Diagnosis: Fanatic

fa•nat•i•cal  /fəˈnatikəl/
Adjective:   

1.   Filled with excessive and single-minded zeal.
2.   Obsessively concerned with something.

This is a strong word, and one which has many negative connotations. However when I recently went to the doctor and had to see a locum this word came up. I was at the doctor’s to get a referral to a therapist for my decreasing ability to cope with even the smallest after shock. We had a quick chat, there was some discussion of my Chronic Fatigue diagnosis and a very brief chat about how I’ve coped with it. From this the Dr gleaned enough about me to write in his referral letter to the therapist “Fortunately she is an enthusiastic, if not fanatical cyclist…” He gave me a copy of the letter and I laughed rather loudly at this description. He was of course worried he’d offended me, which he hadn’t. I am proudly fanatical. I dream about biking, I do it almost every day in one form or another. It is my medication and currently my salvation. And I know I’m not alone in this.

Yes, I was as cold as it looks.

I’ve recently been enjoying more cycling in Central Otago with a day spent riding the gondola at Bob’s Peak again, for my birthday. It was brilliant. I even rode another black diamond track, Thingamagig, which was super steep, swoopy and incredibly fun. I really wanted to ride the Majestic Thingamagig in the middle, but the risk vs. reward equation wasn’t quite right for me. After another stunning day riding my bike down a hill (with one little burst of up hill – OMG steep! – to see what the uphill in the Super D Enduro will be like) I finished my ride with a brief and shocking plunge into New Zealand’s deepest and coldest lake. It felt great.
It was a couple of days later when my legs had stopped hurting sufficiently to ride again that I discovered why my brakes seemed a little off by the end of the day. Ooops.

Surely those holes mean they'll work better? Oh wait!

Since returning to Shakey Town I haven’t managed to do a much riding, but I’m rectifying that now. I had a great ride with ma chickas on Sunday, which inspired me to get out yesterday and tackle Kennedy’s Bush. It was a grey day, which a front menacing throughout the climb. My legs were strong and I couldn’t help but test them to their fullest by pushing the biggest gear I’ve managed yet up the steep road. I continued this theme up the front of the hill and then the 4wd track. After a rather sedate, cow avoiding run down Siberia Flats I discovered that my legs were not going to put up with this treatment for much longer. Up the next climb it was a bit of a struggle and I took the opportunity where it levels briefly to socialise with the Belted Galloways. I almost ended having to modestly turn away as the frisky bull decided to take his mating rights. Fortunately Mrs Cow wasn’t having a bar of it and shoved him away before continuing grazing. He wasn’t put out, grass must be damn good.

Happy family pastoral scene

After almost reaching the top I decided the approaching front was getting a little too close and I was woefully unprepared for cold weather and rain so headed back down. Time to book the bike in to get my brakes bled, as my front lever kept journeying to my grip on the trip down. Oooops again. 

The view from Kennedy's Bush is why it's my favourite climb

The ride down the Crocodile was very fun with the corners having been widened, but many of them had large holes in the apex which made for a bit of a challenge. I managed to get home just as the rain came with legs feeling happily toasted. I definitely need to do more of this!

In other news, I’ve managed to get roped into helping with the rather awesome Lyttelton Urban DH race that’s happening on the 24th of March. I’m really enjoying been involved with such an exciting race and entries are coming in now. Wyn Masters has signed up, as has local favourite Nathan Rennie. It should be amazing to spectate with huge jumps and gaps, and all sorts of crazy stuff. Check out the blog I’m writing for more info. http://lytteltonurbandh.blogspot.co.nz/

Gross, that is all!

And finally, for those of you who read Bike Snob's brilliant blog, you'll know that he often refers to pants yabbies. If you've never been aquainted with the creature we colloquially call a yabbie here in NZ, here is one I caught while fishing on the Poolburn Dam. I think you'll agree that if your pants yabbies looked anything like this hideous thing you'd be off to the doctors and definitely still a virgin!

Different toys for different playgrounds

Disclaimer: There will be yet more rhapsodising about the Anthem in this post. I am still in the honeymoon phase after all.

I’ve noticed a trend in MTB magazines recently to expound the virtues of longer travel trail bikes as the answer to everyone’s biking needs. One bike for everything. In fact this was the sales-pitch I got when I bought the XLT. I went in wanting something that climbed well, descended ok and was good for racing, and something fairly light. Also I didn’t know anything about bikes at this stage. I feel in love with the XLT, but I probably didn’t need the 130mm travel at the front and 125mm travel out the back. Or the extra weight. . (Just for comparison the Anthem has 100mm at the front and 80mm at the back and weighs a few of kilos less). But I didn’t know any better and was instantly in love with the bike, especially when I took the tractor tyres off it.

Over the years I’ve climbed and descended on this bike and it’s given me the confidence to try new scary things because it’s really forgiving. It seemed to climb well enough and I was always left with a big silly grin after any descent. I could jump stuff and do easy downhill tracks, and bulldoze over obstacles and generally have great fun. I know that this bike is a lot of the reason I’ve developed more skills in the last couple of years. It inspires confidence and it has looked after me. But in all that time I’ve never ever been able to ride the top, steep rocky bit of Kennedy’s Bush. Sure some of that has been my fitness, but on Saturday I learnt that mainly the problem was the XLT just doesn’t like climbing.

On Saturday I’d offered to show Rita the Crocodile and Kennedy’s Bush. Last year I’d really come to think of the Crocodile as my nemesis. Riding down it was fantastic, I really like switchbacks, but climbing up it; horrible. Five tight, steep switchbacks in quick succession, nicely rutted and right at the very start of ride that usually set the tone for the ride. Over exertion, followed by jelly legs and blurred vision. From then on it would be a battle for traction in the switchbacks and often my front wheel would just wander off and I’d have to walk. This would make me lose confidence and by the top I would usually be an unhappy camper. I was pretty apprehensive about riding it, especially in early August, usually I don’t get the courage up to tackle this beast till September.

Up we went and I knew pretty quickly that I didn’t have the fitness for this yet, but surprisingly I did have the traction and as I went on I cleaned all the corners that I’d been washing out on last year. We got to the top of the Croc and I was stuffed, but I was still smiling. The rest of the climb up Kennedy’s was a world of hurt, but where in the past I just wouldn’t have been able to keep turning the pedals over on the XLT, on the Anthem I could just keep moving.

Then something truly amazing happened. We got to the base of the last bit of nasty steep climb, where it turns all rocky and gross. I sat down and looked up. This bit of hill has taunted me from the start and I have never ridden to the top. Based on past experience and my complete and utter exhaustion I expected this to be the case again, but I thought I’d give it a go and see just how much better at climbing the Anthem is. It is riding-to-the-top-of-Kennedy’s-when-stuffed much better. I rode the whole thing! Sure I had to stop every minute or so, but once I’d caught my breath I could keep going and the bike gripped and let me spin and then I was at the top, collapsed in the heap, but feeling insanely triumphant!

Going down was hard work, I’m glad I’ve had a couple of years on the XLT to learn how to ride scary stuff and use my body position and suspension to ride good lines and be stable, because I needed all that knowledge to handle the Anthem on the descents. I felt like my arms were going to shake off and my elbow was popping audibly after the bone jarring ride down (yes, I could have taken it slower, but where’s the fun in that?). I won’t go on about the incredible cornering sweetness of the flowing descent but down the Croc, but oh, it was sooooo good. So for me a quiver of bikes is the right way to go. Roadie for training and raining. Singlespeed for Bottlelake and Mclean’s Island in the sand and mud and flatishness (yes, that’s a word) and skinnies. XLT for shuttles and learning scary things and riding new technical tracks (and building strength lugging its fat arse up hills). Anthem for races and climbing and fast runs on familiar tracks. They are all great and they all give me something different and each of those things makes me ride better and have more fun. One bike to rule them all? No thanks, I’ll have four.

Late edit: The lovely boys at hub cycles have come through for me and got me this lovely new seat to save my sit bones. Look how perfectly it matches my bike. The guys at Hub rock!

Off Track – Plans are a Changing

Since the Hammerhead things haven’t really gone to plan, as evidenced by my lack of posting. My legs were completely trashed after that race, and mentally I was also completely spent. Although I managed to go singlespeeding and do some shuttles in the week after the race my head wasn’t in a training space and I ended up not riding at all at the weekend. I did however go watch some downhilling, very cool to see Rita race, and had a group of lovely cycling women over for a BBQ (including Emmeline Ragot, a really lovely French chick who’s currently the World Cup number 4 ranked woman in downhill!!!!). The BBQ was great fun and it was really great to have a group of women together from many different disciplines of this sport we all love, talking about riding. It will have to be repeated in the future.
The following week I had 3 days in Wellington for work and couldn’t get out riding as the meetings were all day affairs. I was able to be home for Wednesday so we headed up Kennedy’s, tackling the Croc first. Bollocks is all I can say. The Croc is quickly becoming my nemesis. I know I can ride it, I’ve done it a couple of times, but it seems like if I’m tired or stressed at all it quickly turns into a nightmare ride of hyperventilating and rubbish riding. I was not a happy camper when I eventually struggled to out at the top, but luckily that didn’t last. I actually made it much further up Kennedy’s than I expected after the nightmare of the Croc and while Pete and Michelle continued up to the top I blasted back down and did some little hill repeats of the little bit of down hill singletrack. Zoom up the 4wd drive as fast as I can, race down the singletrack, and repeat as necessary. I managed to get 3 hill climbs and 2 and a half descents in before Pete and Michelle appeared and I was grinning from ear to ear again. Which makes me think, if you are having a shite day on the bike, let all that crap out – have a wee tanty, then get back on the bike. It certainly made me feel better.
After that no more riding till the weekend and then there was very fun singlespeeding in the muddy wet forest. My legs were finally working again (phew) and my brain was fully back in the right place. Yay. Monday saw me back out on the roadie for the first time in months and months. It was a great wee 30km ride and I completely hammered the wee rollers on Cashmere Downs for the first time. Yes! Unfortunately there was a rather painful side effect that appeared as a result of this ride. My poor butt, and in particular my sit bones are not used to my roadie seat anymore and the next day I woke up with the mother of all saddle sores. So no riding on Tuesday and to make matters worse it actually kept me awake during the night. Bugger, I really wanted to ride on Wednesday, but no, it was not to be. Luckily by Wednesday evening it had settled down in time for Christmas, but no riding was done.
So this has lead to some tough decision making this morning. Obviously I very very much want to do the race in Bannockburn on the 30th, however it is a long long way to drive ($$$$) for an hour and a half (hopefully) on the bike. There are other complicating factors around New Years and friends visiting from Japan so Pete and I have decided to flag the race. This makes things a lot more simple, but I’m still feeling a bit gutted, I really like this race and was very much looking forward to the measure of progression it would have given me. Now I have to wait till April to do a race I’ve done before and see that progression. Bugger. On the plus side, there will be some riding of Hanmer, Craigieburn and possibly Wharfedale or Poulter Valley to make up for it. Yay.

Finally, belated Merry Christmas all. I got a lovely new camera which will let me take much better photos of biking for my blog. Here’s a few wee shots from my play session with it yesterday. Coffee anyone??

Run to the Hills

With the Molesworth out of the way its time for me to start concentrating on my hill climbing abilities, especially since the Moa Hunt has a great big 600m climb in it and its only 2 weeks away. Eeeep! I had a pretty much bike free week last week so by Friday I was ready for a decent ride. Luckily it was a holiday here in Christchurch for Show Day and we headed for Kennedy’s Bush. Feeling like I was probably fully recovered I decided to tackle the Crocodile at the start of the ride (instead of my usual trick of heading up the road). Not fully recovered. The first 6 switchbacks went really well and I felt like I was climbing nicely and faster than previous attempts. It was probably this false sense of wellness that did me in because 5 corners later I was lying on the side of the track gasping for air and trying not to vomit. A nice young man checked if I was ok and told me I was mad for going up this track. I agreed with him. Things were pretty suck for the rest of the Croc with light headedness after each switchback and many more rests. By the time I got to the top of this bit I was destroyed and seriously considering heading home. It was a lovely day though, and I was in great company, so after a bit more resting we all continued on.

While I wasn’t faster I did manage to keep going to the top of Kennedy’s (with a few rests) and then up to the top of Marley’s Hill for some lovely Flying Nun action. It is slightly disconcerting when you’re about to head down a track and there’s a big group of armoured up downhillers waiting to head down too. I felt a little underdressed. Flying Nun was brilliant as usual and I managed to clear more of it than last time. There’s only one section I can’t ride now and I just need to harden up and do it because I know it’s only psychological.
Despite my protesting legs we decided to head up to Vic Park, more hill – booo, so we could head down Seasame St and Dazzas, yeah!!! It felt really different with my xc tyres on, but still super fun and flowy. Then the boring ride back to Halswell. A lovely and tiring way to spend a holiday morning. Thanks to Pete, Greg and Liv for their patience.

I rested my legs for the weekend after the Friday mission and last night hubby and I went home via Rapaki. I decided it was time to attack Rapaki. Usually I just cruise up in my usual hill cruising mode and it takes around 42ish mins for me to get to the top. I decided that I was going to do it in under 40 last night. I really pushed myself and got to the top in 32.35, wahoo, a huge improvement. After a brief lie down, Pete headed up Mt Vernon and I decided to try and race him on the road. Amazingly I was able to keep pushing and thanks to a chain problem Pete had I managed to beat him. Yeah. After a refuel, some warmer clothes and some strange hair standing on end (literally) weather we took off along the Traverse in the rain. It was really nice and I wish I’d had my camera as the view was stunning. I attacked all the rocky sections, taking the most techy lines and got through them all with only 2 dabs, which is a first for me. Then I was in the trees at the end and heading down the dodgy Thompson shared use track, which has a couple of harrowing bits that aren’t really designed for bikes and tend to send you down the bank if you’re not careful. From there it was more climbing to get to the top of Kennedy’s and a fast blast home.
It was a hard ride and today I’m feeling completely shattered, but that’s obviously a good thing and after a couple of days rest it’ll be time to head up again on Thursday.

For those of you who thought I might have lost my mind and started running after reading the title to this post, nope, I’m off to Iron Maiden in February with my hubby and brothers-in-law. Should be interesting. To balance that out I’m going to Don Quixote by the Royal NZ Ballet Company on Wednesday (no shuttlez!). A friend from school is dancing the male lead, it will be very cool to see him dance and I can’t wait.

Skillz Practise

A bit of a change of pace today. Last night I went for a short ride up the Crocodile. Managed to get halfway up before I was lying on the side of the track panting and dying. Turns out I was a bit tired. My climbing up the tight turns was pretty good, my descent down the nasty rutty steep section was great and my return down the switchbacks was really good too, thanks Vegas. I have to say though, after the wide flowing trails of Rotorua, man, the track seemed narrow. I played the whole way home, jumping off gutters and practising pumping. Once home I decided to try doing wheelies on the back lawn. That didn’t go very well. And because of that my lovely husband and I headed over to Bottlelake to play in the skills area for a while today.
Things started off well with me riding the whole length of the easiest low skinny and heading up the see-saw for the first time. Things quickly went wrong from there. This see-saw took longer to tip than I expected and I didn’t have enough speed and did a fairly ungraceful dismount from my bike and the see-saw, unfortunately whacking my knee on the way down and getting myself a nice lump and bruise. This didn’t deter me and on my second attempt I was successful and got all the way across the see-saw. When my next attempt again ended with me jumping off the bike I decided it was time to start learning how to do wheelies. Pete was fantastic at showing me what to do, extremely patient and didn’t laugh too much at my pathetic attempts. After many many many goes I was getting my front wheel 5 or 6 inches off the ground regularly, I know, I’ll never be a styling trick rider at this rate. After that we moved onto skids. Weeeeee. That was fun. Soon I had my back wheel sliding back and forward across the “grass” and I was getting the hang of doing a big skid to come to a halt with my foot down. Nice.

A bit more playing on the skinnies and then Pete went off to practise jumping. He got pretty good at the table top by the end. I gave it a couple of goes, but on the hardtail it wasn’t really much fun. Instead I went for a very quick blast in the forest. I focussed on keeping my upper body low over the handlebars and I flew round. I also did a couple of very good hucks in the middle of the forest. It was fun. Back at the skills area I videoed Pete doing some more jumps and did a bit more skinnies riding, including the high one that Pete doesn’t like me riding, and we headed home before the weather turned nasty. It was a really fun wee ride and just what I needed after a lot of roadie riding during the week. I’ll be heading off on a long roadie ride tomorrow morning, my last big ride before the Molesworth Muster. I’m really looking forward to it and I’m looking forward to having a wee break from riding after it (only a couple of days).

Return to the Hills

It would be fair to say it’s been a decent amount of time since I last went for a ride up a hill. In fact it was back in July and it wasn’t very good. With that in mind I was pretty sure that this week’s return to Kennedy’s Bush was going to be “interesting”. I hadn’t planned going anywhere near the hills on Tuesday, but after making a deal with myself that I could have some of the extremely delicious (and healthy) Cyclops Chocolate Yoghurt if I did 2 hill repeats of the Kennedy’s Bush road I headed off. Hmmmmm. Things did not go well. Unfortunately much as I expected. My lovely road bike has 2 chain rings up front, meaning my choices for gears for hill climbing are somewhat limited. Even in the very lowest gear I’m still about 5 gears higher than I would be on my mountain bike. It was bloody hard from the word go. I quickly reassessed my goals for the ride and decided that if I could get past the stone wall ¾’s of the way to the second corner I would be happy and anything past that would be extra good. First attempt. Past the stone wall, and about 50m short of the first corner, no standing, but very sore legs and lungs. Second attempt. Crikey! Legs screaming right from the start but manage to make it to the end of the wall, but only just. So all in all, a little bit disappointing, but I still felt I’d earning my yoghurt.
The next day I rode my lovely full sus bike to work as it was heading in for a service at The Hub. They did a fantastic job on it, sorting out my rear derailleur issue and fixing my brakes. So after work Pete and I headed up Kennedy’s again. After the previous day’s effort I was keen to see how my legs would actually go on the MTB. Amazingly they went freaking brilliantly, yay legs. I got up the road in my fastest time ever and didn’t get down into the easiest gear once. The first time ever that’s happened. In fact once I hit the single track climb and then 4wd track up to the first down hill I still hadn’t got down that far and my legs were feeling really good. Fun blast down the little bit of single track, but I had a couple of guys right behind me which I found quite unnerving so not as flowing as I’d like, but it’ll come. Then back up. My legs were beginning to feel it, but it was still better than any other ride up here I’ve ever done. I didn’t quite make it to the top, Pete was freezing in the nasty easterly, so I turned round when he went past me going the other way, but I did get almost to the top and I felt really good. Back down was great. Brakes felt good and I was getting used to being back on my “real” bike. Back up my favourite bit of single track and my legs were working great. Down the techy single track by the 4wd climb and I was a nana. Sun in my eyes, track full of ruts and nasty (fun) wee drop offs (I’m sure Pete didn’t even notice them) and I was taking it easy. Fantastic fun though. Blasted down the last swoopy section and lifted my bike onto the cattle stop to head down the Croc for the first time. It was exciting. Lots of work has been done to smooth it out after winter, but it’s still rougher than I’ve ever ridden it before and the sun was in the worst possible place meaning in some place sI couldn’t see anything. After the first couple of switchbacks I remembered how to ride them and found my flow. I managed to avoid the first gapping chasm I came to and stay on the bike, but I had to walk round the second one. I couldn’t see the bottom and the hole was large enough to completely swallow a wheel. As usual I wussed out on the rocky bit. I’m going to have to bring my pads up one day and session it till I can get it. Bloody thing scares me silly. I was happy that I managed to ride all the switchbacks, including the 2nd to last one where the track has been narrowed significantly on the exit and it would be all too easy to head down the bank. The climb out of the valley is just silly hard at the moment and even pushing up wasn’t that easy.
It was a fantastic ride and made me feel a lot more confident about the Molesworth. Which is lucky as Pete and I have entered the Moa Beer Moa Hunt in Kekerengu, just north of Kaikoura on the 29th of November. The fantastic news about that is Pete won the early bird prize of a case of Moa Beer, a case of Allan Scott wine (mmmmmmm) and a free entry to the Rainbow Rage. The bad news is the profile for the race. Have I bitten off more than I can chew?