The Time Has Come... See You in South Africa!!!

Well, here I am only a couple of days away from flying out to South Africa and the lead up over the last week has been a bit of a rollercoaster, to say the least. I have had some great days, and similarly, some pretty ordinary days. Sleep is a rare commodity... Something seemingly afforded only by a chosen few (of which I am not currently one)...

I can't even begin to describe how crap a day last Tuesday was for me. Everything seemed to conspire against me and I felt like I was getting more and more behind in everything... And I have this huge deadline looming called "OVERSEAS TRIP" by which time everything MUST be done... So fitting two days worth of work into one day, organising the last bits and pieces of my trip and still training are becoming increasingly difficult to balance. To be honest, up until the start of this week, I thought I had it pretty much under control, but I suppose it's all under control until it isn't (and then it's REALLY out of control). I am starting to find I am running out of appointments in my calendar to get stuff done, which in turn is probably giving me a slightly shorter fuse than usual. I had a 3 hour ride on my program for Tuesday evening, and I had planned to leave work just a little early to make sure I hit the road by 5.30pm. As it turns out, I didn't get home until 5.30pm, then I had to change the flat on my hardtail (which I had noticed on Sunday but hadn't yet done anything about) and by the time I was ready to rock, it was 6.15pm. I felt so tired, but I needed a ride so badly... I needed it to clear my head so I could sleep!!! I set off and only five minutes into my ride, noticed something wasn't quite right and realised my back tyre was nearly flat. I had focused so much of my attention on changing the front flatty that I hadn't checked the pressure in the rear. I only had CO2 with me, and I was loathed to waste it, so I turned around and went home to use the floor pump... By the time I set off again, I was absolutely seething... I just wanted to ride, have a feed and go to bloody bed! Too much to ask??? Maybe so. As I rode along, my mind was going a million miles an hour about everything except riding. It was probably a good thing... I failed to notice the first couple of climbs I was that preoccupied. It wasn't until I hit the dirt climb at the end of Turitea Road that links to Greens Road that I started to feel good. My legs felt pretty strong (although a little tired) and my mind seemed to have processed all it needed to for now. As I hit the crest of Greens Road, I was greeted by a beautiful sunset which had turned the clouds pink. It was a lovely evening to be out... Oh how lucky I am that I have a bike or I may miss out on moments like this! I continued out to K-Loop. I had originally planned on maybe cutting my ride back a bit because I left so late, but as I climbed Back Track I felt so good... I was pushing a much harder gear than usual, at a good cadence, and despite being on the hardtail, I felt really smooth, so I kept climbing up to the top, up to that lovely new piece of trail that has been carved into the hillside... I'd been daydreaming about this little 500m stretch of trail all day! I sessioned this little gem until the sun dropped below the horizon and then cranked up the Ay-Ups for the trip home in the dark. This time I was prepared for my night ride (and actually quite looking forward to it!) so I had both my handlebar light and my helmet light, which was awesome! I took out my new set of Ay-Ups to test them out, and, as is always the case with my Ay-Ups, they worked a treat. I bombed down Back Track with reckless abandon, disturbing the night with the crackle of my tyres on the ground and my whoops of delight. As I approached the Green's road turnoff, I had originally planned to head straight down Kahuterawa road and head home, but I was setting such a good pace, and felt so good, that I decided to head back up over Green's road and home the long way. It was quite surreal to climb to the crest of Greens Road and see the bright pink sunset replaced by a cloud-encircled moon with the Palmerston North city lights hanging quietly below... It really was a spectacular sight to be treated to. I arrived home about 9.30pm, cooked a feed, had a shower and jumped into bed to prep myself for the next day. By the time I got home, the day that had seemed so impossible was all of a sudden no longer in my thoughts. I had this big smile on my face, a big smile in my head, and a big smile in my heart. I love my bike(s).

After such a late finish the night before, I awoke early on Wednesday with a bit of a haze in my head (as could be expected), headed off to work and then onto the bike again as soon as I got home. I had hill reps to do tonight, and actually found the opposite to what I had experienced the night before... I felt ok going out, but my legs just weren't firing. I did some rather disappointing hill reps and returned home a little early. To be honest, I could probably put it down to fatigue from my previous evening's ride and from trying to get all my loose ends tied up and prepared before my trip, but I was frustrated nonetheless, especially after such a great ride the night before. Thursday morning brought plyometrics to start the day and then over Thursday and Friday, I had the opportunity for some rest days going into Oceania XC Champs on Saturday.

Thursday also brought the opportunity to catch up with my beloved team mate John and our awesome sponsor Oli from Roadworks. I had some business to take care of in Wellington for the day so we jumped at the chance to have a catch up before John and I jetted off. Oli was kind enough to give my bike a final workover and I felt a little guilty that he had ended up doing it in the dark after a power cut at his workshop, and that my Schwalbe UST tyres had caused him considerable grief when coupled with my XTR rims (sorry Oli!)... I felt a little better about it all after dinner when he accidentally ate my dessert (apparently Kahlua Cheesecake and Citrus Tart all taste one and the same when you are in good company and preoccupied with the conversation!). It appeared we had all had similarly trying weeks in one way or another. In fact, I was slightly relieved when I saw that John was having some similar frustrations to me, trying to tie up loose ends before the trip. It's really hard to get excited about the impending trip when you are constantly on the rivet, getting no sleep and trying to get final details sorted, and I had felt bad that I wasn't excited about the trip (yet). On a good note, our jerseys had arrived that day (and looked bloody cool! Thanks Blox!), I had a great night ride earlier in the week, and John had smashed a personal best ride up Tip Track that had stood for the last five years! As our evening wore on, and our plates and glasses emptied, my worries vanished into the background, replaced with the pleasure of being graced with the presence of two of the coolest dudes I know. It was a pretty surreal moment when I got into the car after dinner, wound down the window and said to John "see you in Cape Town!"... Wow... There it was... NOW I was excited!!!

I arrived in Rotorua Friday evening, had a feed, prepped The Ninja for a day on the trails and hit the sack, waking up the next day feeling pretty good. I was actually really excited about Oceanias. I was racing Masters 1 Category and I was really hoping for some good competition and then a podium placing out of that competition. It made me really nervous, and probably the most nervous I had been in a long time... I'm guessing it was a mixture of wanting a podium position, and also knowing that I should be pretty on top of my game by now in the preparation for Cape Epic. Wednesday night's ride was also still lingering in my head, which likely didn't help. It was a beautiful day down at the Redwoods and I was pretty happy that our age group category (old girls) were racing in the morning at 10.30am (as compared to the elites racing at 3pm that afternoon). I headed out for a lap of the course and was pretty stoked with it. There was some hard climbing at the start and then we rolled our way through some familiar Whakarewarewa trails that had been altered with some little tricky bits especially for the race. I was glad I pre-rode the course, because there were actually some sketchy sections that surprised me as I rolled into them and I had to rework them so I was comfortable to ride them during the race. I decided without a doubt that I would take the chicken run option over the infamous, gnarly rock garden (THE rock garden)... Maybe I'll try riding that some time when I don't have a impending trip for which I have been pouring my heart and soul into over the last year! The general consensus was that riding the rock garden saved about 15-20secs, but unless you were super confident riding it, the risk of having a crash or getting a puncture outweighed the time saving.

Back at the start line for the race, I had been seeded near the front of our wave, so when the whistle blew, I took off up the start of the Longmile Road hill like a rocket... This seems to have been a common theme in my starts of late... I am convinced that training in a constant headwind over the last 12 months here in Palmerston North has turned me into an accomplished sprinter, so off I went to lead the pack out of the start chute. A few people mentioned to me afterwards that they thought I had gone out way to hard, and maybe they were right, but it felt good at the time, and I suppose that sometimes, that's what racing is about... Getting ahead when you feel good and persevering when you don't. I got to the top of our first climb and felt not quite as good as I did when I jumped out of the gate... My body felt good, but my legs were still a little heavy. My climbing felt really laboured as opposed to feeling nice and fluffy. I dropped off the back of a couple of the masters ladies and for the first lap and a half, spent a good portion of my energy focused on trying not to vomit. It may have just been the intensity and the nerves but it came right about half way through the race. It was interesting to note when I downloaded the data from my GPS that my average heart rate for the race had been 168BPM!!! And considering my maximum sits at about 175BPM, I must have been going harder than I cared to realise. The support around the track was amazing... The cheering as we came through some of the busier sections of trail was loud enough to drown out any thoughts or pain that had worked their way into my head (thanks spectators!!!). I was also really happy that I was quite comfortably clearing the entire course without too much concern over the more technical sections. As my gut came right part way through the second lap, I began picking up other riders. I was coming first in my age group category, which was cool, but there were a couple of other masters ladies ahead of me who were in other age group categories, so I set my sights on trying to catch them. I wasn't really content on settling in... I was pretty keen to keep the hammer down to the end. The Ninja was riding really well after some love from Oli at Roadworks on Thursday. I felt really comfortable and I even found I was quite comfortably taking air from little kickers and then getting a well-balanced landing... Something I had never really done before but seemed to be coming to me quite naturally on this particular day (FUN!!!). I picked up one of the ladies, and then caught Sarah Beadle just before the end, but didn't quite get the opportunity to pass and put in any distance. I think I was probably about ten seconds behind her at the end, which was disappointing in it's own way, but I couldn't let it cloud the fact that I had just become 2012 Masters 1 Champion... A pretty cool way to polish off my NZ race season before heading to South Africa!!! I was really stoked to stand on the podium in my new Mitre 10 MEGA - Yeti Cycles jersey that afternoon... Then I headed off on a little two hour training ride (just because that's how I roll!).

Sunday morning I hit the trails in Rotorua one last time before heading home to Palmerston North. It was an drizzly morning, but lovely to be out on the trails, and the overnight drizzle had bedded down some of the dust on the track to make it nice and sticky. I had intentions of doing the XC Eliminator that afternoon, but had decided to flag it and get home early to start on packing (because I seriously had no idea when I would otherwise get it done before Thursday!!!). After carving up some dirt, I headed out for the breakfast at Zippys, bumping into a few old mates and acquaintances along the way (Rotorua is good for that!!!) and then headed back to Palmerston North, feeling quite chuffed at yesterday's effort, but pretty smashed all the same. I spent a few hours giving The Ninja a really good clean. Getting a bike through biosecurity on the way into another country generally requires a toothbrush, detergent and and a great amount of attention to detail. I then packed her up into her box and started laying out everything else I needed to pack. I was pretty satisfied with a productive night's work... It would make it really easy to get everything else packed up during the week. My only challenge remaining would be to balance all my luggage out around my carry-on and checked in baggage without getting stung for extra baggage charges.

So the week upon us has largely consisted of all the "last minute" stuff... Getting massages, tying up loose ends at work (and unraveling more loose ends in the process), doing a bit of training to keep the legs moving, packing and getting my new Tablet set up so I don't have to haul my laptop around everywhere with me (I really should have thought of doing this earlier because it is proving to be very time consuming!)... The "To Do" list is gradually getting smaller, and whilst maybe not as quickly as I would like it to, I'm sure that when Friday rolls around, I'll be chomping at the bit to jump on that plane (and use it as a great opportunity to catch up on some sleep!).

It's probably a great time right now to once again, thank our team sponsors and my own sponsors for their amazing support. Mitre 10 MEGA have not only looked after us as a team, but have been a great employer for me and I am really excited that what I do outside work (carving up trails for the greater good) is something they take an interest in and support. Kashi at Yeti Cycles has united us with our fine racing Machines for the trip. These ASR5Cs really are a bloody amazing piece of machinery and if you get a chance to ride one, you should... Oli at Roadworks has done favour after favour for us and I can't thank him enough. Paul at Blox has worked relentlessly on making sure our jerseys got to us on time, even jumping a few unforseen hurdles along the way. Mark at Adidas Eyewear is responsible for putting us in sunglasses that not only match each other, but match our jerseys!!! Jack at Camelbak has provided us with some great hydration gear (and even a contact in Italy to help me get a support crew for 24 Hour Solo World Champs!). Bryce at Cycletech has to hold the record for shipping out product quicker than I can blink (I wonder if he reads my mind and knows what I am about to order before I even email him sometimes!!!). On the personal front, Ayup Lights have provided me with an awesome new set of lights (that match my bike!) for 24 hour solo world champs, Pedal Pushers bike shop in Palmy have looked after me really well sourcing product at short notice, Barb at Xalt has not only kept my muscles "fluffy" with her awesome massage skills, but has acted as my quasi-shrink for the last six months! A huge mention also needs to be extended to Manawatu Mountain Bike Club (and in particular, the Knight family, and the Bamfords) and to Glenys at Cycling Manawatu for the support the cycling community have given me here in Palmy. And last, but certainly not least, my coach for the last four years, Sadie Parker-Wynyard for subjecting me to pain so brutal it may be illegal if I wasn't asking for it, but having me come out the other end so much stronger for it (I hope I've made you proud coach!).

Now all that remains is to get on that plane, arrive at the other end, and rip it up. I have pretty loose plans outside Cape Epic and WEMBO 24 hour champs, other than my flight booked from Cape Town to Milano on the 13th of April, so I will keep you updated here on my blog whenever I have access to the internet. Stay tuned! It's going to be a wicked two and a half months!!!

A First Time For Everything

So, this time in two weeks, I'll be in South Africa... Pretty cool huh? It's come around so quickly the last year seems to be a blur, so as I get closer to that plane flight, I am finding increasingly, I am coming across a few "last times" before I go... Things like "this is the last time I will need to use my Camelbak before I leave" and "this is the last time I will use this bike before I leave"... On the flip side of that, this week brought a few "firsts" as well.

Coach Sadie has started to wind me down a little for my trip, so Tuesday was my usual sprints after work followed by an active recovery day on Wednesday. Thursday was the Mitre 10 MEGA Summer Series, which was held at Linton Camp. All day Thursday, the weather had been terrible. It had been pouring with rain, and with memories of the "Bog of Despair" at Linton from our night series last Winter, I decided that I would leave The Ninja at home tonight and save her from the mud (she would have enough of that at Karapoti the coming weekend!). I opted for the Purple Trail Eater and swapped out the tyres from the semi slicks that were on it to something a little grippier (I love my Schwalbe Nobby Nick front and Racing Ralph rear combo!). Tonight was the first time I had donned my new team jersey, and it looked bloody cool, not to mention it was also awesome to finally be able to get out loud and proud on the Mitre 10 MEGA front with the bright orange sleeves and logo. My matching Adidas Eyil Eye Pro Half-Rims set it off just nicely, too! I considered riding out to Linton (as I would usually do for races out there), but I was running a little late and the wind was howling through town, so I opted for the slightly softer option of driving (and felt incredibly guilty for it, too!!!). I got kitted up and stood around talking smack for a bit before heading to race briefing, at which point I realised my rear tyre had gone flat... Annoying! I rushed back to the car and did a super quick tube change just in time to join the rest of the group on the start line. PHEW!!! It left me without another spare tube though, so if I flatted again, that was my night over with (luckily I didn't!). It turned out that the course was actually surprisingly dry, and rather rough, so it was hard work on the hardtail (but good training and forced me to find ways to ride smoothly). It took me a lap to get fully settled into the spaghetti maze of trails around Linton. They have managed to squeeze something like 2km worth of trail into a space that is 200m by 200m (or something similarly crazy) so you soon learn to carry your speed out of corners as best you can to conserve energy. After the morning's plyometric workout, my legs were screaming at me for my "between corners" sprinting. I spent most of my first couple of laps with Colin Knight. The atmosphere tonight was really jovial (we were probably all just stoked that the weather had been kind enough to give us a gap with no rain!). I remember at the end of the one lap saying something along the lines of "move it old man!" to which he responded by stagger-standing in front of me against the fence on our U-turn out to do the next lap (cheeky!!!). A couple of laps before the finish, I dropped the hammer a bit and spent the last couple of laps on my own, coming second behind Sasha Smith... I don't think I have been to a single one of these Summer Series races that I haven't had an absolute ball at yet. Such good value for two bucks!!!

Friday morning I did my core workout and then rested up for Karapoti, which was the next day, and the Perverse Reverse, which was on the day following the Classic. There were all sorts of reports going around about the weekend's weather and the impending "weather bomb" which caused widespread cancellations even before seeing what the weather would actually do... It seemed pretty serious, but us mountain bikers brushed it off and at 6.30am I jumped in the car with the Bamford boys and and headed off towards the Akatarawas. The weather in Palmy seemed ok, but as we got closer and closer to the start line, the weather turned quite nasty... Rain... LOTS of rain. This didn't bother me. Truth be told, apart from the cleanup afterwards, I quite like bad-weather racing. I spend so much time out in the elements that I figure the harder it is for everyone else, the better for me! I was really looking forward to this! The only concern I had was the depth of the river crossings. Swift-flowing rivers are on par with gale force winds for little old me... Although at least the winds wouldn't drown me! As we reached the top of Akatarawa Road, I had a text come through from John... Race postponed to tomorrow. A quick check on the website confirmed this... Being the crazy nutter I am, my first thoughts were "but what about the Perverse Reverse?" I started conjuring up plans of how I might be able to still do both... Like ride the Classic, and then just turn around and do the reverse straight after... We turned around and headed back, flagging down other cars along the way to save them the trip over to find out it was postponed. The website told us that if it didn't stop raining by 2pm, the rivers would still be too high for the following day to stage the race, too... In the end, that was the case, and for the first time in it's 26 year life, the Karapoti Classic, the race that NEVER got cancelled, was cancelled. I was really disappointed... Everyone was really disappointed. I had been salivating at the thought of me and The Ninja rolling around in the mud and then crossing the finish line looking like the swamp thing. Instead I was relegated to the trainer in the living room... Boring! Having said that, I do believe the organisers made the right decision... And whilst I know the terms and conditions say that the entry fee is non-refundable, I hope the organisers will at least refund part of the entry fee as an act of good faith to the cycling community that continues to support the race after 26 years. On our trip home, we stopped in at the service station to pick up a Weekend Herald which, just casually, had a Q&A article in it on John and I. I was rather excited... I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've been in a national newspaper!

So, back at home in Palmerston North, the weather actually didn't seem too bad... A bit of rain and some wind (nothing unusual there!), but I felt a bit nervous about heading out and getting caught in sudden adverse weather, so the road bike went on the windtrainer and I did back to back trainer sessions... A one hour speed session, then a half hour plyometric workout (just to make sure I was fatigued), then a one hour power session. I reckon I probably got in nearly a Karapoti's worth of work, but I was still a bit bummed out by our cancellation. This was supposed to be my last big weekend before I set off on my trip.

Sunday morning was cold. It felt pretty odd to be kitting up with knee warmers and long sleeve thermals at the start of March... Maybe Autumn has passed us by, too??? I was meeting up with the Bamford boys for a ride out to K-Loop. I grabbed the hardtail off it's hook in the garage to find I had another flat, this time on the front. If I had changed it out, I would have been left with no spare tubes for the day's ride, so I decided to just swap bikes and take out the Porn Star instead (that's my Pink 2009 Yeti ASR)... THEN I realised I didn't have a mount on it for my GPS, or a bottle cage, so I had to go back and get my Camelbak and do a quick zip-tie job to pop the mount on my handlebars. Argh! I left home a little flustered, but all was forgotten pretty quickly once the legs were turning and the wheels spinning. It was actually really nice to be out on my old pink Yeti. It's been so long since I have ridden it. It also reignited my internal debate on whether to bar end or not to bar end on The Ninja. I must admit that The Ninja LOOKS very cool without bar ends, but I have to say that after I enjoyed riding with my bar ends today that I am swinging towards functionality over beauty to put them on The Ninja. We headed up Greens Road and out to K-Loop, up Back Track (the creek crossings were surprisingly not all that deep!). It reminded me of a crisp Winter's morning and was quite pleasant. At the top of Back Track, we headed off to the left to the top of a new trail that as just been built. It's only about 500m long at the moment, but it is a SWEEET piece of work with these amazing berms to rail and tabletop jumps (all rollable if you aren't into hucking). It was the sort of trail that you could session for hours and hours and not get tired of. It had also held up really well in the rain. If this is a sign of things to come for K-Loop, Palmy is going to have one fun little mountain bike park up there within the next couple of years! Watch this space! We then had a bit of a bush-bash/mud crawl to get to the descent trail back to Kahuterawa Road and I had the pleasure of watching Tom Bamford drift an entire hairpin corner on his way down (nice moves Tom!!!). We came back via Greens road and then parted ways so I could head off along the river track to add some time onto my ride. It was quite a surreal experience to be riding along the river track and have to take detours around the river which has risen so much with the rain that it flowed across the track in places. It was also amusing to see walkers and their dogs stopped at little river crossings, watching me coming towards them, obviously wondering how I was about to cross this mudpuddle in front of them. Of course I went straight through it, then gave them a muddy grin and a holler on my way past. I think they enjoyed watching it as much as I enjoyed doing it! Whilst a little overgrown at the moment, river track is always a pleasant little blat close to town and some one has added a cool little side trail along there called "dipper" (check it out next time you are down that way). I got home very muddy and feeling like I got in quite a satisfying day's worth of riding, and Tom and Sam kept me pretty honest for most of the day!

So in the end, I got a pretty good weekend's riding in... Although probably nothing quite as tough as I should have endured on Karapoti road on both days. But these things happen for a reason, and I'm sure my pocket is rather stoked to not have to replace my entire drive train before I leave! I'm pretty sure this two weeks is going to pass me by pretty quickly. I still have a bit of planning and training to do and some loose ends to tie up at work, then there is the packing of all my worldly possessions for two and a half months into a mere 23kg, but otherwise, I reckon I have it pretty much under control. I can't wait!!! But first of all, I need to knock off my final race next weekend at Oceania XC Champs, where I will be racing the old girls category again!

One Week, Two Podiums...

I had a bit of luck with the media around Palmerston North this week. I think my impending trip to race in faraway lands combined with the NZCT Women's tour had the local papers on the scout for stories about female cyclists, so I made three appearances in the papers this week and also seemed to get quite a bit of publicity surrounding the La Femme Fun Ride on Saturday, especially thanks to XALT 110% Sports Performance, who used me on their flyer as "pin-up girl" for their competition (thanks guys!)... So I felt like a bit of a local celebrity here in Palmy this week!

The start of my training week is, really, a Tuesday... Monday is a rest day... A nothing day, in reality, but I guess a lot still happens on that day that I don't really pay attention to... Well, this Monday was when we confirmed our sizing for our new jerseys, which was a pretty exciting milestone for us. Tuesday, I had an interval session, and whilst feeling quite smashed, I somehow still managed to knock out my best average speed yet on that particular loop. Tuesday evening I had a phone date with Coach Sadie and we did some mapping and planning on how we were going to get me through the next three weeks without having me bury myself, but also without losing any of the base, speed or power that I had been working so hard on (it's a surprisingly delicate balancing act!). The thing I think I mentioned in my last blog was that I feel really great mentally at the moment. My head is ready to carry me through anything that my body won't, and that's a great frame of mind to be in going into such a huge undertaking as the Cape Epic. So we made a call to cut a couple of longer sessions out of this week and "freshen me up" a bit for Karapoti in a weeks time... Still some big weekends ahead of me, but not so much hard riding during the week, which will not only help me rest, but will let me tie up some loose ends before I go. We figured that realistically, to back me off now would have very minimal negative impact (if any), but for me to overdo it right now could have some pretty serious repercussions, so it was really a bit of a no-brainer to cull a couple of sessions.

The above meant that Wednesday, instead of 3 hours worth of hill reps, I had a half hour active recovery, which was actually a real relief. It also meant I got to head out to Massey Uni and check out the first stage of the NZCT Women's Tour, which was really cool. Watching hard Women race their bikes is always awesome and the strength of the World Class field present at this race is truly inspirational. I also headed to the doctor Wednesday afternoon to get my medical clearance form signed off for the Cape Epic. My resting heart rate was measured at 48BPM (in the middle of the day!) and my blood pressure at 90/60... It wasn't until I looked up a blood pressure chart afterwards that I understood why the doctor checked it twice (no wonder I have to sit on the edge of the bed for a couple of minutes before I stand up in the morning!)... This training has obviously put me in pretty good shape!!!

Thursday morning was my usual plyometrics workout and the afternoon saw me out in heinous winds doing sprint reps for an hour. It was bloody hard work and with 70km/hr gusts, I was having some pretty sketchy moments. I still wasn't feeling too well. I'd had a sore throat since Tuesday now and was starting to develop headaches. Friday was another rest day, asides from completing a morning core workout and I was hoping to shake this bug before the weekend. Saturday, I was supposed to be doing a 100km training ride then jump in with the La Femme Ride, but I made the call on Friday night that if I still had a sore throat when I woke up in the morning, I'd ditch the 100km pre-ride and just do the race. I really can't afford to be getting sick now and I know from experience that sore throat combined with long ride will manifest itself in a good flooring (so best to avoid that!). I was also rather stoked to receive a couple of packages on Friday... One from Adidas Eyewear containing my new MEGA Orange Evil Eye Pro Half Rims (in small size) and clear lenses for them and my Supanova glasses, and a second package from Jakub at Avantiplus Waitakere, who helped hook me up with my new Garmin Edge 500. New toys! Yeehaa!

When my alarm went off at 5am on Saturday morning, I still had a sore throat, and as much as I wanted to force myself out for a nice long ride, I knew it wasn't a wise decision to do so. It also wasn't really THAT hard to convince myself to switch the alarm off and have a sleep-in... So that's what I did (yep, I am human, after all!). At 11am, we watched the pro women doing the NZCT Tour roll out for their start and the La Femme "Fun" Ride rolled out not long afterwards. It was an interesting mix of riders doing the La Femme, and when the neutral vehicle pulled away at Terrace End, I was actually a little surprised at how quickly the pace picked up. It quickly became evident that not all of us were treating this as a "fun" ride... After all, we did have timing chips on, and there were prizes to be had and egos to feed, so off we went at race pace. I was actually really impressed at how large the field was (there were 61 ladies on the start line of the 50km race!). We have a great community of female cyclists here in Manawatu, and a huge range of speeds and abilities, but everyone just seemed so stoked to be out on their bike with other like-minded gals, which I thought was really cool. We were sitting in quite a large bunch which was surging backwards and forwards (which is pretty normal for such a big bunch). It needed to be broken up a bit for the greater good. I used a couple of small climbs to test the pack a bit and see who the faster riders were who could stay with me when I attacked. It looked like there were a group of about 5 or 6 ladies who were up for a little breakaway group. About 20km in to the 50km race, I was taking my turn at the front, glanced behind me and realised that a number of these stronger ladies were at the front of the bunch with me, which made it an ideal time to put in an attack. I added a couple of gears and took off up the hill. When I first looked behind me, I was by myself, and then about 10sec later, I was joined by two other riders. We had a bit of a chat and decided that we would make a go of the break. We had a good jump on the pack, and then two other riders bridged the gap and joined us (one of which dropped back off pretty quickly). So there were four of us working in the break with 25-30km to go. It took us a little while to get ourselves organised to work together, but once we had our little team rolling through efficiently, we were motoring along. Just quietly, I was pretty chuffed that I had initiated the break, and I was pretty intent on keeping away from the pack and maintaining the break to the end of the race. We didn't dare look back... We just kept our heads down and rotated through. I was really impressed by the work ethic of the girls in the break with me. There was not one of us that backed off that whole time. We didn't talk or sit up or look behind us... We were all on the rivet the whole way from the time we left the peloton (and my heart rate monitor confirmed that for me at the end when I saw I had averaged 90% of my max for the whole ride, which meant I probably spent the majority of my time in the break at 95%). One thing that had noticeably improved since the Bev May Tour for me was the strength of my seated climbing and my average cadence. I was maintaining my cadence and conserving energy really well, which I was very pleased with. We had one minor hiccup en route, when we missed a turnoff where we hadn't been directed properly by the marshalls. To be fair, they were also directing the pro women, and us being the first group through for the La Femme may have been a bit confusing for them, but it probably cost us about 30sec, and had we realised just how close the peloton was behind us at that point, I reckon we may have started panicking (ignorance was bliss on this occasion). As we came down Stony Creek Road with about 7km left to go, the lead vehicle pulled alongside us and yelled out the window "you have forty seconds on the peloton"... Shit, seriously??? Only 40 seconds??? We had been working so bloody hard, and to be honest, I thought we would have had way more on them than that, but the truth was that we didn't. I hit the panic button a bit at that point. I couldn't imagine anything more brutal than having initiated an attack and managing to hold it for 30km only to be gobbled up by the peloton on the finish line... There was no way I was going to let that happen... I was sitting in the draft of one of the other girls at this point and I remember yelling out "ok, let's go... Let's finish this off"... The pace didn't change and I realised that she was starting to get tired. I jumped on the pedals and passed her, towing her in my wake, and we picked up the pace as a group by quite a number of notches. One of our little team dropped off the back, leaving just three of us to rotate through. As we hit Napier Road, I was getting pretty bloody tired, too... And it was obvious that there was going to be a sprint finish between the three of us. I was under no false impressions. This last kilometer was going to hurt a lot... As we entered the last 300m, both girls were in front of me. I got up out of the saddle and sprinted my guts out passed one of them. My legs were burning with lactic acid. I ignored it and pushed on, then started gaining on the other, but it was a bit late to catch her and I finished second by a matter of meters. I later found out that the winner was a rather accomplished sprinter at a world masters level, so I didn't feel quite so bad. In the end, we came in about a minute and a half ahead of the peloton, so we picked up quite a bit of time in our final 7km push for line. It was a really bloody honest day in the saddle, and thank God I didn't do that 100km ride beforehand! We knocked out 50km in 1 hour 30 minutes at an average speed of nearly 34km/hr! The La Femme "Fun" Ride (I use the term "fun" very loosely in this context) was an awesome day out on the bike. It was challenging and competitive and it catered for a wide range of riding abilities. It was also incredibly well-organised (the race packs, post-race lunch and prizegiving were fantastic!). Definitely one to put on the calendar for next year!

Sunday was an early start. Up at 5.30am and on the road by 6.30am to head to Eskdale park in Napier for round 4 of the NZCT National MTB series. I had decided to jump in with my age category on this one, mainly because there was paperwork I would have to fill out to race elite (and I'm pretty sick of filling out paperwork with my upcoming trip!), but also because I knew my health hadn't really been all that crash hot this week and I wanted to get in a full training session without being lapped out. The start was a bit of a funny one. I heard the starter say "go", but I don't think anyone else did, and I took off like a rocket out in front of everyone (I thought at first I may have false-started!). The course was a real "fitness" course, as opposed to a technical course and it suited me quite well. I felt surprisingly strong and fast. The first small climb up past the feed zone I was quite comfortably pushing out seated in the big dog, which I was pretty happy with, then a nice piece of singletrack connected with the bottom of this absolutely brutal granny ring climb which seemed to go on forever. It was, however, the only big climb on the whole course, so once it was over with, the rest of the course was pretty fast, agile work (I was glad to see that climb behind me on my last lap!). After the climb, we undulated across the top of the ridge then dropped down onto Switchback trail. Apparently Napier had some rain the night before and it made the steep, tight switchbacks sketchy work for the first couple of laps. By lap three and four, I had figured that you just stick your front wheel in the rut and let the back wheel slide around wherever it wants to go and you would make it around in one piece at a reasonable pace. Then there was a really fast piece of singletrack straight through to the timing tent. If you picked your lines right, and stayed light on the bike, you could really pin it through there at a solid pace (and I think I did that pretty well today!). I felt really strong for the full four laps (although a little hungry as the timing of my breakfast was a bit off with the travel in the morning), and I lapped very consistently, too, which is pretty cool. I came in 1st in Masters Women, although it was disappointing that there appeared to not be any other ladies in my category (I know you guys are out there!!! Don't make me come and get you!!!). It would have been nice to be able to validate the fact that I had a really strong ride against some other competitors, although I did quite well against the other age group women who started at the same time as me. I ended up having a cracker of a day! I waited around for prizegiving and then headed straight home for an afternoon nap and some refueling. It was a lovely day out and I was so tempted to hang around in the sun, but I really needed some rest.

So now we are just about into the three week countdown for my trip. Most of the loose ends are tied up, with a couple of little outstanding bits and pieces (insurance... really must get onto that!!!). This week was a really good confidence week for me, and it was quite nice to see that once I backed my training off a little, my legs came up pretty fresh to put in some good efforts. The hard work is done now... I just need to maintain it and look after myself (and survive Karapoti and the Perverse Reverse next weekend!).