Yellow in more ways than one.........

Thank You to everyone for helping me exceed my $6000 target. As I was getting close Alex and Guido double pledged (I suspect just to shut me up) as did Rocky and a pledge from "Lord Lucan" got me close enough for Allyson to bring me across the line.  No more obsessing from me and hopefully a few more donations will come in of their own accord to push me over $7000.

As promised, achieving my target triggered the the Helicopter Ride Draw so last Sunday we did the draw in Woodys. Hopes of last minute tickets sales were dashed. With thee mad woman from New York throwing coins at Miss C and the alcoholic crack-heads at the next table the atmosphere really wasn't conducive to fundraising. After a few rejections I gave up. The draw was done in front of the crowd by Miss C and **drum roll**  Sass, a member of the Rally crew, won the prize. Fittingly she was the very first person to buy a ticket so it seemed appropriate. The draw pulled in over $2000. 

Last weekends training rides were writen-off due to a whole week of rain which brought down the mood of the entire city. As a substitute I went and bought the required tent and a self inflating mattress and out of shear boredom I put the tent up in the apartment just to "test it". Also out of boredom (there was a lot of rain) decided to go radical with my hair cut and get my face ironed. All worth it. 

Despite feeling under the weather Harvey and I did a ride last Thursday morning which we abandoned at 25 km as the air was damp and foggy and not very pleasant. The consequence was that I caught a cold and all snotty & sneezy but like a trooper, I did yesterdays training ride. 


It was the most ball breaking hilly ride to date. 72 km in total and 35 km of that uphill. Just when you thought there could be no more hills another bigger hill appeared to sap your energy and resolve. We made it though. No stopping on the hills and an average of over 20 km an hour tells me I am improving. Very grueling but a good measure of progress. 

The other good news is that the ongoing problem I have had with the toes on my right foot feeling as if broken [ see Chinese Foot Binding blog ] seems to have gone away with the recent purchase of new "connecty" shoes. Very expensive, very yellow but after yesterdays ride I had no problems walking. This is a big relief as I was doubting my ability to do six days riding if my foot was going to be in agony.


I got lots of comments about them but its impossible to be "too garish" amongst cyclists and anyway we resemble a group of badly dressed hetro-sexual men so MORE glamour is badly needed.


So ....  target achieved, tent bought, feet fixed, no chains off, no falling off ....... all looking good ( especially my new fitter legs) so now I just need to learn how to have a pee in bib-shorts without having to spend the following 20 minutes (during yesterdays break) attempting to disguise the fact I had just wet myself ...... ah well .... always another thing to learn.


TTFN
David