Update

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

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

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

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

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

Merry Christmas from Kat and Cat

Otway Odyssey Training Ride

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