A spider's web

A quick post today. Work is busy, the boss is on leave and we had a major technical outage yesterday across the globe (a nasty viral attack) and I needed the trouble like a hole in the head.

I was due to race last Saturday night at the Goulburn Track Power open. Wouldn't you know it - Goulburn hasn't seen rain in five years, is in the grip of the worst drought on record but on Saturday night, right after warm up and just when the first race was lining up on the fence, it absolutely started to rain cats and dogs!! Track meet was cancelled.

I feel sorry for the organisers as the country town carnivals are good community events with lots of people working hard to give the rest of us a chance to race. Still, if you asked me which race I'd cancel due to weather - I'd have picked Goulburn since they need the rain so badly. So dinner at the Paragon Cafe and the drive back to Sydney. Never mind.

This coming weekend is round #1 of my season target events - the State Masters Track Championships. My races are on Saturday (points) and Sunday (individual pursuit). My taper doesn't start until before the Nationals which are at the end of March, so essentially I am training right through this event.

Still, I am feeling pretty good and will give it my best shot. The points race has a 20 rider field, so I will need my wits abouts me. I am going to set a PB pursuit pacing target and see how I go.

Just to show I'm honest, here are this afternoon's (Coggan) Level 5 Aerobic Power Intervals:


Normally I try to do them at my local track on the pursuit bike but the weather was not looking good so I decided to get on the road bike and head to the park to do them. It was a good decision as the weather did close in and the track would have definitely been closed. Unfortunately, the dark and wet conditions at the end of my set meant I could not safely complete my workout with some 30sec L6 efforts. Still, it was better than another wash out!!

Oh, yeah, the spider's web...

The other morning I got up early for my endurance ride, got on the bike, fired up the headlight, check the PT was reset and behaving, clipped into the pedals and pushed off with a few firm turns of the cranks on the way up the slight incline of my street. Looking up I was surprised to see I was heading right for a HUGE spider's web!! (and said spider too). I couldn't believe it - it was in the middle of the street with at least a 15 metre span between objects either side upon which to hang a web. Amazing creatures.

No time to stop - I rode right through it and the spider was now crawling over web tangled all through my bars, lights, cables etc. He (she?) decided they liked to get close to the HID headlamp, which was good as I could see where it was in the darkness. Trying to remove it with some persuasive blowing techniques, I couldn't quite huff 'n' puff hard enough to quite get it away to the ground, each time quickly returning to the headlamp. After a few minutes, I managed to persuade the spider my bike wasn't the best place to hang out and continued my ride, covered in web!

I'm hoping it's a sign of good luck!