Critters

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

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