Kat's Race Reports

2011-08-09T15:33:00.000-07:00

Same old story with me, having lost fitness again after a few months off the bike I needed something to get me motivated again, after a Come and Try day out at DISC a couple of months ago I decided I wanted to get in to some Track riding and possibly racing, I headed out to Croydon Cycleworks a couple of weeks ago and checked out the Trek T1, within a week I was out at DISC doing a training session on it, decided I loved it and went out to DISC on the Tuesday night to get an hour in on the bike before the racing starts, another Sunday session, this time with another chick who had just started out and I was hooked, came out to DISC again last night to ride for an hour before the race started, didn't feel great at all, I think my legs were still suffering from the 3 hour session on the Sunday. I was heading off to the change rooms to get changed and watch the racing when a couple of the ladies I had met asked why I wasn't racing, I explained I was only new to it all and seriously unfit but somehow they convinced me to race, it really didn't take much, well I came up with every excuse but they had an answer for all of them, I figured I might as well have a go.

I waited around until 7.30pm and started my warm up with the others, my warm up hurt and I wasn't even up on the boards! Not a good start, I had just done 1hr of fairly steady riding so wasn't a great idea to be racing, also had no food with me and hadn't eaten well all day so was seriously unprepared, I had my number on though and I was committed to doing it so I just had to get out there and see what happens.

Now from those who have read my previous posts you will know I am fairly self conscious when I am racing, I think everyone is looking at me thinking 'look at that loser, she is so slow' etc. etc. when in reality nobody gives a shit at all, I tried to tell myself that before the first race but after I got dropped after the first or second lap I was totally embarrassed and very disappointed in myself for not being able to stay with the others, I just wanted to get the hell out of there, I pulled off and sat by the fence wallowing in my own sorrow when one of the guys came up and told me to just get out there, he pushed me off the fence and back in to the race, struggled to get back on to the bunch so went as hard as I could for the last couple of laps, as much as it hurt and as bad as I felt not being able to stay with the bunch I actually felt quite good about it all, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be and I actually enjoyed the pain for once! What!? Kat enjoying pain? I know very unlikely words from me but it is different to anything I have done before, road and mountain bike racing especially is very easy for me to slack off, pedals stop turning when I want them to and I can be lazy and stop for a breather if I choose, here I just couldn't, well I did attempt to give up in the first race but to no avail, the second and third races were interesting, the second race had 2 sprints in it so I knew I had no chance of hanging on at all, I went out this time without worrying about anything or anyone and just figured it was good training even if I did get dropped, on the start line they announced we were doing 10 laps, what? we only did 8 for the first race, I figured it would go down each race, wasn't to be, I got dropped very early on, hung back for a lap and attempted to get back on again but they just flew straight past me, I rode the rest of the race on my own, the last race was a 15 lap scratch race, we went from a group of 9 to just 5 and I felt a bit better about riding with the others and rolling turns so I stayed with them until I was nearly on front but the guy in front of me was just too fast when he was on the front so I got dropped here, stayed out there and went as hard as I could for the rest of the race, hurt a lot and sounded like I was having an asthma attack but I really enjoyed it so didn't care at all.

I am really happy I decided to get the bike and have a go, hopefully I can build my fitness up for the Summer XC season and hopefully finally get my first XC win.

Thanks to Croydon Cycleworks for their continued support and many thanks to everyone I spoke to out at DISC last night for encouraging me between races

Until next time, happy biking

Kat

Nemesis Marathon Avoca

2011-04-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

I travelled up to Avoca on Saturday afternoon to register and have a quick spin around the start and finish of the course, wasn’t feeling great on Saturday and just hoped I would come good by the morning. I awoke on Sunday morning to beautiful blue skies and sunshine and most importantly headache free.

I arrived at the course at 7.15am and had a chat to a few of the riders then decided I needed to go to the ladies before the start, I lined up at 7.45 and next thing I knew it was nearly 8am and I was still waiting to go when the announcer was calling for all riders to head to the start line, luckily I made it on time and before I knew it we were off and racing. My tactic early on was to get a good a lead on the girls I knew were in my race on the flat section of road before we hit the hill, that really really big hill I was dreading. I stayed in front of one of the girls in my race and then got passed by a female, as it was a mass start of all categories I had no idea if she was in my race or a longer distance, in any case there was no hope of me catching her on the hill so I had to let her go and just carry on at my pace.

After what seemed like an eternity I made it to the top of the hill, or so I thought, had a quick downhill section followed by more climbing! My legs we already feeling it and I hadn’t even made it to the half way mark yet, I struggled through the walking trail section of the course, as it turns out all of us had to walk it, apparently a bunch or horse riders had come through the day before and made a mess of the course, I was with 2 other riders at this stage and one was determined to keep trying to ride it but was going slower than us walking so we just kept walking until we got to the next section of fire trail and headed in to the feed station, now this race has the best feed station of any race I have competed in, it is all laid it out for you, doughnuts, slices, lollies, coke, water, hydration products and best of all, Oranges, ever since I did this race last year and had the oranges there I have made it part of my race nutrition, just seems to give you a really good boost, I downed a few oranges and had a little chat to the crew manning the station and suddenly remembered I was in fact in a race and I should probably get a move on, at this stage I had no idea where I was coming, only that I was still in front of my arch nemesis Megan, I saw a few riders heading up the hill and took off in front of them, after the feed station it is mainly downhill with some seriously steep climbs thrown in, my legs were just really flat at this stage and I didn’t think I would be able to maintain a good pace to keep my lead. I did what I could and managed to get through the seriously fast and sketchy downhill section unscathed and finally came across a sign telling me I only had 5k to go, I was so excited to see the sign until I saw the next sign, 4k to go, I seriously thought I had just pedalled 4klms and would only have 1 to go, not to be, the next 3klms went very slowly, or so it seemed and then finally the finish line was in sight, as a cruel twist they send you down between the grape vines along the grass and then up a slight incline before you cross the finish line, all the pain stops when you cross the line and all of that hard work is finally worth it, I was told I had come either 2^nd or 3^rd, I was pretty happy with that as I was hoping for a podium, I hung around for presentations and was pleasantly surprised to get top spot on the podium, I ended up winning my category by 47 minutes and just missed out on top 10 overall with 11^th overall, very happy to beat a whole bunch of guys and very happy with what is finally my first legitimate podium, nobody pulled out in order for me to win and I wasn’t the only female so I am happy to say I have finally actually won a race!

So where to from here? Well unfortunately my study is keeping me really busy so I have no big races planned but will be out and about at some of the enduro’s and club races and hopefully getting a good amount of training in for my goal race in November at the State XC Champs, next summer I hope to be competitive in the B Grade womens St Kilda crits and hopefully get in to some track racing at some stage this year.

If you haven’t raced this event before I suggest you give it a crack, it is regarded as one of the toughest marathons in Aus and for good reason, whether you do the short, middle or long distance you are in for a tough day in the saddle, it is run really well and the organisation cant be faulted, well all bar the toilet queue.

Once again I would like to thank my coach, I know he hasn’t been too happy with my training of late, uni seems to be getting in the way at the moment but I am doing as much as I can

Thanks to Croydon Cycleworks for their support, I will be dropping my bike off for some much needed love some time soon

Until next time, happy trails!

Kat

Lake Mountain Granite Grind

2011-02-27T16:32:00.000-08:00

Trek Superfly Elite 100, Gary Fisher Collection

I headed up to Lake Mountain on Saturday for the Granite Grind race, there was the option of 1,2 or 3 laps of a 10k course, I chose the 1 lap option, I figured after the Otway Odyssey last week I probably wouldn't be up to more than that. Now 10klms doesn't sound like much but on that course it is more than enough, well for me anyway. I had ridden some of the course before and it was pretty tough, mainly due to the amount of climbing, it doesn't go straight up as such but winds its way up the mountain, you get a nice little downhill section but its not long before you are climbing again.

The day didn't start off well, I was sick on Friday night after having eaten out, I was hoping I would be fine by the morning, when the alarm went off at 5am this was not the case, as soon I stood up I was going to be sick, I laid back down and felt ok while I was laying down but as soon as I moved I felt sick again, I managed to drag my butt out of bed and have some breakfast, didn't stay in for long though, I decided to go to the race anyway, luckily I had a chauffeur for the day so I was able to relax in the car on the way up, I couldn't stomach too much water and was probably already dehydrated so was not going to be a good day on the bike. I started to feel ok when I got out of the car and went and registered, as I started my warm up I spotted the Trek Demo bikes next to the Croydon Cycleworks tent, I asked to take a 29er for a spin, he organised the Gary Fisher Superfly 100, he then mentioned I could race on it, well it didn't take too much convincing and next thing I knew I was on the start line on top of a $7000 bike. I took off up the hill and it made its way over the loose gravel rocks on the first climb really well, I realised I didn't have granny gear like on my bike but luckily the gearing was pretty good on it so was not too much of a difference, on to the singletrack now and when I started hitting the rocks I was amazed at how easily it got over them, even at a slow speed, where I would usually come to a stop if I was on my bike, it just rolled over the top and easily back down the other side, not sure if I was just a little more confident being on that bike or if it really made that much difference but in any case it was certainly nice going over the rocks and I seemed to not have to stop and walk my bike over anything too technical, although there wasn't anything too technical about the course, sure there were plenty of rocks around but nothing like the more technical tracks at the You Yangs.

About half way in I was really feeling the heat and was very thirsty, it was pretty warm out there so I made sure I stopped to drink a lot, yes I had to stop, the bottle holder was really awkward and the suspension was in the way so I couldn't just reach down and grab my bottle. I made it to one of the last climbs before the finish line and was very pleased to be finishing, until the marshall sent me up towards the first climb we did at the start, I was devastated, as I pulled back up to the the car park I thought that was it for me and now I had to go and climb that bloody hill again we climbed at the start! As I was having a whinge to the next marshal as I started climbing he laughed and told me I was heading the wrong way and that I just had to hang a righty and I was a couple hundred metres from the finish, phew, just as well, I don't think my legs would have liked doing that one again. That was one tough hour and 40 minutes on the bike! I actually felt worse after this race than I did after the Otway Odyssey and that was 40klms longer, well 37k longer, the Granite Grind was advertised as being 10klms per lap but it was actually 13klms, so more bang for our buck I guess, although that's one value added extra I could have done without!

I managed to come away with a first place in my category, it would have meant more to me if my only other competitor had finished the lap but she pulled out so I still have to wait for a legitimate win, I was faster than a bunch of guys though so at least I wasn't last.

I did manage to learn another lesson in racing this race, don't change bikes on race day and probably not a good idea to race when you are crook, not that they are excuses for my performance on the day, I am sure if I was feeling 100% and had my own bike my times would not have been much different, as good as that bike was its just not a good idea to make drastic changes on race day, by this time next year I hope to knock off a fair chunk off that time.

Well that's all from me for a little while, I may do the Oceania Champs at Shepparton on the 18th of March, if I cant do that my next race wont be until the 17th of April, not due to lack of races being run but courtesy of my uni scheduling classes on the weekend, thanks PSC!

Until next time,

Happy biking

Kat

Otway Odyssey 2011

2011-02-19T19:19:00.000-08:00

Well this was the big one for me, I entered the 50k race for the 3rd year, all I really wanted was to finish it, when I not only finished it but I did so 2 and a half hours quicker than last year I was very surprised, I went in to the race treating it as a training ride, I knew I wouldn't be able to be competitive in it but I was hoping to do it in 5 hours, I thought 6 hours would be achievable so I made that my goal, after having had a long time out of training and only 9 weeks of my training program under my belt I was not confident of even finishing it but tried to remain positive and not put any pressure on myself.

I took off right at the back of the field of 500 riders and just cruised along with the bunch at the back, my legs were feeling great so I slowly started overtaking riders on the gradual 10k climb to the to top of the Red Carpet descent, by the time I made it to the top I had passed quite a few riders and had my sights set on a bunch of girls I was confident of overtaking on the descent, as we descended I passed a lot of girls and guys for that matter and was going along well until we all came to a complete stop in the middle of the Red Carpet track, all my hard work passing the riders was undone as we stood there motionless for what seemed like 20 minutes but was probably more like 10 between the time we stopped and started to get some flow happening again, with all the riders behind me I had just passed I knew I would be in for a tough time trying to stay in front as we hit the next climb again at the end of the descent, what a climb it was too, I got passed by a couple of the girls so tried my best to keep them in sight, I managed to pass them again when we got to a flat section and kept that lead for the rest of the race. I pulled in to Forrest at around the half way mark in under 2 hours, I had nearly half of the course to go and my legs were feeling great, I thought this might change as I hit the first climb but my legs were cooperating today and they stayed strong and I didn't lose any time on the 2 girls in front of me, I stayed with them for about 10klms and managed to pass one with the aim of passing the other, at the 40k mark I was getting very hungry, I saw the girl in front stop for food and knew I would have to stop soon too as I had staved the hunger flat away for as long as I could, I stopped to down a gel and half an orange, just as I did she came rolling past along with another female so the chase was on again, I managed to pass one of them but didn't see the other girl again.

I made my way through some very sweet singletrack and with the memory of the race still very clear in my head from last year I was very surprised I was as close to the finish as I was, my memories from last year were not good ones at all, I liken it to childbirth, not that I have had this experience but from all accounts of friends that have given birth I believe I can compare it to that, maybe a little dramatic but you get the idea, it was tough, last year was a 7 hour slog for me and the last 10klms especially was very difficult, this year the rain made the loose soil on the last section nice and firm and grippy and much easier to pedal along than the hot and dry conditions of last year, I figured I still had about 7 klms to go when i pulled out to a marshal point, I was pleasantly surprised when he told me I only had 3 to go, well the legs went in to overdrive and I sprinted for as long as I could, which was when I managed suffer a serious case of chain suck and there was no way that sucker was coming out! I was 1klm from the finish so resigned myself to the fact I would be walking across the finish line, as I got to the last descent I figured I might as well roll down on my bike, as I clipped in my chain popped out and I could pedal the last section to the finish line, luckily I didn't get passed, just lost a couple of minutes. I came through in 4 hours 30 minutes, that's 2.5 hours quicker than last year and over an hour quicker than my first year, so a PB for me, now I just have to beat my time again next year.

Each year I have done the Otway Odyssey the course has been changed, this years course was by far the best, a good amount of climbing and a nice chunk of singletrack made for a very enjoyable race, I will definitely be back next year and much better prepared than this year with the vision of being towards the pointy end of the open womens category.

Vital stats

603 entrants
512 finishers
455 final placing overall
42nd out of 65 females that completed the race
One bruised knee
and one very big grin at the end!

I know now there was more I could have done but I also know that I didn't know that at the time, I will put that in the memory bank and I can only improve on things as I learn from experience.

Great race, great location, great weekend spent with great friends, just bloody great!

So another Otway Odyssey done and dusted, I am already looking forward to the next one, which is a nice change, as if you had of asked me straight after the last 2 if I would be back my answer would have been 'probably not'

Congrats to all that completed it or attempted it, its one hell of a race, I cant wait until I am fit enough to attempt the 100 for ultimate bragging rights!

Many thanks to my coach Damian Mason and FTP Training, I can see the benefits of the hard work paying off now, I was wondering whether it was all worth it for a while there but now I see the results I have motivation to keep up with it, after 9 weeks on the program if he can get me through a 50k Otway Odyssey in half decent shape then I cant wait to see what the next 9 weeks brings, next goal is the Nemesis Marathon Challenge on April 17th, want a podium in this one, the countdown begins........................

Thanks as always to Croydon Cycleworks for their continued support

Until next time, Happy Trails!

Kat

Critters

2011-01-30T00:28:00.000-08:00

I am now at the end of my 7th week of my training program, had a bad week this week in regards to motivation, I decided to head out to the GMBC crits at the You Yangs on Friday night, was fairly happy with my effort, I stayed with the 2 girls in the group I wanted to but got dropped on the first climb (which was hardly a climb more of a gentle incline) still mananged to finish only a minute behind them after the 3 laps of the course, was a lot of fun and great for my confidence.

This morning I dragged my butt out of bed at 5am for the Latte Laps (skills session) held by Rob Crowe together with SKCC, after the skills session I raced in the E Grade crit, with a field of about 40 riders I was especially nervous with all the novice riders around me, also not having had much experience in bunches like that so stayed right at the back of the group and managed to hang on for the first 10 minutes, then they decided to up the pace a bit, we were sitting on 30kph as it was then it got amped up to 35kph, this proved too much for me, one of the Specialized riders was helping me along by getting me to sit on his wheel around the corners but I had too much ground to cover to try and catch the riders on the straights, I ended up getting dropped and cruised around for a lap until they came around again, I stayed on for a few more laps but got dropped again so decided to do the laps of shame and ride along on my own and finish the crit rather than pulling out, afterwards when I caught up with Nursey who had come along to watch I mentioned I should have just ridden past the finish line really fast each lap where everyone was watching so it looked like I was the lead breakway, probably wouldnt have worked but I am sure a few people would have been really confused by it.

I will do another couple of crits before the season finsihes and hopefully hang on for the entire race next time, apparently it was so much faster than normal today due to the larger number of riders, will keep you posted

Next week is a recovery week for me, still plenty of riding but shorter and less intense, only 3 weeks until Otway Odyssey, getting nervous now, I hope what I have done these past 7 weeks is enough to get me through

Quote for the day

You know what makes a good loser? Practice!
Ernest Hemingway

Until next time happy biking!

Kat

Training Update

2011-01-04T17:44:00.000-08:00

Well the promised report on the XC race at Beaconsfield didn't happen due to not racing, no the track wasn't washed out due to the rain, a fire didn't go through the day before, I just decided not to race, I rode the course the day before and realised how out of shape I am and figured it would be bad for the confidence to race in that state, so the next planned race is the Enduro at Beaconsfield on the 22nd of Jan, a lot more relaxed than the XC races there and I can just treat it as a training ride.

As for the training, I am on to week 4 of my program, week 4 is a recovery week for me, this doesn't mean I don't ride at all, still 6 days worth of riding just lower intensity than last weeks training, the first 3 weeks has gone really well, I have only missed 2 days and that was due to enjoying the festive season a little too much, now that I am back at work and in to a normal routine again I will get back on track with it all. I must say I am really enjoying my riding at the moment, I had serious motivation issues and really struggled with knowing how unfit I was and how much work I had ahead of me to get it back, my coach is telling me it will come quicker than I think and to keep at it, well I hope so, the Otway Odyssey is only 45 sleeps & 36 training rides away, with an average ride of 50klms that means I will have about 1800klms under my belt or knicks for that matter, surely that will be enough to get me through the race, right? I bloody hope so, I rode the first 20 odd klms of the course the other day and I could barely pedal my sorry butt back up the hill back to the car (which you could hardly call a hill anyway) so it might be a $95 Red Carpet run for me come the 19th of Feb.

Quote for today

It never gets easier, you just go faster.
Greg LeMond

Until next time happy trails!

Kat

Another boring update

2010-12-07T20:26:00.001-08:00

Not much has been happening and nothing exciting to report as I have not been racing but I am working on it and will report on the XC race at Beaconsfield on the 19th of December. In the meantime here is a little update on what I have been doing the last few months, well I have been riding a lot, well a lot compared to what I was riding, have completed my studies for the year and now have a couple of months to concentrate on training for the Otway Odyssey. I was struggling with my training and lacking some motivation and direction so I enlisted the help of Fenner's Total Performance Training http://www.ftptraining.com/ I met mark Mark Fenner a couple of years back and had a good chat to him over a burger when he was in Richmond giving a talk at the Specialized store, he really knows his stuff and finally now I have made the move to have a training program set up for me. So I have an initial 12 week training program now which will see me though to the Otway Odyssey, it is mainly working on building my base fitness again after so long out of structured training and set me up for the next year and the 11/12 XC Season. I am actually looking forward to starting the program next week and hopefully now I will start seeing some improvement in my fitness and strength and will give me more motivation to keep up with it. It will be a pretty full on 3 months for me but will be well worth it.

Until next time happy trails!

Kat

Update

2010-10-12T19:53:00.000-07:00

Gee its been that long since I have posted something on here I didn't know what to do, well you will be seeing more of me in the coming months, I will be racing the Vic State XC series, some marathon races (well half for me) and will make an appearance at the dirt crits hopefully on a regular basis. Will keep you posted on my results as I get out to the races, not feeling too fit at the moment but have amped up the training and should be feeling ready for the XC season come November/December.

2010 MTBA Nemesis Marathon Champs

2010-04-18T03:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday didn't get off to a great start for me, I was headed for my destination of Avoca and somehow managed to miss my turn off for the Sunraysia Hwy, I finally twigged when I was 25klms out of Ararat that something was amiss, I called my personal navman (my father) who gave me some directions to get there without having to go to Ararat or all the way back to Ballarat, some 66klms away from where I was. Luckily it was the day before the race and not the morning of. I met up with my cycling buddy Sandy in town and after we had registered we headed out to check out the course, lucky we did as there were no signs on how to get out to the race start and we managed to get off course before finally finding race central, it was good to get that sorted rather than at 7am on the morning of the race. We were then off to our next destination, The Avoca Golf Club for our dinner along with 100 other keen mountain bikers, some fun and games were had and our team managed to come 3rd in the quiz, that was about all the fun I could handle for one night so I called it a night and headed back to my motel, which was quite unique to say the least, wont get in to details but for someone that hates spiders it was not the best choice, I have seen less spiders in a garden shed than my room there.

So, it's 8am on race day and I head out to watch the start of the womens 90k race followed by the mens start half an hour later, I had about half an hour before the start of my race so I tried to relax and keep hydrating. 9.15am and its my turn to line up for the 33k race. We headed off for 5klms of dirt road followed by one massive hill, 8klms worth of hurt followed by a short downhill and many more klms of hurt, I finally made it to the first and only feed zone for my race and scoffed down a couple of cut oranges and filled up one of my water bottles, one of the girls on my race had stopped as well, we had been battling it out most of the race along with another girl, I saw her taking off so I jumped on my bike and headed off down the first series of descents in front of her, it wasn't long before I started coming up to some descents with caution signs, I obviously didn't take heed of this and approached the first water bar way too fast, going over the top I knew things were about to go bad, I hit the brakes way too hard and would have probably been better off continuing at speed as slowing down proved the wrong decision and I ended up taking a spill, strangely the only thing that was hurt was my ego, I took off again still in front of my main opponent and about 1k down the road I went to have a drink and realised my bottle wasn't there, lucky I had a smaller bottle with some water left in it, with only 10klms to go so I was hoping I would get through ok, the next 6klms were a bit up and down, there were a couple very steep climbs and my opponent managed to pass me, I thought she was long gone and then I caught sight of her up ahead, I was sure I was only about 1k from the finish line so I gave everything I had to catch her and pass her, then only a few seconds later I saw a sign with 4klms to go on it, and around the corner another bloody hill! Arghh, I had had enough and just wanted to get off my bike, I had the opportunity to do this when a short climb I would normally get up quite easily proved too much for me and I just had to walk, so was everyone else so I knew we were all in the same boat which made me feel a bit better about walking it. Finally I made it to the 32k mark, only 1k to go and no girls in sight in front or behind me, I had a surge of energy and being on flat ground I was able to pedal along pretty quickly, I spotted the finish line and in a cruel twist the organisers then send you 500 metres in the opposite direction through the grapevines on grass and finally through the finish line where the race caller had mistaken me for a world champion, my number had fallen off and I guess he thought one of the elite women from the 90k race had come through in really good time, so it was nice reception anyway for 33k rider that had just finished 1 hour after the winner of my category.

My old arch rival from the State XC series ended up beating me by 14minutes, I had passed her early on in the race but she was too strong for me on the climbs. So overall I was pretty happy with my result, I was worried about the race after my poor effort in the Otway Odyssey and I have still not spent much time on the bike so I knew I would be out there for a long time, my estimate was 4hours which almost was a hopeful 4 hours, I really thought it would take me longer, to my surprise I got through it in just over three and a half hours and 11th out of 15 female competitors and beat 12 men, which, considering I have barely done any riding over the last 12 months I was pretty happy with that, a bit sad that someone would be happy taking 3 1/2 hours to ride 33klms but I was and I was happy to get through mostly unscathed, the descents were very fast with lots of loose rocks and dirt to make it pretty tricky to hold your line, the race definitely kept you on your toes or pedals for that matter, it was well deserving of being a National Championship and the winners deserve every cent of their $1000 prize money, the eventual winner of the mens 90k race was Ben Mather with a time of 4 hours 40 minutes and Heather Logie in the womens coming in 5 hours and 53 minutes after leaving the start line. Croydon Cyleworks riders Tim Ferres finished 16th and Jason Halls 26th

I have left my very stressful full time job and I am now working 2 part time jobs, both of which are mostly stress free for me which is making a huge difference to everything, my uni work is under control and I am finally starting to do some training rides and getting motivated to do a lot more racing this year.

Until next time, happy biking!

Kat

Otway Odyssey 2010

2010-02-20T21:51:00.000-08:00

I travelled up to Apollo Bay on the Tuesday before the race to have a few days of rest and relaxation, after being lucky enough to travel around this beautiful country of ours I would have to say the Apollo Bay is one of the best places in all of Aus, the beach is absolutely immaculate, as you walk in to the ocean you are surrounded by sea life, fish, crabs, shrimp, birds, seals and the odd sting ray, perhaps not what everyone would want to come across but it was pretty amazing, there are 3 resident sting rays I am told that live at the marina there, Stumpy (my creative name for this fella) my favourite has his stinger missing, the other has half its stinger missing and the other has a very large one still attached, you can sort of see him in the photo below, it doesn't do it justice though, the sting ray is about 3 or 4 feet wide, I am not good with measurements but it was big. I have attached a few happy snaps from the trip below. Enjoy

12 Apostles at Sunset

Warrnambool

Inquisitive Seagul

Well I finished, in a time of 7 hours and 50 seconds, unfortunately that was my time for the 50klm race and not the 100klm leg, the day started off with me having had little sleep the night before, a fairly lateish night, 10pm, which for the night before a race when you have to get up at 5am is not ideal at all, then kept waking throughout the night and eventually fell in to a deep sleep just as my alarm went off, got up had a shower etc. and headed off to from Apollo Bay to Forrest, the line of cars waiting to park was ridiculous, a $3 parking fee was also a bit excessive, I know I know its only $3 but honestly, after paying nearly $100 to race I think the parking could have been free, so anyway, parked the car and started getting ready, went to put my glasses on and I have only one arm attached to the lenses, the screw had fallen out of the arm, I wonder if this counts as a mechanical and justification of pulling even before the race start? No, probably not so I head off for a much needed pit stop, after possibly hydrating a bit too much on the way there, line up right at the back of 500 riders and take off just after 8am.

Steady ride along the coast, what a view, the ocean that is

Hydrating and relaxing before the race

Hot and bothered after the race

Much happier an hour or so later, Sandy, 3 Andrew's, me and Kuba

We head off up a dirt road which is a gentle climb for maybe 1klm, this takes us to the series of "walls" as one rider has described them, I don't know how many of these "walls" I came across but there were many, some feeling like I was about to climb the side of the Eureka tower, well that's a bit of an exaggeration but at the time they just seemed to never end, once you made your way though the climbs it was on to some very fast fire road descents, I was able to pass a few of the girls ahead of me that had passed me on the climbs and I knew that mostly the rest ahead of me was mainly downhill so I tried to keep a lead on them, on to some sweet single track for the first time, what a nice ride after all the fire road climbing, here again I passed a few riders and was feeling pretty good knowing I was nearing the end of the first 25klms, as I pulled out on the dirt road to head back to the Footy ground I was feeling surprisingly good, I

had planned on doing the first half in about 3 hours and estimated the second half would take about 2-2&1/2 hours, I filled up my 2 bottles at the only water stop for the race on my way through the footy ground, I had already gone through two 800ml bottles of water, 2 gels, and 1 apricot bar, I didn't feel like eating but was feeling flat so scoffed one on the way to the footy ground, so anyway I filled up my water bottles had a few big gulps then filled them up some more, downed another gel and I was off on the 2nd half of the race, I felt good until I hit the first hill and my legs were really feeling it, I kept at it and made it to the first single track section, this set me off along with the 100klm riders, annoying for them and annoying for me as I was stopping to let them pass, this went on for a while, after one more shared section it was back to the 50klm only track, I had gone for about 10klms thinking I was about more than half way through when I started to run out of water, I was down to about 200 mils and came across a marshal, he said I still had at least 15 klms to go and that he had no water, I came across

another marshal with about 12 klms to go and they too had no water, at this stage I was nearly out of water, along with the other riders around me, we figured there would be another checkpoint nearby and we could ask them for water hoping they would have some there, well that checkpoint didn't come for another 10klms, they did have water but at this stage it was too late, the last 2klms was just a downhill dirt road and then down hill to finish line, took all of 5 minutes to get there and no need for water, well there was to try and rehydrate but it was too late to be of any help.

The temp apparently got up to 34 degrees, it was also pretty humid which contributed to the heat exhaustion and dehydration I was feeling, I had to stop for a while and take my helmet and gloves off, this didn't do much so I parked myself under the shade and behind a tree and took my jersey off, there was a slight cool breeze coming through, I sat here for ages and not another rider came past, I was worried I was on the wrong track, but as I was way behind the majority of the field there weren't many riders behind me and judging by the times of the riders coming through after me they had a big struggle too, 8 hours 27 minutes was the time of the last 50k rider that finished.

I cant say if I will or wont do the race again next year, I think the course was great and a big improvement on last years course, if I was to do it again it will only be if my fitness has greatly improved, between my studies and work this year I don't think I can put the effort in to it to be able to do it in a decent time, I think for now I will stick to XC racing and the odd enduro and take it from there.

So after a very nice, stress free 6 days in Apollo Bay I am back in Melbourne, back to work all day tomorrow and uni tomorrow night, bills, assignments, dirty beaches, annoying traffic and noisy trucks on my doorstep, why do I live here? To pay the bills and be able to get my assignments done, perhaps when uni is finished I could be living in a place like Apollo Bay.......... I can only dream, well until those bloody noisy trucks wake me up!

Until next time, happy biking

Stay safe

Kat

Chris Eatough training plans

2010-01-27T15:58:00.000-08:00

For any of you out there after a training plan, whether it be for your preparation for the Scott, Mont or Kona 24 hour races, the State or National XC series, Enduro's or Marathon racing then check out Chris Eatough's website, he has 12 week training plans for each of these, well at this stage he is still in the process of getting the XC and 24 hour training plans up but they should be up soon.

Check out his site, just click on the link to the right

New Years Day Otway Odyssey training ride

2010-01-01T13:12:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all!

I managed to head out to Forrest yesterday to check out the first half of the 50klm race, whoa, all I can say is it will be tougher than last year for sure, this year we start off in Forrest and finish in Forrest as opposed to last years race where we started in Apollo Bay and finished in Forrest, last year we made our way up Wild Dog Rd which is a sealed road and although it was a steep climb being on bitumen I didn't find it too hard, the next climbs were all on fire road and some on grass which made it fairly difficult, I struggled with the climbs last year and I vowed not to do the race again as there was only about 10klms of singletrack in it and the first 40klms was all hills, this year the climb starts off on a dirt road but that doesn't go for too long before you start the steep fire trail climbs, this year is more appealing due to the amount of singletrack they have included in the race, the climbs however are not that appealing for me especially now that I have pre ridden the course.

Forrest had received a lot of rain overnight and it didn't stop raining the whole time we were riding so the ground was fairy wet and my tyres we clogged up with wet clay and mud for the majority of the ride, it is actually really pretty out there so even though the climbs were not enjoyable the surroundings were so that made the ride a little less painful, just like last year the first 25klm will sort out the fitter and stronger riders from the weekend warriors and underprepared riders (like me), I think I will probably be out on the track for about 5 hours at least so again the 100klm winner will finish before me.

Here are a couple of photos of me and my bike from yesterdays ride, this is the most mud my Trek has seen since I bought it over a year ago.

Thats all from me today, I am off to do some serious training, the way I was yesterday I need to train all day every day between now and the race just to be able to make it up those hills!

Stay safe

Kat

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T17:58:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas from Kat and Cat

Otway Odyssey Training Ride

2009-11-07T00:41:00.001-08:00

Things have been pretty quiet for me on the riding/racing front the last 10 months, today was my first proper MTB ride in a while, started with Andrew and I heading off from Port Melbourne at 7.45am en-route to the wonderful trails that behold the Forrest Mountain Bike Park, we arrived there at 10.30am after a couple of pit stops along the way, we met up with a few others and headed off on the to the trails at about 11am, it was smiles all round for the first section of the ride which included Marriners run and Foxtail, it became a struggle for me as soon as the climbing started, not that it overly steep out there but I wasn't handling the climbs too well, it has been a while since I have ridden my mountain bike, apart from the odd thrash around Lysterfield I haven't done much at all on it this year and add at least high 20's temperature in to the mix and I was struggling very early on.

So after all the fun was over it was on to the Yo Yo track, one of my least favourite tracks from today, so we are riding along and have nearly made it to the end of the track when before I knew it I was on the ground, my helmet broken and almost off my head and in a world of pain, I don't know what happened it was fast flat section and I didn't hit the brakes or a tree for that matter and I wasn't going around a corner, just a straight stretch of track and bam I was out, I hit my head pretty hard and immediately got a headache either from hitting my head or knocking the wind out of me, I think luckily my ample rear copped the brunt of the fall first cushioning the blow for the rest of my body, so it is 7 hours later and I am feeling very sore and sorry for myself (nobody else will) I have a ripper bruise on my butt already, some skin off my elbow, hip and back and some bumps and bruises all over. All up not a bad end to the day.

So we headed back to the car park, I assumed it was just around the corner so I called out that I would lead the way, also because I wasn't feeling good at all after the hit to the head so I figured it was better I wasn't at the back of the group, riding, riding, riding, no sign of the car park so I figured it wouldn't be much further, went around a corner and came up to a log, one that I knew I wouldn't get over, tried anyway and crashed again in front of everyone, that one hurt a bit too but couldn't show it in front of the others, so I cruised back at a snails pace to the car park and told the guys to head off to the Southern Loop without me and I would do some road riding on my own, I rode back in to town with the others and then headed back to the rail trail for a cruise along there, then headed back to Yaugher car park for some food and top up my water then off along the dirt roads alongside the tracks there, I didn't want to risk riding singletrack on my own, not only in case I had another fall but in case I came across any snakes I may not be able to get away from, anyway about 1klm in to my ride and I was thinking about snakes at the time when all of a sudden a snake took off in front of me, I was looking out for them but this one was in the shade, I couldn't see it until it moved, and good thing it did, I would have ridden straight over the top of it, I locked on the brakes and came to skidding stop about 6 feet from it, it was clearly a tiger snake and it sounds silly and maybe it was the aforementioned knock to the head but it looked like a happy snake, it sort of looked at me as it slithered off but didn't flatten itself out and look angry like the majority of snakes I have some across on my rides, perhaps it was lulling me in to a false sense of security so I would keep riding past it and then get me on the way, yep I am strange one I know but these are the thought I have when I am riding on my own, clearly not rational thinking, I didn't get sucked in to whatever it had in store for me so I headed back to the car to call it a day, it was only about half an hour before the guys got back and I heard some stories of the carnage on their ride, packed up and headed for home.

So that was my day today, doubt I will be making it out on the roadie tomorrow but will probably make it out for a paddle down the beach.

So the countdown is on now, I have 14 days to lose 7 kilos and get fit enough for my comeback race at first round of the state xc in Bendigo. Can I do it? well unless I can lose half a kilo a day and ride consistently then no I wont, I am coming in to the last month of my semester at uni and have a heap of work due so my focus has to be on that for now.

14 more sleeps until I get to see my favourite band Pearl Jam play!

Until next time, Happy Biking!

Kat

Completely off the track

2009-07-17T15:35:00.000-07:00

Some of you may or may not know that I am a huge animal lover and as all decent people are. I am totally against cruelty to animals, something was brought to my attention on a recent photography job at the RSPCA in east Burwood, as we had unlimited access to the site and staff there we were able see the true extent of this cruelty and negligent behaviour by despicable human beings. I wont go in to great detail of what I saw and found out from the staff there but let me tell you both myself and my colleague there struggled not to get emotional but to no avail, since then I have been scouring the net to educate myself further on this matter, there is not a lot we can do but we can make other people aware of what is going on and how to prevent it, I am not one force my opinions and thoughts on to others so you can take this or leave it as you wish, I have attached a link to a website that has a petition you can sign, they need 10,000 signatures and are a long way off it so every one counts, these are my thoughts as signed in the petition.

On a recent trip to my local pet store in South Melbourne I asked the shop assistant why there are never any puppies and kittens there to pat which she advised me that they don't sell them due to fact it promotes 'backyard breeders' , I was a bit naive to this and think it was a huge issue but after a chat with her then a recent assignment at the RSPCA in East Burwood I am more aware of this and totally against this sort of promotion by pet shops and refuse to buy my pet food from pet shops that promote this practice, I now buy all my pet food from pet supplies stores or supermarkets vets etc. as opposed to pet shops like Pets Paradise. All of my animals have been purchased from pounds, my Boxer I rescued was sadly put to rest last year but was given a life he otherwise wouldn't have had, he had external tumors (non cancerous) so they palmed him off to the pound as he was not suitable for breeding or showing and they couldn't sell him for a large amount of money, please put measures in place to ensure the oversupply and euthanasia of healthy pets is greatly reduced, animal owners need to responsible and dedicated to their pets as they would be to a family member, laws need to be put in place to stop the mass production of of puppies and kittens on sold to pet shops etc. that essentially end up in rescue organisations and inadvertently disposed of , it is a privilege and not a luxury to own a pet that should have significant laws put in place to adhere to to provide a duty of care to these innocent animals. STOP THE CARELESSNESS OF THESE NEGLECTFUL BREEDERS PROFITING FROM THIS EXORBITANT AND UNNECESSARY PRACTICE.

I am not asking you to sign anything or do anything for that matter, if I make a few more people take notice of this then that's a good thing.

Quite simply over 250,000 animals are put to sleep every year for no good reason, there are backyard breeders, puppy farms etc. out there mistreating their animals with no idea of good animal management and profiting from the suffering of the animals they are breeding from, the pets have the litter, the litter is taken from the mother and the litter is sold for a tidy profit to the pet shop, then the whole cycle starts again, the dogs are sold to irresponsible owners who give up on the pets when it's time to go on holidays or they cant be bothered to clean up after them or take them for walks so the become disobedient and palmed off to the shelter to be someone else's problem which in actual fact the truth is they usually are not re-homed and put to sleep.

I have no doubt there are passionate registered breeders out there breeding animals for the love it and doing the best they can to find suitable homes for the offspring of well bred and well looked after animals, what we can do to stop some of the promotion of the puppy farms and backyard breeders is to stop buying animals from commercial pet stores, only buy from trusted registered breeders (for those of you after pure breeds) but most importantly check out your local animal shelters and save an animal from an imminent and unnecessary death, I did and had a wonderful 7 years with a beautiful pure bred Boxer

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope I have made you aware of something that I find to be a major problem in society and a worthy cause to support and make others aware of.

If you wish to sign the petition it can be found on the link below

http://www.deathrowpets.net/default.html

"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your pet.

You are his life, his love, his leader.

He will be yours faithful and true to the last beat of his heart

You owe it him to be worthy of such devotion"

Tightest Gluteus Maximus this side of Port Melbourne!

2009-06-03T04:14:00.000-07:00

So the results are in, MRI is clear, all is good with the cartilage and knee itself, Doc has put it down to extremely tight glutes and hip flexors, so off to get some serious work done by the physio now to try and release the tightness and going to try some dry needling, best news is I am allowed to ride but in conjunction with the regular visits to the physio and some cross training so I am not just riding all the time, I have had a few rides now since I found out a coupe of weeks ago that I am allowed to ride and it's great to be back on the bike, I will look at doing the Rock Hop on the 21st of June but only as a cruisy ride as I am wont be right to do much more than that, so the plan is the same as last year when I wanted to complete at least the State XC series as well as a few rounds of the nationals so I am going to work hard to get fit for that but with pretty much 5 months off the bike I have a lot of work to do, I cant believe 5 months has passed and I have only got it sorted now, that's what happens when life gets in the way, I am at the pointy end of the semester at uni so I get a month off soon which will be great, also all the travel with work will finally come to a stop come 1st of July so I am looking forward to that too, I think I have had enough of Echuca for this year at least.

So that's all from me, looking forward to lining up on the start line again, actually I just recalled one of the CTS rounds at Lysty where it felt like it was about minus 14 degrees so perhaps not looking forward to that.

Until next time Happy Biking

Kat

Back on the Bike

2009-05-22T17:34:00.000-07:00

I finally got in to see the Doc at Melbourne Olympic Park and I finally have a fair idea of what's wrong with my knee, so after my dodgy Dr I have been seeing for the last few months gave me the advice to just take anti inflammatories and ride as much as I like I realised I needed to see a 'proper' Dr and with work being so busy and uni on top of it I was struggling to find the time to see him, as these 'proper' Dr's only work Monday to Friday so anyway went and saw Will Craddock who very thoroughly diagnosed me, well almost a final diagnosis, I have to go and get an MRI next Saturday to make sure there is no Cartilage damage, if there is no damage or loss of cartilage it looks like what I already knew was that I have extremely tight glutes so the Doc's first thoughts when he saw or felt how tight they are was that it is referred pain from my glutes and or hip felxors, so I will get the results from the MRI and either way I will still be able to ride but I have to manage my body a lot better than I do now, and start with stretching and rolling, massage etc. so if I wasn't already a poor enough uni student I am even more so now, the money I was planning on putting towards a new camera will now go on Dr's and Physio bills for the next few months but it will get me back to full training and the plan of racing the Nationals this year, so I am off for a cruise down Beach Road with Andrew Liu and see how that goes.

Update on knee

2009-03-31T03:04:00.000-07:00

Well the diagnosis is in, I have fluid in the suprapatella bursa, for those of you who are not in the know it is the top part of the knee, anyway from what I always thought is that bursa's contained fluid naturally but apparently not, or perhaps just not the fluid I have in mine, so in short I have to spend time off the bike and see a pricey Dr at Melbourne Olympic Park who specialises in these sorts of injuries, hopefully will have a better update once I have been to see him. That shiny new Trek of mine is gathering dust in the spare room and the food intake has not changed from when I was training so dont be surprised if I am not back out on the race track some time soon but keep your eyes peeled on the Biggest Loser to see if I am a suprise intruder giving Sam and Cam a run for thier money.

Until next Happy Biking!

If I eat equal amounts of dark chocolate and white chocolate, is that a balanced diet?

Kat

Anaconda Otway Odyssey

2009-03-31T00:27:00.000-07:00

After nearly 2 months off the bike I lined up for what was to 49.9klms of pain, the first 100 metres was pretty easy going but it was all uphill from there, well for the most part anyway, it was about a 4klm ride from the start line to the start of the hill on Wild Dog road followed by about 40 klms of hills, the last few klms before the finish line was downhill. I left the start line thinking I would be happy if I could just make it to the top of the hill, when I had made it there I was thinking I would be happy if I could just make it to the 20klm mark, then once I had made it there it was the next checkpoint and so on and so on, so anyway I did managed to make it the whole 50klms and crossed the finish line in 5hours 48minutes, 1 hour and 18 minutes after Chris Jongewaard finished the 100klm race, oh well the knee held up for it, started hurting at the 40 klm mark but was pretty much down hill for a lot of the last 10 klms, I enjoyed the race in that I didn't go there with the intention of racing, all I wanted to do was finish the race, I went at a fairly relaxed pace (obviously looking at my results) and chatted to the few stragglers that were at the back of the field along with me, plenty of climbing resulting in a walking race to the top, although if I wasn't so worried about my knee I would have ridden a lot more than I did, the descents were fast and furious, with a few close calls on a couple of them, not too sure how fast I was going but I definitely wasn't holding back on the descents and can only assume I was going well over 50 klms an hour which wouldn't be pretty coming off at that speed, I heard that one descent in particular claimed 5 collarbones! Plenty of carnage along the way and one crazy dude Andrew and I had seen on the Friday night riding back from Registration at Forrest to Apollo Bay (I can only assume he rode there in the first place too) his bike was an old heavy metal thing chock full with panier rack and saddle bags, when we saw him on the way to Forrest he was stopped on the side of the road about 20 klms out of Apollo Bay then on the way back he was stoped in Apollo Bay, he definitely didnt look like he was doing it easy, anyway the last thought on our minds was that he would be a competitor the next day, turns out he was, heavy bike in tow and still complete with saddle bags! He had a 100klm plate on but I saw him before the 30klm mark and he was not in a good way, other riders had stopped to help but he wouldnt talk to them, anyway I can only assume his race ended prematurely, congrats to him if he did actually finish the 100.

So all up it was an interesting weekend indeed, with a house full of 7 and a wedding proposal thrown in to the mix, James McArdle proposed to his beautiful bride to be Sharon Marston at the finish line of the 100klm race, Sandy finished a very respectable 15th place in the womens out of 49 and 318th out of over 800 riders more than 750 of them being male, Andrew Liu and Andrew Nurse both finished in the top quarted of the field in the 50klm race.

If you asked me if I would do it again I would probably say no, if I can this knee sorted and things back on track I will have a crack at the 100 next year but otherwise I wont be riding the 50k race again, the new Trek bike handled beautifully with no mechanicals to mention.

Until next time happy biking!

Kat

VSS XC Rd3 Forrest

2009-01-17T12:43:00.000-08:00

Well my first DNS for me, woke up this morning at 6am and after nearly a month off the bike with another niggling knee problem I decided that it wasnt worth risking further damage to my knee, so more painfull than the physical pain in my knee was the decision not to go to the race today but it is more important to get my knee sorted especially with Otway Odyssey coming up and a big training ride for that coming up in 2 weeks, so I will do a light ride from my place in Port Melbourne now to the SKCC Crits down the road, what better way to cheer a girl up than watching 60 male A grade cyclists getting all hot and sweaty!

VSS XC Round 2 @ Beaconsfield

2008-12-21T14:30:00.001-08:00

Day started ok, got out there early today to make sure I was properly prepared for the race, all was well, tyres pumped up, chain lubed, had all my gear, made my way down to the start to warm up the legs a bit before the race and just rolled around the first section of the track, chatted to the usual suspects and had my usual nervous toilet breaks before the race.

It was about 5 minutes to the start of the race and I realised I hadn't checked out how many laps we had to do in our sports class, just figured it would be 2 as I rode the track the day before and knew 3 laps would be way too much. So we are discussing it on the start line and Megan tells me it is in fact 3 laps, so I am not too happy with this as it is a XC race and I can expect to race pretty hard for 1 -1 & 1/2 hours maximum but knowing it would be easily 45 minute laps for a sports class rider was figuring it would be about 2 & 1/4 race for me at least! Turns out you could add another 15 minutes to my guess, in the end I clocked up 2 hours 31 minutes which is double what the MTBA states the average for Sports class should be.
Top was unzipped a little too far here, someone remind me of this next time please!
Jane Ollernshaw and I decided to speak up and voice our opinions/concerns on the matter to which the race organiser agreed it was a good idea to drop a lap, only to be told that their timing system couldn't handle it???? Anyway, nothing to do but to just get on with it and try and do the best I can, we take off for the the first lap and I am behind Sharon but in front of Megan, got to the first steep downhill bit and Megan rode down it where I was a bit nervous and decided to walk, this gave her the advantage and she got in front, I pushed hard to get back to her and luckily the practice I had done out there the day before as Megan mucked up over the rocky section and I got in front of her again when she stopped to go over a log, this was right before a killer climb, well first lap was not that bad but next 2 were almost unbearable for me, I knew this is where I could make my get away and just pushed up the hill, I caught a glimpse of her on the downhill section as I was climbing the next hill and that was the last I had seen of her for the rest of the race, I was sure she was right behind me all the time so was pushing as much as I could, before the end of the first lap I had gone through all my water, shit!!! what rider with as much experience as I have now goes in to a race on a 30 degree day with only one bottle of water??? IDIOT! I took off for my second lap and was really feeling it, I was going to pull out once I got through the first half that leads you back to the car park, although I knew I was still in front of Megan so didn't want to but knowing I had 2 laps left and no water I knew I would do more damage than was worth to be able to say I finally beat my arch nemesis, so resigned myself to the fact that I couldn't go on without water and the race was lost, I came through the first section of the track and was heading towards the part of the track that leads to my car, literally 200 metres from my car and ready for a DNF and Ed, Jenni King's partner was there cheering me on and I stated that I couldn't go on as I had no water to which he quickly filled my bottle with his water and sent me on my way, at this stage I was already pretty dehydrated but made me feel better after having a few gulps, I got through that lap ok and finished that bottle again before the end of the lap, luckily Ed was waiting again to fill my bottle for me on way past for my last lap, I honestly couldn't have got through the lap without it and if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have finished the race, I definitely learnt my lesson there and will be better prepared next time, although if I rock up to another XC race and it looks like being more of an Enduro I will probably think twice about doing it, I want to do XC racing and not Enduro's and I can say that putting myself through 2 and half hours of racing at that intensity was not enjoyable at all an lets face it, as much as I want to win, I am really in it for the fun as much as the competitive side and if that is taken away then what's the point?
At least one of us was doing the right thing

So apart from a couple of little stacks I managed to get through the race with no major off's and 26 minutes behind first place getter Sharon and 22 minutes ahead of my friendly rival Megan, now that Megan is off the radar it's time to hunt Sharon down! :)

Struggling up a pinch climb, made it!

I can say that this was the toughest race I have done as far as the conditions, I have raced in hotter weather before but was better prepared and was 1 hour shorter than this race with less climbing, I spoke to a lot of the riders after and we were all in the same boat and looking at the amount of DNF's on the results page it definitely reflects how tough the conditions were, granted some of them were mechanicals I am sure the majority of them were physical.

Brett Henderson in action

Well done to fellow Croydon Cycleworkers Jenni King and Brett Henderson for top spot on the podium in their classes.

Thank you's for today

Ed, Ed, Ed wouldnt have done it if not for him being there at that time, and to all the riders that kept telling me that Megan was not that far off to keep me going.

Until next time Happy Biking

Kat

Kona 24 hour

2008-12-06T20:02:00.000-08:00

Saturday 29th of November was the start date of 24 hours of pain to be concluded on the 30th, luckily for me it actually didn't involve any pain, considering it is the longest enduro I have been involved in that was quite surprising.

So Saturday morning Andrew Liu comes to collect me and my bike and 24 hours of food supplies and we head off for the sleepy town known as Forrest, arrive there and it is all very relaxed, had a chat to a few people before getting ready to ride and make our decision as to who in our team of would go first, Andrew myself and Caleb all decided Brenton should go first and considering he was not there to defend the decision it was locked in and he was to do the first lap, adding another kilometer or so to the distance of the first lap, I was second in line, I took off up the short climb at the start line and made it about half way before having to get off to walk, it became the challenge of the weekend for everyone to try and get up it without having to walk it, so the second lap I took off hard at the start to gt a good run up and change gears as I got to the steep part, well I was in too high a gear and went to change gears and a bit of chain suck ruined my effort and came to an embarrassing end on the first corner of the climb, if front of all the riders lining up at transition and the small crowd that had gathered there to watch.

So anyway the day laps went smoothly and I was feeling good, time for the night laps, this was my first time really riding at night, the only other time was when Andrew and I did a short night ride along a bike trail, hardly the same as riding the tight singletrack at Forrest, so I took off for my lap and went ok for the first part of the track that I had previously ridden in my day laps but quickly started losing confidence as I was veering all over the track, the lap seemed to take me a long time, I had no idea how long I had been out there for but it seemed like hours, I made it out on to the fire trail and was going along for a little while and accidently took a wrong turn as only I could do, anyway luckily a few riders came past and I noticed their lights going in the opposite direction to me so I turned around and got back on track, I reallyy had the sooks at this stage, I didnt like riding in the dark and the lap seemed to be taking ages, I was going along again on my own for a while and thought I had taken another wrong turn so just stopped and waited, a minute or so later I saw a light heading towards me so knew I was on the right track still so took of for the home stretch and made it to the finish about 10 minutes later, pulled in to transition and was not a happy camper, Andrew Wade and Brenton were there to welcome me back, I didnt say too much, just that I didint like it and I took off back to the tent, turns out it was an hour twenty lap so not quite as long as I thought it had taken me but still a long time out there in the dark. Caleb had pulled out and I knew there would be a few more night laps ahead for me, got back to the tent and had already decided I didnt want to do any more night laps but was still going to go ahead with it, once Brenton came back in, he had told me that Andrew's knee was not feeling too good so thought I might be in with a chance that we might pull the pin on the night laps, once Andrew came in I said I was not too keen to do another night lap and he was the same, so off to bed for me, bed being the back of Andrew's car that is, froze my butt off just walking from the tent which actually had the luxury of a heater in it, grabbed my trackies and headed straight to the showers, usually I would be a bit shy about nuding up in front of other people but there was no room for modesty in these showers so had to walk out of the shower starkers and there was another chick in there who started up a casual convo with me about random stuff with me, had a bit of a chat then headed for the comfort of the 35 buck sleeping bag purchased in a mad rush the night before and the back seat of an Alfa Romeo, was laying there wide awake and wondering whether I should go back to the tent and enjoy the atmosphere that comes with 24 hour racing, mmmm nah, the sleeping bag is nice and warm and all clean now, I will just get up early I tell myself, so try to get some sleep, just not going to happen, break out the mobile to play some solitaire and hopefully that will get me tired enough to sleep, still no go, so just layed there until I eventually fell asleep, i reckon it was 4.55 am when I finally managed to fall asleep and it was 5.01 when I woke up again! I was pretty excited about the day laps today as Marriners run was among the tracks used for today so got out and put my gear on, went and grabbed a toasted sandwich and a coffee, (the best coffee ever by the way) not the best pre race food but filled the hole anyway. Got to the tent and unlocked my bike and took it upon myself to nominate myself for the first morning lap, no arguments there, Marriners run was awesome as to be expected seemed to be a long lap again, turned out it was, I was really taking my time on this lap, after the last climb I headed back in to transition one hour and 40 minutes after I took off, Brenton took off for his lap followed by Andrew, I was hoping Andrew would not get back in till after 11am then I wouldn't go out for another, still an hour before cut off but that was crazy mixed up rule I had, a few of the other riders around were hounding me to go out and I told them my cut off time and that if Andrew didn't come in before that I would not go out, I was waiting with nervous anticipation and staring at my watch every 2 seconds, well, 10.28, 2 minutes before my suggested 'cut off time' Andrew rolls in to transition, to delay it even more I rode via the toilets for a quick pit stop and to decide whether I really wanted to go out for one more lap, yep just go for it, so took off for my final lap and got back in with 2 minutes to spare so the annoucers were hounding me to go out for one more lap, no amount of convincing would get me out there again, had really had enough, ended up 20 minutes quicker than my first lap, passed a solo rider that had ridden right through, as if that is not tough enough he was on a singlespeed, he really looked like was doing it tough, pretty inspirational really, when you take my 5 laps for the whole 24 hours and look at what he had put his body through it certainly doesnt make you feel like you have acheived much that's for sure, ut for my first 24 hour race I was pretty happy with my performance and apart from the night lap I think I did ok.

So the question is now, will I do another and the answer, well I dont know that yet, ask me next year.

I did have a great weekend though and was actually pretty relaxing, the atmosphere there is fantastic and had great company for the weekend.

Thank yous for the weekend

Thanks to my race pals, Andrew, Caleb and Brenton, race competiton and tent buddies Marissa, Ben Andrew and Stephen, official photographer Sandy and all the race goers there that offered encouragement throughout the weekend.

As always Croydon Cycleworks for their continued support.

Until next time happy biking!

Kat

Rd 1 VSS State XC Bendigo

2008-11-27T00:55:00.000-08:00

The first round of the State XC series was held out at Bendigo this past weekend, I went in to the race very excited for a few different reasons, firstly because I enjoyed the series so much last season and could hardly wait to get back in to it again, then just cos I really enjoyed that track last year and the fact that I could test out my new bike on a track I have raced on before and hopefully after a years riding under my belt I will have drastically improved my times from last year. It was not to be, I knew at least one rider that was to be me competition for the race before I got there so knew I would struggle to beat her, turns out Sharon was to be my only competition for the race, we were started at the back of the field which suited me, Sharon and I took off and I stayed close through the first bit of single track, Sharon was not too far away and I was pushing hard to stay with her, I ended up feeling pretty crook pushing too hard to keep with her so backed off and decided to just go at my pace , next I saw of Sharon she was a fair way off and any idea I had of perhaps beating her were out the window.

Went through the end of the first lap with 2 more to go and with some familiar faces at transition cheering me on this managed to spur me on a bit, at least within seeing distance of them anyway, I knew I had no chance of winning or even coming close to it and it was really getting me down, the fact that I knew my lap times were similar to last year was really getting me down too, yes the track was a bit different to last years race but pretty much the same, so I thought I should have done a lot better than that.

Brett Henderson in action

Jenni King, 2nd Elite female
Brett is so good he can do it with his eyes closed!
My lap times were pretty woefull, first lap was 33 mins, second and third both 39 minutes, the extra 6 minutes per lap being the time I wasted stopping to let riders past, I GOTTA STOP DOING THAT!!!!! Sharon finished with lap times of 27, 28 and 29 minutes, a total of 26 minutes faster than me over the entire race

To be continued............................

On second thoughts thats all I have to say about the race, have to do the write up for the Kona and honestly cant be bothered with this one anymore, you get the idea anyway, race was run and I came last, pretty simple really.

Happy biking

Kat

Officer 6 Hour

2008-11-15T23:46:00.000-08:00

1st place for me and my mixed 4's team, unfortunately we were the only team of that kind so cant take any credit for 1st place there.

Awesome course except for the killer hill I now know is also known as heartbreak hill and for good reason, was a toughy, didn't make it up it once but I was not the only one doing the walk of shame so dont feel too bad about it. The course had some pretty tough downhill sections that I have no doubt that if I were still riding my shitty GT I would never had made it down or perhaps would have but would have done it by going over the bars that's for sure, the new bike handles so well, it's amazing the difference it has made, my times were 8 minutes slower than the riders I am usually 15 minutes slower than so I guess if I look at it that way I am 7 minutes faster based on the new bike and I guess the training on the roadie can take some credit for it too.

So the day started off with me rocking up to the race with the new bike to show off to anyone that wanted to see it or otherwise, nobody had any choice in the matter really, I was like a proud parent showing off a new bub, so anyway first pit stop was Duncan, Dave and Rowan, Duncan felt my tire and it was pretty much dead flat and in true Kat style I had no idea about it until he pointed it out, dropped the bike off to Mick and pointed out my flat tyre and pretty much left him to it, I am so spoilt, whenever Croydon Cycleworks have the tent there I don't have to worry about anything, just rock up and race, Mick always makes sure my bike is ready to go, I can do what I do best, socialise, but there was a race on and I was very serious today and wanted to do really well on the new bike, my team consisted of Nick, Jamie Tom and myself, the guys quickly decided that I should do the first lap, yeah thanks guys! this meant that I would probably end up doing the most laps, as it turned out lap times were pretty quick and we all managed 3 laps for the day, so we take off at the start line and head up the fire trail to the first little pinch climb and here we have a huge traffic jam, very slow going here, up the climb and in to a fast downhill section followed another climb back up past the car park and down to a very step downhill run, there are alot of people watching so didn't even hesitate and hit it as fast as I could, was a bit scary but was so stoked that I made it down, my other bike would have not got me down it or might have but would have not pulled me up on the end of it that's for sure, gotta love disk brakes! After here it was off in to some sweet singletrack and that killer climb, first lap here I nearly threw up, I had a conversation with a friend the night before and his voice was in my head the whole time just telling me to go hard, so I pushed as hard as I could until it was just too steep for my wimpy legs and my lungs were just about bursting, I jumped off and walked along with the 20 other riders that were just ahead of me nearly throwing up just trying to breathe, after this section it was on to a fire trail along the dam wall and on to a very sketchy downhill bit, no point trying to do this bit half arsed, just hit Iit and hung on managing to stay upright over the loose rocks down through some more sweet singletrack and over some tough pinch climbs on to another couple of killer hills and then to my favourite part of the track, not too sure if it is so good cos you know you just have to finish this downhill bit then have one last little climb to the finish or if it really is that enjoyable,anyway it is a really fast flowy downhill section with a few little jumps and a whole lotta fun! I completed my first lap in about 38 minutes, not very fast but great for me considering I would usually be about 45 minutes on a track like that, hard to compare as I have not ridden that exact course but just know from what I would usually do compared to the others.

I had a great day and not one crash for the day, would have to be a first for me, although I had a few close calls that really would have hurt had I not managed to keep it together, I loved the course and my teammates were alot of fun, we have a new member to the Croydon Cycleworks team, Jenni King raced in a mixed pair with the very fast Brett Henderson, together they came away with the top spot for today and an awesome effort on both the parts to do as many laps as they did on that course and as quick as they did it.

The day ended with me being roped in to being the trophy giver outer at presentations, not exactly my style but helped out none the less, relaxing at home now before my first day at my new job tomorrow, after having 2 weeks off I am not at all excited about my new job, would love another 2 off! 2 weeks of shopping too so there are some big decisions to be made tonight, what to wear, what to wear????

Well that's enough of my ramblings for one night.

Thankyou's for today

Croydon Cycleworks, Mick Jamison for all his help, my team mates Nick, Jamie and Tom oh and Steve Clausen for letting me take his brand spanking new titanium Baum bike for a spin, very nice bike indeed, although not as good as the Trek Elite 9.7 of course :)

Until next time Happy Biking

Kat

I am in love!

2008-11-08T01:00:00.000-08:00

With the new bike that is, picked it up today and took it for a spin out at Lysterfield, ah, such a dream to ride, straight away I could notice the difference in speed getting up the climbs and being able to get out of the saddle and pedal over roots which was one thing I just couldnt do on the GT, with front forks that dont work and trying to get a heavy metal bike over roots just didnt work, the Trek just glides over the top of it all and I always thought that I couldnt lift my front wheel over rocks and logs just cos I didnt have the technical skills to do it, I guess having a bike that has front forks that actually work is all I needed, was easily lifting my front wheel and bunny hopping over everything, oh, the brakes on this thing are pretty touchy too, having gone from V brakes to the disk brakes is a huge difference, nearly went over the bars the first time I really had to use them, cant wait to race this thing and see how it goes, have the Katmandu Adventure race this Saturday then the Officer 6 hour Enduro Sunday so will get plenty of racing hours in on it before the first round of the State XC at Bendigo, can hardly wait for that one!

Just want to say thanks to everyone that has helped me along the way, especially the guys at Croydon Cycleworks, I am so lucky to have their support, I have made alot of friends from being involved in this sport, they know who they are and I really appreciate their support and interest in me and my racing.

Until next time Happy biking, I know I certainly will have plenty of it on the new bike!

Kat

Round 1 MTB Nationals Adelaide

2008-11-02T23:56:00.000-08:00

Thursday saw me and travel partner Duncan Murray head off to Adelaide for the first round of the Nationals at Eagle Mountain Bike Park, finished up my last day of work at my current job on the Thursday so after a few goodbye's I headed off to Northcote to pick up Duncan and by about 6 pm we were on the road and on our way to our first pit stop Nhill, we rocked up at the motel at about 11.30pm, was as dodgy in the room as it was from what we could see from the outside, was pretty tired from the drive so all I wanted was a nice shower and to jump in to bed, Duncan bagged the double bed and had the single, jumped in the shower only to have a light mist of water to stand under, was the worst shower ever! The curtains had cob webs all ver them and it was not all that clean, it's ok I told myself, only have to sleep and get outta here early, jumped in bed and pretty much sunk in the middle of it and that's where I stayed, could barely roll over the bed was that saggy, time to get some sleep, or so I thought, we were on the main highway with trucks roaring past every minute and the odd freight train, I reckon I managed 10 minutes of deep sleep for the whole night, could not get out of there quick enough in the morning.

So we headed off for Adelaide first thing and made it to the track for a pre ride of the course by about 11.30am, got the bikes out and took off for a spin around the track, a quick loop around the Short Course XC track then straight up in to some switchbacks, this is where I had my first stack for the weekend, nothing major but put me in one of my moods first up, Duncan made his way to the top pretty quickly and kept waiting for me to catch up to offer help over any technical stuff along the way, made it to the top and then came to my first rocky step up, mucked up again going over that and started having negative thoughts about doing the race and was wondering why I was even there, started cracking it with myself which just made me muck even more, so I had a bit of a hissy fit and just wanted to be left alone so told Duncan to go ahead and I would catch him at the end of the track, I took a few minutes to myself on the side of the track to get it together and after a bit of a climb the track led to an awesome fast section with some nice jumps and down through some really nice singletrack, this was enough to make me snap out of my mood and I really started to enjoy it from here on in. The track would actually be one my fav's now, it was alot fun and mixed with smooth and rocky sections with no massive climbs and nice downhill sections to recover.

Saturday morning comes around and it is one hour away from my race start, I am as nervous as ever and trying to calm my nerves by just hanging around watching the first race for the day and keeping myself hydrated, Duncan suggests I should head off and get changed in to my gear and go for a warm up ride, head off to get changed and the announcer starts calling all the female competitiors to the start line to get transponders fixed to their bikes, so big rush to get changed and get ready to go, get on the start line and we have about 20 minutes before our race is due to start, this is making my nerves even worse, I checked out the opposition and they looked pretty fit for Sport class, started playing the race over in my head and had a plan to try and stick behind them for the whole race then overtake if I could. We finally get called to the official start line and the gun goes off, nerves are in overdrive now, gotta stick with the bunch at least for the part where the crowd can see, found it easy to stay with them through the Short Course track and was braking most of the way through as I was too close to them so felt I could stick with them for the race if they kept that pace, that was until we hit the switchbacks, I went in to it in front of one other rider and was struggling to stay close to the other girls, had my first stack here which was what I was most worried about as there were quite a few people watching, so let the other rider in front and tried to stay with her, she got away up the climb and I caught her back on the descent, I passed her here and then she managed to catch me again on the next climb where she got back in front again, I rode my butt off throught the next downhill section and caught her again and passed her only to crash in front of her and let her get past again, washed off the dirt and blood with my water jumper back on and caught her yet again, past her again and it remained that way for the rest of the lap, I went through that lap about 3 minutes in front and was confident I could keep that lead, she caught me again on the next climb and I had another little stack and that was the end for me, I didnt catch her again after that, then the Elite women started coming through so spent alot of time pulling over to let them through.

I ended up with 3rd in Womens Sport at my first Nationals event, shame there were only 3 of us entered in the race! I heard them calling me for presentations but was too embarrassed to go up and collect my trophy for 3rd and last place so went up to collect it after, it is a cool trophy after all.

The next round of the Nat's I will be doing will be at the You Yang's so will be spending the next 6 weeks out there training when I can, hopefully will give me the home track advantage.

Overall I had a great weekend and was awesome to see the Elite guys and girls at it out there and just motivates me more to do better next time.

Kat

New bike arrives on Friday!

2008-11-02T22:19:00.000-08:00

Ok this is it, have changed my mind plenty of times over the last few months but having been told I would have to wait until mid January for the Top Fuel I have decided to get the Trek Elite 9.7 instead, a little dearer than the Top Fuel but carbon frame, heaps lighter and better components make it worth it, also Croydon Cycleworks and Trek have helped me out with it too so very excited to be getting a bike like this I otherwise would not have been able to get without their help. Was not too keen on the colour at first but we get our new gear in a few weeks and wont be the standard red I usually get around in so will match the new gear and we all know us girls are all about colour co-ordination

So here it is

So excited! Wont be doing any more races on the dodgy GT anymore, not too sure that it will make me any faster but will definitely make my ride alot more comfortable having a bike this light and forks that actually do what they are supposed to do, hopefully will get rid of the problems I have been having with my shoulder and being on the correct size bike will help a great deal too.

Many many thanks to Mick Jamison @ Croydon Cycleworks and Trek for helping me out with the bike.

Uuuuh, 4 more sleeps!

Will post on the Adelaide Nat's in the next few days just trying to organise photos from the photographers there.

Until next time happy biking!

Kat

Surfcoast 6 Hour

2008-10-25T16:32:00.000-07:00

Headed out to the race with team mate Nick De Kam at 11am, with a couple of pit stops along the way to pick up last minute supplies we arrived at race HQ at about 2.30, said hello to the usual suspects then went for a quick spin to check out the course, first impression was not a great one, I was on the hardtail with frozen front forks and this was a very bumpy course, we were only 1klm in to it and the bumps were already annoying me, not a good sign, pulled off the track near where the rider brief was being held, went to use one of the 4 loos they had to accommodate the 450 riders which nearly made me sick (very weak stomach), again not a great start, so rider brief started which I didnt hear a word of as I was busy chatting as usual, its all the same anyway, so discussed with Nick the race plan, plan was I go first and take it from there pretty much, so head down to the start line and in true Kat style I usually forget something or have something wrong with my bike, this time my front tyre is on backwards, so I discuss with Andrew and James whether or not it is too embarrassing to change it on the start line in front of the other riders or just ride with it like that and change it after my first lap when nobody can see, decision was made to change it there,so we are waiting on the start line and finally we are set off, I am towards the back but knew I would have to make my way up the field so as not to get stuck way back at the first bit of single track, so overtake a bunch of riders, power up the hill and go flat out down the other side only to come to a complete stop for what felt like about 5 minutes waiting to get off in to the single track, riders in front going sooo slow and falling off in front and mucking everyone up behind so was very slow going for the first half of the lap, passed a few riders in the first half but they all caught me back on the first climb, man I suck at climbs! We ended up with 4th in the mixed pairs due to Nicks huge effort.

I have the Hitler mo happening here

Nick De Kam in action

First lap went ok, a bit of carnage along the way with riders getting caught out on the descents and sandy corners, I managed to get through it unscathed and pulled in to hand it over to my race partner Nick, its a wonder he recognised me coming through transition I was just black from head to toe, completely covered in dust which was well and truly stuck on from all the sweat, was a tough lap so didnt care too much about how I looked after the finish line, quickly went and got some food and more water and waited back at transition, i dont have official times yet but Nick came 2nd last year in this event on a singlespeed so knew he would be probably under 30minutes so not much time to muck around, headed out for my 2nd lap and hills, heat and sand were taking it out of me pretty quickly, those bumps just never let up either, only break is a few short fire trails, I was trying to go fast for Nick but hit the wall early and knew I had probably only 2 more laps left in me, again managed to get through the lap unscathed, well apart from copping a fly in the back of my throat and nearly throwing up on my bike, couldnt get it out so a swig on the water bottle and down it went, Nick went off again, super fast of course and I waited feeling pretty crappy about my poor performance so far, Nick cam in and I told him I thought I only had 2 more in me so decided I would do the next 2 laps and Nick would finish it off for the night laps, so went out for the 3rd lap, legs were gone going up the first climb, descending felt just as hard and was mucking up everywhere and had a few close calls, then stacked it on a corner, nothing major, lucky was nice soft sand to land in, took off again and struggled through the rest of the lap, back through transition and on to my final lap, usually knowing I am on the last one is enough to motivate me to go as hard as I can but I was really struggling at this stage, back, shoulders, butt, head, you name it, it was sore, not to mention all the dust I had swallowed throughout the race so far was making it hard to breathe, last lap was getting pretty dark and I didnt have lights so had to push hard to get back before it was too dark, so had a few more crashes towards the end, again nothing serious but just frustrating. Made it back and handed over to Nick to finish off, he did 4 laps straight in the dark, huge effort and he was really hurting by the end of it, I felt so bad not going out for another lap but knew it would be a waste of time, I was really hurting and just had nothing left.

The atmosphere at this race is great, everyone is friendly and the serious guys and gals take it seriously but its not full on race mode like some races, everyone has a chat on the way round and is pretty relaxed, I was in a daze pretty much after my first lap so didnt even realise there was a live band playing there until I had stopped racing, hung out with the usual boys in between being there for Nick on his pit stops and met him at the finish line on his final lap, we were both stuffed Nick more so than me so we didnt hang around for the presso.

I dont know that I would do this race again or not, if I do I will probably do it as a 3 hour solo, here are some words that were going through my head the whole race to give you an idea of what it is like, f****** bumps!, f****** flies!, f****** dust!, f******bumps!, f****** sand!, f****** bumps!, f****** heat!, f****** bumps!, f******climb!, oooh nice view, more f****** bugs, gotta keep my mouth closed, f****** bumps!!!!, aaaahh finish line. For a cleaner more positive outlook on the race I am sure Troy Bailey will have something nicer to say about it so read his blog.

Well I am back in to to the XC and that's what I love so should be hopefully getting some more exciting stories soon, off to Adelaide this weekend for the first round of the Nat's cant wait, also this Thursday is my last day at my crappy job and have 2 weeks off before I start my new one so can not wait for that!

Until next time happy biking!

Kat

Sandown Crits Are Hard!

2008-10-21T02:25:00.001-07:00

That's all

Lysterfield Duathlon

2008-10-19T03:13:00.000-07:00

Raced my first duathlon today, well only competed in one leg of the two so cant really take credit for having raced a duathlon but half of it, i did the ride leg, surprise surprise and my race partner Kate did the run. The race started with a 4 klm run then back to transition to hand it over to me for the 20klm bike ride, we started off heading across to the Red Gum trail and on to the Com games track then to the Blair Witch and back to the finish, I did the ride in 1 hour 22mins, 5 minutes faster than Jane Ollernshaw which I am pretty happy about as I have never been close to her before let alone that much faster than her, however she did it solo where as I didnt have to do the run so I would have been alot slower had I just run 4klms before the ride. We came in 67th overall out of 85 so not as good as I had first thought, seemed like we came in before alot more than that but anyway not a bad result for the first one. Had a good race as far as everything felt for me, didnt have any big stacks and knee felt great, I know I have alot of work to do on my climbing, I had a guy behind me for most of the race and I would get well ahead of him on the decents and flat areas of single track but he would almost catch me back on all the climbs, so definitely will be working on that. Overall it was alot of fun and look forward to doing the next one, well sorta, the next one is at the Youee's and considering half of the course is made up of climbling there I have alot of work to do before that one.

Some good news on the personal front for me, a couple of weeks ago I cracked the shits with my work and handed in my resignation without having another job, 2 days later I had an interview with a company close to home and they offered me the job, any normal person would have taken it but when she questioned my 'passion' for the company as we were negotiating dollars I pretty much told her to stick it, so back to square one for me, turns out it was a good decision as I didnt really like the company anyway and got a much better offer for a great company still close to home. I finish up at my current job on the 30th of October just in time to head over to SA for the first round of the nationals, worked out my resignation perfectly as I was not allowed to have any time off on that Friday so would not have been able to do that round and then I start at my new job on the 17th of November so I have 2 weeks off in between so guess what I will be doing??? Yep riding riding riding for 2 weeks, just to break it up a bit I will go away for a couple of days and do some riding elsewhere, so luckily I have a few riding buddies that are bums and dont have normal jobs so will have some riding partners during the week and plenty of racing coming up on the weekends to keep me busy, oh and the Dukemeister moseyed on home the other day too, dirty stopout must have been livin it up with the girls somewhere but glad to have him back, unfortunately nothing will bring Axel back and I am still missing him heaps but have plenty to keep me busy so not thinking about it too much now.

Anyway all seems well with the knee and riding pretty much every night now, doing the Crits at Sandown on Tuesday nights, Dirt crits at Wantirna Wednesday nights and then will do a few of the Westgate ones on a Thursday night then just some road riding and rides out at Lysterfield the other days, also have to start doing some running for the Katmandu Adventure Race next month, Andrew and I did about 3klms last week and that was about as much as I could handle for one night, not quite as much fun as going for a spin down Beach Road or around Lysty.

Thanks to Andrew at the Duo on the weekend for cheering me on near the end, had some guys not in the race annoying me and Andrew just happened to be there when it was happening so put me in a better mood after that.

That's all from me, until next time happy biking!

Kat

2nd Road Crit & Forrest ride

2008-10-12T01:55:00.000-07:00

Well this morning's crit was not too good, the first 25 minutes was a fairly good steady pace then for the final 3 laps it was a sprint for the finish and I just couldnt keep with them so pulled out, didnt hang around to see how the other grades went, hung my head in shame and just took off straight away for my Mountain Bike ride out at Forrest which turned out to be pretty eventfull. So I meet my riding buddy for today and we head off on to the trails, about 2 kilometres in to the Marriners Run track I am riding along just lovin life and the good company trails etc. and next thing as I am exiting a bit of a berm and fair pace and right in front of me in the middle of the singletrack is a snake, so hit the skids which obviously startled it and was lucky to unclip and not end up on the ground, said a few choice words and just froze freaking out that I was about to get attacked by this snake, stood there for a minute then slowly rolled my bike back and it slithered off to the side of the track, rode off and every little stick that flew up and hit me in the legs made me paranoid thinking it was a snake biting me, so first snake since the warm weather started again, snake count last summer was 3 hopefully I can keep it at where it is at now, not the best thing to come across when you are miles from help.

I seem to be having alot of blonde moments lately, I cant really blame it on anything so might as well have fun with it and share with you. So maybe I might just have a little Confucius say thing happening rather than my usual famous quotes, so here is one for today

Kat say, (oh Kat just does not work like Confucius)

Do not press front brake while spinning back wheel and tell friend that back brake is not working, look like idiot!

Had a couple of these moments today, couldnt blame it on the trauma of seeing the snake, just one of my moments.

Still missing my little man heaps, house is just not the same without him.

Until next time Happy Biking.

Kat

Axel

2008-10-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

Well unrelated report here but my best buddy Axel was put to sleep on Wednesday, anyone that knows me knows how much I love my animals and have spent thousands of dollars on both Axel previously when he had to get some tumors removed once before and then a shitload more on my horse when he got sick too, needless to say it was a very upsetting time for me and I am missing him heaps and heaps! Axel was always with me, even if I was just a drive to the Milk Bar he was always there, not to mention him having to be my patient subject for many photo assignments and coming along to keep me company on my Landscape photography shoots, many summer nights at the beach and kicking back together on a Saturday night before a race watching Funniest Home Videos, pretty strange that a dog could rule your life like that but I even gave up going to the World Cup because I couldnt bring myself to let someone I dont know look after him for the 3 days, he got sick very suddenly and was still happy and running around like a maniac the day before so at least he didnt have to go through any pain, so no more cuddles from my favourite little man anymore:(

Also the little Dukemeister (Duke is the cool cat) went walkabout so in one week I have gone from 3 pets to just one, Mr Attitude Oscar (the feral cat) has decided to stay with me, probably cos he is too fat & lazy to be bothered venturing off in to the neighbourhood.

Missing ya heaps

Kat :(

First Road Crit

2008-10-04T21:10:00.000-07:00

No photos unfortunately, although if there was a photographer there I probably would not have had a photo taken of me anyway, started at the back and ended at the back. Was pretty nervous for the first lap and stayed a fair way back then the Specialized boys gave me some tips to make things easier for myself which was to stay on the person in fronts rear wheel which I was handling ok on the straight but would get nervous being so close to other riders anound the corners so would back off there and then have to catch back up after all the corners, had some help from one of the spunky specialzed guys pushing me along, and I mean literally pushing me, I was nearly thinking of pulling out and then heard the bell for the last lap, what a relief, still didnt have it my legs to stay close to the group as they sprinted for the finish, beat 1 rider! next week better make it 2. I have a 3 week licence so mught as well use it and if I am enjoying it then I will keep up with it, definitely alot harder than the Mountain Biking, well more in the regard that you need a great deal of strength in the legs to keep up with the other riders, will obviously be beneficial for the Cross Country races so will try and keep it up. Anyway sized up the competition there and decided there were a few easy beats there, one being one fairly young rider who was actually really quick and had calves twice the size of mine and then a few older riders and not so skinny riders all of which blitzed me, well all bar one, good to se heaps of girls there, big difference to the Mountain Biking.

After the race I went for a ride from Ringwood up the 1 in 20 then through Olinda and back again, didnt think I would make it up the 1 in 20 had heard a fair bit about it and thought it would be too tough, not a great time though, took 30 minutes to reach the top, will do it again during the week and hopefully knock a few minutes off that, definitely had more in me when I reached the top, the descent was a bit sketchy, getting up to 70 klms an hour with a tiny bit of rubber under you is not very comforting, had a great ride though and will be using that as my new training ride, so the Mountain Bike will be having a rest for a while and the legs will be getting a good workout, lost most of the weight I wanted to lose too so my first XC race back I should be back to where I want to be, first XC race will be a National round so nothing like jumping straight in the deep end first race back.

Now daylight savings last year I had an important Motocross job on that weekend as well a Presentation night on the Saturday so I will blame the heat and tiredness for screwing up the clock and putting it back last year but this year I have no excuse, I went to bed and for some reason put it back an hour instead of forward then woke up at 3 am wide awake and stressing about being a dud at the Crit and decided to get up,lucky! as it was really 5am and I was planning on getting up an hour later anyway so had I gone back to sleep I would have missed my race.

Thank you's for today

First off to a lovely lady by the name of Karen who so kindly lent me her bright blue and yellow socks as I had left my nice black ones at home, cant say it was a good look but better than riding with no socks at all and secondly to the A grade riders that helped me along the way.

Quote for today

"At least I didnt come last!"
Me

Couldnt be bothered surfing the net looking for anything today

Until next time Happy Biking

Kat

New Bike

2008-09-26T04:16:00.000-07:00

Well it seems I couldnt wait till January to get a new bike so decided to get a road bike in the meantime. I just picked it up and took it for a little spin down the street and nearly went arse over turning in a tight circle doing a u-turn, cant quite throw them around like the Mountain Bike, might take a bit of getting used to, better make it quick though, I am doing my first Road Crit next weekend.

So here it is, just a cheapy of all the Trek models but will do me for what I want it for. So Beach Road here I come!

Well tomorrow will see me and Max Adventure partner Andrew Liu heading out to Lysterfield for some training in the Kayak, then a MTB ride after, Sunday will be out on the roadie, will be good to mix the training up a bit and get off the dirt for a few rides a week.

Knobby Sports Crits are back starting 15th October, cant wait, will be good to see how my times have changed from last year, although with the amount time I have had off with the injury I might come back slower.

Stuff up of the day goes to my idiot accountant, I spent an hour there today getting my tax sorted and after signing off on my $2000 return and feeling pretty happy with it all I get a phone call 2 hours later saying they had stuffed it and I had to come back to sign off on the ammended amout, which when I questioned was not quite the answer I wanted to hear, 2 bucks! yep 2 lousy dollars is all I will get back, fantastic!

I cant thank Mick and the guys at Croydon Cycleworks enough for all they do for me, I rocked up there today with the MTB for Mick to get me fitted properley and after mucking around with me, my shoes and MTB for ages we did it all again for the Road bike, Mick really looks after me with all my gear and bits and pieces and I am really lucky to have that, oh look out for the old school Croydon Cycleworks knicks Mick gave me today, I dont think I need to explain them you will know when you see them, will be saving these ones for the training rides, hehe.

Anyway that's it for me tonight, until next time, Happy Biking!

Kat

Bike wont be here till Jan 09 :(

2008-09-19T04:20:00.000-07:00

Well after getting excited about my bike and being fairly happy to wait until November to get it I have found out that I will most likely have to wait until January now to get one, Croydon Cycleworks will do what they can to get it in earlier but probably wont be able to. Anyway I couldnt deal with a pink bike so I am getting the mens Top Fuel 8, still not keen on the colour of this one either but unless I want to fork a few extra thousand for the 9.8 or go for the Fuel X 8 I will just have to get over it.

Here is a very full on race schedule in the coming months

25th Oct - Surfcoast 6 Hour

1st Nov - MTB Nationals SA

8th Nov - Gravity 12 Hour?

15th Nov -Maximum Adventure Race Lysterfield

23rd Nov- Rd 1 VSS XC Bendigo

29th Nov- Kona 24 Hour Forrest

13th Dec- MTB Nationals You Yangs

21st Dec - Rd 2 VSS Upper Beacy

18th Jan- Rd 3 VSS XC Youees

31st Jan - MTB Nationals Mt Buller

8th Feb- Rd 4 VSS XC Castlemaine

15th Feb- HDATO 8 Hour Eildon?

21st Feb -Otway Odyssey

28th Feb -MTB Nationals Tassie?

8th March-Rd 5 VSS XC Albury

22nd March-Mt Beauty 6 Hour

29th March -Big Hill Marathon

1st April - Rd 6 VSS XC

Plenty of racing ahead, can hardly wait, hope all the work I have been doing on my knee will pay off and I can get through it all without any dramas.

Until next time

Happy Biking

Kat

Whacking on the weight

2008-09-13T00:37:00.000-07:00

Well after nearly 6 weeks off riding I have started putting on a bit of beef, cant really blame the lack of riding too much as I was not riding much before the injury but in the last week I have only been home for dinner once so I think all the good meals I have been having out lately are catching up.

Anyway the knee is feeling good, just got back from an hour and half ride along Eastlink and also had a quick spin around Lysterfield yesterday so 2 rides in 2 days is a first for me, although I am only supposed to be riding every 2nd day at the moment.

I am pretty sure I will be right for the Surf Coast 6 hour (will only do the 3 hour) on 25th of October although there is a big Supercross on at Geelong so not sure if I will be at that yet, then after that there is 4 weekends in a row of racing in November so I hope I am going to be ok for that, definitely wont be missing the first round of the State XC 23rd November, have a big weekend before it though with the Max Adventure Race at Lysterfield the week before. Can hardly wait to get back in to the State XC Series and soooo happy to be out riding without my feet and face going numb from the cold, only crap part about this time of year is the magpies, hadnt started riding yet this time last year so have not had any probs but got swooped the other day on a main road just a bunch of guys drove past and obviuosly thought it pretty funny so were beeping at me and yelling stuff out the window, tried to look as cool as I could when you have a magpie swooping you, hopefully pulled it off, it actually chased me for ages but never actually hit me, came close but didnt.

That's all from me today, better go throw up now, just joking but will cut back on all the pub meals or at least order a couple of salads instead.

Quote for today

Food has replaced sex in my life; now, I can't even get into my own pants!

Happy Happy Biking!!

Kat

Another Update

2008-08-26T13:49:00.000-07:00

Well I have been off the bike for a month now and had my first ride since the 3rd round of the Anaconda Enduro last Saturday, I am doing all the exercises the Physio has given me and doing all the right things so provided I continue to do so I should be back racing at the 3 hour in Mildura on the 20th September I have another appointment with the Physio next Wednesday and he should be able to give me an idea then of how everything is going.

For me my week is pretty much made up of doing exercises on a swiss ball every night as well stretching and doing some basic one legged squats, Monday night a little bit of skipping on a tramp, Tuesday night 45 minute swim (or paddle for me as I cant swim) Wednesday 40 minute slow ride on the road no hills, Thursday night skipping again and then I have one more day for another 40 minute ride and another swim, so considering I was not doing any of this including the riding before my injury I should actually come back fitter than I was before.

Also decision has been made on the new bike, I have decided on the Trek Top Fuel 8.

So for the next month at least I will have to be happy with photographing the races and not participating unfortunately.

Here is a little snippet from a Pearl Jam song just because

'I know that I was born and I know that I will die the in between is mine'

Until next time Happy Biking

Kat

Update on the knee

2008-07-27T22:42:00.001-07:00

Just got back from the spunky physio and all will be fine, it is definitley the ITB Tendon and it has started to happen due to my lack of training and loss of strength in my thighs and glutes, so I am starting a strengthening program and am not going to be able to do any Enduro's for about 6 weeks. I should be right for the next FTF XC hopefully but for now plenty of stretching and a pilates class a week and make sure I stick to his program and I will be right.

Anaconda 7 Hour

2008-07-27T00:32:00.001-07:00

Yet another depressing Enduro for me, the only 2 races I have not been able to complete since I started riding have been in the Anaconda series, mmm might think twice before entering the next one.

The first lap felt pretty good, just planned to stick with the riders at the back and cruise around to make sure I didn't burn myself out too early, so the first lap was going well just had some trouble on the wet roots and just in the wet in general not having had much experience in the wet so far.

I came in from the first lap and had a bit of pain in my knee and was told to stretch and I would be ok, so did some stretches had a power bar and headed out for my second lap, the pain in my knee was still there but bearable so kept on with it and hoped it would go away, by the time I got to about the 2klm mark it was really hurting especially going up hills but even on the flat fire trail it was hurting so planned on finishing that lap, having another good stretch and get a decent ride in, I pulled in after the second lap still in a fair amount of pain but didn't say anything just did my stretches and took off for the third lap, as soon as I took off I was still in alot pain but didn't want to stop so kept going, I couldn't even pedal down the fast downhill fire trail to try and make up lost time so just cruised down all the downhill stuff and tried to put all the pressure on right leg when pedalling up hills so I knew that this lap would be my last for the day and pulled in to the tent very disappointed, now have had 2 bad results at this series.

Anyone that knows me well enough knows that I am very competitive and even though I know I had no chance of coming close to the fast girls I just wanted to beat my longest enduro of 6 hours and complete the 7 even if I did come last at least I would have achieved a result in a 7 hour enduro, well actually still got a result and surprisingly I didn't come last, 2nd last for my effort today.

As for the course it was pretty good, (apart from the mud that is!) we started in the usual spot and headed in to the Blair Witch track and then down past the dam wall and over to the fire trail leading to Wellington Road turning off at about half way up this track and up in to the next very muddy section of single track through some muddy single track for a few k's and then out to fire trail then on to fast fun section of single track that was not as affected by the recent rain as the previous sections then up the last climb and downhill to the finish line, about halfway through the race they had to cut out a section of the track due to it getting destroyed by so many riders going through it so diverted us through some fire trail and back towards the finish, I was pretty happy to be finishing, but no, when we got to where we usually would go to the finish line they sent us down another few k's a different way.

I ended up finishing the lap in about 1hour 30 mins and knew that it was time to pull the pin, considering my knee was hurting so bad there was no point doing further damage and also not being able to enjoy the race, which is obviously half the reason most of us are out there.

Dont have any action shots yet will be coming though so check back tomorrow but for now check out the mud.

So Kieran that I mentioned in my last post has done a good job on getting my shoulder right for the Enduro's I guess now he can work on my knee. He is a bit of a hottie too so a good excuse to keep going to him now my shoulder is nearly right!

I am going to chuck a sickie tomorrow and get my knee checked out to make sure it is this tendon everyone has said it would be and hopefully get it sorted before the next Enduro.

Well done to all the riders this weekend and I think Jess Douglas managed to win the Womens solo race so well done to her and to Andy Bell for going hard the whole 7 hours to take out the win! And my god Paul Van Der Ploeg is a freak on the bike, I pulled over to let him pass on a really muddy section that had a ditch in the track that was not even a jump and he managed to launch himself a few feet in the air off that and ride at what is probably his normal speed in the dry! Oh and well done especially to Duncan Murray who rode the 7 hours on a fixed gear single speed, Maniac!

Was a nice relaxed Enduro today and had a few chats to different riders along the way which was good to break things up a bit.

Well unfortunately not a great result today and nothing too exciting to tell, I am sure I will be right for the next FTF XC Race at Harkaway and hopefully have some exciting news come out of that.

Well that's enough from me, hope whoever is reading this is entertained by my stories and unfortunately there are as many lows as there are highs and I just want to document what is going on in my racing life so hopefully I dont come across as being negative but no point masking a story to glorify it when it is not really like that, it is definitley not easy, even the elite riders go though the same thing with niggling injuries, mechanicals etc. I guess in this sport it is expected, I want to do well in this sport and hopefully be able to enjoy it for a long time coming, but for now as long as I am right for all the State Series rounds then I will be a very happy girl, I am definitley looking forward to it!

Good to see my former tutor Richard Jupe from On Track images out there snapping away, and at 7pm after the race the photos are already up and sorted in to category! Just ordered a disk of pics from him to brighten up the post, check out his photos here. http://www.ontrackimages.com.au/

Cant forget Steve Rowe either
http://mtb-images.ser.id.au/

Quote for today

Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

Until next time Happy Biking!

Kat

New Race Gear

2008-07-25T04:01:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post to show off the new gear from Croydon Cycleworks

Just received my new gear from Croydon Cycleworks, instead of the red gear we usually get around in it is now mainly black and some awesome glasses by Ryders Eyewear, you can check out the new gear at the Anaconda 7 hour this Sunday.

I have also decided on the new bike. I ended up going for the Dualy and this is it

Trek Fuel EX 8 might get it in a gold colour called Root Beer

I wont be able to get it until November but hopefully will get it before the first round of the State XC Series and the Kona 24. I am doing the 24 hour in a team of 4, sorta looking forward to it.

Many many thanks to Croydon Cycleworks for their continued support, they help me out alot and really look after me, without having that support it would definitely make things alot harder, if you have not been out to check out the store yet make sure you do, they have a great range of gear, all the good stuff, Fox, Sidi, Met etc. and some awesome bikes with Trek, Cervelo, Norco and more they even have the bike above you can take for a test ride not to mention the guys there have a great deal of experience and all of them race as well.

Well I just returned from an appointment with Keiran at Elite Myotherapy, they dont sponsor me or pay me to give them a plug but Kieran has been working on my shoulder which has been giving me a fair bit of pain in the Enduros, and after just 2 sessions he has made me feel alot better than the last therapist I was seeing weekly for 3 months straight so hopefully after tonights session I can make it through the 7 hours relatively pain free (in my shoulders at least) and be able to last the distance.

That's all from me, check back on Sunday night to get the low down on the 7 hour.

Kat

FTF XC Race at Officer

2008-07-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

Finally beat my arch nemesis Megan Lawson! Phew what a relief it was to cross the finish line knowing I actually didnt come last, it's easy to say its not all about winning but as Jack Brabham said in an interview about an upcoming yacht race yesterday "Well it's all about winning really" and obviously I didnt win the race but I beat a few riders and my times were not as bad as I had expected so was fairly happy with my result, now for the finer details of the race.

The line up for the A grade looked more like the start line for a round of the nationals not a club race down in Officer, Dan McConnell made an appearance along with a bunch of other top elite riders and a bunch of great chicks there too in Tory Thomas, Jenni King and Niki Fisher, so I entered the D grade and all I wanted was to not come last, we took off and my plan was to go out hard on the first lap and try and stay with Megan, we took off up the fire trail and as we made it to the single track Megan was puffed as much as I was but I went through ahead of her and that was the best thing that could have happened, usually I stay behind her and try to stay with her but this has not been too successfull so I will try this tactic again next race and hopefully it works out.

Now I went out to pre ride the track yesterday with my trusty riding pals James McArdle and Andrew Liu and came across a bit of a drop off which honestly scared me a bit, it took a bit of convincing on their part to get me to do it but I eventually did and on the 2nd lap I did it again without hesitating and wondered what all the fuss was about earlier so when I came across it in my first lap I didnt think twice about doing it but unfortunately cleaned myself up going over the handle bars in front a photographer (hopefully those photos are coming soon) not only embarassed but feeling a bit sore, didnt want to show it so picked myself up and took off still ahead of Megan. I managed to get through the rest of the first lap unscathed, a few close calls in a few slippery spots but nothing major, as I crossed the finish line for the first time I had no idea how far in front I was but obviously wanted to maintain my lead but my legs just had nothing in them, I struggled up the fire trail and back in to the single track and up the first hard climb, I didnt make it near as far as I did the first lap so started pushing, at least I wasnt the only one, the 2nd lap was going good until I thought I had spotted my compettition catching me so I pushed hard on the fire trail but my chain managed to get twisted and stuck when I changed gears, I jumped off and went to get it out but it was well and truly stuck so me being the logical person that I am (not!) started to try and pull the chain out and just using all my strength and built up frustration to try and force the thing out to the point I was getting upset, figuring my race was over I started to walk back to the finish and my chain just fell out, ha better to be gentle next time! So I was over my little hissy fit and was focused back on the race, was not that far from the finish either so was feeling good but not too confident, didnt want to muck up so took it pretty easy but still looking over my shoulder the whole time. I made it to last little climb before the finish line and was content in knowing I had finally beaten Megan.
Taking off from the start in 3rd position, shame I couldnt hold that possie!

Looking good in the lead up but all went bad pretty quickly, unfortunately the photographer missed the actual crash shot but you can see in the last one it was not going well

Overall it was a great race, I like the club XC events, they have the same relaxed feeling as the Enduros but still pretty intense and great for me to get the experience up before the next State Series. Was fairly happy with how I went, I am still stopping alot to let riders through, it was hard not to do it on this course though as it was so tight and tecnical but in time I will get better with having riders passing me, its just a confidence thing for me.

Next up for me is the 7 hour Anaconda Enduro on the 27th, maybe the Dirt Riders XC on the 20th but might be away for that one, really need to get some training in between now and the 27th, I struggled with an hour today dont know how I will go adding another 6 to that.

Thanks to Peter for the sequense of photos above and to Andrew Liu for the one on top, he won my race and had enough time to freshen up, get changed pack away his bike and grab his camera to snap away at me on my to the finish line. Well done to Andrew too on his first win!

Quote for today
Whoever said, 'It's not whether you win or lose that counts,' probably lost.
Martina Navratilova, American Tennis Player

Well that's all from me today until next time

Happy Biking!

Kat

Dirty Dirt Riders XC Club Race

2008-06-29T00:48:00.001-07:00

The first round of the Dirt Riders XC series was held today out at Upper Beaconsfield. A few of us went out there yesterday for a cruise around the track, well cruise is what they were doing it was race pace for me trying to keep up with them! I realised how quickly your fitness can drop off once you stop training. With uni finished for a while I have no excuses now so have to get back to training again especially with the next Anaconda Enduro a month away.

The race started off well with my mate Gary Morrow and myself battling for the hole shot, he got it no surprises there, stayed with him until the first gnarly decent followed by a killer climb. The climbs really hurt me today along with the majority of riders there too I am sure, they don't look that big but just a long gradual climb to the top.

Not too sure of my result today as results are not up yet, I raced in D grade with about 10 guys and only one other chick, I know she beat me but don't think I came last. Was a fun race and very relaxed for a XC, all the riders were pretty talkative on their way around giving words of encouragement as usual.

James Maebus lapped me 3 times throughout the race, he had 6 laps to my 3 and still finished before me, that guy is so quick and well done to fellow Croydon Cycleworks rider Brett Henderson for coming 2nd to James followed by Troy Bailey in 3rd in the A grade race.

Brett Henderson in action

Well I don't have much else to report on in the race, was pretty uneventful, which is always a good thing.

Now I always think I am doing it tough in the races and when I see the elite riders coming past me looking like they are not doing it quite so tough I will think of this quote

Quote of the day

"It never gets easier, you just go faster"

Greg LeMond

Which is absolutely true, just because I am not as fast as the Elite riders yet does not mean they are not hurting as much, we are all out there pushing ourselves to our limits, some just make it look easier than others.

Thanks to Steve Rowe for being at the races snapping away at us

http://mtb-images.ser.id.au/

Until next time Happy Trails!

Kat

I'm Back!

2008-06-15T01:22:00.000-07:00

It's amazing what a long hard ride can do for you! (Stay on track here) After getting down on the riding especially after my embarrassing end to the last Anaconda Enduro, also just really having the shits with the world, everything has been getting to me lately with all the work I have been doing both with my full time job and the freelance photography stuff and to add to that I have my folio presentation for uni tomorrow night so the lead up to that has been very stressfull trying to get everything done before the big deadline but now it is all done and I finally had a weekend off so what better way to enjoy it by doing a heap of riding.

Yesterday saw me head out to the You Yang's with my trusty trainer for the day Duncan Murray, (in the photo above)we started off doing the same downhill section that was in the previous State XC round that I had alot of trouble with so was relieved to get through that without any probs, then we did a section from the 6 hour and managed to get through that one once again unscathed, with only one dramatic crash for the day resulting in little cut on my chin and elbow I was extremely happy as the You Yangs have caused me a great deal of greif each time I have ridden there, came away from it feeling alot more confident riding the rocks and downhill sections.

Today was out to Ringwood to fellow photographer and all round good guy; Gary Morrow's for a ride from his place in Ringwood along some bike paths (wouldnt have a clue which ones I am not that observant) to the Yarra trails and back again, ended up being a 70klm ride which is not much for you elite guys but was a big one for me, actualy felt fairly good at the end of it too.

So I have revived my motivation to get better at this sport and hope to get some half decent training in over the next few weeks whilst on my break from uni, and also to hopefully redeem myself at the next Anaconda Enduro after my crappy effort at the last one! Phew, 7 hours, dont know if i will be able to stay on the bike for that long but will have a good crack at it.

Well that is all from me, just feeling good after my weekends riding and thought I would share my thoughts.

Many Thanks to Duncan for helping me out with the riding, I am sure it must have been very boring for him having to slow down to my pace.

No quotes for this one but a recent coversation with a friend about how much men suck and how we could dedicate a whole site to it made me stumble over this http://www.mensuck.com/ turns out someone already came up with our idea, (it's amazing the crap you can find on the net!) as most of the people that read my blog are male I am sure you wont appreciate it but any chicks out there should check it out, has some funny stuff on it, disclaimer: if you do check it out and the love calculator tells you that you and Romeo are not 100% compatible I will not be held responsible.

Kat

Anaconda Enduro Lysterfield Round 2

2008-06-12T13:46:00.000-07:00

Not a great round, one that I was looking forward to and just hoping to be able to last 6 hours, well race was ended at the 1 and a half hour mark, was going up a little climb really slow and chatting to another chick that had stopped at the top of the climb to let riders pass, I looked back to see if I would be holding anyone up and before I knew it I was on the ground.

Instantly my thumb was sore I looked at it and it had swelled up straight away and I couldnt bend it, I got up and pushed my bike to the side of the track and just let some riders through before attempting to ride back to the finish, I couldnt put any pressure on it and was struggling to hold on to the handle bars so sarted walking, my first thought was not about the race being over but about my upcoming photo shoot in Alice Springs for the Finke Desert Race, with 8 kilos worth of camera and lens to hold on to if anything was broken there would not be much chance I would be right for it in the next 4 days.

Nic Eagle from the Felt team walked my bike back for me and I saw the St Johns guys who told me to get xrays, so off I went and basically I was being a bit of a sook as nothing was broken and naturally if something is swollen generally you wont be able to bend it so does not nessacerally mean it is broken.

Would rather just forget about this round and now look forward to the next.

Got back from my trip to Alice Springs for the Finke Desert Race on Tuesday, had a great time except for the weather at prologue which was pouring rain the whole time and as I was expecting sunny skies I had not taken a rain jacket so after 6 hours of standing in the rain I was absolutely freezing and had to go back to my motel for a couple of hot showers before I actually thawed out.

A few photos from Finke

A very wet Alice Springs

No front tyre Well it has been a very busy few months for me and hopefully with my last class next Monday for this semester (studying photography) I will have some spare time to do some riding, the only riding I have been doing lately has been in a race so if I thought I was unfit before now I am definitley lacking in the fitness stakes.

Will get some rides in this weekend as it is my first weekend off in a long time so looking forward to a bit of a sleep in (7.30am for me) and finishing off last minute preparations for my folio to hopefully score myself a HD!

Thinking of doing the FTF XC at Chum Creek this Sunday but might do a big ride instead will decide tomorrow night so if I do I will give you the update on that one otherwise check back after the Dirt Riders XC on the 29th.

Until then Happy Biking!

Oh and no quote for today but Kat's words of wisdom; Dont go out drinking until 5am when you have to get a flight home a few hours later!

Bad move!

Kat

Rock Hop 6 Hour Enduro at Beaconsfield

2008-05-18T02:06:00.001-07:00

This would have to have been the hardest race I have been involved in to date. The rain didnt stop all day on Saturday and driving out there Sunday morning was hard to see out the windscreen for all the rain, was sort of hoping I would get there and they would have cancelled it, but nope I got there about 8.30 and it was all happening.

So I rock up to the Croydon Cycleworks tent and ask if my 2 other teammates had dragged their butts out of bed to compete in our mixed triples team, I had spoken to Mick about one of my teammates the day before and found out he was pretty crook and most likely would not ride, this was confirmed in our conversation this morning and that I would be doing a mixed double team but about 20 minutes later we found out the he was no show too, so the discussion was made to combine the 2 other Croydon Cycleworks teams and put me in a mixed 4 which I quickly knocked back and suggested I do it solo, seemed like a good idea at the time, race didnt start off on a good note with my chain coming off twice going up the hill on the start line and passing my sponsor Mick at the Croydon Cyleworks tent about 30 seconds after the slowest riders so looked like the biggest hack 1 minute in to the race and then headed straight into a big mud bath, with my logic before the race that the rain was good thing as in my crazy mixed up mind I thought it would slow me down allowing me to pace myself for the race and conserve energy. Conserve energy???? Yeah right, What was I thinking, must have been having one of my moments I seem to be having alot of at the moment. Riding in the mud really takes it out of you, and added extra kilos to my already heavy big metal thing I am getting around on at the moment, not only that but my forks siezed up quite a while ago now and the ruts and rocks on the course were really taking their toll on my wrists and shoulders. Anyway enough whinging from me, on to the good stuff, uuuummmmmmm, ok I finished and didnt crash.

The course was made up by 9klms of mainly single track with rocky sections and 'the rock' that the race name comes from, which I had no chance of getting over and just stood there in amazement when I watched Paul Randell go over it so smoothly. Was a pretty technical course made even harder by the heavy rain, luckilly the rain held off for most of the race, with a fairly heavy downpour heading in to my second lap not far from the comfort of the tent I definitely let out a couple of swear words and got the sooks up big time and just wanted to ride back to the tent but it was short lived and the rain eased off and I was happy again, well perhaps not happy but settled down a bit anyway.

The course really did my head in and yet again had me doubting myself and whether I should or shouldnt be having a crack at the racing and just sticking to riding the trails at Lysterfield, I could do that but that would take out the best bits of Mountain Biking, the challenge of racing a course like this is one thing, riding it for 6 hours is another and as much I was getting down on myself for not being able to do what I wanted to do out there the great sense of acheivement I felt when I crossed the finish line for the last time was plenty of reward for what I had just put myself through and when I think about it I was one of only 3 girls to attempt it solo and managed to be the 2nd best solo girl on the day so that has to stand for something and is motivation enough to become the 1st best female in the years to come. I certainly have realised that it is going to take me a long time to get to where I want to be with my racing so for now the aim is just to relax and have fun with it until that time comes.

So I am struggling up a climb and one of the riders posed the question to me as to whether I would do another solo enduro, a quick No from me was the response as was the same response given after the Anaconda Enduro last week but I figure if I can do 6 hours on this track in those conditions then for sure I can do the next Anaconda Enduro solo, so decision made, my next race will be at Lysterfield on the 1st of June as a 6 hour solo compettior.

Overall was a good race and was great to have the Croydon Cycleworks guys there, they made sure I did the right thing with my eating and drinking this race, I was a bit of a mess after Lysterfield and felt heaps better at the end of this race today no doubt by doing the right thing by keeping hydrated and fed.

Thank You's

Croydon Cycleworks, Mick made sure my bike was good to go before the race and all the guys kept me motivated to keep riding.

All the riders that gave me encouragement when I just wanted to sit on the side of the track and throw a tantrum.

And Thanks to my photographer mate Gary Trounson for coming out in the cold to snap away at us and thanks for the photo above. Check out http://www.gteephotography.com/ to see if he got any of you.

Quote for today

"That's the beauty of mountain-bike racing - there isn't a f-ing pill available out there that helps you ride down a mountain faster."--Adam Craig

Until next time Happy biking

Kat

Anaconda Enduro Series @ Lysterfield

2008-05-16T02:27:00.000-07:00

My first solo enduro, the idea was to do this one solo to see if I could handle doing the whole series solo, well that wont be happening, I ended up doing 5 laps of a 10klm course in 5 hours, the last lap was a big struggle for me, about half way through I really didnt think I would make the rest of the lap and just basically had the shits with the world, was getting angry with myself and just stuffing things up which made me worse and started getting a bit emotional and feeling like I really should not be doing it, everything I made it up or over in the first lap I just could not do and really had nothing left in me to get up the hills, it was very slow going and alot of stops to get me through.
I knew my laps would be 45-60mins and was given the advice to eat every hour and also have a gel, after the first lap I was feeling pretty good and the laps actually didnt seem to take that long so figured I would be ok for another lap before stopping to have a gel and food, as I passed the finish line to go on to my third lap I still felt pretty good so decided again to push on for another lap and then stop, about half way through this lap I started to feel a bit crap, was hungry and legs were not feeling good at all, I knew I was not drinking enough water but didnt feel thirsty so just kept riding, I pulled in after my third lap and had a power bar and a gel and went on to to my 4th, I felt ok for a while but as soon as I got to a climb my legs just had nothing in them and I was very slow going up.
I finished my last lap just after the 5 hour mark, feeling pretty sore and sorry for myself, I guess you can expect to feel sore after 5 hours of riding but to feel like you have just had a big night out is not right, was not feeling good at all, and as the guys said I obviously did not have enough water through the race and also should have been eating too, very valuable lesson learnt and I will know for the next one.
I think I will pass on the solo entry for the next 3 rounds of the series and team up with another rider. I have alot work to do on my fitness and skills before I attempt another solo enduro.
Overall I enjoyed the race, the course was alot of fun and everyone could obviously see that I was struggling up the hills so were very encouraging which definitely helped especially on the last couple of laps. I also made it through the day crash free which is always a good thing.
I am riding in the 6 hour at Beaconsfield next week in a team of 3 with 2 Croydon Cycleworks riders so should be alot fun. No excuse to not eat and drink there as I will have plenty of time between laps.

Quote for the day

Eat, drink and be Merry

Quoted by some dude in the bible but more importantly a verse out of a song by Dave Matthews Band, this quote would have come in handy for me today brother taped across my handle bars.

Until next time happy riding

Kat

6th and Final Round of the VSS XC at Beaconsfield

2008-05-16T02:23:00.000-07:00

The final round of the Vic Summer Series was held out at Beaconsfield, they obviously saved the best for last, well perhaps not the best the but definitely the hardest for me, with some tight single track sections and plenty of logs and rocks to get over it was a challenge enough in itself without adding heavy rain overnight into the equasion. I pre rode the track the day before when it was dry, just as we were leaving it started pouring so I was nervous as to how the track would be in the wet and having only ever ridden a wet track once before this made me even more nervous.

So we are lining up on the start line freezing our butts off and the nerves are really kicking in now, again it is just me and Megan in contention for 1st place and I didnt think I had any chance at all of beating her on this track. We took off into the Pines section and I got through this bit OK, I was right behind Megan as we headed over the bridge and into the first climb, this was a struggle for me to try and get up and Megan and I both ended up walking up the hill, we both got to the top at the same time and took off into a bit of a downhill, I was focused on staying with her as much as I could until unexpectedly I slid out and hit a tree, my thigh taking the impact, with a corky that reminded me of when my brother and I used to have punching competitions to see who could give the best dead leg I jumped back on my bike and took off again, with Megan in my sights I pushed harder to catch her and again we were pushing our bikes up the next hill climb, at this stage the Elite guys had caught up to us and as usual I was trying my best to stay off the track and out of their way all the while Megan was getting away from me, so with the advice of many of the riders I decided to see how I would go with trying to keep riding while the riders pass me instead of stopping to let them pass, seems it is not that much of a drama after all and they all seemed to get around me fairly easily while still giving me some kind words of encouragement along the way. That is until a wider section of the track and Murray Spink and Adrian Jackson were battling for 1st place, they came up behind me and I heard Murray call Track so I went to move left but Adrian had started passing on that side and Murray was passing on the right, Adrian caught him here and passed him on the corner so didnt feel too good about that one. Murray went on to be the eventual winner of the race and the Series.
I came up to a section of the track and young Trent Bucknell had a branch stuck through his chain and derailleur so I figured I had no chance of catching Megan and it didnt really matter if I did anyway so I stopped to help, away I go again and almost at the end of the first lap I was about to go in between 2 trees when I saw some fast riders coming up behind me, I unclipped and went to pull to the left, slipped on my pedals and made and absolute dick of myself, hit the tree and nearly blocked the track for them, anyway we all got away unscathed and I went in to my next lap, was going along OK until I mucked up going over a few rocks and had a bit of a tumlbe, one of the Elite girls had just passed me and was around the corner when it happened and I heard hell yell out 'Are you OK?' yeah I am fine keep going I yelled out, 'Are you sure?' was her reply , 'Yeah yeah keep going i'm right' I yelled back, then I got around the corner and realised I had made a dick of myself for the 2nd time, she was actually asking Mary if she was alright and I was answering as if she was yelling out to me, Mary had crashed into a rock and was crouched on the side of the track so I stopped with her for a sec and then we walked off together and had a bit of chat along the way, was nice to relax a bit during a race rather than just trying to catch Megan the whole time.
I was nearing the finish line and was going through a nice fast section and perhaps got a bit carried away and nearly cleaned myself up again, so just reminded myself to ride within my ability (my ability? mmm..havent worked that one out yet but working on it) so I pulled up a bit and just finished safely, no good crashing out a few hundred metres from the finish line. Megan ended up beating me by 9 minutes in a well deserved win on a tough track. I actually found the track better in the wet than it was when it was dry the day before, just a bit dodgy going over some of the logs and rocks.
I definitely need to work on the cardio side of things, I was sounding like an asthmatic going up some of the hills and while my legs felt good I just could not catch my breath so that held me back a fair bit, back to doing the 1000 steps for me.
So overall my first season of racing with all the good and bad bits thrown in has been an awesome experience for me and after getting down on it after the bad rounds I am so glad I persisted with it and finished the series. When I look back to where I was 5 months ago to where I am now it gives me great sense of acheivement and inspires me to work harder to get better at this sport.
Next up for me is the Chase the Sun Series at Lysterfield on the 11th of May which I am competing in as my first solo race. The first round is 5 hours and depending on how I go there I will decide whether I continue the series Solo or do it in a team. After that is the Rock Hop at Beaconsfield the following week and then on to the Winter series which consists of 4 rounds at Beaconsfield. So it looks like I will be spending some time out at Beaconsfield training over the next couple of months.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, I have had alot people comment on it and it is great to get your feedback, I hope you enjoy reading about my experiences and hopefully it paints a picture for you of what it is like for me as new comer to this sport in my conquest for that elusive win.

Thank You's

As always Croydon Cycleworks, was good to have Mick Jamison there on Sunday to cheer on myself and Jim http://www.croydoncycleworks.com/shop/

Rob Faull for convincing me to come and race after I had found a dog on the side of the road tangled in Blackberry bushes on my way to the race and was torn between taking him to hte RSPCA and going to race, worked out OK, the pound came and picked him up just before the start of the race, poor little fella, I hope they were able to track down his owners.

Also to James for helping me out on the Saturday, I would not have been able to get through the technical stuff without his help.

I have decided to add a quote the end of each of my blog entries so here goes

Quote for today
Vincent Lombardi NFL CoachIf winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?

Kat

Round 5 VSS XC Wombat

2008-05-16T02:15:00.000-07:00

The penultimate round of the VSS was held out at Wombat track today. I headed out there yesterday to pre ride the track hoping to get one up on my competition, not the greatest idea as I decided I didnt like the track and had it in my head that I couldnt ride it. I called Rob Faull to tell him of my dillema, turns out it was not much of a dillema at all, pretty much the respone I got was to quit whinging about it just ride it. And fair enough too, I cant just pick and choose which courses I am going to ride and if it is too tough for me then I really have to question whether or not I should be having a go at this.

Turns out the course was not as hard as I made out to be on Saturday, I was in a crappy mood on Saturday and perhaps a bit emotional so was probably not in the right frame of mind to be riding out there on my own in the first place so was being a bit dramatic I think, anyway its Sunday morning and as soon as race mode kicked in all the obstacles I didnt attempt the day before soon seemed like no big deal at all.

With 3 girls in my class I was always assured of a podium but not really a legitimate one when you come third and there are only three of you in it! I was up against my nemesis Megan Lawson and a new chick Lisa, I was sizing her up and decided she was not much to worry about and that Megan would be my main concern, with only 1 and 2 minutes seperating us in previous races I was fairly confident I could keep with her on the first lap and hopefully get away from her on the hills, well we took off from the start and I let Megan go ahead on the single track planning to stick behind her and had Lisa behind me not worried about her at all, about half way in the elite guys started passing and I started stopping to let them get past, I could see Megan and Lisa getting away from me but am so worried about getting in the way of the fast riders I didnt want to continue on the single track and hold up riders, this is something I need to overcome, dont know how but I need to.

By the second lap I was pretty sure they would have been a fair way ahead of me and had given up any hope of a legitimate podium so decided to just try and enjoy it, which I did, as soon as I stopped worrying about where they were and trying to catch them everything actually went fairly smoothly and was definitely able to enjoy it more.

I ended up with 3rd and last place for the day and was beaten by 8 minutes so not quite as I had hoped but really was the best I could do on the day. Megan came second losing to Lisa by 21 seconds.

I was pretty down on it all after the race and really was wondering whether I should continue or not. I guess I have 2 choices, I can give up and go along and photograph the events to try and make some money or I can stop sooking and try to up my training which is pretty much non existent at the moment (due to work and uni commitments). I think a 6am jog tomorrow is looking to be the go for me rather than the 4 times I hit the snooze button. I am yet to win a race and cant give up until that happens and then when it does I will just have to keep winning to win the series and then I will start racing in the Expert class and this business of coming last will all start again and on it all goes, so giving up is just not an option.

I love riding and the atmosphere at the races and regardless of whether I win or lose (well lose or lose) I have mostly had alot of fun at all of the races, even at the Youee's race with my constant crashing and very bad result I still enjoyed it. I have also met some great people through it and some great riding partners.

One more round to go, hosted by my club Dirt Riders http://www.dirtridersmtb.com/ and then bring on the Vic Winter Series!

Thanks You's

Thanks again to Rob Faull, although we have not been able to train lately he is still a big motivator to me and I know if I do call him when I am doubting myself he will sort me out pretty quickly. http://www.mtbfit.com/

Croydon Cyclworks http://www.croydoncycleworks.com/shop/

And to Dave Blair for teaching me how to change a tyre!

Until next time Happy Biking!

Kat

SH.I.T.S, Beechworth 6 Hours in The Saddle

2008-05-16T02:12:00.000-07:00

My first Enduro! I left work early on the Friday, bad headache (yeah right!) and headed up the Hume to Beechworth, I made my arrival to my accommodation of choice, well not really a choice it was either here or pay $120 for a room on my own so I opted for the cheapskates accommodation being the Commercial Hotel. I paid for my room grabbed my key and headed straight out to the Beechworth Mountain Bike Park. I met Graeme (on the left in the photo above) and his brother Brian who were staying at the same Pub as me, they were later to be my dinner dates for the night and thank god for that too, the room was about 3x3 metres and had a bed and a sink in it and that's all so would have been a boring night otherwise. Anyway, I changed in to my gear and headed off on my bike on to what is definitely the best track I have ridden, mainly single track and quite rocky and technical, no massive climbs, fantastic! for me anyway. Riding it on the Friday was great as there were not too many other riders out there so had the track pretty much to myself.

Saturday was a different story with over 200 riders I was quite nervous as the track was quite tight and me being a stress head I was worried I would get in the fast riders way and was having second thoughts about riding. As it was the rider I was going to partner with had not shown up or let me know if he was or was not coming so I was trying to decide to ride it solo or just take photos all day, the photography was looking to be a winner when Steve and Jodie Clausen convinced me otherwise, they introduced me to David Jupp who had the same issue with a partner pulling out so we decided to ride as a mixed pair. The decision then needed to be made as to who would do the first lap, I nominated David for the duty, good decision too, the start included an extra 15 minute hill climb.

My first lap was OK, I spent alot of time pulling over to let the other riders pass, 2nd lap was going great, I realised the riders could get around me quite easily without me having to stop and was feeling pretty relaxed, I was heading into the 2nd half of the track along a bit of fire trail when all of a sudden a hissing sound came from below, nope not a snake, a flat! SHIT! No tube, no pump, no idea how to change a tube even if I did have one, oh well better start walking, pretty much every rider offered to help which I knocked back as it was my own fault for not having a tube on me and felt like the biggest idiot too. One of the solo guys was having a tough time and wanted to stop so he pretty much took over and started changing my tyre for me, he only had enough air to half fill the tube so he headed off and I waited until one of the other riders that was not taking it too seriously to lend me a pump, so another rider stops and he starts pumping away to no avail, that tube was dud, back to square one, he was better prepared than me and had 2 spare tubes so gave me one and we got the tyre fixed and I was away again. I quickly went and bought spare tubes to repay the riders and waited for them to pass the finish line so they didnt get stuck out there without a tube.

Last lap hurt, I felt pretty good at the start of the lap but going into the 2nd half of the track this time I was not feeling too good at all, legs were sore, shoulder and back was sore, had a couple spills too so was not feeling great, alot of riders were very encouraging and that kept me going until I got to the last climb before the finish, I didnt think I would be able to ride to the top but somehow managed a very slow ride to the top and then it was pretty much all down hill from there, that was it for me I handed over to my partner and he completed the last lap of the day.
I really enjoyed my first Enduro experience, I like the fact that you get to rest between laps, eat, drink, socialise and then head off and do another lap, seems to be less pressure than the XC races too, everyone seems to be more relaxed and has a chat as they ride along beside you too.
I am planning to do the 6 hour Rock Hop www.dirtridersmtb.com on the 18th of May in a team and the Anaconda Chase the Sun series solo http://www.fullgaspromotions.com.au/new/cts.html on the 11th of May but for now I will concentrate on finishing off the VSS XC with the 5th round this Sunday 13th April and the last round on the 27th. Hopefully with good results at both.

Thank You's for today

Same as usual but special Thanks to David for partnering with me, I am glad I got to ride and didnt attempt it solo, I struggled with 3 hours so dont think I could have made it to 6. Also to Graeme and Brian for their great company both at the Pub Friday night and in between laps on Saturday.

Happy Riding!

Kat

Big Hill Race

2008-05-16T02:05:00.000-07:00

Well as the name suggests that's exactly what it was, a race with a bloody big hill, I didnt conquer the thing either, I dont know what was worse trying to walk the damn thing or ride it, either way it equalled pain! Perhaps I will make it up it next year. I had a great race, it was by far the most enjoyable for me, I started right at the back so didnt have to worry about faster riders trying to get by and even managed to pass a few which was a first for me.
I managed to get 4th in the Womens Open which we entered as 36.5klm but were told they threw in an extra 2klms just for good measure, So for the 38.5klms I managed 4th place with a time of 2hours 50min, 11min 47secs off the winner.

The start of the race was a mass start of 200 riders so I stayed right at the back, from the start line we headed out onto a fire trail which went on for not too long before we got into the first bit of single track, I havent ridden very many different tracks but this was alot of fun and by far the best single track I have ridden in my total of 5 races so not much to compare to but that's what I thought, although would have been happier if there was a bit more single track in it but still loved it all the same. From here we came out and back to fire trail, there was a hill we were going up which I thought was pretty big and figured it was 'The Big Hill' I asked one of the guys that was riding in the group I was riding along with if it was in fact 'The Hill' to which he replied 'Nope it's alot bigger than this one', great I thought, I didnt struggle too much with the hill we were on so was quietly confident that I could do the big one, a few more hills came up and I wondered as I got to the top of each of them if they were the notorious Big Hill, hoping once I had got to the top of each one they were, until I spotted it, The Big Hill, there was no doubt in my mind that this was it. There were riders walking their bikes up, not one person ahead of me was on a bike, I pedalled as much as I could but couldnt even make it a quarter of the way, so off my bike and started waliking, then once I thought I had reached the top and got back on the bike for a bit it was there to haunt me again, so back off pushing my bike again not for too long though. From here it was not too far to the first feed point, I had some Powerbars and gels on me and didnt feel like stopping so rejected the offer of the bakery treats they had on offer and kepth going, came to really fast downhill that seemed to go on for ages which was a nice change to all the climbing we had just done, not too sure how fast I got down this section but figured after I had seen the other girls doing the first steep down hill section that they would probably not have gone that fast down it so figured that would have given me a pretty good lead on the others, I knew they would catch me on the up hills so tried to get though the next bit if single track as fast as I could which nearly ended badly with a wet log diagonally across track and my lack of experience riding in the wet, I hit it going pretty quick (or quick for me anyway) and it pretty much slid me sideways along the log towards the trees on the side of the track, I dont know how but I managed to avoid face planting it and remained upright, the only other near off I had was when my handle bar clipped a tree but managed to avoid any disasters there too. Once I got out of this bit of singletrack it was pretty much fire trail the rest of the way, I was on my own for the rest of the race and in some spots I was worried I had gone the wrong way until I spotted another rider off in the distance, I was cruising along nicely, most of it was down hill from here and next thing I spotted the top of one of the Bike tents at the finish line but actually thought I still had at least 10k left to go and thought it might have been a bit of a tease Otway Odyssey style where they have to pass the finish line and go off and do another 13klms past it, it was nice to find out that was not the case and I had finished my first Big Hill Race.

The finish line was very quiet and not too many people around, I figured either I was really slow and everyone was gone or maybe I made it in before the rest of the riders doing the bigger rides which turned out to be the case. I thought it would take me 4 hours and was hoping to do it in less than that so was a nice surprise to find out I had done it in under 3 and beat a bunch of girls in my class and some guys too, so very happy with that result! I planned on taking my camera with me to get photos once I had finished my race but figured there was no point as I thought most of the riders would have finished well before me, including the Elite 90 klm riders so didnt bother,oh well will take it with me next time.

Thank You's for today

First off a huge Thanks to Croydon Cycleworks, they have supported me from the start, Mick Jamison worked on my bike for me on the Friday before the race and just a few small changes to my bike made a huge difference and no doubt had an impact on my result today. Check em out at www.croydoncycleworks.com/shop/

Also to the organisers of this event, they did a great job putting this race together and to the marshalls for volunteering their time to guide us in the right direction. Top job!www.bighillevents.com.au/

Thanks again to Rob Faull for all the help and encouragement http://mtbfit.com/

Round VSS XC Castlemaine

2008-05-16T02:03:00.000-07:00

There seems to be a pattern happening with my racing that I hope does not continue, my first round was a shocker, second one was good, third one another shocker and this the fourth round was another good one so going by that every second round is a bad one for me so I should be due for another shocker next round, hoping to break that pattern.
This round was the most enjoyable round for me, perhaps it was due to the number of riders being down this round so I didn't feel too stressed about trying to get out of the way of all the riders, this was the best start order too, we got to go last so didn't have fast guys flying up behind me for what seemed to be a long time before the Elite guys started to lap me, and I actually got to pass a rider that was slower than me, granted he was probably all of 8 years old but I will take it anyway.
I opted for the flat pedals for this race which helped alot with my confidence, still getting used to the clipless pedals and didn't want a repeat of the last round. Megan Lawson, my only compettiton on the day ended up beating me by 2min 59 secs, I could see her most of the race but no matter how hard I pushed I just could not catch her.
The next round is at Wombat State Forest on April 13th still not sure if I can make this round but will do my best to be able to get out there, everyone tells me it is not all about winning just so long as you enjoy it, well it would make it alot more enjoyable if I could actually win one and considering I usually only have 1 or 2 to compete against surely it is acheivable. I am lucky enough to live close to Lysterfield so get to spend some time out there training when I can.
Thank you's for this round
First off Thanks to Rob Faull, Rob has been coaching me once a week since my shocker out at the You Yang's, no doubt this helped me out at this round, it is good to have someone to push you to do things that you think are not capable of and then realising that you can actually do it is a great feeling.
Once again Thanks to everyone I have met since I started out, I have met so many great people all willing to help out however they can and also to the riders during the race giving encouragement when they can see me struggling, generally just an hour and a half of encouragement for me really!

Until next time happy biking!

Kat

Round 3 VSS XC You Yang's

2008-05-16T02:01:00.001-07:00

Not a good day for me today, crash count started before the race had even begun, with a total of 5 for the day. I was still getting used to my clipless pedals and struggled to get out of them in time on a couple of sections of Cressy Climb so a bruised backside, ribs and a bloodied knee and elbow later I finally managed to finish the race. Not much to tell about this round, one I would much rather forget about. Came away from it having learnt some more valuable lessons to take into the next round, it seems in this sport all valuable lessons learnt are associated with pain.
That's all from me today, until next time happy riding

Kat

Rnd 2 VSS XC Bendigo

2008-05-16T01:48:00.000-07:00

Round 2 of the VSS, held at Sedgwick.

Well definitely a better result than the first round, I actually finished this one! We raced on a 6 klm very rocky and pretty technical course, in my class we had to do 3 laps, I ended up with 2nd place and only 1 min 4 secs behind th winner. I can honestly say it is one if the hardest things I have done, my fitness is still not great but I am working hard on it,also mentally it was really challenging for me, after the second lap I found it hard to concentrate I was starting to hurt and was really struggling with it all, it sort of does your head in after a while and you start to wonder why you are doing this to yourself, that is until the finish line is in sight and suddenly you get all this extra energy from somewhere, then when you pass the finish line it is just the best feeling and then you realise why you are doing this!
I started doing the Wednesday night Dirt Crits run by Knobby Sports www.knobbysports.org, Chris Beales organises this fantastic race in Wantirna, a bunch of people all rock up after work to race each other in a 30 minute dash through a paddock scattered with odd obstacle (cow poo!)
Some exciting news for me, Mick Jamison out at Croydon Cycleworks www.croydoncycleworks.com very generously offered to sponsor me, which is great for me, all the guys there are very experienced athletes and no doubt I will gain alot from it.
I have also had an offer of some training from Rob Faull who is the Vice President of Dirt Riders www.dirtridersmtb.com, the club I have just joined so I look forward to starting some training with him and coming into the next round with some more experience to help me get through the technical stuff, hopefully fitter and better prepared.
Thank you's of the month!
Just one big Thank you to everyone that I have met in the last month, I have learnt so much from just riding with different people each week and I never seem to have a shortage of people to ride with, the one thing I have found with this sport is everyone is willing to help each other out.
Huge Thank you to Croydon Cycleworks for the sponsorship, I look forward to hopefully providing them with some good results in my class.
Well I think that is more than enough from me so until next time happy biking and hope to see you out there!

Kat

My First Mountain Bike Race

2008-05-16T01:10:00.000-07:00

Sunday 9th December my first MTB Race!
But before I get to that I will give you the low down on how I got to this point. I got my very first Mountain Bike on the 26th October 07, I didn't have too many plans to ride the thing, didn't want to knock back the generous offer of a shiny new Mountain Bike from a friend, so headed out to Lara to pick it up on the Friday after work, still dressed in my work clothes including 5 inch stilettos (for those clueless guys out there they are very high heels), all excited I attempted to ride my bike in my heels, not a good idea, so to try and redeem myself I decided to pack my bike in my car without looking like a hack, that didn't work either, realising I had way too much stuff in the boot I tried to get the front tyre off to fit it in the back seat, after struggling for a couple of minutes to figure out how to get the damn thing off I tried once again to redeem myself and go for the logical approach, just shove it in! Worked.
So Melbourne Cup Day comes along, I decide to give the day out Flemington a miss and take my bike for a ride, off to Lysterfield for me. That was all I needed to get me hooked, 5 weeks later I was on the start line of my first MTB race, not just any race but a State XC. Ok now for the race report, well it will be a short one, after what can only be desribed as a series of unfortunate events I ended up with a DNF, wont get into details but I certainly learnt some valuable lessons from my first race and will be better prepared for my next race, including getting one up on my competition by pre riding the track we will be racing on ( Thanks John Harvey from Bendigo MTB Club for allowing me to come out and ride on his property)I have also started a healthy eating plan and vigorous training regime, including doing the 1000 steps out at the Dandenongs, great lung buster for all you fitness fanatics out there, long distance road rides, a couple games of netball each week and the usual rides out at Lysterfield so looking to go into my next race with hopefully a good result.
Thanks to all the girls out at the Woodend race for all their advice and encouragement and thanks to everyone else I have met along the way. Thanks especially to Garry Morrow who was my official Pit Crew, Dietcian, Chauffeur, Photographer and most of all Mentor to me when was down on the whole thing in the car on the way home. I am looking forward to the next round which will be held in Bendigo on 13th Jan. www.mtbbendigo.com I will update you with the results, until then happy biking, be it Mountain Bike or otherwise and have a very Merry Christmas and safe New Year.
Kat