Since my last update which was around the 25th Jan, things really havent slowed down...infact they have sped up considerably.

Saskia turned 16 and got her learners permit, thankfully
Norm has been taking her driving. 
She has also gone back to school and started her school based apprenticeship in Fitness.  She has also started pre season netball training and Thursday summer comp netball in Warnnambool. 

So that alone is HUGE. 
NO MORE just yet please!
One thing that was totally amazing over the school holidays though, was Saskia went for a MTB ride with the Harringtons and actually had a good time. 
She was out ont the bike for a few hours - and survived.  Wow! 
Good work Saskia.

Then there is racing. 
We had a great time at Forrest Feral Friday doing an Individual TT on the proposed State XC course for 20th March. 
Now I am getting ready to head off to NSW for the Inaugral Husky 100km, ran by the great people at Black Heart Events, Matt & Amanda.
The 100km race is around the beautiful area of Jervis Bay.  I am really looking forward to it.  Thanks Matt and Amanda for providing accommodation too. Wish I could stay all week!

Great people and rides all weekend...

Jac, Christy, Darren, Joe, Ben, Juppy, John, Foxy, Normie, Steve & Peter were in attendance on Saturday.  

So its supposed to be summer...but as you can see it was pretty wet.  We kept riding into the clouds and it got colder and colder.  The proposed route was supposed to be Forrest - Beech Forest - Lavers Hill - Glenaire - Apollo Bay - Skenes Ck and back to forrest.  140km all up, but we just went through the beautiful Turton's tk onto Beech Forrest.  35km one way and then on the return trip - much to Normies disgust, we ended up racing it back, mostly to keep warm. On the return to Forrest, the sun was shining and a better day emerged.  70km on the roadie with 1000m of climbing done.

.

What a week...

I got home on Sunday night from the road trip with the boys back from the Nationals.
Drove home knowing that I would be seeing my dying cat.  She was 18 and dying of old age. Saskia had told us this only 2 days ago that she had stopped eating and drinking altogether.

Within 30 mins of me arriving home she died in my arms of old age, very peacefully.  this is a pic of her a few months ago sleeping in the sun on a window sill.

Forrest MTb & Cycling club is very lucky to have attracted so many enthusiastic juniors to its club.

so much so, that we decided it best to send them to the National Championships in Adelaide over the 14th 15th & 16th of January.

The hard work had started a while ago now, and thankfully all the boys have supportive parents who like to ride with them and are keen to see them have fun on their bikes albeit a bit costly at times.

Friendly competition had evolved with snippets being divulged of "secret training " ventures.

The boys who went to Adelaide:

1. Thomas Power u19
2. Calum Middleton u19
3. Hamish Middleton u17
4. Ben Scott u17
5. Simon Harrington u15

A culmination of some solid riding and a hefty increase in temperature brought the final day on new years eve to a grinding halt.

It ended for me at the Dam wall.  No longer could I keep cool in the shade, it was time to pull the pin.  50kms done and dusted, happy to leave it at that.

We should have started earlier, like 6am, but that would require a very early start. Sleep was most important to me today.

The plan was to manage the entire 100km Otway Odyssey course in one day.  No worries, except for the heat really.  It was forecasted to be 39 degrees, which indeed it got too with some serious humidity.

Joe was on fire and riding most things in the BCR.  But he did have yesterday off!  Unfair? or smart?

I love the trail no 3. Red Carpet.

Its fun, but you have to work hard for every meter, off the brakes, pedal, test your limits, ride hard and brake hard. 

A sparse few turned up on Day 4, the humidity high, energy levels low, fun factor high! 

Reward at the end of the day = swim in the quarry again.