Dutton Park Hill - My Bitch Now

Time to 'tick off' another milestone.

Seems the athlete-side of my life, which is about half at last count, is now defined by small feats that were once routine. These are not insignificant however.

For example (you just knew there was an example coming, didn't you) there is a hill that is on Brisbane's most-used cycle loop, commonly referred to as the 'Dutton Park Hill' (DPH). It gets called many other things to be honest, but that's its most proper title. Now, this hill is quite short but plenty steep. For those of you who are cyclists, I'm not sure of the % grade but its more sharp than most around town. But as I do this climb a few times each week, its a good measurable (government word, sorry) of how I'm travelling nerve-healing-wise.

Which brings us back to the 'tick off'. This morning, DPH became my bitch again. Once apon a time, I would use this hill to punish the unworthy on the ride by standing and powering up in, oh say, 39/19 gearing. But since the injury, this is not possible on several levels. Mainly the ability to stand on the pedals is the issue, but as you would no doubt have read in previous posts, the situation is a-changing. This morning, it changed a bit more. You guessed it, I powered up it standing all the way. Granted it wasn't in 39/19, more like 39/25 but that's not the point. So while it still doesn't feel like much is happening healing-wise its these measurables that I'm focusing on.

Oh, the stats for the ride were 45km @ 31.5kph average. Sorry no heartrate data. I'm still not grabbing the chest strap as habit yet, but I'm working on it. And for some bike-porn, here's a pic of my bike. I didn't ride it this morning as the facilities at work for bike security aren't great, and this baby is expensive to replace.

I've had this bike for about 18months now and just adore it. Story behind getting it is that an aussie rider was contracted to ride with Robbie McEwen's team, but at the last minute they pulled the deal. He'd already received his team bike, so a friend contacted me and asked if I wanted it at a cheap price. Duh... is what I said. More bike pics to follow of my TT bike. Just because I can.

Ciao.