Magpie season

Spring is a fantastic time to train in Queensland.  Weather is just great with temperatures in the mid to high 20's.  The downside is that it is the Magpie season (mating season I guess).  The weekend just gone I had a fantastic ride in that weather, 125k which was my longest ride by both distance and time so far.  It was pretty warm and I had hit the 100k mark when I got swooped by a Magpie.  Now this wasn't the first for the day, but usually they swoop and make a clicking noise, like a warning, and generally will back off if you face them.  This one however was a fair bit angrier than that.

First some scene setting though.  As I mentioned it was a really nice day and at about the 80k mark I had used all the fluid I had with me so called into top up at a local store.  They didn't have much so I opted for a Powerade, now I've got nothing against the product at all but it was a fair bit stronger than what I had been drinking.  As I went on the more I drank the less appealing it was, but it was all I had.  Anyway 20k further on and there is a 800m long gentle hill on Logan Road going back into the Mt Gravatt area.  About halfway up the hill is when I get the first swoop, but no warning shot from this fella.  It was straight into the helmet bashing.  Now that certainly gets the adrenaline going!  SO here I am at the `100k mark, feeling slightly nauseous from the drink change, struggling with keeping the bike moving forward while looking backward to swipe away at this bird.  At the same time being careful not to weave out into the passing traffic, it must have looked hilarious.  This lasted for the 3-400 odd metres to the top of the hill when I must have passed out of his (?) territory.  Heart rate had jumped right up in to the 170's from the more manageable 130-140 that is normal for a long steady effort.  Up to this point I had managed to hold a decent average speed of about 29kph.  There is no focus on the speed on a ride like this so to maintain that without even trying is good.  Anyway at the top of this hill the combined effect of general fatigue, overly strong drink and the adrenaline hangover just blew me away.  From that point through to home was just a real case of survival, struggling along at 23kph or thereabouts.  When I got in the door even Deb, who is a good hard taskmaster when it comes to me keeping on track, could see that I was a mess.  And she then did a great job of looking after me.    :)

Amazingly with some decent rest and a litre of chocolate milk I actually felt pretty reasonable the next day and managed a bit of a run and the first swim for a while.  Lesson learnt though and my first job for the week was to race into the supplement store and equip myself to avoid a repetition.