All the way to Lake G (and back again thanks to Snickers)

So this morning I had an epic ride with Rach on the PROD aiming to get to Lake George and back.

It got off to a pretty daunting start when I turned up to the ANU where the bunch consisted of a whole bunch of V-Max boys and the only other Valkyries were Rach, Lisa and Deciana – all well out of my league and I was ready to get back in the car and go home. However, I decided to go along, and with encouragement from Deciana and some help from her giving me a push up Northbourne : ) I eventually made it out onto the highway.

From here, Rach came and kept me company while the others pushed on. Just past Eaglehawk I had my first flat tyre - excellent, great opportunity to learn to change my own tyre. However, it proved to be little more troublesome than expected and inevitably Rach changed the tyre for me. Having spent what seemed at least 20 mins by the side of the road we pushed on for Lake George.

The next part of the ride was great – I practiced getting my hands off the bars, drinking from my water bottle while riding, descending in the drops, and sprinting. I could feel an improvement from last week, especially in getting up Shingleback Hill.

Eventually we made it to Lake George – it was a fantastic feeling to realise I had made it and achieved a goal I had set myself, and there wasn’t any part of the ride that I couldn’t achieve (with a bit of time!).

The trip back started well, managing to get up the nasty little steep section up from Lake George. But from then on it started to get progressively worse. We had already been out for 3 hours including the tyre change, and I started to experience what is commonly known as bonking. I did not recognise it at all at the time, never having experienced it before. I just started to feel really tired and couldn’t find a comfortable position on the bike. I had no energy on the hills, was unable to get my heart rate up and was even slower than my usual slow speed.

The café in Hackett seemed a very long way away at this point, so I started breaking the trip down in my head, setting little landmarks to get to. The downhill part to the Tulip Farm lifted my spirits and I thought things might get better. But back out on the highway I somehow managed to get even slower. It was getting to the point where I would’ve preferred to get off my bike and walk it home rather than sit on it for a minute longer, either that or sit on the side of the road and cry, when Rach made the executive decision that we were stopping for food at Eaglehawk. I managed to drag myself up to the servo. As I couldn’t seem to function, Rach organised food – a Snickers bar and a bottle of Pepsi, followed by a Milky Way!

That Snickers bar was the best thing I had tasted and it worked a treat! In no time I started to feel much better, and was able to focus a bit more on the surroundings – only to realise we had been standing in front of the porno mags while eating (interestingly there is a MILF mag)! After having a laugh about this and calling Brad to let him know I was still alive (we had been out for over 4 hours by this time) we set off again. The difference in my riding was amazing – I was still feeling tired and a bit sore but I had energy again! It felt so good to ride back into Canberra and make it to Hackett with a smile on my face and feeling proud of my achievement rather than a sobbing, broken mess.

Lessons learnt from this experience:

• Having enough and the right type of food on a long ride is really important to ensure you have enough energy to get home. "Bonking" is a nasty experience and best to be avoided.
• It is good to be able to change your own tyre and practicing in the comfort of home is probably the best place to do this.
• Snickers bars are really amazing
• Rach is a great person to have with you on a ride – I wouldn’t have made it there and back without her!