Post Cambodia belated analysis.

Everyone well?

Very different feeling following the ride  this year. By definition you can only ever do something for the first time once. I got a little caught up in the emotion of the ride last year so just wanted to take a couple of deep breaths and wait a couple of weeks this year before putting pen to paper. 

It's just such a great cause and I loved the people I rode with. Itinerary dependent, would love to be back next year. The challenge for me is that it isn't a ride that plays to my strengths and I have no embarrassment in admitting I struggled more than most. 

The net result is that I was good for nothing more than barely completing the ride each day. Very little sightseeing, mingling, piss drinking , quality blogging, and just general contribution. Matty went past me this year as the funniest bloke on tour and probably opened up a bit of a gap. I think he d been planning on being a little funnier this year since the sting of silver last year. 

I actually slipped out of the medals completely this year.

Closer to home this was the view from Kings Park last week. 

Brendy and I started a bit of a program this week for the Taupo ride in NZ late November. 

I cracked the frame on my old road bike ( either just too much power or carrying a couple of extra kegs, hard to know) and got a new frame under warranty.

I like this bike so much I've actually been licking it clean ( cat like) after rides in the rain.

If something tickles my fancy and is funny or interesting I'll resuscitate the blog again but until then look after yourselves. 

If anyone wants to join this ride or has any questions or observations either leave a comment or email me at johnquinn@yourclaim.com.au

Otherwise, ... jog on sisters.

Day 7. Preyveng to Phnom Penh 127k

Coz I'm still 'hood

Hollywood couldn't change me

Nicky Minaj.

Before I jump into the final day there's a story out there ( unrelated to this trip)  that interested me. There's a singer called Sixto Rodriguez. He's Hispanic. He puts out two albums in 1968 and 1971. Between them they sell 15 copies in the US. Record label drops him and he goes back to working as a labourer. 

Meanwhile he sells 500,000 records in South Africa and is bigger than Elvis and Bob Dylan there. Doesn't see a dime in royalties and is oblivious to the fact that he's famous. Gets rediscovered in 1999 if u don't mind. 30 years later!!! Plays at the Glastonbury festival LAST YEAR!! He's over 70. It's just a large scarcely believable story and made into a doco... Searching for Sugar man. Incredible.

The music still holds up pretty well which us also pretty extraordinary.

Last day - here's a snack being offered on the ferry - it's crickets!

The group mooching about

Another picture of us - helmets on.

Us at the finish

The Hospital at the finish

Our Guides Rith and Tree

Packing up to come home

Post ride analysis to follow..

Day 6 - Kampong Cham to Preyveng 108k

Sup'

We visited a school in Preyveng today. 

If u expand the picture below you'll see on the roof what year the school was built - again via funds raised by Tabitha. Heres a clue - it was 2010. 

Here's the school itself next door

We learnt to count to 10 in Cambodian and the kids to 10 in Australian accented English. Kids optimism and curiosity is obviously a universal trait but we got a very visible reminder of that. 

There were kids parents and grandmothers in the crowd.

One woman who looked old by western standards but may possibly have been not much older than us asked us when we were coming back and when we told her next year she asked if we could hurry up as she could be dead by then.! To which the crowd chuckled heartily. !They seemed somehow closer to the ebb and flow of life in the natural world than we are.

This is the kids and group in the first class room

Something I read in a bicycling magazine once said something like ... nothing connects you to the road and a place like sweat.

I feel that. Your bike and your actual self are physically connecting to the ground. 

I struggle physically with this ride. It's hot, it's bumpy , you are chafed, I can't keep food down and it's 1000ks so it's not like u do a fast 50 or 100k and u r done. But what happens is that the ride carves you up and hollows you out and 

the schools you go to, and quality guys like Rith and Rohm, and all the people you meet and the stories you hear just keep filling you back up again and more.

I spoke to a lady connected with the Tabitha foundation about that school . Turns out she lives in East Perth. She told me after the last house build project there was a ceremony  where a decorative bedding item is handed over with the house. She said one of the mothers got up and said in a week or a month you may not remember our faces but we will remember yours until the day we die.

She hasn't been able to relay that story without tears since.

People who ride 1000k in a week in pretty taxing conditions are going to be nothing if not dogged. Big Matty T was trying valiantly to get a quorum to go karaoke ing. We stopped off at this place on the way home from the local restaraunt. Everybody's fucked and ready for bed - except Matty. We have a quick look - absolute shithouse. No takers and no enthusiasm . Most of us back on the bus. Matty works on everyone in the group individually until a few people slump

Inside. Fuck it- one more day to go

What a great night and idea !!

The guides were singing Cambodian karaoke songs, the piss got colder the more ice we chucked in it and we all started singing better as  the night went on.

Large!

Sammy g and Rith.

Kazumi tearing it up and Johnny Rey ....sort of half tearing it up and half resting it up.

Johnny Rey and I seating it up

Woo hoo. Back with the final day soon

Jog on sisters

Day 6 - Preyveng

Just to break things up a little here's a couple of snaps from last night.

  Went to a local restaurant and Matty talbot asked the mama San to sew up his split bike shorts. Not sure she was expecting that. 

On the way home he talked us in to a family karaoke night. After some very real resistance; 

That's Matty giving it some. Fist clenched, head back, shorts stitched up...

I'll have to come back to Matty as he needs a post of his own

That's a picture if me keeping my beer cold

You just try and grab that microphone off Sammy G , not happening. 

Here's one of me and Rith, our guide from last year. Awesome rider , awesome man and doesn't mind a beer

Back with day 5 shortly.

Woo hoo

Day 5. Phnom Penh to Kampong Cham 108k

Long day but really interesting.

Lot of trails and lots of river crossings.

We went to Sik island

Here's the first ferry

Here's the second

We met a group of school kids upstairs on this ferry who were talking about what they wanted to do when they left school etc. The subject of our funny jerseys came up and after telling them what we were doing there , the spokesman for the group nodded sagely and said ... 

... your group is very fat...

You just don't get enough of that stuff in 2014.

This is a picture of Rohm and I. This was Rohms first year- he was the driver and the general go to man. 

We were just chatting and killing some time waiting for yet another ferry when we thought we'd take a selfie. 

Same stop - big Johnny Ray  ( Reyner) and Kazumi taking. 5 whilst the ferry pulled in

Not asuch infrastructure as you might anticipate at a port

Everyone has settled in to the ride , are ride fit and there's s a rythym and routine to our days and to each other.

I'll be posting days 6 and. 7 tomorrow. We visit a school on day 6 and finish the ride on day. 7. The kids from the school are on holiday but come and see us. Fordy does a very passable job as a teacher and it was a really moving and worthwhile visit.

Day 4 Kirirron to Phnom Penh

101k's

45 degrees 

We mostly all ride together today. Mostly highway.

Not even sure why I took this picture.? A typical snapshot . You'll see from the picture the actual side of the road and the direction you want to travel is largely up to you. It works though. 

Everybody in the group has a rash where their body meets their bike seats. The rash and blisters are only differentiated amongst us all by itheir severity. Today was partly notable for a number of the group experimenting with two sets of nicks. 

We went and had a couple at the FCC the Foreign Corrrespondents Club where the Mekomg River converges with the Tonle Sap. A lot of history in that building. 

 I haven't checked the dates but someone with is told us the Khmer Rouge entered that FCC building in 1975 and told all the press and US sympathisers to leave the city. Only a proportion took that threat seriously. The Rouge came back the next day and shot everybody still there. 

Big Nick has gone the half dozen oysters. Not sure where they originated from but looking out the window at the water we couldn't say a polite no thanks quickly enough when he generously offered them around. The big man was more lateral than vertical the following day. He does everything with relish the big boy. He's a mate of jonesys and had bbq's through the year to raise money for this. Then he and his missy ( Karen ) took their holidays to come and support Jonesy  - and now us !  - from his motorbike. No helmet, no sunblock - just a big Australian man going hard. He'll drive ahead, pull under a bridge and be swimming with the locals as we cycle past. If it wasn't for his genuine and instantly likeable demeanoir I think he'd scare the shit out of most villagers.

More of a fun day tomorrow. We cross the Mekong 3 times on ferries. Quite a bit of interaction with the locals, some quite cool photos and a couple of gems from some school kids we meet. 

We're coming home hard baby

Day 3 - Kampong Chhnang to Kirrirom 177k

Where do I start?

I was thinking about not boring you with the detail but on reflection thought id do my best to describe the  toughest day I, and I'd suspect most of my little riding buddies, have ever had.

Just on 180k at less than 20kph.

Almost all of it off road, rutted and at times very sandy.

All of it into the wind.

Trucks throwing up dust in a thick blanket settling on to you

6.00am til 7.30 at night.

All of that and the temperature in the mid forties til late afternoon.

In a word - brutal.

Hardest day I've ever had - period.

I was overheated for a lot of that day ( Tuesday - Have been having some technical difficulties getting my posts uploaded hence the lag. )

Went very close to hopping in the van on more than one occasion. 

Common sense and your iiq tells you one thing but there's competing voices isn't there. 

A large part of that day was spent very close to despair.

How funny is this particular post so far!!

A lot of little kindnesses helped everybody.

Couple of pics, the pics are of nice scenery most of the road was closer to Hades when u were riding it. 

One of our early stops

Got to the hotel out the back of beyond Fordy organized some spring rolls and I was in bed in 10 minutes or so, 

He had some beers to attend to.

Air con stopped working at 12.30pm just to keep the surprises coming.

Not a day any of us will be forgetting in a hurry. 

The support crew were exhausted also. What a performance, Nick, Karen and Kazumi. 

Next update and day later today or tomorrow. Might even try and up the entertainment component. 

Day 2. Battambang to Kampong Chhnang

Jesus.

205 kilometers.

Nearly 12 hours on the road with the bulk of it above 40 degrees.

It got 43.5. The tar was liquifying in sections and sticking to our tyres.

In sections it was arguably hotter than my missus.

We smashed out a solid 60 k to get a decent slab of it out of the way then gradually chewed through the rest in more digestible  25 or 30k chunks. 

Whole group ride the last 20 k together which was terrific.

Rode a lot of today with Steve Jones and a fair bit with Wayne Bradshaw. Here they are at dinner last night.

Jonesy got a flat during the ride today. This how we fix those sorts of problems over here .

None of that namby pamby take it to the bike shop carry on for us.

Our guide Buntry stopped off at a stall on side of the road and picked us up a yummy treat. A delicious dogs head.! I nearly shat myself. I'm so soft I couldn't even bring myself to take a photo of it. 

Massive props to big Sammy Gobran and even bigger Johnny Reynen. Both first timers but just doing it easy. V impressive as was ( sort of ) big Wayne ( Bradders) Bradshaw

I thought today was the hardest day but it turns out tomorrow is almost 200k but nearly 170k is off road. Fuck me!

Fingers crossed peoples. Just need to get through tomorrow then it all gets a little more manageable.

It's 7.30 and there's only four of us left at dinner!!! I'm down to the semi's.

Jog on sisters.

Well, we're underway... Siem Reap to Battonbang 173k

Yo

Up to Fordys on Thursday. He and I shot out for a ride in Singapore Friday morning then Singapore to Siem Reap yesterday.

Took this quick snap at Simgapore airport

Two things, there's only a select group of people who can pull off the camo look, and fortunately Fordys one of them. Secondly if you have a look behind him you'll see he's being photo bombed. Obviously that only ever happens to celebs.

The mercury got up to 39.9 degrees today. That's Celsius ladies and gentlemen. Do you mind!! Day one!

Here's where we stopped for lunch;

Some of the group ate crabs from that river. I liked the idea of it ...but anyone that read last years blog knows I've got the constitution of an infant baby's marshmallow snack.

I personally found the last 25k pretty challenging but big Stevie J ramped back the rpms and coasted in with me. 

Different group this year, slightly different vibe but travelled just as beautifully as a unit. 

Hopefully it'll be just as hot tomorrow as it's a not for the faint hearted 203 Cambodian kilometers tomorrow. Hammer time. 

I've been talking plenty about how id learnt from last year and how I'd be drinking my fair share of beer this year - it's taken less than a day for everyone to see through that shit.

I haven't struck a blow since finishing the ride. Right, kit up and off to join the group

Where da party at?

It's a happening thing..

And it's happening to you..

Off to join most of the other riders in Singapore early tomorrow morning.

Had a cup of coffee with one of last years riders , Hollywood Johnny Harris today for a last minute catch up and see if he had any advice for this year. Keep your lunch off the bigger kids he proffered. That's bullshit obviously. He is disappointed not to be coming this year and will be sorely missed.

Last ride in Perth yesterday with medium Brendy. Pulled over and took a last snap of Perth.

Before I sign off I caught up with my old cocker spaniel big Grizzy Grogan a few weeks back in a bike shop / cafe in Wembley . He'd come to a fairly spectacular stop out the front just in case id missed the fact that the luxury import he'd pulled up in was less than 24 hours old.

Anyway , we 've not long ordered, grabbed a table and sat down when a guys asked if he can join us. 

All good . He's reading the West Australian drinking his coffee and saying hello . Finishes the sport section at the back of the paper and rests his coffee on the next page - which is the naughty girl ads. 

Just planning the rest of your day there Horse ? I wittily observe to keep the convy rolling.

He says, what I do is when my workmates head off to lunch i circle a couple of ads in bright red texter , and then leave the paper open on that page and prominently positioned on their desk for all their other workmates to see and draw their own conclusions . Not bad.

At this rate there will be another post up before the weekend. It 's nearly go time.

Jog on sisters. 

Anyway, as I was saying...

What's uupppp? 

For regular readers you may have cottoned on to the fact that I've been underperforming on several fronts for months, including;

1 News flow, and

2 The overly ambitious jack and john get fit project.

That's all behind us now...

Hasn't been an ideal preparation for Cambodia peeps but it wasn't last year either and we managed to lurch our way through. No reason we can't again this year.

 

Two or three months ago I was riding the best I've ever ridden. Could not have gone worse since. Flu, abscess under my tooth, busy at work and chubbed up, just a nightmare.

Brend and I eked out a workmanlike 100k yesterday and Rich and I laboured thru another 100k this morning. Can't go back in time what we've done will have to do.

This is what it looked like out there at daybreak this morgan

As anybody who has read a few of these posts would have picked up on, sometimes there's a huge amount of enjoyment to be found is some unlikely places. 

Last year you might recall I was pretty delighted about a zoo in China getting fined for replacing their lion (after it died) with an employees raggedy arsed pet dog that looked a little like a lion. 

Patrons twigged when it barked.

Have a geek at this.

A mate of mine is shedding a few kilo's and is doing it quite successfully. I've been doing some work in his office and he's often got this 40 gallon drum tucked under his wing . That's an in the flesh protein shake alongside the super sized mega container of protein powder not far away from being hoovered down

It's not until you really drill into the data that you discover how close to the frontier of science this stuff is closing in on.

For starters it's called Hydroxy Burn Pro Clinical. I know as much about the medical profession as the next bloke but if I'm to be completely frank I'm not entirely clear what that actually means in that sentence construction .

What I do know is that it's the High Protein Lean and Ripped Formula.! So even though it's chocolate flavored you just literally keep throwing it at yourself and watch yourself get ripped.! It's awesome!

And, Its only $90!!!!

If there's any left I'm grabbing a couple.

Now... I'm off to Singapore this Thursday, the 7th August, bunker down with Fordy Thursday and Friday nights, then we scuttle off to Siem Reap in Cambodia on Saturday morning. 

There's a bit to catch up on - I'll post again  shortly. Anyone new to this blog oldest to newest will make more sense.

The ride starts this Sunday.

Would love to hear your comments or feedback. Get on board.

New blog details

I want to know what love is

I want you to show me

I want to feel what love is

I know you can show me

Foreigner

I flicked thru the movie channels last night  and there's tom cruise as a rock star rolling out a bit of Foreigner. There's not much he can't do. He's also jack reacher who's 6 foot 5 and 250 pounds in the books. Id sooner see Wayne Barnes ( the ref who stole the World Cup from the mighty all blacks in 2007) cast as jack reacher. (I'm trying to let it go but it's not easy.)

Off movies and back to music for a moment.

Anyone who wants to follow the new blog here's the address again 

http://jackandjohngetfit.blogspot.com

The title is a little misleading, we're really just shedding some pork.

This is largely how we are doing it

New blog

What’s up homies. Happy New Year.

Here’s the plan for the first quarter of 2014.

My neighbour Jack - who you might recall helped me get this blog going and stayed at our house when we were in the UK (please pay attention) and I are going to lose 13 kegs in 13 weeks.

You can lose more than 1 kilogram in a week but it’s not averaged , ie you still then have to lose 1 kilogram each and every week.

We are then going to have a consolidation period of a further 13 weeks where you can’t pile any chub back on.

We are going to post a picture of our digital scales after our weigh in each Monday morning with one (collective) blog each Monday - for the next thirteen weeks.

This is the last post under this address. The new address is http://jackandjohngetfit.blogspot.com

If you want push up (auto) weekly updates simply enter your email address at the top of the new blog page.

We are seeking to shift some pudding for slightly different reasons. Anyone following this blog fairly regularly knows I’ve been doing a bit of cycling over the last few months.

After staying pretty static for a couple of years it’s fair to say it’s recently jumped up a level which is pleasing given it wasn’t something that came easily to me.

I was 105.9 kegs on 1/1/2014 - see photo attached.

I’m keen to get a little faster still on my bike. Any mud around your middle is the enemy of going quicker (particularly up hills) so eventually you have no choice but to say no to the KFC. Eventually you realise that everyone you know who cycles very well looks like a cyclist who cycles very well so that’s the next step for me.

Whilst he would never say this about himself Jack has been handed a lot of genetic gifts. He’s the lead singer in a band,  is a good looking rooster, is better than useful at sport with pretty impressive hand eye coordination. One gift he wasn’t handed was the ability to eat mountains of shit food and stay lean. A year ago he was 90 kegs and pretty pleased with himself. We did a little training together in the lead up to him getting to that 90 kegs which is where I possibly underestimated Jacks resolve a little. I set up two bikes in my garage and we were doing some cycling followed by a run around the block (2k) and you do it two or three times. Jack was on the cusp of breaking the 10 minute barrier for the circuit and I didn’t think he was trying hard enough so I bullied him a little during the second lap only for him to stop at the shop behind my house (150m from the end of the run) – and throw up in the bin there – before finishing the run to his credit. And by throw up I mean he really gave it some – not one of those attention seeking excuses for a chuck that some people roll out just to get to the showers early. Fast forward to 1/1/2014 however and he’s 119 kegs, (photo attached) which is a little untidy for a young bloke.

This level of pork is an area he probably needs to get on top of sooner rather than later for lots of reasons so we are going to do this together as with that element of friendly competition and making it somewhat public we are almost duty bound to be successful.

Our first official Monday weigh in and post is tomorrow so I’ll see some of you then -  but before I go let me hand you over to Jack….

So many of you will already know John and may have heard of me before. John is at 74, i'm at 70! I've house sat for him before and drunk him under the table a couple times too. There may be a huge age gap but mentally we're on about the same level.

We've also got a penchant for food whilst also being elite athletes. The King (as he likes to be known) has completed numerous events that make me tired just watching them and I think we were all proud of him when he completed the Busselton Ironman. We followed him from home online and were happy to get the news that he crossed the line.

Anyway, neither of us are insubstantial blokes and we both want to be slightly less substantial. I've lost 30kg twice in my life but not done a great job of keeping it off. This time is going to be different. 26 weeks in total. 13 to lose some kegs and 13 more to make sure we keep it off.

It's going to be tough, I might even vomit, there could even be some decent comedy but it'll be 110% no matter what.

Keep following our progress and get around us! Wait to see how good we'll be looking come July!