What do track sprinters do in the off season? Go mountain biking of course!

Only a matter of hours after my track season finished, Emily and I undertook our first mountain bike adventure. Let me tell you for me it was big shock going from a silky smooth velodrome, a light carbon frame track bike with disc wheel pumped up to 170psi to a heavy mountain bike with fat wheels on a dirt track with lumps, bumps and tree roots everywhere!

We are lucky to have the Yarra bike trail virtually at our doorstep and while the smart thing to do might have been to just stick to the main bike path and dodge the walkers, dogs and tricycles, we instead chose to go on the single track which starts at the Banyule Tennis Club. (I wish I could use google earth right now so I could show you).

We went as far as Bond's Rd on the way to Westerfolds Park and were pretty slow going over and through the said obstacles but on the way back we had a little more confidence and had a ball.

It was just after we bulldozed our way over some tree roots, through some ditches and plowed through some mud holes that I heard Emily yell out in joy ... "I feel invincible on this bike"

Priceless!

"Time is a traveler ...la la li la la. " I don't remember the words of the song and I don't like the song anyway so why did I use it's opening lyrics to open my blog?

Well I was thinking about my times lately and how I have gone faster on every occasion I've done a flying 200 this summer. At the summer sprint series I went about 0.1 seconds faster each outing finishing the series with 13.0s.

At DISC, a fast indoor velodrome, my best before this summer was 12.80. This summer I did 12.60 at the metro championships then 12.554 at the Victorian Masters then 12.021 yesterday at the Australian Masters.

So where will it all end? Let's have a bit of fun with this. At the current rate of improvement I should be the world record holder in my age group in about three years time.  Then in the year 2018 Iook out Chris Hoy and Kevin Sireau because I'll be going under 10 seconds. I could be the first person to make their Olympic debut when they're 60!

OK, I'll get out of my tardis now and step away from the world of dreams. But whichever way you look at it, this summer has been good to me culminating in that time yesterday (12.021 - Yes I'll keep saying it because I'm damned proud of it). What a bummer I didn't actually get to race a sprint. Damn those scratchings. I can still claim to be the 5th fastest in the country and I know I would have been competitive had I raced.

So let's review some of the summer's highlights. (This is the new positive me - talking about highlights instead of negatives)

• Improved F200's with every outing on every occasion at every event
• Qualified in A grade for all but one round of the Summer Sprint Series
• Blackburn Club Champion and gold medalist for the sprint and the 500m ITT
• Metro Champion and gold medalist for the sprint
• Silver medal at the Metro Championships for the Time Trial
  
• Silver medal (best Victorian) at the Victorian Master's Championships (beaten by a Tasmanian - why was he there? grrr...)
• Massive PB (12.021 secs - there it is again) and 5th fastest at the Australian Master's Championships. Best of the Vics.

I think that's it for highlights. And I haven't even mentioned Emily yet! But for now I'll go back into the Tardis and the world of dreams and write about that some other time ....