Missing in Action

I've been noticeably missing in action most of this year, with only 1 lonely post so far. My slackest effort to date. But I do have some good reasons excuses for this.

I hadn't even ridden my motorcycle until April this year, pretty sad eh? I was meant to go on a Adv bike tour with my brother in February but I had a nasty blister under my arm that I had to have an emergency Operation on a Sunday of all days, only 5 days before the ride. Unfortunately for me this left me with an open wound under my arm that needed packing and redressing for the next week. I couldn't really use my arm much and I wouldn't be able to ride a bike, especially adventure riding and sweating profusely in my armpit which I'm sure would further exacerbate the wound.

So I visited with my brother and stayed at the Wisemans Ferry pub for beers and then photographed the Aussie Hike or Bike crew leaving on their 4 day adventure. I was so wishing I could have gone. Oh well, there's nothing I could have done about it.

So I went home and moped about the place for a few days, looking at facebook posts of the ride, very envious. I got onto Aussie Hike or Bike and have arranged to do their Sydney to Melbourne tour in November this year, so at least I've got that to look forward to.

Since I busted my collarbone last October I've not been doing to much, I've gotten back out on the MTB and got my exercise routine happening again.

I took my daughter to the dawn service in Windsor, I was surprised there must have been 6-8000 people there it was huge for a small place. We then went back to the Windsor RSL for breakfast and beer.

Then it was a quick trip up to Wilberforce for the 9am service which also consisted of a F-35 Lightning II flyby. Those things are so awesome. My daughter was loving it as was I.

In January I decided on buying a DJI Action5 camera to play around with. After editing up a bunch of footage from our Flinders Ranges trip last year I decided I'd had a crack at doing some youtube vlogging with my channel. Its early days. It took me 3 months to learn how to use Davinci Resolve and I'm still a learning noob at it. So many things you have to learn. If I'd known at the start how much effort it was going to be I would have given up already. So much more effort required than any blog posts. Yes you did warn me Warren, but I am a slow learner.....

So I've got the first of our Flinders Ranges Adventure ride video up on my Channel which I've just rebooted. That's probably the main reason I haven't been busy on my blog. Let's see how I go with a blog and a YouTube channel, I wonder if I could fit a few marathons in there, I don't think I've quite got enough on already....

Motivation - A Year long Journey

This post was 1 year in the making and it's not about motorcycles. This post will be very different than anything I've ever done before.

Motivation - Where does it come from?

I've spent weeks months trying to figure this out, and my only conclusion is that some people have it, some don't and sometimes you can be inspired to be motivated for various reasons. But it has to come from inside, no one can make you motivated unless you want to do it for yourself.

I'll take you back to the end of 2024, when I was at my lowest point ever. I was at my heaviest at 114kg just after returning from Japan and I had just been put in hospital for the night. Various doctors appointments and lots of 'cant find anything wrong' responses from health professionals had me perplexed.... are they 'competent' came to mind. The cardiologist put me on multiple drugs, I asked is there anything I can do to not take them, his parting comment was probably not but perhaps losing some weight might help.

Here's me at the end of 2024 with my older bro at my unhealthiest.

Oct 2024 Japanese GP

Feeling like crud for 2 months and taking a lot of drugs that seemed to do nothing was all the motivation I needed, that and that last passing comment from the Doc. That settles it, its time to get motivated and get some exercise in. Getting started is the hardest part of all, and it took me one month to start.

JAN 6th 2025 - D-Day where I finally decide to stop putting it off and get started on an exercise regime, I also change my diet, not drastically  just ever so slightly. Lots less alcohol, less chips biscuits and snacks and more fruit and vegies. Replace the bad snacks with fruit, same type of meals just with more veggies and now a weekly exercise routine. It's a lot harder to lose weight than to maintain your level, at some point I'll end up switching to a maintenance program so I don't fall into bad habits.

The Exercise routine was not set in stone but something along the lines of 30min walk at lunch time and a combination of any of the following; another 30min walk, 30min exercise bike or 45min swim(during summer). I started with 5 days a week but after some time I changed it to 6 days a week when possible. Also I started a Sunday morning bike ride, building slowly starting with a 12.5km ride slowly building over the weeks, to 18km, 24km, 26km, 33km, 40km, 44km then finally breaking into the 50km mark by the end of April.

I took some time to work out the route to do the 50km but I finally pieced together a ride that takes me across only 5 or 6 roads in the Sydney Suburbs.

50km Loop

The first 4 weeks completing the 50km ride I was wrecked for the rest of the day and pretty much sat around feeling both euphoric and spent at the same time. It was a struggle up the back stairs after that first 50k ride.  After the 6 week point I was back to feeling normal and started doing things around the house as normal, instead of moping about liked the wreck I was. A Whey protein supplement after the ride helped with recovery.

Prospect Reservoir - 10km

26km - Half Way Water refill station

I'd set myself a goal to lose 10kgs, after about 2 months I realised I would get there soon so a made a second goal, to reach 100kg. I was at 101kg by end of April so I'd then made a 3rd goal to get to 94kg. It took a lot longer to achieve that one but I'd achieved that goal by September. I hadn't set another goal except to set what I could do by the time 12 months was finished where perhaps I might switch from a weight lose routine to a maintenance routine.

More of the punishment

Riding in the middle of winter was tough leaving at 6:20am in the dark and fog at 2°C, by the time I got home it was barely double digits. There were multiple frosts, and I thought my toes were going to fall off at one point they were so cold. The cycle way was practically deserted on winter mornings, seeing less than 10 bikes in total where I'd normally pass 50+ during the warmer months.

I'd see these SLOW signs painted on the cycleway path near to 90° corners, I think , I could hear Weird Al Yankovic's 'Fat' in my head singing, "You Know your Slow and Fat, really really Fat". Its strange what goes through your mind when in a state of exhaustion and lack of oxygen to the brain.

Some interesting lookouts at the top of the hill at Sugarloaf Ridge near the Equestrian centre, with a big downhill section. I did manage to ride up the hill after a few attempts that I had to previously walk. Its about a 18-20% grade. I get up to about 60kmh riding down it.

To give myself a little extra motivation to keep me going I made up an excel spreadsheet to track my fitness level over time, so I could track how my weight loss was going. This gave me some extra motivation when I had a bad week to improve the next week, which actually worked quite well. I was taking the long game approach, Ignore a bad week and continue the exercise regime and hope for better results in the following weeks.

There were a few clear cases of getting on the booze was giving me a couple of major set backs, which was clearly visible in the weight loss line. Circle 1 was our motorcycling mate Craigs 70th Birthday bash, circle 2&3 was a Friday night booze up session that got a bit loose and messy, with chips and beer/wine/spirits. Make sure not to make a habit of that........

My older Bro came for a visit in October and I took him for a ride on my normal 50km loop. Needless to say he did it easy, too easy for my liking it looked like he put in no effort in comparison to me. I must say I'm not surprised however as he has ridden from Canada to Mexico in 20 days through the Rocky Mountains at altitude, no easy feat and to be honest quite inspiring and motivational. On my loop ride he did get to see Kangaroo's and Mountain Goats on this ride through the centre of Sydney's suburbs, which he wasn't expecting.

I took him along the old canal via duct near home. It was where they used the waterway back in the day in an open canal form to supply water to the suburbs. Now its just piped and pumped. But we have this cool bridge that you ride over that was built back in the late 1800's.

We stopped at Granata's Italian restaurant for a coffee break. Their coffee is always good as well as their wood fired pizza's, no pizza's for us though. 

My bro got me to put my bike in for maintenance as it was making some bad noises. Bottom bracket and chain were beyond their used by dates. It seems the bike shop hadn't adjusted the chain properly, when I got to ride it next. They hadn't shortened it and it was causing the peddles to slip in top gear, and 2nd top underload.

Disaster Strikes - Automatic demotivational

In late October I arrived home after a week away in Brisbane on a work trip and got my bike out for my normal Sunday morning 50km ride. It was anything but normal, with top gear slipping I'd been checking what gear I was in quite often, one time too many it seems,  as I'd looked back up I was angling towards the wooden fence along the M7 cycleway, which I'd clipped at 30kmh with the left handlebar and then proceeded over the handlebars and onto the concrete cycleway. I really shouldn't have been trying to ride it with a problem like this, it should have went straight back to the shop, sloppy work to say the least. Motorcycles and bicycles don't tolerate fools....

I don't remember much from that point on, except a few vague memories of someone talking to me, me saying my collarbone is broken, lots of pain, laying in an ambulance, lots more pain, laying in hospital emergency, then laying in another ambulance and then laying in another hospital emergency(Westmead). Time slips for a bit here, lots of pain, lots of sleep, lots of drugs......

A group of following cyclists had found me and called an ambulance, which picked me up and took me to Blacktown Hospital. After appraisal they decided I needed to be moved to Westmead trauma care. You can see on my Strava recording, where I was doing 30kmh which then goes down to near 0kmh, with a time gap then the ambulance trip at 60-70kmh to Blacktown Hospital..

The injury list went as follows

• 5th metacarpal fracture left hand
• Broken Right Ribs(5)
• Broken Right Clavicle(Collarbone)
• Broken Right Scapula(Shoulder)
• Collapsed Right Lung
• Concussion
• Lacerations and sutures to head
• Various bumps & bruises and scrapes

This pretty well instantly deflated my health and motivation in one fell swoop. Doctors saying a 4-8 week recovery time depending how well I recover. Got to try and stay positive with a whole lot of negatives happening right now.......

My youngest daughter Olivia quite enjoyed her 5 minutes in the sun, scooping out my ice cream and saying "Open up here comes the Aeroplane" then beginning to giggle each time. That got old real fast....as well as the bollocking I got from my wife, and continue to get. Must be a woman thing right, Geoff James.

Hospital food is pretty ordinary, I think I can universally say. Although I did enjoy picking my healthy breakfasts and lunches, dinners were vile rubbish. 

Breakfast - Weetbix and fruit went well, trying to stay positive

The damage done....plated and eleven screws plus another screw in my left hand. I wonder if I'll have trouble at the airport with all these extra upgrades.....

The other damage done....sorry for the bad lighting in this photo, I should know better but at the time I didn't care in my recovery mood.

My helmet also had a dent in it so it was a throw away job. Luckily I was wearing one, otherwise I might not be here right now.

After 8 days in hospital I was released home with a fist full of drugs to curb the pain. I managed to finish reading the Lord of the Rings again whilst in Hospital.

After a week of sitting around at home I wanted to get out and start some exercise again. My Daughter walked me to the bakery about 200m from home. I had to stop 2 times on the way home to get my breath back, my lung was not functioning at optimum capacity....... That took about 4 weeks to come good until I could resume my normal walking routine.

I still haven't ridden my Motorcycle yet, or the repaired MTB (thanks Bro for the help and for mowing my lawn). I've implemented maintenance exercise until I'm well enough to get restarted properly. I missed our annual Snowy mountains motorcycle ride, so I booked myself on a tour at the end of February with my brother so I hope I'm better by then.

Left: 93kg me Right: 114kg me

Today is 1 year to the day from starting out on this motivational weight loss journey, besides the 2 week Christmas binge of alcohol and snacks, I've lost 19.5kgs, 22.5 at the top point over the 12 months. The last 2.5 months was a bit of a show stopper.

Do I still have any goals left? You bet, I'd really like to hit the 90kg mark, that would mean I'd be lighter than I was when I left high school, by the time I hit 53. I'm feeling great all things considered. If I don't get there then I won't be really upset as I'm pretty happy with the 20kg's to this point. 

Its the start of a new year, so onwards and upwards, time to reset and keep going......

Glasshouse Mountains Enduro Ride

On a recent trip for work I decided to leave early on Saturday and visit my Older bro and his family. The basic plan was to go dirt bike riding in the Glass House Mountains north of Brisbane on the weekend before going to work in our Brisbane office.

Dave picked me up from BNE airport at around 8:30am, I was disappointed to see no trailer or bikes, ready to go. Oh well. We did stop in at Springwood Suzuki so he could have breakfast  and a second breakfast for me.

They had some very old school RG500 and Katana1100 sitting on the floor. The owners bikes, for sale at a price.

Siting having a coffee and breakfast a guy rides up on his GS1250 and proceeds to frop it in the carpark infront of about 30-40 people having breakfast. Embarrassing much? Dave took me to AMX superstore for a look. I decided on getting some armour to wear under some lighter clothes for hot weather riding. should be good for the dirt bike and adventure bike.

Sunday morning we were up at 5 so we could leave at 5:30am to head up the Glass House mountains. It was going to be hot today 32°C today. Go early to beat the heat. I liked the sound of that. 

It was really a training ride for me, as I'd never really ridden a proper dirt bike like Dave's Beta or SWM. oth light weight dirt weapons. I'm used to a 250kg Africa Twin, so my approach method was slightly off kilter towards heavy bike.

Getting kitted up and ready to go by 7:30am. Dave took me up some sandy hill to start with, which had my pucker factor already high. I don't like sand if you haven't noticed but man was these light weight dirt bikes so much easier to ride than a big africa twin.

I did a hill climb that would have scared me on the Africa Twin but was a piece of piss on the SWM, made it look easy.

Dave has us ride around on various tracks, I had no idea where I was going so was just enjoying riding along at my slow old man pace. I nearly binned it on another sandy section. After about an hour and a bit I was starting to get the hang of it.

Dave took us into Woodford after about an hour and a half of riding for a morning snack at the bakery. Riding into town I saw the biggest Kangaroo I've ever seen standing on the side of the road along the Golf Course, he must have been well over 2m tall. 

 A sausage roll went well washed down with a Powerade. I had to get a photo by the Leopard tank, that's not something you see everyday.

I swapped after a bit and rode the Beta, the difference between the 2 stoke and 4 stroke was astounding. I didn't find the 2 stroke peaky like I thought it would be, it just went quicker.

After about 3 hours of riding and doing some single track I was getting tired and hot so we called it a day and packed up to go home. I hit the hill climb a couple more times for practise.

We drove down the hill after loading the bikes and Dave stopped so we could have a coffee at the Lookout Cafe. Great coffee and slice, and the views here were also very good.

It was quite hot now and I was glad we were heading back in the air conditioned car. A good morning of riding. Off road riding is so much harder and more physical than road riding. Lots of concentration required. Thanks for the ride bro.