Alpine Weekend November Update
Hi everyone,
It is around 13 weeks until the Alpine Weekend (yes I know the Christmas lights haven’t even gone up yet) so it is a good time to start thinking about ramping up the training now the weather is improving and everyone is back riding.
If you didn’t know, the Cobungra bridge (the one out front of the Blue Duck Inn) was damaged during the October floods. One lane of the bridge is open again, but further repair work will be happening in November. It should all be fixed by Christmas well ahead of the Alpine Weekend. The road to Falls Creek is now open after the landslip so we should be good to go for the full loop barring bushfires, further floods and the usual incidents that seem to crop up.
Accommodation:
Time to start thinking about booking accommodation for the weekend while it is still available. A lot of places are shown as ‘not available’ on Booking.com but this can reflect the fact that the operators have not yet loaded rooms for February onto the system. Nonetheless better to book early as there are often other events being held in Bright this time of year (I can see that a Brisbane bike club is organising a training week at that time). Rob posted a share accommodation possibility – see earlier posts. In general, it is probably best to call the accommodation direct to see what is available.
Training: START NOW!!
Now is the time to start building up towards the trip by gradually increasing your
rides to work, morning rides, etc. You should be aiming ramp up your cycling to 200km -300km/ week
by Christmas so 2-3 BRL loops during the week and a longer ride on the weekend to get over 200km.
If you are not already doing a Hills or Bonds ride of a weekend (1000m + climbing) then you
should be aiming to do so by Christmas (i.e. 4 weeks before the weekend).
The Rapha 500km challenge from 24 to 31 December (8 days) is a good benchmark to aim for, again you should be towards the 300km/week mark just before to make it easier on your legs.
Post Christmas (and perhaps before) there will be a few Lakes Mountain and Donna Buang rides posted to get used to longer climbs – keep an eye out for these. Adelaide of course is a great lead if
you can make it. If I can find a little more time I will put bit of a program together.
Summer is nearly here so it is time to start getting out!
cheers, Brad