Lake Mountain Granite Grind

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

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

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

Another boring update

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

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