LATEST NEWS….March

There was plenty happening in March for Tri Adventure….amongst other things, our fabulous junior star Brigitte Fischer won the National Schools Triathlon Championships…for the second year running – there’s no stopping this amazing young talent!  Here’s a wrap of month of March…

FRIDAY PADDLE

We try to paddle at our paddle sessions…really….sometimes we do other things, by fluke….like fishing…well, prawning, to be precise.  On our Friday paddle recently we were paddling against the tide (but with the wind) on the inside of Goat Island, when Aunty Jan got an unexpected visitor in her boat – between her legs!!!  Something kamikazed out of the water to find refuge in the crotch of Aunt Jan and she was quite a bit disturbed…..Ah, Ah, AHHHHHH (and more girly shrieks…) had Kim and George thinking she’d seen a shark or something….What could be wrong??? SOMETHING JUST JUMPED INTO MY BOAT…At this stage all attempts at keeping on paddling were completely ‘out the window’…in fact the paddle was floating away with the tide and Aunty Jan was trying her  best to get out of the boat to escape the monster in there….without falling in….What is it??…THERE’S A BIG PRAWN IN MY BOAT…IN BETWEEN MY LEGS…was the reply as she eased herself up on a ridge between the seat and the pedals…AND I DON’T WANT TO SIT ON IT, IT HAS GREAT BIG LONG FEELERS MOVING AROUND….AHHHHHH …Between fits of laughter Aunty Kim rescued the abandoned paddle and buddied up beside Aunty Jan, (more laughter) had a look in the boat and picked up the poor little innocent prawn and saved it from a fate worse than death…(being squashed by Aunty Jan’s bottom) and set it free on it’s journey down the river….. George was beside herself in the other boat….and we dithered about talking about prawns and our ability to do things when we least expect it….what clever Aunties we are……So, you never know what can happen on an outing with the Aunties….sometimes we paddle….sometimes we do other things…..The prawn incident is just one of many…. J J

RIDE, CLIMB, CATERPILLARS & STRANGE MAGNETIC DEVIATIONS…

We went on a climb up Mt Cooroy recently…..5 of us set off on bikes at 7.00am for a little blast out on bike paths, through the forest and up to Sunrise Rd, where we followed our route to the base of the famous mountain… George and Duncan turned around here and headed back home due to afternoon commitments but Hayley was keen to experience some punishment from the Aunties and was in for the long haul…. Taking our bikes though the private property and up to the point where we change shoes and continue on foot was a bit of an experience on how to keep the cow poo from flinging up into our mouths….Keeping mouths shut is a good idea here – we do have another orifice for breathing you know….Sitting under the tree we had a snack and changed into our ‘runners’ for a leisurely walk up the beautiful local mountain that was once a volcano…(yes, we’re getting into the volcano theme lately, I know…) The climb was slippery and a bit technical because of the wet season we have been having…but it was lovely and cooler than normal…yes really Hayley…Finally reaching the top after having many sightings of the Tri Adventure caterpillar (will explain later in this bulletin)…we rested and had a snack and then moved over to the eastern side where we let Hayley write in the visitors book while we played around with our compasses…as we do… Aunty Jan was looking at the north needle on her compass which was somehow facing east….Hmmm….that’s a bit strange….so Aunty Kim got hers out and it was indicating correctly….Then Aunty Kim took Aunty Jan’s compass and it pointed in the right direction too….Ok, it was looking like Aunty Jan had some weird magnetic voodoo or something here…..So then we got up and walked around and the compass went crazy on one certain spot on the rock ledge we were sitting on….It was pointing east and then south and then only when we moved over a bit (to where Aunty Kim was sitting originally) did it point to true direction….Wow, this was amazing…..What was happening???  We have since found out that sometimes the underlying rock can cause magnetic deviations…and are glad we weren’t trying to find a CP on the top as would have been totally confused! The trip down the mountain was a bit slippery but we all made it in tact…and spied more of those caterpillars…We noted their beautiful colours (black, blue, orange and white) were the same as our Tri Adventure logo… so now we have our own brand of caterpillar….doesn’t everyone need one of these????Riding out of the farm we shut our mouths to avoid the cow-poo once again…and enjoyed the ride back to Noosa Cooroy Rd…found a secret way of avoiding most of the main road….Yes, Audrey, it does go through…and by then we had the scent of food and coffee in our noses… We had a quick blast down Turn 10 track then straight to Raw Energy for a large dose of brekky (at lunchtime) and coffee before heading home.  Then we cleaned the bikes….Another great day in the life of Tri Adventure and the Aunties….

NATIONAL BIKE COUNT

Being member of Bicycle Qld, Aunty Jan answered their call for volunteers on Super-Tuesday to take part in a national bike count…..Her designated spot for 2 hours 7-9am was the Eenie Creek Roundabout in Noosaville …Her mission was to observe and count the bike activity in these 2 hours and note down bike movements at the intersection as well…..Hmmmm….Does anyone remember the weather that Tuesday??  The forecast was ‘heavy rain’ and for once the forecasters where dead accurate….most bikes were safely stored in garages that day and bike commuters took the dry/sensible option of going in the car…..After 5 minutes standing at the intersection in the pelting rain, Aunty Jan knew there wasn’t going to be much bike activity today….Ok, so maybe wait ½ an hour at least, just in case….. Half and hour goes by…no bikes yet…what to do, maybe change positions and go to the other side of the roundabout….Ok, set up with bike leaning on a retaining wall, umbrella up….much road rage and extremely bad driving was observed…but not one bike… yet!  After 55 mins a bit of a walk around was required – and a drink (no, not from the water coming out of the sky, but it could have been done..) – and just when deciding that this was a ridiculous activity and no-one in their right mind would be cycling today….A BIKE WHIZZED BY…oh, oh, oh, a bike….where was the sheet?...what was the movement?...better note it down….wow, some serious bike commuter was braving the elements…maybe there’ll be more….Settling back down to position at the intersection…another long wait till 8.30am saw no bike activity at all….A plan to go at 8.30 was scrapped when the time actually said 8.35 on the watch when checked…Still no more bikes….Packing up at 8.45 was a good idea then….8.45 came and went – what’s another 10 minutes??  8.55am – still at the roundabout, soaking wet, cold and feeling stupid to have stayed there this long….No more bikes, ok…so packed up and left (on a bike) at 9.00am sharp…wondering if anyone else did their time counting and observing – or just went home and stayed dry like a sensible person would….Wondered if I should have noted my own bike commute…and I know Kim rode to school that day too, but unfortunately she didn’t go past my intersection….Oh well, I think the bike commute figures for Qld will be a little under expectations….which is a shame…but I am so proud of that ONE SOLO COMMUTER… Mmmm…maybe he just doesn’t have a car????? 

BRIBIE MULTISPORT TRAINING WEEKEND 2010 - THE WRAP

With our weather here in Noosa still in the precipitation phase, we were wondering how the weekend would be for our guests who were coming up for an adventure training weekend in ‘sunny’ Noosa…Then, on Saturday morning, the weather seemed the least of our worries when we found we were sharing the Noosa Spit with about a thousand outrigger paddlers – and they were holding their event right in the very spot we were meet our adventurers ….we couldn’t even get into the car-park we had nominated!  So quick thinking took Aunty Kim up to the 2^nd car-park and luckily marked out a few parking spaces with yellow cones (my – these cones come in handy for everything…) Meanwhile yours truly (Aunty Jan) stood on the corner to scan for cars with skis on top – rather than the monster outrigger trailers that were streaming through in droves…. Luckily Karen B called us to find out where we were… It wasn’t hard to spot the Coffs girls (with their NSW number plates…) phew, lucky they spotted me as well… and I directed them up to the 2^nd car-park where Kim was waiting…. Then there was Alex from Brisbane…I had no idea what he looked like and didn’t have his mobile number handy…He also spotted me…. in my Tri Adventure t-shirt (lucky)….He moved his car to the reserved spot and we had a quick ‘meet and greet’ before heading off for our first activity…a run through trails in the National Park with the Noosa Hill Circuit included.  We then donned our goggles and practiced a couple of ins and outs (one only for Aunty Jan) in the Noosa surf.  A jog back to the cars…then we headed off for a well deserved coffee and muffin at one of our favourite eateries, Café Sierra…

Joining us for the paddle session were Tri Adventure regulars Gail and Georgann.  We braved the elements and paddled up to Weyba Creek where we spotted our regular eagles and gave everyone some tips on how to tackle the long Bribie paddles….Alex did really well to paddle his ‘esky lid’ and Karen enjoyed having a test paddle of the Epic Sport with a good paddle!

After breaking for lunch we met for a ride on bike paths out towards Tewantin forest and we were joined by Wayne for a ride on some of our less technical trails….even though the weather conditions (wet!) made it very technical, we all survived the ride and raced back for a scrub-up in hot showers and high-tailed it up to Noosa Reef Hotel where we ate, drank and shared knowledge about the ins and outs of multisport.  We all hit the sack quite early as Sunday was going to be a big, big day, and we were already tired thinking about it!!

Luckily the bad weather had eased slightly and we fronted up on Sunday morning at Noosa Woods ready to put it all together – that would be swim-run-paddle-mtb-run-mtb-paddle….a huge day in the Noosa Hinterland….

Braving the surf conditions on Noosa beach, Aunty Kim took everyone (except Aunty Jan and Alex) through a swim session around the flagged area and then we all regrouped for a short beach run back to the waiting boats.  Off on the paddle, we made our way up Noosa River – very happy to have the tide and the wind in our favour, we were dreading the paddle back going against this!  Because of the favourable conditions, we made very quick time to our TA at Cooroibah and faced a down-wind paddle and very choppy lake as we headed over to the shoreline – well done Alex for staying positive! Met by George and Duncan for the Mtb ride to Pomona we headed off with renewed vigour.  The weather was surprisingly good….we were even feeling like we might get a little sunburnt!  The route took us out to Ringtail Creek Rd where we climbed up the range towards Forest Acres….a few riders took advantage of the towing system attached to Aunty Kim’s pack….might as well…as that’s what is there for!  All regrouped at the top we posed for a quick photo at the site of the old Ringtail School…and then were about to see what the forest was really like!  We rode down Trail 4, and had intended to cross the what we call the mud-hole (which is the site of the old Ringtail Creek Rd bridge) but on arrival found it was now a very deep lake…and when Aunty Kim went in to test how deep she was up to her neck and still not touching bottom….. Mmmmm…lucky there was an alternative and we continued on Trail 4 which was rather muddy, but still rideable… We then reached another obstacle….another swollen creek blocking our path.  This time the depth was thigh-waist deep so we hoicked the bikes on our shoulders and make the crossing a little tentatively…. All safely back on dry land, we continued the ride….wet, muddy, tired….but still smiling, and liking the adventure!  Finally we hit town at Pomona, and quickly made the transition for a short run around the base of Mt Cooroora…George and Duncan very generously decided to stay at the café to watch over our muddy bikes….and when we got back we had a very quick snack before heading back to Lake Cooroibah on the MTB’s....having a time limit now (it always takes longer than originally planned…) and after plenty of adventure on the ride out, we opted for a swift road ride on the way back, and were very proud of everyone toughing it out and going beyond the comfort zone to extend themselves after a very long day of activities….

We bade farewell to the lovely Alex (who had been joined by the lovely Taryn…) and four of us set off for the final paddle back to Noosa….Thanks to George and Duncan, Lee and Carolyn were able to drive our vehicle (with trailer!) to the designated pick-up area and despite having a few steering problems on the double Fenn, we made it back in record time (Shona and Kaz showing fantastic strength and ingenuity by adopting outrigger techniques to keep the boat going in the right direction!)  Duncan had read our minds and knew we were craving a salt/fat/carb fix and produced a tray of steaming hot chips which we devoured with gusto….Then we raced home for a quick shower and flew back down to Hastings Stto reward ourselves with a lovely meal, few obligatory drinks and a big chat...
We laughed as we shared memories of the weekend….We Aunties were sure our group of adventurers had gained some very valuable knowledge on tackling the Bribie Multisport in 5 weeks time…..they all got this and more…..we saw plenty of guts and determination, and know they will now be ready to take on the world!.... well, definitely if there’s an adventure involved...

Thanks to all of you who came along and made our weekend so enjoyable too!!

KATHMANDU ADVENTURE RACE…

We had a great time at the Kathmandu Adventure Race on 20^th March – with 180 teams of 2 entered it was a huge event.  Aunty Jan teamed up with Hayley in the all female category and came home with the GOLD medal!  After a slow start we made our way through the field and took the lead on the Mtb rogaine….The nav in these events is very basic – but good course planning always helps – well it seemed to help us, anyway!  We were first out of 24 female teams and 27^th overall….not bad for your first event Hayley!  Aunty Kim teamed up with Scott in the mixed category and after some major bike mechanicals, came in a very credible 4^th place and 26^th overall…they just got in ahead of us…..it was a great fun race with lots of mud and some interesting creek crossings…..See pic of us all at the finish line….

MOOLOOLABA TRI WEEKEND

We had a very exhausting weekend at the Mooloolaba Triathlon!   I swear, spectating an event is often more tiring than competing in it…..however, the great results we witnessed – especially from our Juniors – was worth all the sitting around and frying ourselves in the sun…..The twilight 5km run was on the Friday night and we saw Tom, Tim & Brigitte all put in exceptional performances….Brigitte winning her age-group and coming in 4^th overall (just behind the winner Emma Moffat and some other noted runners!)  Tom & Tim both clocked up ‘personal bests’ and were excited with their results.  Saturday morning saw the swimmers lining up to tackle the 1km ocean swim….Jules was not happy with the flat conditions….however she still managed a 4^th in the hotly contested 50-59 age-group where the amazing Gina took the GOLD medal….great results in the female 60-69 category as well with Jan & Bardie going 1-2….Brigitte, once again, was a stand-out performer with a win in her age-group and 4^th overall, again! 

In the triathlon it was golden girl Gina Lynch winning her 50-54 age-group with a sprint finish and our amazing junior team of Seb, Brigitte and Robyn won their Junior mixed category in an amazing time of 2.06!  Well done, also to Jules Drysdale, for a podium finish (2^nd!)in her age-group at the Australian Ironman which was held on Sunday in Port Macquarie….so much happening last weekend…

So that’s about it for March….We have a huge 4-6 weeks ahead with Bribie Multisport, Anaconda NZ, Anaconda Forster & Red Centre Mtb Enduro in the space of a month…..but before that we have our Easter 2010 Adventure this weekend…

Don’t wait too long for your next adventure….

See you out there!

Jan & Kim

February Update...

March is here – and the year is just MARCHING on…..!! 
Aunty Kim’s rehab is going great-guns but she’s still a bit tentative on the Mtb…see report below on the Mebbin Marathon….Our weekly squad sessions are hotting up and finally we have some keen paddlers and some really keen Mtb riders on our Wednesday ride.  As I write this, however, our weather here in Qld is atrocious….it’s like the BIG WET in one day….the rain is just coming down in buckets…bit different to the beginning of February when we were drowning in heat and humidity…here’s how it all panned out…

WEEKEND ADVENTURES – to KIN KIN the hard way….

Our Saturday group left Pomona about 7.15am and were intercepted by Audrey and Marius who had extended their ride by starting at Noosa…. Something about having to train for a 26 day event in June was their excuse…No, seriously they are putting in the miles so as to be fit enough to complete the Freedom Challenge in South Africa…look it up – you’ll be amazed!  Anyway we had a lovely ride, stopping at the lookouts along the way and gaining strength (that’s the positive here, people) from the unrelenting uphill slogs out on the eastern ridge…..when, finally, we were on the way down great whoops of joy were heard amongst us – we had well and truly earned this excitement… 
A stop a Kin Kin for refreshments was greatly appreciated but soon we were off again – and up some unbelievable hills that Aunty Kim had conveniently forgotten about…. We managed with some bike carries to get us all up there without a dummy spit…and continued on where we had the sense to take the creek road (that would be the flat way) back to Pomona….phew…we made it – and hungrily devoured some great food at the Mountain Stop Café before heading home to collapse….Hey, hope the experience was a bit like childbirth and you’ll only remember the good bits, eventually!!!!! 

AUNTY JAN IS 50…

In case you weren’t aware – Aunty Jan turned 50 and invited many of her friends and family to attend a 2-part celebration which involved an 8hr adventure paddle/mtb/eat-drink/mtb/paddle and later in the day a ‘normal’ birthday celebration with a bit of arm wrestling action just to spice it up….Here’s what Aunty Jan reported afterwards….

“We had the most fabulous adventure on Saturday and it was like being in an adventure race with all of my best friends….thanks for being part of it! 

Golden moments were….   

à                       Kenny having the crash of the day…

à                       The ‘v’-cake at Pomona (you had to be there…!)

à                       The special t-shirt from my special friends…it’s just so…rude?

à                       My great arm-wrestling ability… (Not…)

à                       Standing in the rain on Sunday morning watching ‘wunderkid’ win the Triathlon

à                       Being 50 and feeling like 12 on the Mtb ride out to Pomona…..

à                       Sliding into shore at Noosa Woods after 8hrs of adventure and being handed a glass of bubbles by my wonderful friends….

For those of you who came along….welcome to my world!!!”

JUNIORS AT STATE TRI CHAMPS…

We had a huge week with our Juniors at State Tri Champs in Redcliffe.  The squad conducted themselves extremely well at the Champs and with their wonderful efforts helped the Sunshine Coast region win the cup – again!  We are very proud to be associated with all of them! 

Once again Brigitte Fischer has been selected in the State Team to compete in SA in mid-March.  Sam Allen was also a qualifier in the Junior division.  Good luck to you both – enjoy the experience!

NIGHT NAV…

Our Night Nav session in Wooroi was really fun – we managed to ward off the mozzies with super-strength bushman’s spray, candles and Corallea even carried a burning incense stick with her as they went out on foot..!  It was great to see the smiles on their faces and the excitement as they all arrived back from their night nav adventure….
Mel blitzed the field with a score of 440 after gunning it around the course on foot and making it back on time so as not to loose hard earned points by being late….
Participants really got into the swing of it buy donning the true dorky orienteering gear… !

We took about 2 hours after the session going around retrieving the CP’s and besides dodging toads as big as small babies it was incident free and we felt like we had done an Adventure Race when we finished at 10.30pm…We will have another of these sessions here in the near future – stay tuned…

MEBBIN MTB MARATHON…

Hope the soggy, wet weather hasn’t put a damper on too much fun and adventure for you all……It certainly challenged the Aunties over the weekend of the 28^th February.... We made a ‘sensible’ choice - Hmmmm- (over a few other events happening on the weekend) to take a 5hr trip to the Gold Coast (via Brisbane for a couple of quick visits…) then drive another 1.5hr hours to the beautiful Mebbin forest in northern NSW – in the shadow of Mt Warning – where we would ride our bikes ‘inside a volcano’……
Well, that was the plan – and we did manage to achieve all of the above… However, the end result was a little different to what we had thought……and ‘sensible’ doesn’t seem the right adjective now – funny that….

Knowing full well we were heading for a ‘wet’ event’, we just took it in our strides – we have done many events in much worse weather than this – at least it wasn’t COLD and wet like Geo 2006 & 2009….and we rode the 2008 Noosa Enduro fully inside a cloud and didn’t have a huge problem…we did the 6hr ‘mud-fest’ at Slickers last year….and that was ok except for Aunty Jan destroyed her bike by washing it off in the LAKE…. So a mud-ride inside a volcano seemed kind of fun – in a strange sort of way…. Guess what – we were wrong!!!

On arrival at the event – the beautiful Cutters Campground in the beautiful Mebbin Forest we were informed that all the courses had been shortened because of the treacherous conditions….seems that volcanic mud is kinda slippery and dangerous….Race organiser, Anthony, had gone over the course the day before and had more than a handful of spills….and was already announcing that next year this event WOULD NOT BE HELD IN THE WET SEASON.. How bad can it possibly be, we thought? 

We were about to find out as we set off with the 75km riders (now reduced to 55km with a 35km loop and then a 20km loop over the same skaty mud!)  A 3km loop took us 'around some 4wd tracks' and back through the start/finish then after that we were going 'slap-bang into the mud'…well, you could have fooled me, but I am sure I came out of the 3km loop looking like I’d been dragged though a pig pen….and we weren’t in the MUD yet apparently…..

Aunty Kim was being extra cautious as one little crash was going to ruin her entire rehab from the dislocated shoulder episode 10 weeks earlier…That ‘sensible decision’ was starting to have a few cracks at this point…. We had a 1km ‘nice’ ride up a dirt road before detouring off onto the single track….Slipping and skating all over the place, we were trying to keep a sense of humour…riders were spearing off the track in every direction and Aunty Kim had just decided to walk most of the danger areas (which was just about everything unless you were riding in the scrub..) We got to a particularly steep downhill (easy-peasy in the dry…) and some crazy guys were crashing every 5 seconds…it was completely unrideable for us – and this ride down to a creek crossing was the first of 8 !!!  Half way down Aunty Jan had a big OTB and didn’t even get time to put her hands down….a nasty thud on the left hip – just to even it up with the creaky right one – kept her lying in the grass for more time than usual….Kim was scootering just ahead and came straight back up….It didn’t take us long to decide this ‘race’ wasn’t worth continuing….(we had opted to ride in a pair anyway, which meant we weren’t gunning for any podium spots…)  Aunty Kim was probably going to have to walk most of it if we continued…and Aunty Jan was trying to ‘ride’ but it just wasn’t happening!...so we pushed our bikes up the hill and told the marshall that we had abandoned….

Then we went for the most beautiful ride in the Mebbin forest – on the fire road…. This now seems to be the most ‘sensible’ decision we had made all weekend…. We managed to clock up about 40kms of riding getting some great views of the ‘scenic rim’ of the massive volcano that once encompassed Mt Warning and on our way through the start/finish we noticed we weren’t the only ones who had made this decision…..Some were there mending their war wounds, and many were cleaning their bikes and some were just hanging around to see what the riders looked like who actually did complete the course.  Well I can tell you they looked BROWN – no other colour – and those kamikazes who made it were quite happy with themselves – and we congratulated them…. We sat around and ate the fabulous meal that was supplied with the entry – that must have been the reason we came….and then made the drive back to the Gold Coast before getting clean – our bikes, however, got a wash atop the car as it was still raining – but you can’t believe that, can you…..

So, there you have it…Sorry but you won’t get to experience this yourselves, because it won’t be on again until we have a drought….and then, well, it could be awesome…..We didn’t waste our time whilst riding on the fire-road though - Aunty Kim practiced her one-legged drill and we practiced our towing technique – so we did get to achieve something…and I mapped the entire ‘fire-road’ on the Garmin…so you can do this bit….but it’s probably already on a map somewhere – being a road and all…J

WHAT’S COMING UP?

Plenty of adventure in the pipeline….Our Bribie Multisport training weekend on 13th & 14th March. Click here for details...
The Kathmandu Adventure Race on 20^th March….
Bribie Multisport….Anaconda NZ….Anaconda Forster and the Red Centre Mtb Enduro…..come along and join us for some of it….

See you out there!

J Jan & Kim