Northshore chicks

Kirsty, Jax and Jacqui discover the wilds of Northshore this morning  - looking good, girls!!

A few pics from the weekend...

We've all been fitting rides in where we can over the weekend with lots of little (and a couple of big) rides going on all over town. Here are just a few snapshots...

Friday morning Cate, Kirsty, Emma and I did a very leisurely 50kms going along Centenary to Sumner, back to 17 Mile Rocks and through Oxley. We decided to stop at Buzz which is that cafe by the tennis centre. Nice coffee and you can sit overlooking the river or the playground. They open the doors up which is great with the winter sun... We chose the shady bit at the side so we could overlook our unlocked bikes.

Emma and I did a big one on Saturday, starting off with Michelle, Celia, Jax and Jacqui and heading over to St. Lucia via Chelmer and Indooroopilly. We then came back to the Corso dropping off the soccer mums at Olympic FC. Michelle had to go home so Emma and I decided to tackle Bulimba Creek via Browns Plains. This photo was taken when we realised we had taken a wrong turning quite a fair bit back. Note to those who went on the rainy adventure out this way: it is much prettier in the sunshine! We made it about 1km farther than we did the previous time before we turned around. It was a good workout for the legs - esp. the V1 bikeway which includes 2 long but not too steep hills. 90kms in total. Thanks to Emma who bought me coffee and raisin toast at Five Sisters in Holland Park after I managed to fall directly on to my crossbar negotiating a tricky downhill bend. OW. Resulted in some serious numbness and crossing of eyes.

Sunday: Kirsty sent me this one from Park Road. Herself, Jacqui, Cate and Michelle met at the top of Dornoch and picked up Jax on the way. Cate went at her own pace as they all headed in the direction of Browns Plains. On the way back, Michelle peeled off at Tarragindi and Kirsty, Jax and Jacqui did Norman Creek, stopping for coffee at Riverlife. After that, the Jacs headed home and Kirsty went onto the PA Hospital Bikeway to UQ (I must look that one up).

Not long now! One more weekend of training and then it's all systems go!

Way to go!

If you check out the Ride to Conquer Cancer Website, you will see that they have finally gotten around to posting lots of useful information... and....drum roll... THE ROUTE!

Here are the short cuts so you can check it out in detail:

DAY ONE 

DAY TWO

The route is slightly different to last year's route and - here's the good news - 8kms shorter each way!! So the length of the route is 110km each way. It looks like they have kept the roads with the hills in them, though so at least all our hill training is going to get put to good use.

The pit stops on day one are at km 20, 35, 63, 91. There are also cheering stations at km17 and 78.
On day two, the pit stops are at km 15, 46, 73, 96 with cheering stations at km 49 and 87.

Just think how amazing it's going to feel when you are riding that last hill in St. Lucia with 218kms in the bag and 2 fairly flat ones to go!

Lots to talk about in our Team Huddle tomorrow night - see you there!

Mt Coot-tha - again - yawn

Today Emma, Michelle and Kirsty did a circuit of Mt Coot-tha and then rode the Centenary bikeway from Toowong to Sumner... twice! Excellent strength training, ladies! 

TJ Doyle: Tick!

Kirsty finally tamed the beast that is TJ Memorial Drive today and it was such a joyous moment we had to drag some unsuspecting passer-by over to take our picture!

Kirsty takes the spotlight!

This is a big milestone - particularly for Kirsty with her asthma. She had a puff of Ventolin during our ride today and not only powered up TJ Memorial Drive but also  Lambert Road/Harts Road... four times... St Lucia hills and Gladstone Road all with her trademark speedy gonzales-ness.

Mystery revealed

Here's the mystery sculpture from the other side. It is not a strawberry but (I think) a mangrove pod. I worked this out by process of elimination; the nearby sign said there were sculptures of mangrove pods and pandanus seeds and I sort of knew what pandanus seeds looked like. Anyway isn't it nice? And that's a beach in the background. Where are we? Northshore! Where? Exactly! It looks like it's a community waiting to happen. They've put in a CityCat stop, a road and a playground with toilets and bins and water fountains. They've even put in a beach. A bikeway is being built along the river. Some blocks of flats have been constructed but are empty at the moment. there are signs up promising restaurants and shops and all the rest of it. We rode down a very empty wide industrial rode for a couple of kms from Portside to get here. I'd say in a couple of years from now it's going to be totally different. Wait. What blog am I on?

ah who cares? here's a couple more pics

An old fashioned trawler went by followed by loads of pelicans. the guy on the boat was throwing out all the stuff from his net that he didn't want - it was a real crowd-pleaser!

It's not really a swimming beach but probably good for making sandcastles.

What's been happening the past couple of weeks?

I know I've been a bit slack with the blog recently. Thanks to Bron for filling in the gap with her guest post! So what's been going on? Well we've been reaching the peak of our physical fitness - that's what's been going on! Long rides out to Shorncliffe, up-and-down rides along Centenary Highway and through Oxley, interval training in Indooroopilly. It's all been going on. So it was great to get out and do something a little less physically demanding together. Here's some of us at the theatre seeing Venus in Fur! 

L to R: Katina, Celia, Ruth, Mirjam, Kirsty, Amanda, Cate, Jacqui, Cara, Jax

 And here's a couple of coffee shots from our recent century ride to Shorncliffe. This was at the posh one... Michael something or other - I had the large flat white and Celia had her usual half strength latte with chocolate on top or whatever thing that is she orders anyway they got it spot on and she was one satisfied customer. Can't believe I didn't get a photo of Michelle, sitting to my left, who was also a very happy bunny with her large latte with the chocolate on top too.

Large Flat White: $4.90

gorgeous ladies and their beverages

Impressed: "just the right amount of froth"

The 50km mark

Michelle looking about 14 years old.

So here's one for ya: Jacque Boon and I went for a ride on Thursday morning and came across this sculpture. What is it and where is it? Tune in next time for the answer. I KNOW you are excited!