Death Camp. Want to be HACK PRO?

7 Peaks in 7 Days.

Start Date.

December 10th 2011 at 0500.

Location.

Bright, VIC, Australia... MAP here, we will also travel to Lake Mountain here, Mt Buller here and Mt Baw Baw here.

Personal Sacrifice 

Jens, our favorite tough man, "Shut Up Legs!"

Like every time we go out on the road to train or just ride with friends, you could have an accident, you take your OWN risks on this death camp, there is no sag wagon and their is no ambulance sitting behind you, you climb at your own pace and meet your TEAM mates at the top of the mountain. 

No matter how long it takes for your TEAM mates to get to the top you will WAIT for each of them (me) to get to the top.

This man knows what its about, he's a hero...

 How to climb?

Lance Armstrong only just retired.... AGAIN. Anyone else want to go back to grinding up a mountain? I do, probably this isn't the reason why he retired in the picture, but it will do.

Who's going to join us? How many will their be?

Want to come?

Click here

Now that you've answered the above question from clicking here... or there.

Are you ready?

To be all that you can be!

Then I suggest you....

and

Qualifications? Oh yeah, my bad I forgot to mention, you've gotta qualify for this, requirements are as follows...

1. Fitz's Challenge, ACT.

2. DBMA Ride, VIC (Melbourne Cup Day 2011... oh yeah, its back, for the LAST time).

3. You've got the chance to go on trial with Hannos in Sydney, NSW.

4. IF we DON'T like you, then your not coming.

You can fulfill ALL or SOME of the requirements. We look forward to your company and hope that you'll survive the winter training that is required to partake. Keep in mind that there is climbing and of course there will always be other obsticles along the way... expect the unexpected.

Cost has not yet been decided, normally the go is to split accomodation, food and fuel depending on whose in what car.

I suggest you put your leave forms in early ladies and tell your wife/husband that you'll be gone and explain to your kids that your going to make them proud... If you have none of that, suggest you tell your boss to go fuck themselves and their pointless 9-5 job and we'll see you soon.

Go on... DARE YOU!

"Excuses don't get you up a hill." - Russell Noble (Psike)

I was totally hiding his name but realised, hey, what's the point? He's got twitter... the WHOLE world knows who he is. Anyway dropping the cloak and dagger conversation. I've got a major problem.

I need a whole lot of HTFU and positive thinking to get through the next two weeks (16 days, but, whose counting?) to make it to the Alpine Classics; actually start it and finish it. Normally for a little bit of motivation I would put my Britney Spears sound track and listen to Stronger (she sung that.. right?).

Today its going to take more than Britney to get me up those hills I'll be taking Lady GaGa though, thats for sure.

Motivation play is now in place, points to remember are.

• I've told everyone I will do it - Failure is not an option
• Its ONLY 200km
• I'll be doing the Murray to Moyne to raise funds for a medically based charity and this is good training

Shit that Russell said that actually makes sense...

• "It'll hurt and you're gonna love it." Russell Noble (Psike)

He's got a point, no matter how many times I say I'm gonna stop climbing mountains and work on the flat stuff, I keep climbing mountains, I do enjoy the pain of climbing, its not something I dislike.

We will be going past our hotel on the way back down Falls Creek as we head towards Tawonga Gap, so it is an opportunity to change anything that I'm not comfortable with and by then we'll have two climbs down with only two remaining (Tawonga Gap and Buffalo).

Goal setting is really important, but its even harder when the goal starts to scare you, what if I don't feel my best on the day, am I allowed to cry?

Russell did say that he was looking forward to a ride that wasn't going to be to fueled with testosterone, I'm happy about that and I owe it to Hannos, Psike, Cpical and Madgan to follow through. I pushed them into doing it, so to pull out now wouldn't be cool.

So I'm in, I'll cut all fat (as much as possible) in my diet for the next 9 days, I'll carb load in the final five days and taper in the final 5 days... this is going to be a sufferfest, but, we'll have some good times on the way.

I've been discussing with Champ all morning about my choices for this ride, he's said, don't do it. But I do sort of like doing things when he's told me not to, his reasons are...

• neck and shoulder aren't 100%
• its a REALLY long way

So in true Missy style, I'm going to ignore Champ and do what Russell has said to do, so to start with I'll be quitting with the negative jibber jabber and keeping it positive.

Psike - Steel is real... *insert rolling eyes smilie*

In recent days there has been a lot of trash talk on my facebook page regarding the choices of new bikes and what to buy; especially in the lead up to the Alpine Classics. There's a lot of bling on the market and no doubt we all have different tastes, I just wanted to start out by saying, "Steel isn't real."

Due to the large amounts of trash talk, I thought it about time that I introduce Psike, he's from Canberra, the nations capital, so its fair to say in all honesty that he knows... nothing, right?

Not entirely, he does know something about HTFU though, it would take a while to mention all the Audax rides that he has done, and there has been a few, so I'm not gonna bother, it would probably also make me feel slow and sucky (not far from the truth). 

Psike has thoroughly suggested that I HTFU a little bit and stop sooking that I haven't be able to ride because I got hit by a car and wrote of my bike and therefor haven't been able to train and did I mention that my mother broke her ankle and I'm looking after her?

Breath.

However, Hannos, just got a new bike, a 2010 BMC SLC01  and to top it off, he had some beautiful Zipp 404 Clinchers to make it hotter and sexier. Which lets face it, 404's are hot; sure those who don't have them say they're too heavy and not to mention the word that they're over priced... I don't need a man, I just need a new bike every six months and some 404's, perhaps an upgrade to Di2 when I graduate from University in a million years and a pink helmet.

I'm about to take possession of a 2011 Felt AR4, its got full Ultegra, which is what I'm happy with, I was tossing up between the Felt and the 2011 Cannondale SuperSix, but I didn't want the Tecktro breaks and the FSA Cranks that came on the 'Dale. I've heard the 2011 Felt AR3 (SRAM) is stiff and fast; looking forward to having carbon between my legs again. I've been off the bike since the 14th of December. My new 404 clincher shouldn't be far away, and I'll be the proud owner of a very nice looking bike, lickable even... don't ask.

As you can see there's a lot of hormones and carbon floating through facebook, twitter and the odd internet forum (helmets rule), I think ultimately we're living out our fantasy's on our bikes and this seems to include lots and lots of riding (take it as you choose). Psike has decided to take the piss out of our carbon bling and sexy wheels, jealous is a green eyed monster.

I really can't take the piss out of him too much cause I have a feeling that he'll be providing a lot of the motivation to get me and Hannos through the Alpine Classics, even with our carbon and 404's we're actuall riding at the speed of snails. 

Psike's position in this team was thoroughly discussed amongst the team and it went something like this.

I said, "this dude Psike from the forums is gonna come to and he's done lots of Audax rides and is awesome!"

Hannos said, "who?"

Cpical said, "okay."

Madgan said, "sure... what are the sleeping arrangements?"

That's how careful our consideration is when it comes to choosing team members, ultimately I seem to have the final say, I'm not sure why, could be because of my amazing influence on others or my hard work and determination.

Psike has said that he doesn't care how long it takes as long as he's in within the time limit, so that puts us at a maximum of about 13 hours, worst case scenario.

As long as there is a bottle of Patricia (Brown Brothers) at the Penthouse at the end of the day, I'm easy. I'll find a picture of Psike later in his hat, I'll steal something from facebook and deface it as much as possible.

Only about two weeks until we all attempt to kill ourselves and I just read recently that that Bling kid does about 1000km a week...

Hannos - The first sucker to join from NSW

Hannos and I know each other pretty well, we email each other almost daily, I complain and he listens diligently and tells me that my ideas are awesome, hence the reason for this cycling team... a good idea according to Hannos. I'm sure I have an email around here that backs up that last statement, I will provide it if required.

This is Hannos, to the right, he says and I quote, "I don't take very good self portraits."

I have to be honest, I bullied the man into signing up for the Alpine Classics, told him it would be great fun, a piece of cake, there is ONLY 4 climbs.

Hannos has never done 200km not even on the flat, so to add some mountains into it could be a whole different effect; Hannos also runs and swims so his overall fitness is going to be better than mine.

The big thing and big issue at the moment is that I got hit by a car before Christmas and wrote of a bike, I'm waiting on a replacement and some money from an insurance company, so until then I'm swimming and running and I'm trying to eat better.

Hannos has told me to HTFU (Harden The F*ck Up) and I'm going to HTFU, I don't want to let them down. It was my encouragement that got us all here and my encouragement that got people who I really don't know (face to face) to come to Bright and ride together as a team that would always wait at the top of every mountain; climb at your own pace.

Hannos is essential to this team and its the team that will get a few of us whose health and ability actually sucks at the moment.