Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Cooke Again
Team GB cycling
Kings of the Track
Queens of the Track
Queen of the Road
Fastest Sprinter 2008
all we need now is a Road King
Kings of the Track
Queens of the Track
Queen of the Road
Fastest Sprinter 2008
all we need now is a Road King
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Settling In
I'm nearing the end of my monthly "normal" 2-day weekend and feel like I have a few minutes to blog.
We're quite well settled in now. Lucas has been at school for a couple of weeks. The final piece of the jigsaw is to get Jackie a driving licence. According to the rules here, a newly licenced 17-year old from the UK can get a UAE licence in minutes, but Jackie (who's been driving for over 20 years) has to go through a minimum of 20 lessons because here licence is not from a "recognised" country. Even more crazy is the fact that the strict yet nonsensicle driving licencing rules here don't seem to do any good. I drive along the same 3km stretch of Al Khail Road every day and I have seen at least 2 accidents every day since Ramadan began - some serious ones. The shocking thing is that the reason for the accidents is blindingly obvious - tailgating.
I've managed to get out for a few rides and runs recently. Starting a few weeks ago I joined the Dubai Roadsters 70km Friday a.m. ride. My first ride included a puncture after 43km and a solo ride home after that.
My second ride was better. My colleague Jim (ex British road-race champ) joined us after a few km and we chatted all the way to the 35km point where there was a sprint. I then bumped into Karen Hales and for a moment was not sure what continent I was in. It turns out that her disapperance from KL was becasue she moved to Dubai! No punctures this time and I made it back in 2:08 at an average of 33kph - my fastest ever road ride of that distance.
Last Friday I did the same ride but was more ambitious than last time. I did a few km stint at the front and went for broke in the last km to see if I could catch the sprint. Jim attacked first and was followed. A few secs later I managed to latch on to the back of a train I surprisingly managed to stay with it @ 50kph+ until we caught Jim with a few '00m to go. But my HR had reached 99% so I stepped of the gas and watched the real sprinters fly by.
The return leg was faster as usual and I had fun time-trialling across gaps to try to stay with the leaders. That ride ended in 2:11 @ 32kph.
The evening before I joined the Dubai Road Runners 5km Iftar (breaking-fast time) run.
This Saturday I've got a 800m/5km Aquathlon and a 10km run and a 168km bike race in my calendar.
That's all folks.
We're quite well settled in now. Lucas has been at school for a couple of weeks. The final piece of the jigsaw is to get Jackie a driving licence. According to the rules here, a newly licenced 17-year old from the UK can get a UAE licence in minutes, but Jackie (who's been driving for over 20 years) has to go through a minimum of 20 lessons because here licence is not from a "recognised" country. Even more crazy is the fact that the strict yet nonsensicle driving licencing rules here don't seem to do any good. I drive along the same 3km stretch of Al Khail Road every day and I have seen at least 2 accidents every day since Ramadan began - some serious ones. The shocking thing is that the reason for the accidents is blindingly obvious - tailgating.
I've managed to get out for a few rides and runs recently. Starting a few weeks ago I joined the Dubai Roadsters 70km Friday a.m. ride. My first ride included a puncture after 43km and a solo ride home after that.
My second ride was better. My colleague Jim (ex British road-race champ) joined us after a few km and we chatted all the way to the 35km point where there was a sprint. I then bumped into Karen Hales and for a moment was not sure what continent I was in. It turns out that her disapperance from KL was becasue she moved to Dubai! No punctures this time and I made it back in 2:08 at an average of 33kph - my fastest ever road ride of that distance.
Last Friday I did the same ride but was more ambitious than last time. I did a few km stint at the front and went for broke in the last km to see if I could catch the sprint. Jim attacked first and was followed. A few secs later I managed to latch on to the back of a train I surprisingly managed to stay with it @ 50kph+ until we caught Jim with a few '00m to go. But my HR had reached 99% so I stepped of the gas and watched the real sprinters fly by.
The return leg was faster as usual and I had fun time-trialling across gaps to try to stay with the leaders. That ride ended in 2:11 @ 32kph.
The evening before I joined the Dubai Road Runners 5km Iftar (breaking-fast time) run.
This Saturday I've got a 800m/5km Aquathlon and a 10km run and a 168km bike race in my calendar.
That's all folks.
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