How to balance Family, work and riding.

I'm back from holidays and straight into laying bricks. What a week to start back with temperatures into the mid 30's. It was a good time for a rest from training only light riding for the week. Saturday morn was early again as other fellow MTB riders [Andy Bell, Jason Jackson Epix, Jeff Williams, Matt and Ben Randal showed up today, interesting] are now joining me for a tour of the Dandynongs. This ride is been dubbed the dads ride, due to our family commitments and unwillingness to stop riding. We go in the wee hours of the morning while everybody else is sleeping.

Tip: if you love riding and also want to spend time with your family get your arse out of bed early and have the best of both worlds.

Back to bloging

Happy new year. I am now back from holidays with the family. Due to my body being totally exhausted i have had a good month off the bike to let it repair the damage i have caused it over the last two years. Anyway i have settled back into riding again and all is going a bit to well. Since i have had some time off my body recovers supper fast. It may have something to do with Ascend's range of recovery products in fact i am sure they assist. Basically i will be training up for some racing in February and March and will then assess where i go from their depending on performance. My inspiration for the year is based on these words ' Failure is very often the fertilizer for success.'


Mitchell has developed a fetish for trains. seen here tyring to break into the Bright train museum.

My first ride back from a break was to check out the Marathon Championship course for 2009. With plenty of climbing and fire roads it is sure to be a hard fun day of racing.

Emma is now crawling. She also has started her core training.

This is Jeff trying to fix his flat. What he didn't realize was the rim had a massive dint in it. His new Giant Anthem descends to fast for him and he can't see the rocks.

Jeff was put to the test when i took him out for a 50km MTB ride. It had over 2000m of climbing and pinches that were over 25% grade.

Jeff and Brad on another challenging MTB ride off the side of Mt Hotham

Emma modeling for Skins.

The view from Mt Buffalo

Along the flat part of Mt Hotham. You can still see the damage from the 2003 bushfire's.

Looking down CRB hill on Mt Hotham it is a casual 15% grade.

Looking from Mt Hotham over too Mt Feathertop.

That is an update on what has been going on. I am looking forward to the year ahead and will be updating my blog regularly again so stay tuned for more training tips, long adventures and great products i use and test.

A ride to the playground.

Sunday the sun broke through the clouds so dad took me on a bike ride to the playground.

It was a fun ride to get their traveling through the back allies of Balwyn.

I took a big tumble when my front wheel got stuck in a hole.

Fraser was leading the way to the playground and i couldn't get their fast enough.

At first i played on the slide.

Then i played on the swing.

The rocking Kangaroo was so much fun.

Then dad left me hanging on the monkey bars. I could have hung their all day.

Leaving the playground i had another big crash.

All was good though. Dad said it i have to keep my hands on the handlebars until i get a bit older.

On the way home their was heavy traffic on the footpath. i had to pull over to let the pamphlet trolleys past.

Dad has also been teaching me to cross the road safely. Looking right and left checking for cars.

I always practice my curb hoping when crossing the road.

The final stretch home was flat out. I was even out pacing Fraser.

We went so fast on the way home we had to wait for dad to catch up and open the gate.

Ergon Grips.

With work flat out leading up to Christmas i haven't had time for updates. I have however been prepairing for the Kona 24 hour next weekend. For the last couple of years i have been searching for the ultimate grips with some good finds but nothing that improves performance until now.

Jeff found these Ergon grips and gave them a try at the Scott 24 hour and couldn't believe how good they were. He said i just had to give them a try, so i did.

The diagram shows how the design of the grip improves comfort. Been and endurance MTB rider, comfort is one of the things i was looking for in a grip, the Ergon delivers this.

What really surprised me was how they improved riding performance. Let me explain. Because the grip supports the palm of your hand it seems to relax your fingers so you don't grip hard, your fingers just rap around. When it comes to descending fast or flying through single track the only way to do it is by staying relaxed and letting the bike flow. Because you are not griping the bars you have this relaxed feel. By not griping the bars you also push down on the outside of the bars through corners keeping the front wheel from sliding out.

If you don't believe me drop by the Giant tent at the Kona 24 hour and i will let you test ride a pair. you will be convinced.



Also available is a bar end version although i haven't tried them yet. They are available for triggers or twist shift.

Mitch's first big ride.

I am almost 2 now and have been training up for my first enduro. Today dad decided i was ready as i hadn't been having my day time nap and getting up way to early in the morning. He said i was in great condition and would have no trouble completing the gruelling 5km loop that we have been running in the afternoon's.

I waited in the starting chute, full of beans.

The first decent was a bit hairy but i managed to hold it upright down the gravel path.

Out onto the footpath where i put my head down and drove into the wind.

Crossing the big grassy park was tough.

This is the beginning of the big climb 1km long.

A final burst over the crest of the big climb catching dad unexpectedly.

Steeling the break on dad and going for home.

Road crossings were difficult but my skills are getting better every day.

The home stretch. Dad had no hope of catching me it was a downhill finish.

It appears though dad was smarter than i thought as i fell asleep in my high chair after some food and drink completely spent.

24 Hour fun in Canberra

This go's down as one of the best yet and one i personally will never forget. We only decided to go to this race 4 weeks ago. Jeff was a bit shocked but up for a challenge. so i entered us into the 2 man category as we had not tackled this category before. All did not go to plan and we nearly had to pull the pin when my dad had a minor heart attack just before dinner Thursday night. After a long night and been reassured by the doctors that everything was well under control and they just had to monitor his condition for the next couple of days we hit the road Friday lunchtime.



Thanks to fellow Nighlighting rider Troy Bailey we were saved a great spot 50m from transition backing onto the food vendors. Always good to be close to the coffee and food. As you can see Giant supplied us with a great new tent with full back and sides, it was just perfect.

Just for some fun i was up for the prologue dash for cash. Unfortunately about 20mins in one of the sharp rocks stabbed my rear tyre and put an end to my chances.

As you can see it was a rather large hole about 10mm long. I was looking for a little more speed and ran a Geax Baro race on the rear, this however was not wise as the course was far to rocky. Jeff and i switched straight back to the ever reliable Geax Sagauro and didn't have any more of these frustrating problems.

I started the run and first lap getting us off to a good start. Jeff followed it up with more consistent laps. Night time came so out came the Nightlighning lights, one on the bars and one on the head. Having this much light we were able to keep lapping out good times and stay on schedule. With the temperature dropping i put on the long Skins bib knicks and my night laps picked up.

By morning we were noticing the affects of using the Ascend protein bars as our legs felt great and neather of us had had a cramp. Also Andrew Bell using the Ascend products had fort his way back up into 2nd place in the solo men's category.

The rest of the race went great. Our Giant Anthems just ate the bumps and rocks making it easy. Jeff and i just went about riding as fast as we could and managed to finish 2nd pushing the Specialized team hard for their well deserved win. Also finishing 3rd was BMC who were also using the Nightlighning lights.

Congrats also to Jess Douglas who took the female Solo win on her 2009 Giant Anthem

A big thank you to all our sponsors and our wonderfull wives for granting us a leave pass for a long weekend.

Hawks win, 6 hour win. Anthem sale.

Well it has been a while since the Hawks have been on top but now we are here to stay. Mithchell backed the right team going with the mighty Hawks instead of following mum and the Cat's. He was rather happy when they won.

Ending on ebay shortly is the Giant Anthem Advance at a bargin price. You will be dissapointed if you don't pick it up.

The next day I was to be a bit weathered. Packing my bags while under the influence for the 6 hour at Bendigo, i had forgotten to put a jersey in. So raced in a Skins top. With the rocky conditions and twisty trails this was beneficial anyway. As it turned out the race went well establishing an early lead and riding pretty consistently for the 6 hours. It just proves you don't have to do mega Km or long hours to race well over 6 hours. It was great to see the Yeti tribe take the win.

Wednesday night on the fatties ride was a cracker. One section of trail at Westerfolds, Ben Randell worked his way to the front and let us have it. He held 45+km/h along the Yarra river single track. In all my years of riding the trail i cannot remember going that fast. It has me wondering just how fast he is going to go when it is not dark. So if you are up for the challenge and would like to experience speeds like this on the MTB come along and find out just how it is done. We leave at 6:30pm Wednesday nights from Eaglemont scout camp in Ivonhoe.

Thursday we rode the Tour of the Burb's with 100 other riders. The pace was fast up front with a strong pace set up the hills. My legs felt a little flat so will have a couple of easy days.

Next week i will be preparing to contest the 2 man category at the Scott 24. Jeff and i will be racing our Giant Anthem's at full speed for the 24 hours. So we stay stuck to the trail we will be running Geax Saugaro rubber the proven 24 hour tire performer. We will be taking Ascend's new protein bars and electrolyte drinks to give us a huge advantage over our competition and will have some available if you would like to give them ago. Also i am sure you will see us at night as we will be running our Nightlighning Blasst light system's that will have the trail lit up like it was day time.