Holiday Wrap

Well bunnies... it's been a while since our last post, what with school holidays and the silly season throwing all sorts of time-juggling challenges into the mix. Although we haven't quite managed to maintain our weekly bunny rides, I've done a few (shorter) solo rides, and we've also had some exciting adventures with mini riders, so I thought I'd quickly update you on these before plunging into our exciting new year of riding....

Adcock Park to Point Clare return
This ride was a true adventure! 8 kids and 4 mums met up at Adcock Park on a slightly overcast (becoming HOT) January Friday morning. Having managed the feat of wrangling 12 bicycles out of 4 cars we set off in (impressive) single file, cruising down the pathway from Adcock park. The short "close to traffic" stretch across the bridge and down past the RSL, had one of our mini-bikers miffed, as the fence decided to have a lend of her handlebars (how very rude indeed)!! It was quickly decided (by mini-biker) that it was all the bike's fault... so bike ended up in the corner of shame, padlocked to the fence, while mini-biker got the escalated and more comfortable position riding on the back of mum's bike....

Once we were on the waterfront pathway, all was going very cruisy and quite speedy until the first stack of the day landed our next mini-biker on her nose... Luckily mum had brought pain-killers (chocolate gold coins definitely work!) which saw our brave little champion back in the saddle sporting 2 band-aids and a smile, ready to conquer the rest of the ride. We rode on past Point Clare to the most perfect picnic spot, where we took a break and had our snacks before pedalling back the same way.

On the way back there was another stop thrown in at the play ground in West Gosford, before it was time to cruise on back to the starting point. Once back at Adcock park we snuck on to the velodrome for a few laps to wrap up our adventure. All up it was a success with kids managing beautifully and the weather (although quite hot at the end) holding up nicely.

Riding Stats:
Distance Covered - 13 km
Maximum Speed - 34.5 km/h
Average Speed - 11.3 km/h
Active Riding Time - 1 hour 5min
Adventure Total Time - 3 hours 35 min
Calories Burnt - 570
Heart Rate - 85 average 166 max
Band-Aids - 2
Sunscreen - Plenty

Well done to all of you! :)
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Velo Ride in Adcock Park

A sunny Saturday afternoon, the kids and I took our bikes down to the velodrome where we rode around and around.... and around :) It was a thrill! The surface is great to ride on and can be a perfect training-course when you just want to zone out and do something different to undulating hills and flats. Kids loved it and set up a pit stop at the beginning of the lap (with water bottles secured to the fence for refreshment). There was ample commentating of the event, which could be heard all the way around the track...
"... putting in that extra pedal power as I come up behind one of the track champions... will I make it past? The crowd is looking... legs are hurting... the ULTIMATE pedal technique is going to get me past.... Oh look there's a bird! I think it's watching, yes it is! Oh maybe it's going to do the long-jump... you know some birds are very good at the long-jump! I can see the pit stop coming up.... I swerve, I dodge.... skid to a stop.... grab my drink bottle.... PERFECT!...."

We finished off our lap-adventure by hanging and stretching on the poles rigged up just outside the velodrome, happy to do a repeat performance of this one any time :)

Riding Stats:

Distance Covered - 16 km

Maximum Speed - 31.5 km/h

Average Speed - 21.5 km/h

Active Riding Time - 45 min

Adventure Total Time - 1 hours 15 min

Calories Burnt - 533

Heart Rate - 129 average 169 max

:)