Breakfast was scrambled eggs and hash browns. I felt a bit sick but I wasn't sure if it was nerves about the ride ahead or something else. There's been a bit of sickness going around the camp. Turns out it was just nerves.
Holy cow. I didn't know I had it in me. Sections of the ride were really, really tough. The pain started just out of Texas and only it's depth varied throughout the day! A man who was at our table last night shared some really good advice about riding hills and it helped me tremendously. He said to "find your rhythm, don't look up and, if you have to, get off and walk". If he hadn't mentioned "find your rhythm" I don't know if I would have made it to the top of each hill without getting off. I also used it as a bit of a mantra - "find a rhythm, find a rhythm" - and it really worked. I found my rhythm at about 8.2km/hr on the up sections- no need to race to the top. I was very much the tortoise. Slow and steady.
I used several other mental tools to keep me going including: counting - on the little bit hard parts I count to eight then repeat; on the really hard bits I count to twenty then start again; I allow myself to only look up every 100 metres - when I reach that mark I reward myself with a glance to the top then I watch my odometer again until the next 100 metres has passed - eventually, you get there!
Lunch was at 65km, then still more hills to get to Stanthorpe. The topographical map is frightening. The last 10km into camp took forever to pass; I think I finished the ride in my head at 90km so it took forever to reach home.
Some friends of Kat's have been staying in the EasyCcampese tents - they're the ones that the
volunteers put up and take down for riders (it costs extra of course for this option and it's a ballot system to get one). For the two nights in town they booked themselves into a motel so told us to stay in their Easy Campese tent. The tents get put up regardless, as they go up and down in a sequence - so to not put them up because someone isn't going to use them would throw the sequence out. So we used it and didn't need to put our own up after a hard day of riding. What a bonus that was.
We had another massage - I had my shoulders and neck and arms done. I was extremely tight across my shoulders. It was lovely. A long hot shower helped too.
Dinner was fantastic, just what we needed on another cold night - mashed potato, beef stew, beans, and salad; cheesecake and cream. James Blundell entertained the crowd but I was so shattered it was all I could do to talk to Gibbo and tell him about my day.
Hurtling downhill at 50.6km an hour, not pedalling, hoping a roo doesn't decide to jump out from the trees, is quite terrifying. Going uphill at 6.9km an hour, wobbling all over the road with the effort of it all, hoping you're not going to fall off because you're going so slow is also quite scary.
The Easy Campese tents.
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