It’s On!!

Yep, just like Donkey Kong, it’s on. And by that I mean I am now preparing for my scheduled races for this year. It’s a nice calendar which mainly consists of events I’ve got scores to settle with. It starts out fun with the Cheviot Hills Challenge. Last year I managed to get pretty sick right before the race and down graded to recreational, this year I will be looking to finish in Sport. It’s a great wee race, well run and a great start to the season.

Then after that is the 6hr Blast at McLean’s Island. I did the 12hr last year in a team of 4, this year it looks like I’m going to do the 6 hour in a team of 2 (maybe 3?) but on singlespeeds. That will be interesting. Hopefully my knees will hold up.

From there I might do a new event for me, the Dusky Trail race in Twizel. This is only a maybe at the moment because it’s at Labour Weekend we might flag racing and head to Alex for a holiday with our bikes instead. We shall have to see.

Then another new race, but one I’m pretty excited about. I’m going to be part of a 4 or 5 up team for the Timaru 12hr race on the 31st of October. We’ve come up with an amusing theme, but I’m not going to let the cat out of the bag in case other teams poach our ideas (yes, I’m under this misconceived notion that people read this blog).

Then the big one. The Molesworth Muster. I really want to nail this race this year in under 5hrs. I’m hoping for around the 4.5hr mark, but it is a big ask. And to do it I’ve agreed to keeping a food diary to help me loose the excess weight that a summer lost to arm mending and then a cold wet winter have gifted me. The twist is I’ll be sharing my food diary with my friends so I will be really motivated to eat right. I’ve also been receiving lots of fantastic advice from some very inspiring athletes and I think I know what I need to do. They you shouldn’t try to lose weight and train at the same time, and they’re right, but I’ve never made things easy for myself.

After a rest from the Molesworth I’ll be heading back to the Moa Hunt, for a day of punishing climbing, but with my new super bike I’m looking forward to taking my time down at least half an hour. The next day is the most exciting day of the year, with Pearl Jam playing Christchurch. I cannot wait. I’ll be booking some annual leave to sleep on Monday.

Finally I’ll be back at the Hammerhead if its running. Hopefully I won’t leave any skin behind this time and I’ll handle all the climbing better. I’m so looking forward to these races with my new weapon, I know I’ll enjoy them more and my times will improve.

Just a final note: I highly recommend everyone get out and get the latest issue of Spoke (Issue 33). There are two extremely insightful and well written articles in there by yours truely (aren't I modest?!)

The view from the other side, plus some very exciting news

There’s a new sheriff in town

Well, that’s not actually true, but I was a marshal at the weekend, for the first time. It was Round 3 of the Canterbury XC series at the weekend and it was held at the fantastic Living Springs track on Banks Peninsula (which Pete and I helped dig). Also held at the track on the same day was the South Island Singlespeed Champs so it was a long day of racing and a very long day of fluro vest wearing. Being a marshal is pretty cool actually, especially if no one does anything silly and crashes in your neck of the woods. You are provided with a very fashionable hi-vis vest, a walkie talkie, map of the course and notebook and pen for the official look. I was disappointed not to get a shiny badge, but being provided lunch made up for that.

My day consisted of shouting encouragement, and later in the singlespeed race, abuse (they loved it, bunch of masochists), at the racers, taking a few snaps, applying liberal amounts of sunscreen and chatting to various punters. The racing was fantastic, with the course hammering everyone. The sport race guys started out in the morning and some of them were suffering from early on. It was a great race, with a few of the expert guys doing their laps early so they could punish themselves in the singlespeed race in the arvo.
I did discover a few drawbacks to marshalling multiple races in one day. If you are lucky enough to have different areas for different races there can be quite a bit of hiking to be done in a short space of time. While I did enjoy walking the track to get to the complete other side, the enormous blister that formed on the arch of my foot put somewhat of a damper on my mood. Owie (yes, I am a big baby). Also there’s not a lot, in fact there’s no opportunity for a toilet break unless you’re stationed up near the start, which I wasn’t. Luckily I have developed a bladder of steel over many years of drinking so this wasn’t too much of an issue.

The expert race was an absolute ripper and being stationed by the only jump on the course provided me with plenty of entertainment, but luckily no nasty crashes. Young Anton Cooper completely blitzed the field. That boy makes me sick, not only is he incredibly talented and fast, he’s also a really nice kid. I’m looking forward to seeing him kick some international arse in the future when he gets older.

The final race of the day was by far the most fun to watch. The singlespeeders are a mental breed and all dressed either themselves or their bikes appropriately for the race. Some the expert riders who’d just finished 6 laps of the course were lining up at the start for another 5 laps, but this time without gears. Not Right At All! Especially in a gorilla suit. You wanna sweat, wear one of those while racing. Unfortunately for my eyes costumes (if you can call it that) also went to the other extreme with one insane man wearing nothing but a horribly small g-string. Won’t someone think of the children! I’m guessing riding with a tiny bit of material in your butt crack is not a very pleasant experience, possibly even worse than riding in a gorilla suit.

I was gutted I couldn’t race this race, it looked like heaps of fun (and heaps of pain). Any race where you get to colour in, eat weet-bix and drink beer sounds great by me! Hopefully next year I’ll be fit and raring to go. All in all I loved marshalling. It was great to be part of such fun and well organised events, even if I’ve managed to shout my throat raw.

Exciting News
This is actually old news, but I didn’t want to write about it till it was done and dusted. A month or so ago I sent a couple of bits of writing off to the fantastic Spoke magazine to see if they would be interested in publishing something I’d written. I’ve always wanted to have something published in a magazine and I’ve had some encouragement from a couple of people to give it go recently. I’m over the moon to say that not only did the editor of Spoke like my writing, she then asked me to write another piece for the upcoming edition. Wooo Hooo, commissioned to write for Spoke, oh yeah! I’ve sent my piece off today and will be eagerly awaiting the next issue hitting news stands to see my name in the byline.

Happy Blogday to me!

Yep, today is my blogday. My blog is one year old so where are the presents?

Unfortunately there are no presents because it turns out my weight goals were a tad unrealistic; well a complete fantasy. However I have learnt that the weight thing really doesn’t matter that much, not at the level I race at anyway, that level being rather low. I know that my diet is very good, and that once I can get back into a routine my fitness will keep getting better. This year I’m going to let my weight take care of itself. So no shiny new, lighter bike for me, but I am happy with my achievements so far, even if my new and improved ability to break myself has hindered my racing ability for the few past and coming few months. Now its time for some new goals, but I have a problem. The one thing I can’t stop thinking about seems so far beyond me I’m almost afraid to write it down.

I really want to do the Alpine Epic. 5 stages. 4 days. So very huge and scary.
Stage 01 - Mt Somers to Inverary 35km, 800m ascent. So that’s almost the Moa Hunt right there and that just about killed me.
Stage 02 - Inverary to the Rangitata River 35km, 1250m ascent. More climbing than I’ve ever done in one day (lets be honest, more climbing than I’ve done in 2 days), and that’s with the previous day in my legs already.
Stage 03 - Rangitata River to Rangitata Gorge 17km, 500m ascent. A time trial, straight after stage 2, sounds like a piece of cake? Doesn’t it?!
Stage 04 - Rangitata Gorge to Sherwood Hall 84km, 2000m ascent. Oh. My. God! Two Thousand metres of climbing inside 84ks of riding. Cue insane laughter.
Stage 05 - Sherwood Hall to Tekapo 72km, 1750m ascent. As if stage 4 wasn’t bad enough, this is beyond crazy. Day 4, stupid amounts of riding inside the legs and then another 72ks and 1750m of climbing. It’s just not right. Even pootling round the Redwoods in Rotorua I was knackered by day 4.

But I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s such a huge challenge, so far beyond my current capabilities, it would be such an awesome achievement. The thing is, I just don’t know if it’s realistic. I’m currently less fit than I’ve been in the last few years, but I’m hoping once I can ride regularly again that my fitness should spring back pretty quick. Is a year enough time to go from struggling through 80kms with a net altitude lose to doing day after day of big climbs and big kms? I think I’m mentally tough enough to do the training, but who do I get to train me? Will my gammy knee, and now gammy elbow, be up to carrying my heavy bike up hike-a-bike sections? Am I setting myself up for huge disappointment?

A part of me just wishes this idea would go away and I could settle down to setting some challenging but realistic goals like doing the Molesworth in under 4½ hours , completing a 6 hour solo at the McLean’s Island Day Nighter, completing the Canterbury XC series next year (assuming there is one) and doing the Moa Hunt in under 3 ½ hours. Maybe I could throw a new race into the mix, like completing the Lake Tekapo Pursuit, 90kms in the middle of winter? Or head up to the North Island and be part of a 4 man team for the Moonride or maybe a 2 person team for the Day Night Thriller?

So many questions. For my blogday the only present I want is advice. What could my goals be?

Bionic Woman

Better, stronger, faster. Well I’m none of those things at the moment, but I do seem to be healing pretty well. Last week I was back at work doing half days, which was pretty tiring, but I did manage a couple more rides on my trainer. I also had a couple of doctor’s appointments and finally found some information out about how long I’ll be in my robo-arm and what sort of stuff I can be doing. The best bit was I got to see my metalwork, I have lots of stuff in my elbow. More importantly I got a referral to physio (more on that later).

My lovely man has splashed out and bought me a new computer for my roadie which measures cadence (RPM) and brought me home some intense training dvds for me to play with while I’m stuck riding inside (thanks Paul). Unfortunately I’m not really up to putting in a proper training effort and can only handle the warm up session before I’m exhausted and needing a lie down. Feeling like a nana isn’t the best, but at least I can do something. Still it gives me some good goals to work towards so I’m enjoying it.
Further excitement occurred at the weekend when I got out of the house!! Shock horror. We drove out to Omihi in North Canterbury and helped get the Vulcaniser course ready for the race this weekend. I was intrigued to see how I would handle walking up and down hills for a few hours and amazingly I handled it pretty well and only had to rest a couple of times on the return journey. On top of that encouraging progress I discovered I’ve really got a knack for sticking pig-tails in the ground. Such a useful skill.

It was fantastic to get out and do something bike related with a really wonderful group of people, even if it did make me a little sad that I couldn’t have a ride on the fantastic track myself. After all that fresh air (and gale force winds) I was pleasantly tired out and finally had a decent nights sleep. Yay.

This morning I had a physio appointment at the hospital, just what I’ve been waiting for. It went fantastically and the news from the physio was all good. My range of movement improved massively while I was there and although it hurt like hell I was grinning the whole time. It turns out the information I got from the doctor last week was also wrong. So now I have to take my brace off at least 3 times a day and practice straightening and bending my arm, I have to take it off in the shower, I have to take it off if I’m just watching TV. Yeah baby, I am so happy about that. My mood was further improved with the news that I should be able to be out on my bike in about 6 weeks. Hmmmmm, maybe Mt Somers is a realistic goal after all. So all in all, things are progressing extremely well and I’ll be back riding to work in no time. Driving really does suck a lot.

Maxed Out – The Hammerhead

Way back in March was the last time I went riding in Hanmer Springs and reading my blog entries from that trip really shows me how far my riding has come.

We got into Hanmer just after lunch on Saturday and checked into our cabin at the Alpine Adventure Tourist Camp (very nice it was too, in fantastic secluded surroundings). We were both feeling a bit flat so it was an effort to get into riding gear and head out for a pre-ride in the heat. We called into Krank for an updated trail map and to get the skinny on the course from Neil. After a good chat we were on our way warned of loose gravel and nasty little tree stumps on the new track Mac 1. We gave this track a couple of rides and Neil was right, it was very loose in the tight corners, there would be carnage in the race for anyone who over-cooked those (hehehe). We then had a blast down camp track and back along Dog Stream, checking the entrance for the race off Jolliffe Rd, again potential for carnage. Then we headed up the road till we got to the exit of Bigfoot where it hooked up with Nature Trail. I’ve never ridden this so in we went. A nice little trail with a couple of scary bridges with no sides. Then up Detox. I really wanted to practise riding the rock drop in this section as last time I was here there was no way I would consider it. My first attempt was terrible. I took the hardest line over the highest steepest point in the middle and got bounced off my brakes and then over braked when I got them back. Only a small amount of skin off my leg as a reward (I was quite worried it might be worse before I looked at it, yay resilient skin).

Not too put off I was determined to get it right and this time surveyed the lines before heading in. After establishing that heading to the right would be best I was over and it was easy. Tyres hooked up on the rock excellently and I felt completely in control at all times, bring on the race.

Race day dawn with a chorus of bellbirds and I was a bit nervous. By the time we got to the Trust Camp for registration I was really really nervous and struggling to keep my breakfast down. I was worried I’d be too slow and get mown down by the elites, or that I wouldn’t handle the intensity of the climbs and I wouldn’t finish. Waiting at the start line I just wanted to get going as I was actually starting to psych myself out a bit. Then we were off, up the very gentle incline of the shingle road. I stuck to my strategy of take it fairly easy off the start line and that proved to be a good idea as when we rounded the corner to enter the Mac 1 single-track there was a line!!!! After standing round for half a minute or so we were off and I was right behind a group of girls. Their speed kept me in check on the single-track so I exited with no dramas and then we were flying towards a short 4wd climb to Black Dog. One of the girls from the group was quite close to me and I decided I wanted to be ahead of her into the single-track and so for the first time in a race I passed someone going up a hill. Yeah! Flew down Black Dog, zigged zagged through the trees and the finish chicane and then out onto the road, down Camp Track and then the climb up the road to Timberlands. I Hate Timberlands and knew it would be my biggest test in the race. The first lap went really well and I rode the whole thing, slowly, but on the bike the whole time. Then out into the baking sun and up the road some more where the chick I had past previously raced away from me and then zoom down the other side. I was pretty conservative on this descent as I wasn’t sure how far it was before the turn into Dog Stream. Made a nice turn into the single-track carrying good speed and then I went into conservative mode knowing there was the really big climb up Bigfoot ahead. I had however forgotten how long the climb up the road was, it went on and on and I clung to the shadows to conserve energy and adopted my favoured spin spin spin, low body position. At the entrance to Bigfoot I let some faster people through and headed up. First set of switchbacks, no worries, 2nd set, the same, 3rd set, small dap, 4th set someone off in front of me so had to run round the 2nd corner. Up and up I climbed (rasping my lungs out as the intensity increased) nailing all the switch backs. Finally though my lungs ran out of puff and my heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest and I had to walk the last 2 sets (there’s about 20 switchbacks in total). I gave myself a second for my vision to clear and then I was off. YeeeeeeHaaaaaaa, that climb was sooo worth it. Down the hill I flew, over drop offs round tight corners, through rooty sections and into ruts. It was fantastic and I was grinning like an idiot at the bottom. I almost overshot the entrance to Nature Trail in my enthusiasm, but I pulled it together and settled into a slow climb. Out into the now really blazing sun on the 4wd drive up to Detox and it was like being in an oven. There was no breeze and the sun sucked the moisture right out of you and your energy with it. I settled into a gentle spin, but it was hurting and I knew I was in trouble for the rest of the race. Finally a tight right hand turn and the breeze was back and the rest of the climb was bearable. Unfortunately by now the elite men had started passing me and I knew my descent was going to be holding these guys up. I hate descending under pressure but I decided I was going to just ride my lines and be very clear that I wouldn’t be moving till I was comfortable. So when I heard the call of “Rider” I’d just call back “I’m not moving yet” and when I could I’d move off to the left. This meant I felt obliged to take the chicken line and miss the rock drop on my first lap whichw as disappointing but it took the pressure off for a second. Detox was really fun and I was grinning again at the bottom.
Onto the road and my blast down was slightly curtailed as I braked to let some elites into the single-track of Mac 1 before me. No one in front of me this time and boys whipping past I was going much faster into the gravelly corners than before. Which was all good, until it wasn’t and my tyres just let go. Owwwww! Bollocks, that really really hurt. Back on the bike and feeling a bit despondent.

Out of the singletrack on and up to Black Dog. Zip down and someone calls out “Go Mel” from the timing caravan and I feel much better (no idea who it was, but thanks). I can do this. It’s about finishing, you know you’re going to be at the end of the pack, but you will finish. Second lap and mentally it’s actually easier, just 2 big climbs. Zip down Camp Track, up the road to Timberlands. Legs completely toasted, spin spin grind grind grind, shit. Walk walk walk. Plenty of people are streaming past me now, but that actually doesn’t bother me, must finish though. Back on the bike and spin up the single-track and out into that bloody sun. Up the road and then down the road, much faster, I know where the turn off is this time. Into the single-track and conserve. Mentally I’m struggling with the climb ahead of me, shit my legs are gone, how am I going to do it. Crawl up the road in the shade and a very nice man tells me to keep my head up as it opens your chest and makes breathing easier. I thank him for the advice and then think I must be looking bloody awful for such advice to be given. Finally the start of the single-track is in front of me and it’s as bad as I thought. My legs have nothing to give. I only manage to make it up the first 4 sets of switchbacks and then I’m walking. Gutted, but I have to finish and this is the only way I’ll do it. I look at my speedo and am gratified to see that I’m probably walking faster than I could ride at this stage. Finally I reach the top and again enjoy the fantastic ride down, although there’s a faint hint of terror lurking in the back of my mind as I’m feeling super dopey from exhaustion. I ride all my lines and make it to the bottom an extremely happy camper. Up into Nature Trail and then onto the “road of death” to Detox. I just can’t ride it, I’m soo spent. I push my bike for a while till it levels off a bit and then spin slowly to the right hand corner and into the breeze. No one is around me this time and I nail the rock drop. The rest of the lap is just pain. I’m out of water and the fuel tank is not only empty, its fallen off and is lying somewhere on Timberlands. At one point I start singing Mr Brownstone out loud to trying and keep going and it works. Finally I’m in the final single-track, zipping through the trees and speeding over the finish line. I’m very broken but am getting better at hiding it. I get some water straight into me and after a while it’s the prize giving and my name is called out as 3rd in the Sport 30-39yrs Women. Wooo hoooo.

Anyone looking closely at the results will see that I also managed to come last, but hey, I finished, I got a place and I had fun. I rode the same amount of track in this race as during the whole time I was in Hanmer in March so I’ve gotten soooo much fitter. And I have a very nice set of scrapes to show for my efforts, and a NZ Mtb Calendar. Today I feel terrible. I think I managed to give myself some heat stroke on the drive home as our air-con in the car doesn’t work. By the time we got to Amberly I was a mess and we had to stop for some cool air and food. Met up with Andy and Cath at the Nor-Wester and they had the same problem!! I’ve never felt this bad after a race so I’m planning on resting up this week.