Running… It’s stupid

Late in September I woke up one morning foolishly thinking ‘I need to run a marathon’. Why? I have no idea, but I felt I needed to run a marathon. I HAD to run a marathon.

I went straight out that day and bought a pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS9′s from SportsFever in Perth. SportsFever seemed very knowledgeable and really took time to get me the right shoe. From the next day I started running and within a week I was hobbling like a cripple. I ran 3 5kms runs my first week. Easy! The problem is as a cyclist my level of fitness was good, but my legs just weren’t used to the level of impact.

Luckily a 3 week holiday in China forced me to take a break from running, but when I returned I felt better and ran smoothly. All has been going well until 2 weeks ago when I felt some pain in my left knee. I went to the Podiatrist who diagnosed the problem as Patello-Femoral syndrome and strapped my knee appropriately. I ran with the strapping on and had no discomfort. Beautiful! However, maybe I’ve been lulled into a false sense of security, but a bigger 12k run at the weekend introduced a lot of pain in my right knee. Grrr. This week I can barely run at all the pain is too sharp. I’m going to the physio on Friday and I really hope they can diagnose the problem. I’m determined to run a marathon and know I can do it. I just need a few months to train!

Langford Park

Today I had my first real introduction to Mountain biking courtesy of fellow Perth twitterers Scott and Dave (@fairy_s and @madrapper). The course was to be the 6hr Enduro course in Langford Park.

Langford Park

I picked Scott up at 7am and we met Dave up there… eventually. A slight misunderstanding on which car park, but it was all good in the end. The course was fantastic, but way more technical than either of the previous 2 rides I’d done so I set out cautiously and just followed the guys around for the first couple of kms. Once I found my rhythm we stepped up the pace only to be slowed again after Scott swallowed a mouth full of dirt from Dave’s back wheel!

Scott stopped to drink and then unfortunately with it being single track got stuck behind another group, so I took off and let’s just say got a little too confident. Jump after jump, sweeping turn after sweeping turn went by until I took off over one jump with a little too much enthusiasm and couldn’t make the following right hander. The following picture tells the story!

Go hard or go home!

Go hard or go home I say. I picked the bike up, checked she was OK and carried on smiling from ear to ear! Dave caught me up soon after and we finished the loop. Scott eventually caught us up and we all set off again. Just a half loop this time as we were all only allowed out to play until 10.30. We finished up the second loop together and cleaned up.

All in all – I’m hooked! It was a blast. Thanks to the guys for showing me the ropes and taking me to a great track. I’ll be back there next week. Might try and do 4-5 hours next week if I can get extended play time…

Posing for the camera

Running a Marathon

I love my cycling. I hate running. I’ve never liked running. I did the Great South Run in the UK in 2002, untrained, unfit and overweight, but managed it. In fact it was a bit of a family event with my sister and brother-in-law running it too.

Me, Peta and Andrew

OK, so we weren’t International runners and we weren’t elite! But we all made it around the course in one piece.

Now, 7 years later I feel much fitter. I’m still no runner, but I really feel that need to run a marathon. My old boss in the UK ran the London marathon when he hit 40. I’ve just hit 40. Maybe it’s a male, “I can still do this” type thing. Anyway, today I decided that next year in the Perth City to Surf I am going to run the marathon. I have 50 weeks to prepare. It should be enough I reckon.

First thing is good running shoes, so I went to Sports Fever today in Perth and got assessed for a pair of running shoes. The staff were very knowledgeable (I hope!) and advised me on the right pair. Brooks Adrenaline GTS9. They feel fantastically comfortable.

Brooks Adrenaline GTS9

I’m attending Edith Cowan for my final VO2Max test tomorrow, so the training starts on Saturday. I’m going to start with a 4k run, roughly 1/10th distance!

This is going to be tough, but it’s going to be fun. I can do it. I will do it!!

Spotify

I’ve been reading all the hype around Spotify and then a mate in the UK classified it as his ‘killer internet application’. So I felt compelled to get it downloaded and give it a go. Spotify works on OSX, Linux and Windows, but I’m using the OSX version so cannot comment if there are differences.

In summary, Spotify is an music application that gives you instant access to millions of songs. You can create playlists, share songs and playlists with friends. It recommends music based on tastes. Awesome!

I should point out that Spotify is only available in the UK and some European countries so I had to do some ‘magic’ to get my account!

Spotify works as a peer to peer music streaming service. It’s quick; I’ve had no performance problems playing any tracks at all. Best of all, Spotify has licensing deals with major players in the music industry so it’s all legal, above board and FREE! Yes, I said FREE!!

When you fire it up, it recommends tracks to you and shows your recent searches and playlists down the left hand side. There’s also the cover art for the currently playing track in the left hand panel.

Spotify

A really nice feature is the playlists are sync’d via your account so my Macbook and iMac are kept in sync. I can create a playlist at home and listen to it at work. Searching for your favourite artist is easy and Spotify has a lot of the music I like

Searching Spotify

Just about anything is displayed so surfing around for music you like, finding out more about bands and artists, reading biographies, finding similar artists is all really nice and simply through a well designed interface. I like it.

Profiles

There are 3 versions available. Free which is supported by ads. These are inserted into your music as you’re listening, however I’ve been listening for 4 hours today and haven’t heard a single ad so I can’t say it’s annoying. There is a day pass version and a premium version. The premium is ad-free and the music is streamed at 320kbps instead of the 160kbps of the free version.

I’m a Last.fm user so it’s nice to see Spotify integrates. It also caches tracks for offline listening. In the settings you can choose how much cache to allocate. The only downside I can see to Spotify is iPod support or any MP3 player for that matter. There is none! Because it streams music it’ll only work (for now) with internet connected devices. I reckon it’s only a matter of time before we see Walkman’s, etc supporting Spotify. Apple is a different matter though. Spotify would eat heavily into Apple’s profits so I don’t expect to see iPod or iPhone support any time soon!

Weekend rides

A weekend of contrasts!

Saturday

Saturday I went mountain biking on my own. I didn’t have a huge amount of time available, so through the bike in the back of the car and headed up to Mundaring. I parked just past the weir and rode up the Munda Biddi. Recent rains made some parts of the trail really muddy and slippy which was excellent. On some of the hills the recent heavy rains had badly eroded the track to create some deep channels. This made the longer, steeper slopes pretty technical and hard to ascend. In fact I stacked it a couple of times. Low speed so not a proper stack really.

Munda Biddi route - sort of

I lost the trail at the top of the hill. Probably exhaustion. I’m still getting used to the different physical demands of MTB riding and climbing a 250m climb, off-road, on a tricky slope is hard on the legs. I kept following various paths until I found a road, then the Garmin got me back on track. My bike was filthy by the end of the ride, but I am really loving getting off road.

Views from the trail

The beast!

Sunday

Sunday I met up with Craig again for a ride down to Mandurah. It was bitterly cold on Sunday and never really warmed up. Craig was out on his new toy. I was still feeling a little sore from Saturday’s ride, but nothing major. The ride down to Mandurah is a good run, but a bit monotonous to be honest. Craig was on top of his game and wanting to push the pace on a bit, but I stuck to around 31-32kph heading down.

Not too far into the ride, we missed a turn, but noticed quickly, so I stopped and spun around only to hear a crashing sound. Not sure, how to describe the sound really. Imagine the sound an avid cyclist makes when they fall off their brand new bike just 24hours after getting it! *Sorry Craig* He’d put new pedals on and they were still a little tight. No damage done we continued.

Ride to Mandurah

When we reached Mandurah, in typical Western Australian style, not a single bloody place was open, so sans coffee, we turned around and headed back. Riding back was into a headwind most of the way and by this time I was shattered. I’ve definitely lost some fitness. By the time I got home, I’d averaged just under 28kph. I did this ride in February and averaged 30kph and felt pretty comfortable at that.

I guess it’s time to step up the training and work a proper plan now the weather is improving!

First MTB Ride

I’m a bit slow on the old blog of late. Been pretty busy at work, coupled with an over indulgent social life over the last week or so has meant no time. Anyway, Saturday I took my new MTB out to the hills for it’s first ride on the dirt. I went up to John Forrest National Park on my own. I figured since I’ve never ride off road and I wasn’t yet used to the power of the disc brakes I’d have a run out on my own.

I sort of made the route up as I went along. There were a couple of other guys kicking off at the same time as me and they offered to let me ride with them, but I politely declined. I kicked along the main ‘path’ which I think is the route of an old train line. After about a kilometer or so, I dropped downhill and went mad only to find myself stuck at the bottom of a valley and no way out except back to the start. First lesson over. I stayed closer to a normal route from then on until I reached a brook at the end of the path near Falls road. From there it was a steep climb up 200m or so, then a long fast downhill which had a jump about every 50m. I managed to launch airborne at just about every jump. Near the end the route climbed back up before dropping down at 28%, over a jump and into a creek. Yahoo!!

I’m really pleased with the Focus. It’s a light as I’d hoped and a dream to ride. I don’t have a lot of experience on Mountain bikes so there’s not much to compare it against for me, but I loved riding it every minute.

Moral dilemma – Munda Biddi

So I bought the Munda Biddi maps today. I intend to start riding the northern parts on the MTB over the next few weeks. Now, if you’ve read my post before you’ll know I like mapping and contributing to OpenStreetMap. My dilemma is this, should I trace Munda Biddi with my Garmin and map it on OSM as some people have done with Bibbulmun or not. If I do, does it taken away possible map sales and thus funding for the good work done to maintain the trail, or would anyone interested in riding the trail buy the maps anyway?

Any views gratefully received…

Assembling a Mountain Bike

Hoorah! Today my new Mountain bike arrived. It’s been 2 weeks since ordering and I’ve waited patiently for it to come. I wasn’t in any particular rush but once it came today I couldn’t wait to get home and get it assembled.

5 stars to Wiggle. The bike was packaged very well in 2 boxes. The boxes themselves showed little signs of damage, just a few bumps and scrapes. Exactly what you’d expect from a bike that had travelled half way around the world!

Boxes from Wiggle

The first contained just the wheels, completely surrounded by air bags and bubble wrap.

Boxed wheels

The second box had the frame, handlebars, pedals, tools, seat and seatpost. Again all completely packaged tightly with air bags.

The wheels had discs attached, skewers removed and had no signs of spoke, rim or hub damage. Not even a scratch.

Fulcrum wheels

With wheels unpacked and the first box put aside, I removed the seat and seatpost from the second box and slotted it into the frame, just tightening the bolt enough to be able to lift the bike out of the box and mount into the work stand. By the way, Wiggle supplied the tools required to complete the assembly. This consisted of a multi-tool with allen keys and philips screwdriver heads. They also supplied a 15mm cone spanner, but this isn’t needed for the SPD pedals.

Wrapped up and waiting to come out

With the bike now mounted in the work stand, I started removing all the protective layers. This was probably the most time consuming part of the exercise. Wiggle really do go to town with the protection. It’s in their interests I know to ensure the bike arrives in perfect condition so I applaud them for the care they’ve taken. There is a soft foam layer next to the frame itself and them bubble wrap, all tightly bound in tape and zip ties.

Undressed

I took particular care removing the protection as I didn’t want to scratch the frame or cut through any cables. Once the bike was taken out of the protective layers, it was time to start assembly.

The first job was to fit the rear derailleur. Pretty easy. Just an allen key is required to fix it to the hanger. All the screws were greased nicely by Wiggle so this was a job I didn’t have to do even though I had been and bought new pot of grease at the weekend. With the derailleur on, putting the skewers through both wheels and attaching the rear wheel was next.

Rear wheel on

The skewers and stem bolts were not greased, but I prefer to grease all of these points so added a little grease here before attaching. Rear wheel attached, time for the front. The front forks had a protective brace in place to protect against any pressure. They were the one point I had been concerned about, but all was good. Brace, removed, skewer greased and inserted and front wheel on. The disc brakes front and rear had obviously been set up by Wiggle’s mechanics as there was no binding at all with the pads and the wheels span freely and brakes gripped strongly.

Nearly done

Nearly done, the handlebars were next. Wiggle configure the brakes and gears pre-shipping, so they just needed to be mounted. I just put them off and tightened the bolts just a little until I took the bike out of the stand. I like to have the brake levers pointing down at the same angle as my arms when I’m sitting on the bike, so completed this adjustment and tightened completely once the bike was down.

Finally, from a bike point of view was the pedals. Again, pre-greased, these just needed to be screwed into place. The pedals indicate left and right so there’s no getting that wrong!

Double check all the bolts and quick release levers are now tightened appropriately. No torque wrench available for me, so I just used common sense. I think you can feel when there is enough resistance, although a colleague insists a torque wrench is needed. We’ll see if he spends $220 for one when ordering his bike!

Last jobs for me were adding the mounts for my Ayup lights and Garmin 705.

Completed

Apologies the photos are not too good. Light wasn’t great in my office at home where I did the assembly. Just been for a 3kms test ride to ensure all is working well and it rides like a dream. Can’t wait to hit them tracks!

New bike – No duty

Just a quick post to note that in my last post I highlighted the amount I was charged by Australian customs for duty and GST. Today I learned through the Australian Cycling Forums that duty does not need to be paid on complete bikes imported into Australia.

To be honest I was skeptical when I read it but called customs today who confirmed the fact and told me I could apply for a refund of the duty. This is 5% so over $100. Why they miscalculated I don’t know, but works in my favour in the end.

Thanks to the knowledgeable guys on the forums!

Buying a bike mail order – Lessons learned

Anyone who reads this regularly – if indeed there is anyone who reads this regularly – will know I recently bought a new Focus Raven Expert from Wiggle.

The Focus range aren’t available yet in Australia and certainly not in Perth, so I didn’t have a local price to compare the deal against, but it felt like a pretty good deal to me. I paid $2178.90 for the bike and ordered some Shimano XT M770 pedals at the same time. The pedals cost $109.41. Both prices are in Australian dollars. Wiggle’s website is good and once you declare you’re ordering and taking delivery outside the European Union, they remove the tax from the price.

Note – If you’re ordering a bike from overseas do not add anything to the order (especially from Wiggle). The reason is that any delivery coming through Australian Customs with a value less than $1000 may be imported duty and tax free. So if you add to the bike order you’re increasing the value of the bike order and customs will tax the whole order. By ordering separately you’ll not pay duty or tax on the extra items. Now, I suspect customs are pretty clued up on this, so you might find that if you order your extra items on the same or next day from the same store and they arrive together, they may combine the order. I don’t know, but I suspect they’re in their rights to do this. As it happens I ordered some clothing from Wiggle the next day and they arrived today and were not taxed by Australian customs.

So back to the plot (what there is of it). My order arrived in Australia on Thursday last week and went to a status of ‘Being held by customs’ on the Parcelforce website. Today I received a letter and some forms from Customs that needed to be completed for the bike to be released. Firstly I had to complete an N10 – Import Declaration – Post. This was a relatively straightforward form, but there were a couple of boxes that weren’t self explanatory. A quick call to Customs and a very helpful lady provided some guidance. The second task is registering as a client in the ICS (Integrated Cargo System). This is a very straightforward form and once completed registers you for any future clearance.

Both of these forms together with a photocopy of your drivers license (or passport) and a copy of the suppliers invoice needed to be faxed to Customs. The lady on the phone explained that once these were processed (approximately 5 days), they’d write to me with a payment form for payment by credit card. As it happened they processed in it 3 hours and I received an email saying the clearance was approved and once I returned payment, they would instruct Australia Post to deliver the goods. So the process isn’t too bad and all turned around in a day once you receive the paperwork.

The way the duty and tax is calculated in explained on the Customs website, however they neglect to explain a processing charge.

In total this is what I finally paid for the complete bike

To Wiggle
Bike – $2178.90
Pedals – $109.41
Delivery – $121.78

To Australian Customs
Customs Duty – $108.94
GST – $251.90
Processing Charge – $48.85

So the complete cost of the bike (with pedals) has been – $2819.78.

I’m still very pleased with this price. It’s a full carbon MTB with excellent reviews and the cheapest Carbon MTB with similar specs I could find locally was over $3500.

Just be warned that the costs of importing are not just 10% GST!