom, as she has been telling me for years to go to Jells Park!



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Uphill challenge

The daylight savings changeover happened last night, so I managed an extra hour of sleep - which only made it harder to wake up this morning.
I had suggested to hubby that I would like to explore the route that my son, Gabrial would likely use, if we agreed to allowing him to ride to school and perhaps after that to ride on to Rowville Lakes to enjoy the scenery.
Unfortunately for me, I had failed to research the terrain, having previously been to the area only by car, I had doomed myself to torture because the slopes were horrendous, although what goes up, had to come down! There were a few great downhill slopes, but I was absolutely exhausted from today's ride!
Gasping and breathless, I was relieved to finally make it home. But it was an enjoyable ride in parts and I must say, the new bike makes a whole world of difference as can be seen from my increased average speed below in the chart.
I seriously doubt I would have survived the hills on hubby's old bike, and am looking forward to tomorrow's ride - I have requested an extended route to the Eastlink one we took yesterday.
I hope I can still stand when I go back to work!!




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Venturing on the Eastlink trail

It's hard to wake up in the mornings, especially for such a bedbug like myself. I like nothing more than to huddle under the covers and just snooze or laze about reading a book or surfing the Internet on my MacBook.
However, having dragged myself out of bed and out into the morning air, it's invigorating to the mind and body, zooming along in the crisp, cool, early day, quiet except for the zinging metallic sounds of the bicycle wheel and the swooshing air as I gain speed going downhill.
I had indicated to hubby that, after yesterday's ride, I would like to venture further onto the Eastlink trail as that seemed to be the next level to our training and so off we went.
Down Wellington road, onto the bike trail. Past Chesterfield Farm, where I amused myself, hubby in front and my Dad behind me, by moo-ing at the cows and baa-ing at the sheep and quack-ing at the ducks as we zoomed by them.
We stopped at the Ferntree Gully road point and took some pictures, then headed home.



My Dad and I at the Ferntree Gully road point.


Boy, do I look chubby!! Hopefully this new hobby will help me lose some weight!
I was really happy at the end of this ride because we had managed 16.59km although with quite an even elevation. I was tired out by the time we got home and my body wad aching terribly by now especially at the neck, shoulders and lower back.
All this time, I had been riding hubby's mountain bike. I had attempted using his road bike, but the reach was just a little far for me and I found the handle a bit hard to hold.
So hubby brought me to his favourite bike shop and after an hour, I was the proud owner of my own bike!



By afternoon, my poor aching body had had too much and I had a nice nap so my muscles could regenerate! ;)

Easing into it.

So some people may or may not have heard that I have decided to face my fears and make my hubby insanely happy by joining him on his cycling adventures.
I actually decided this a few week before leaving for japan for holidays and we went for about 6 rides before. I'll get around to posting those later on, maybe ;)
So coming back after holidays, my first goal is to make sure that I am all trained up to go on the "around the bay" event. 50km. Westgate bridge. Fingers crossed, but it's in October so I have a little bit of time still!
So with this in mind and having had 5 weeks off cycling, I asked hubby to let me ease into it. However, we ended going further then I have previously gone, at 10km, albeit on a relatively even elevation. We ventured out on Wellington road, stopped before the Eastlink entry and did a quick round into Kingston Links golf course so my dad could book some golf time for later.
Back onto the road and headed home. My legs were wobbly at the end, but not too bad. A good workout to get me back into it. Not much downhill parts (my favourite with wind in my face), but then I found riding on the road not as scary as I had imagined. Might have helped that it was early and a public holiday (Good Friday).
It's going to be a hardcore training weekend!!