MAP Metropolitan Championships - Road Race Win

Turned up to the MAP Metropolitan Championships at Mt.Alford after a last minute change of plans.  I'd decided it wouldn't be okay to have my daughter waiting by the road while I raced a lapped course.  Too boring and not safe enough, so no racing for me.  C'est la vie.  We were planning a tandem ride instead :)

Come race day an early phone call changed plans!  Thanks to a very thoughtful Duggan my little offsider, Annabel, was given a better offer than me for the day - bowling and a play date with Sophia.  I can't compete with that, so she headed off bowling and I headed off racing!

The women had been told that they had a separate race.  The Tour of Adelaide had cut the A Grade numbers drastically so we were to combine with women's B Grade.  On the start line we learned we were actually racing in with Masters B men.  Long story short - it was hairy as hell.  By the third lap only a handful of women remained in the bunch, either through pace or discomfort in the tight conditions.  I am guessing it was mostly the latter.

I spent the first two laps staying protected and worked to mark where the girls were in the bunch, easier said than done in these big field races.  I kept myself safe as best I could and followed the steady youdan wheels for a while!

1st A Grade Race, 1st A Grade Win.

Come the last lap the pace lifted.  This time I gave it something on the climbs and found myself reasonably positioned towards the front of the bunch.  As is common in these races we hit the descent and everyone let up resulting in a concertina.  Two dudes lent on each other for no particular reason, and another swerved to get away - into my front wheel.  I went down, though thankfully we were on an incline at the time and the pace wasn't too high.   Blood from elbow, knee and a sore ankle but all I focused on was getting back on my bike and finishing it off.   I put the chain back on, twisted my bars back, and dragged my brakes across - not pretty.  I looked up the road and to my surprise thus far half the bunch still seemed to be missing.  Go Go Go!

Cat and I with our medals.

Cat, one of my favourite FNQ cyclists, travelled down for the race and was on my wheel at the time of the chop.  She managed not to crash but unclipped and hit the top tube hard with her gooch.  We like to call this 'doing a denchy'.  Apparently it is a mandatory tradition for someone to smash a gooch with the top tube at some point in this race - this year was Cats year.  She waited while I sorted myself and we had a repeat of cunningham - though Phil also waited to help drag us the last 9km or so home.  She did an awesome job in what was her first experience with the city Masters B bunch.

We rolled it in and somehow we had stayed ahead of most - with a podium for both of us in our respective categories! Awesome stuff.  Less awesome were the riders still on the road from the second crash which apparently took down a lot of riders, including Jane and Lauren.  Get well soon ladies!

All in all a very successful weekend for Koiled with Shannon Duggan taking out 2nd in the Masters B Crit, myself taking 1st in the A Grade Road Race and Captain BP (Tony Lupton) killing it, TTing away from the break to take a decisive win in Masters B Road Race.  Especially stoked for him and his achievement, knowing how hard he has worked.

Tony enjoying the air on the top step.

Battle on the Border - Tour de Tweed goes my way....

Tour de Tweed is a multiday, staged road tour including road races, crits and TTs.  I have been keen to do one of these for a while and although my riding has been limited the entry was paid.  What do you do?  You RIDE!  So I headed off Thursday with the mighty Koiled crew to cause some havoc and look awesome.


Based in Kingscliff and Murwillumbah - the race region is truly beautiful.  Having grown up mostly in the northern rivers area I always enjoy being back around this part of the world. Long story short - I ended up having a brilliant Tour and came away with a Stage win, a Stage 2nd and stood clear as the overall GC Winner.  Exceeded my expectations!  If you have time here is how it went.....

Kamp Koiled - setting up home base

 
Stage One - Road Race
The hurt.  It has been too long.  Somewhere a few months back I got fit enough that I could race dumb and still pull out a result.  Not anymore.  Not riding my bike was showing. The emotional strain too. I managed a wheel touch on the first steep pinch climb due to a dodgy combo of rollback and keen drafting.  Sorry Nic.  I belted myself to tow her back, angry for the silly mistake and feeling like I needed to make amends.  I managed to get us back on.  I was well cooked by this stage - just in time to hit the KOM.  Around this point I am pretty sure I met my max HR. I had thought I might have a go, but given the belting I had just given myself to bridge it was clear to me I didn't have it.  Rolled over in about 6th.  Once over the KOM it was a reasonable cruise back into town with some rollers along the way.  I rode the front and belted the pace with a small group of other girls.  Gina and I tried to break.  Jane and I tried to break.  Nic and I tried to break.  Probably needed to stop trying to break, this was a lot of work.  Too much really. I shouldnt have been continuously driving the bus, but my MTB brain always squeals 'woooot! lets drive the bus. look at me driving the bus. rawwwr driving the bus is fun!'.  In hindsight I don't think I have ridden dumber in my life. Coming into the final straight I was in the first 3 or 4 riders when I experienced a weird sensation in my legs.  Didn't think too much of it until I stood to explode into the sprint.  Double Leg Cramp.  what.the.hell.  I have never cramped in my life - including times when I have ridden for 8 DAYS STRAIGHT! I was lucky not to lose any time - finishing in 15th, with the bunch on +0 seconds.  This put me 10 seconds off the lead and into a very unhappy place.  Where was my body?  I was clearly racing in one I didn't recognise.   It felt wrong.

I know what was wrong - I forgot to bring my Ritte!  Koiled boys roll it in style.

 Stage Two - the TT
Do or die.  I might not recognise my body, but I still had my mind.  No time bonuses up for grabs here.  Just the straight out race of truth and reward for those who could hurt more.  I knew this was probably my only real chance to ride myself into contention.  I needed to ride faster than everyone else.  I needed to gap them. As I warmed up I concentrated on the job at hand.  Shan set my wheels and moved the transponder to the TT bike.  It was an awkward ride - I couldn't find my rhythm, one gear up too hard, one gear down too spinny - it was ugly and I was fighting it the whole way.  Still I passed a good group of the girls that started in front and no-one had caught me - I hoped I had done enough.

TTing through the canefields.

On my cooldown I heard the announcer calling my time as the best so far.  It held.  I came out of the TT +16 up on the General Classification and received the Leaders Jersey.

Stage Two - TT presentations... Sue on the left, Lauren from MB cycles on the right.

Mention here for 2nd place finisher Sue Powell, she rode with a special carbon leg brace as she has no feeling in her lower leg.  She is one of our top Para-Olympians with both gold and silver medals from London in her collection - and a world champ TTer.  It showed.  Man, I love tough people.  This chick is one of them.  I made a point to seek her out and shake her hand at the end of the Tour and politely ask her story.  Very humbling, very cool.

My first ever leaders jersey - definitely a selfie moment right?

Stage Three - the Crit

Warming Up.  And a jersey full of safety pins.

Game on.  I had the leaders jersey and my plan was to keep it.  I had some awesome advice pretour from one of our most successful queensland cyclists - Simone Grounds.  She had warned me the crit was usually full of tired people taking dumb chances and the job here was to finish upright and lose no time.  I checked the results for 2nd and 3rd race numbers and identified my competition on the start line.  Those wheels must not get away.

Plan was to stay near the front but try and conserve. Get through on 0+ secs and steal time if I could.  With a small steep, twisty circuit this would be easier said than done. 

There were plenty of contacts and words exchanged but the bunch stayed up and I finished in 7th, managing to extend my lead by another 3 seconds.   It was enough.  I would be starting Stage 4 in the leaders jersey.

GC Presentation - Day Two.

Stage Four - Road Race
I headed into the final stage knowing that as long as a break didn't go and I could finish with the bunch I was impossible to beat.  As we rolled out I felt surprisingly calm - probably because I was repeating impossible to beat over and over to myself.  I knew there were technical descents, which always work in my favour given my MTB confidence.  I was starting to feel better - somehow the hard consecutive days of racing were bringing me back to form.  Or at least that is how it felt. Maybe it was just the mental state I had managed to access - who knows? Don't overthink it. As we hit the first climbs it was clear a number of the stronger girls were tired and lacking strength. Yes! No breaks would go today.


As we hit the first descent I got my ass to the front and out of trouble.  I always like to be at the front so I can corner and descend on my terms! I heard what sounded like a puncture in the bunch behind me - but it turns out it was a crash.  I am guessing a pedal strike!  Get well soon Sally Duncombe from MB's who took a bad highside stack - she was having an awesome tour.

Rolling with Sally - Get Well Soon!

The crash shook the peleton badly and made everyone twitchy and nervous.   I talked to a number of the younger girls to help settle them down, I am sure for some of them it was the first crash they had seen.  Anna lost her drink bottle - and Jane Youdan in a display of sportswomanship gave her one of hers.  Nice one Jane, you restored my faith in roadies ;)  The race was then stopped as we lost our medic.  Standing beside the road for 20mins is not the ideal way to complete a road race but it has to be safe. So we waited.

Once we were back underway it was on and as I rolled some turns I paid mind not to fall for Stage One's mistakes.  Do not drive the bus. Do not drive the bus.  I was looking for the roundabout right turn into Salt where I knew I needed to be on the front.  Problem was I hadnt preridden it and there were a bunch of roundabouts in a row. Needless to say I stuffed it up - poor preparation leads to poor performance. We hit it and turned right and I was much further back that I intended.  Oops.  I attacked the left hander and managed to steal up to third coming into the final approach with two tight right handers just behind Faye and Dyane.  Chaos! Faye lost it on the corner and put herself in the gutter while Dy rode clear with a slight gap.  I smashed it up the straight to minimise time finishing second to Dyane - but I knew. I'd done it.  And with a 2nd in the stage too!  Congrats to Dy who was on a great ride.

Stage Four 2nd - with Dyane Hannan (Data3) & Faye Goodyear (Lifecycle).

In the wash up - Battle was meant to be a peak for me this year. An A Race. I had written it on paper.  And I wanted to win.  Despite illness and complete handgrenading of my life it occurs to me that somewhere in there, somehow I still did it. It wasn't the usual controlled, clinical approach I have to racing and preparation and I am hoping not to repeat it. As I now start to turn my attention back to dirt for October a small thought creeps in. I am proud of myself.  WEMBO - let's get this done.

Final GC podium - Dyane Hannan (Data3) and Anna Hull (Racing Kangaroos).

24 Hour racing returns to SE QLD!

Blog has been quiet of late as I work my way back to health and slog my way through base.  Not much racing to speak of....  but here is one I would not have missed for anything! Doubly so as they had used me as a poster girl, and not turning up would have been, well, embarrassing.
Finally, a 24hr race of our own again in South East Queensland.

What a great race and a corker of a course at Hidden Vale.  I still think it is one of the toughest 24hr courses I have ever ridden.  Period.  I got to ride with a great team of Koiled mates - Shannon Duggan, Andrew Kelk (on loan from Rapida Vecchi!) and the great Matt Dog.  We all talked about being out of form, slow, there for fun but 30mins from the start the unmistakable silence dropped and race mode was engaged.  Once a racer, always a racer huh?

It felt strange not to be soloing but I have work to do before I can be back there.  And I know I will, but it must be done in a controlled way - the right way or I will be waiting a whole lot longer!

At the end of the day we took out the 4's overall, a lap clear of the opposition.  Thanks boys, that was uber fun. 

thought for the day....

I am in the base phase of training, rebuilding and preparing for the 2013 round of the 24hr solo world champs. Coming back from some reasonably serious illness means that things seem tough for a perfectionist like me.

It's hard work, it's boring at times and is going to be done for months yet.  It means the day to day local racing is done when I am belted and it is prep for something that is still so far away.  It is tempting to go easy the day before local races or skip sessions to focus on what is in the right now.  The desire to do well at an unimportant race that is right now is stronger than remembering the real game is October.  Does this happen to you? Why am I so tempted, every time???

There is a simple explanation for this.  There is psychological theory that supports all of this.  The subjective value of a reward is affected by temporal factors.  It is the basis for what we call 'impulsivity'.   In simple terms let's say we were choosing between a gummy bears and and sour worms.  We choose the gummy bears because we like them more.   But now, let's say we could have the sour worms right now, and we have to wait 5 months for the gummy bears.  Typically people choose the sour worms.  We generally end up deciding something that we can have right now is more valuable than something that is a long way away.

In understanding how our brains typically work it helps us to be aware and shape our behaviour.  There is some good news! Specifically engaging the medial PreFrontal Cortex allows us to temper this behaviour. WTF I hear you say??! It's simple - i f we stop and THINK about it, we can reassign the appropriate values and make the right choice to align to our goals.

So I am doing the work. On the bike, and in my head :)  Hope you are too!

And so it begins...

I am setting out on a journey.  It will take over a year to get there, and for a change on this one I am not going it alone.  Some of you know I have qualified for a RAAM solo attempt, the Race Across America.  Widely considered one of the hardest things you can do on a bike - RAAM takes in over 3000 miles and 8km of vertical ascent which must be conquered in 12 days or less.

It is not a stage race - it's the ultimate baptism of cycling fire.  From the time the gun goes until you cross the finish line the race is ON. It is up to you when and how you rest.  And every minute the clock is still ticking, race time slipping through the sandglass.

And this is how I plan to do it....

something wrong with this picture?

Tandem.
Why?  Because it is the hardest way you can.  Harder than solo - but that will be a topic of a whole other post!

So the work has begun.
Our first race bike has arrived.  It's a co-motion periscope.  Very cool set of wheels, imported and available in Australia through Koiled.  The guys at Calfee are making us some very slick carbon race frames to get us hammering for race day - but for now, the co-motion is the workhorse. Get to work!

We began with a fast and furious Crit race at our local, HPRW.

When we decided it was on, this is all they got to see (that's for you Jules!).

While it took a lot to ramp it up (understatement - the BURN!) once we were there we just rode away!  Pretty exciting.  Tandem riding is actually quite tricky and requires perfect synchronization of body weights and movements.  Especially so at race pace!

Drop it like it's hot.... time to ride off the front.

Harder than it looks!

There is a crazy amount of stuff to do.  Learn to ride a tandem properly, build the team, secure additional sponsorship - maybe even make a movie!  But I love doing it and the preparation is a key part of the overall adventure.

The current Tandem record has stood since 1990.  Yes, that's 23 years people.
At this point the plan is to get there prepared, with the best team, and to cross the finish line  becoming one of a very select group that have finished a RAAM solo, on a tandem.  I know we will do that.  But you gotta have a stretch target right?? :)

Ride on.

Brisbane Blast.

The QSM Brisbane Blast saw my first real ride in the open Women's A grade, courtesy of a mixed field.  At the moment I am in Base training, coming into the crit with a three week build up in my legs.  I have also started up my Yoga classes at Revive. My strength coach warned me that someone like me doing yoga would be like a heavy metal fan listening to classical music.  He was probably right.  Managed to make myself well sore somewhere in all that restoration and relaxation.  So to the job at hand - Ok brain - don't expect to be nailing my top speed sprint and do expect my legs to be screaming.  Expectations set, now ignore it and ride.

It was a blinder.  With some ex-pros and national champions present it was the deepest quality field I have raced with.  And with A, B and C combined it gave us a field of 30 something girls.  A tight, technical circuit with hard cornering, roundabouts and a hill made for a great course and increased the difficulty.

From the moment the neutral car rolled off, it was full on.  The girls were aggressive, smart and skilled.  Hmmmmmm. Yes - not in B grade any more.  I had to ride my legs off just to stay in the bunch!  As my legs burned I spared a thought for the lower grade girls, though a quick look over my shoulder told me most had been shelled and there was now a fraction of the bunch left racing.  There were a few solo girls and a three teams riding.  My first experience of really seeing these tactics in action.  It was interesting to compare how the different teams worked together.  In between bursts of searing pain I contemplated who was doing it well, and who wasn't as good. 

A break went up the road and most of the field sat up, having a team member up the road.  That left it to the lone wolves to do something about it.  No-one wanted to play and even though I knew a solo rider would not make a dint in lead group I had a couple of digs - mostly because sitting up does not sit well with me.

After a couple of goes Dyane from Data 3 and Jess from QSM joined so we strung it out but the break girls of Sam, Carla and Jasmine had the day sewn up and we were well out of time.  Chapeau girls!

Like most big races there was a little bit of bitchy behaviour.  I guess you can train the legs but you can't teach class.  From my perspective I have respect for those around me and find that kind of attitude distasteful and out of place.  Here we are joined in battle, going hard and yes people want to win.  However you can be fiercely competitive and still be respectful.  Yes there are winners and losers in every race, but there doesn't have to be assholes.  Perplexing.

Still nothing a good dose of mtb DIRT goodness wont flush away!

Rock on :)

2013 and the 1%

As every athlete reviews their season and looks to the next they ask the question - how will I improve this year.  When you have a few hard seasons under your belt you get to the point where you have the discipline to hit all the sessions and ride to the best of your ability on race day. You have fixed all the easy/dumb things and now this question gets hard! 

This year I am shaping up racing plans that allow me to tick a few items off the bucket list.  Do a proper roadie Stage racing Tour.  Get to A Grade.  Get my SS mountain bike up and running again. Find a european MTB race and get my bad ass self there (Finale you ruined me for LIFE!).

This year I know at the start of the season I am fitter and faster than I was this time last year.  It follows that as I load in my training the adaptation end point should be higher up the awesome scale.

But what can I do to get that extra little bit out of myself?

Great Coach?  Sorted.

Bike Friendly Family arrangements? Sorted.

Willingness to hurt? Sorted.

Kick Ass Riding Krew? Sorted.

Strength and Conditioning? Sorted (thanks to Andrew the animal at Body Buzz).

 

Nutrition and Body Comp? Sorted (yep, more poliquin biosignature stuff from Andrew!)

So what can I add. REVIVE.
It is time to start nailing my recovery, both active and passive.  And the key to this is going to be adding the discipline of yoga and stretching classes through my generous sponsorship at Revive.  It is funny that as an athlete you can push yourself to failure time and again training but cannot manage to stretch a muscle in front of the TV to save your life. Maybe it is because I don't watch TV! But I know you guys know what I am talking about... The thing I love about this place, where I have already been a client for over year, is that you can have treatment AND do preventative work all with the same people - and typically with one who is specialised in your sport.  Invaluable.  Though racing your physio is always a challenge - what is the etiquette there!?

Revive is supporting an amazing bunch of athletes.  In addition to the services I get access to, I am also deriving a lot of motivation and inspiration from the dedication and talent of those around me.  If you want classes or need a physio you should consider going here not just because they are exceptional - but perhaps because of their fantastic support for athletes.  23 of us in total.  They are passionate about us and it shows.

In 2013 this will be my 1%.  What is yours?