A Couple of Photos...

Here's the super six taken at what looks like Shorncliffe... sorry I couldn't be there, ladies!

 While I was down in Christmas Creek, I managed to offload a tray of avocados. There will also be a contingent coming up for the trivia night - Hooray for them!

Here's a pic of my avocado tray at work. I am giving away a free bush lemon (lovingly liberated from Christmas Creek) with every purchase. They are selling well!

 I saw a tray for sale outside Michelle's on Saturday morning as we were on our way out of town and Celia tells me that Kirsty picked up the last tray yesterday. What an amazing effort!!!

Surprise!

Look who all just went up Mount Coot-tha!

I'm so proud! Particularly given Kirsty's asthma AND all three of them having bikes that aren't really built for hills.

This from Kirsty:

Was so hard. Emma did it yesterday so we were encouraged by her huge efforts and Ruth's on the weekend. My asthma was bad. We stopped 6 times going up. We went the easy was up. That is round to the left to the summit. Quick view,  photos, wee and water stop.

 Can you believe Michelle has never been to the lookout! 

Then it was on past all the tv stations. A quick channel 10 photo then speedy down that hill!!! 

Such a sense of achievement. !!!! 

Yes we will do it again. Maybe not next week and We will go same way! 

And this from Michelle:

hi it felt excellent!! So relieved to have made it......we took several pauses to get our breath back, Kirsty and I were on our lowest gear almost the whole way, right from the beginning!!! The view was magic, and there was a lovely rainbow! Exhilarating coming down, all in all fantastic, will def do it again xM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning's hill ride

Things are getting a bit nippy at 6am these days but this was my reward when I made it up Dornoch this morning. Only visible for a few brief minutes and then it was gone...

After a couple of moments of wonder, I snapped out of it and got on the the hill route.

For those looking to do some hill practice (that's everyone except Bron who has a good excuse), this is a good one. It takes about an hour and you can really build your leg strength up. Don't neglect your hills; they are your friends.

Dornoch Terrace, Park Rd West, Park Rd, Bikeway to Captain Cook,  Bikeway to Goodwill, Botanical Gardens, Riverside, Ivory Lane, Story Bridge, Thornton St, Kangaroo Point Bikeway, Bikeway to Park Road, Annerley Road past Boggo Road, Gladstone Road and home.

Optional extra is to  go straight ahead at the Gladstone Rd lights and head down towards the Corso on that little path just before you go onto the Green Bridge. You can then turn right at the bottom and head up the winding TJ Doyle Memorial Drive which, after avoiding for too long, I have found isn't that bad after all.

 Further to my point yesterday about feeling a bit unsure of the praise I got for getting up a very minor hill, I felt the complete opposite this morning. I got up Ivory lane with less zig-zagging than usual and as I reached the top a bloke who looked like he was heading off for a run raised his eyebrows and gave me a subtle head nod: 'Not a bad effort - well done' he said and I was genuinely chuffed. That is a bloody steep hill.

 I tried to imagine trying to get up a hill that steep but longer and with monkeys staring at you and bloody wild pigs and jungle on all sides. No wonder Bron hasn't done much riding.

Anyway. Moments later on the Story Bridge a big group of runners was heading towards me. I slowed down to check them out and sure enough it was Can-do, sweating profusely, in amongst his gang of henchmen. I took the time to not smile.

Avocado picking at Barker's Vale

It was a REALLY productive weekend down at Celia's place in Barker's Vale.

This from Kirsty:

HI all, we had a busy but also fabulous weekend picking avocados at Celia and Keongs place at Barkers Vale....great company, happy kids, fabulous weather, keen pickers, good music, great food,.....we picked over 1000 large and medium high quality avocados and perhaps another 200 - 300 small ones.







Up high...

Down low...

 From the trees...

...to the back of the car...

We hope to raise lots of money for our Ride to Conquer cancer!

Feel free to sell some at your workplaces. $1.50 each for the large/ medium - all organic! at the moment the avos are at Celia and Keong in West End...

I know I missed that fab Mt Coot-tha ride but it really was worth it to get this huge job done! Feel a sense of achievement doing this too!

lots of work still coming up for the fundraiser....people need to to commit to certain times for raffle ticket sales...Katina is doing a roster...

Thanks so much again to Celia and Keongs very generous offer to have us pick and sell their avocados!

x kirsty

Mount Root-tha

I know! What a play on words.

So with Kirsty out due to a pressing engagement with a country retreat in Northern New South Wales, the Mount Coot-tha challenge had dwindled down to Katina, myself and Coot-tha first-timer, Ruth.

At 6am this morning it was about 8 degrees. I had my arm warmers and my leg warmers and my HEAD and EAR warmer (mmmm) and I was STILL feeling cold (but not my ears mmm they were snug).

We headed off in the pre-dawn gloom along the river chatting away... once we crossed the footbridge in Toowong we had a bit of a pitstop. Time for a nose blow, a drink of water and a re-group before the climb...



Pre-climb iv from cara gartland on Vimeo.

The first hill alongside the Quarry is, as I have mentioned before, a bit of a doozy. It's long and straight. You just have to put your head down and get on with it. Perhaps what I didn't make clear to Ruth is that once you get to the top of this hill and you have that little downhill section... it's then that the actual climb starts. The steepest part of the climb is done, yes, but the long, slow winding road is still ahead.

For those yet to attempt the climb, enjoy this cruisy downhill section and use it to catch your breath, drink water etc.

We took things nice and slow. There were plenty of other riders around all being very friendly (as they whizzed past us). Although Ruth had to get off and push for a while, she managed to get back on again to reach the apex and wasn't discouraged by the undulating back half of the ride. Here's us around by Channel 7:

Cold Ears!

Bobsled, anyone?

 We discussed the fact that it would probably be quite a challenge to push your bike up the hill and when she got back on, she admitted that it was a bit easier. We stopped at the lookout to gaze upon what was a crystal clear morning. It was still bloody freezing!

After that it was downhill to the bikeway and then straight to Seventeen Mile Rocks for a bit of a relax and snack on the jetty in the warm sunshine. Bliss! We came home via Oxley. There were a couple of good hills which I had conveniently forgotten about when suggested taking this route home... but I don't think Katina or Ruth held it against me too much!

At one point somewhere in Yeronga we were going up a very minor hill and were being passed by some MAMILs, one of whom said "well done girls". I smiled and said thank-you but straight afterwards felt the inner feminist getting quite embarrassed by my lame acceptance of that comment. Quite patronising, really. As Katina pointed out - "We've just ridden up f*cking Mount Coot-tha!"  (they'd gone by that stage).

The last hill was Gladstone Road which we all got up with no problem at all. Katina stopped in at Flour Power for some bread and Ruth crossed over to ride through the park on Highgate Hill so I took the triumphant Dornoch Tce descent by myself and felt extremely righteous all the way home.

Congratulations to Ruth who not only conquered Mount-Coot-tha but also continued on for the rest of the ride which added up to just over 51km. Considering what a short time she has been riding, this is brilliant. She is now the 4th member of our group to do the climb. 4th of 11!

It's at this point that I'd like to pay homage to Darryl who has not only taken my weekend morning absences (and the extra childcare responsibility) in his stride but he has also outdone himself on the breakfast front when I get back in. This week, I had seen a Mexican-inspired breakfast recipe on an episode of Jamie Oliver and asked Darryl if he wouldn't mind making it for me when I got back. We went out yesterday and got all the ingredients and, upon my return today, he'd got the whole breakfast almost ready. Coffee in the pot, spicy sauce ready to poach the eggs in. All I had to do was shower, get changed and take pictures of this masterpiece.. Thank you Darryl it was the best breakfast EVER.

2 eggs poaching in chilli/capsicum/tomato sauce; all food tastes better after riding!

Dish of the day... food not bad either

Blurry: my hands were shaking with anticipation.

In case you were wondering, you make up a sauce with onion, garlic, chillies, capsicum, tomatoes, coriander, salt and pepper. Add a bit of water if it's too dry and then poach the eggs in the sauce. Serve topped up with grated cheese and fresh coriander and with hot tortillas. We also added some chopped up bacon. Future plans for this include chilli beans and chorizo. It really is the breakfast of champions. 

TRIVIA NIGHT INVITE

It's full steam ahead with the trivia night organising. We've got a huge stockpile of prizes from loads of West End businesses. Marilyn managed to secure a bike courtesy of Kevin Rudd's office. The raffle tickets are almost ready to be printed, Darryl's sorted out a good deal with Chalk & Cheese for the bar and I'm warming up my camera for some arse/calf shots (for one of the visual rounds.)

For those of us at Paula's housewarming on Saturday, we were treated to a taste of things to come when the singer from Sebastian's Habit got up and sang some songs. What a voice. It made me tuck the ukulele and music book firmly under the table!

Here's the invite.

 For those not familiar with West End, the school address is 24 Vulture Street. 

The dress code is 'W' - be creative and see ya there!

Recent correspondence

Nell sent me an interesting article about Wonder Woman and the role model she has become. Read more here.

You may have seen Jacqui's email regarding a recovery outfit. Where do I get one??? Quality:

Ave, Centurions!

Well... the 100km barrier was smashed to pieces yesterday by six of us and we lived to tell the tale!

Giddyup, centaurs!

West End to Brighton via Wilston and Kedron Brook. Total kms: 101
Riders: Michelle, Emma, Jacqui W, Cate, Kirsty and myself
Special mention goes to Emma who rode an extra 8 or 9km including Gladstone Road before the rest of us had even started. And on a bike that is turning out to be very hard work on the legs!

So it was a bit like four seasons in one day. The morning started off dark and chilly and I was grateful for my arm warmers. As the morning progressed, we found it pleasantly cool riding along Kedron Brook and along the Jim Soorley Bikeway. The sun started to have some warmth to it along the foreshore at Sandgate and Brighton. While we had our coffee and snack stop at the Cafe on the Park, we had to lather on the sunscreen. After that, things turned decidedly chilly again with a fairly strong headwind and it started raining. We also had to deal with clouds of midges getting in our mouths and eyes... not to mention getting stuck all over the sunscreen we had applied!

I didn't capture here just HOW red and covered in midges Cate was.

Those aint freckles on her forehead!

Thanks to the passerby at West End market who took these last two. He said he wasn't very tech savvy but he managed it alright, I reckon.

Congratulations to all of us ...and for those still to complete the 100km - I think another go in a couple of weeks is in order.

17MR&MC

It was a Seventeen Mile Rocks weekend

This was the scene that greeted Michelle and I when we arrived on Saturday morning. The camera phone really doesn't do it justice. The mist was rising slowly off the water and the sun was being filtered by the fog. The light was gorgeous!

We celebrated the fact that we revisited our Seventeen Mile Rocks via Oxley route without any problems and much faster than when we did it previously. The difference was that, in Oxley, we turned on to Ardoyne Road avoiding that hill on Clivedon Ave. The trade-off is there is a smaller hill on Ardoyne and then a long-ish climb on S.M.R road. Worth it, I reckon!

 Note the arm warmers. Definitely a bit of a chill to the early mornings now.

Total kms: 44

Sunday riding and Katina and I rode up Mount Coot-tha again. It is so beautiful up there with the birds and the morning forest sounds. I could just about hear them over the sounds of my own huffing and puffing. I tested out my new leg warmers and head/ear warmer. Very effective! Probably a bit too toasty for now but will definitely be needed as the mornings turn colder. I didn't get any runners passing me this time but I did have the Map My Ride app keep saying "workout paused...." "workout resumed" and I HADN'T STOPPED. Stupid bloody thing making me feel inadequate. Anyway we made it to the top - hooray! - and  here we are looking out over a misty Brisbane:

 We came all that way!

Afterwards, Katina headed off for a ride out to Jindalee and I headed back to West End. As I was heading home, I received this picture from what looks like Seventeen Mile Rocks...

 Looking FAB ladies!