Finally Mountain Biking!

Sunday was an actual MTB ride. 

 

We headed into Pinerolo to meet up with some friends of Liz’. Liz is who I am staying with in Mazze’ in Italy. We had to drive up and over Sestriere and down into a valley where we pulled up to a huge mountain glaring down upon us. 

 

The people who we were riding with said it was about a 3hr ride. Roughly 2hrs up and 1hr down the other side. So we set off cruising with the group for about, 30 seconds when Alex and I rode off at our own pace which was about… four times their pace. 

 

This was a solid climb with sections reaching 18% with a 8% minimum on the whole climb. We hit the top at 54min and waited… and waited. Not realising I was getting toasted by the sun because it was really really cool up onto of this ridge. 

 

Whilst Alex and I were waiting we were sitting down, looking down into the valley where we rode from when this huge March fly landed on my leg and bit me. Semi-shocked, I whirled my hand down onto of it. Missing it. But what I had forgotten was my point and shoot camera was attached to my wrist and it followed my hand and swung straight into a rock, Now the lens won’t retract and I can’t take pictures. Now I have to venture into Turin to see if it is fixable. Bugger.

 

When everyone arrived we hung around at the top with the other riders taking pictures. I tucked my camera back into it’s case and they showed us the track heading down the hill that we were taking. It was steep narrow and looked like a hell of a lot of fun. 

 

I jumped onto my bike and stormed down. Flicking my back wheel around corners and expecting the unexpected. About a third of the way down I couldn’t pedal so I stopped. My chain had over lapped it self. So I unkinked it. But it had already damaged it self with bent links. I have only done about 100km on this chain. Brand spanking new chain pretty much and now it is trashed. Luckily I have a spare chain but it is a bit a bummer having to use it so early in the trip. Things are going up and down at a serious speed on this trip.

 

Oh well, could be worse. I am still feeling 100% besides a little bit of sunburn and a little back pain. Nothing like a bit of sunscreen and stretching can’t fix.

 

I would be uploading more photos to the blog but I am using a friend pocket wifi internet and I don’t want to use it all up. So only text posts for now. But here is a link to one of the guys facebook group that we rode with. https://www.facebook.com/bicibikers/photos

How many Dingos?

I had too much fun doing repeats of a track at Gap Creek today. Going up and down a technical section of a trial on Mt. Cootha, Gap Creek.

One repetition was going down then back up. And I was to do 20. Twenty of these I did. Loved every second of it getting fast through the rocky sections and going fast over wet roots and rocks then hooking into berms before spinning the bike back around and climbing back up again.

Rough, Tough and down right STUFFED!

After the selection races I have gone back into base training. Which means, you know it – lots of hours on the bike! This is fine, and since Monday I have been waking up at 4am and going out at 4:30-5:00am to do 3.5-4.5hr road rides. This also included some easy/fun MTB sessions in the afternoon to help regain some confidence in my single track handling skills.

This week was going to be a 1,000km week, but I mentioned to my coach that I have a XC race at Toowoomba on Saturday (which is very steep and rocky) and a Long distance MTB-O race on the Sunday. So we still decided to have a hard week but half the amount and I managed to rack up about ~400+ kms by the Thursday and did a promotional shoot for MTB-O with the ‘Totally Wild‘ show which is a Channel 10 show on the Friday.

 

So today I was feeling a little rested, but I was doubting my chances for staying with the leaders after having ridden the course on a practice lap. It was rocky, and I mean ROCKY, as well as steep. I felt, O.K. on the climbs in the practice lap but it was a whole different story when the race started.

I knew it would be an absolute shit fight to get into the single track due to the lack of overtaking chances on the whole course and the sudden rough technical climb. I think there was about 100m of track that was viable to overtake, unless you wanted to spend a huge amount of energy to ride over rocky ground in the bush faster than someone else on smooth or rocky track.

So the race starts and I hit the first climb hard to get an O.K. spot, then about in the first 100m I knew this wasn’t going to be a race against the other guys. This was a race to see if I could make it around four times. My legs felt shot and they weren’t recovering and the close trees and rocks where making me nervous and slow.

The rough descents were effecting my left shoulder and my arms were already fatiguing on the first half of your course on the first lap! I have done mainly road cycling since I was given the O.K. to cycle again but the rough track shook me to bits, let alone my whole body already feeling like it had done the course four times.

It was a mind game and I was losing the game. I came around through my 2nd lap and stopped and had a talk to with Dad and I had already felt defeated for awhile. My back was telling me to stop and my arms were barely keeping control of the rough and narly descents. Don’t get me wrong, they were fun and I loved them but my body wasn’t dealing with it well.

I pushed out a third lap but I was exhausted and my arms were weak and the shoulder was doing weird things. Having seen stacks on the course I thought I would play it safe by pulling out and resting. I wanted to do four laps, but my body didn’t have it in me that day.

The winner Ben Forbes powered through for a victory with a healthy lead of Michael Illing who also had a healthy lead over Aiden Lefmann.

 

There is a lot of work to do to bring me up to speed. I know I am slow on tight windy tracks and I don’t quite have the explosive speed as the other guys. improving my technical skill is crucial as well. Heading into this race I could have trained differently, but this isn’t what I am training for.

My focus right now is the World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships in Estonia and I need to get kilometers into my legs then put some speed into them. I do want to improve my XC performances seeing as it will be better to aim for to have competition to push me to go faster and train better.

Victorian MTBO Champs – Long

 

Today was the day to redeem my self from the middle. The Long discipline is a race about going hard and hitting the trails hard. This type of riding can get you tired real fast and you can easily make forced errors.

First off, I didn’t start well. I didn’t even get to the start triangle before I made my first error by thinking I had already reached the start triangle and turned off before I reached it. After the early blooper I was set flying still a little unsure of my navigational skills.

About a quarter the way around the course I chose a different route choice to most, which at the time I thought was the better route choice (6-7). Based on the information I had on the map it looked like the best way, as it turned out the other route even though it showed a lower grade of track was actually super fast riding. Everything after that was fairly straight forward until the end of the course.

Myself like many other people made a fatal error where you had to ride to a major road turn left then ride into an opening, which the control was sitting in. So I stopped at a major intersection, which was exceptionally sandy and lead towards a rather large mound that was also a clearing. So I ran my bike up and spent the next few minutes there trying to work out what happened. Losing about 3-4 minutes on the leaders spilt.

Like the middle I don’t know why I didn’t realize it was too soon the track junction that I made my huge error on. After the middle and the long I just sat there looking at the map trying to figure out what was going through my head and what I had done right in the sprint.

Still trying to work it out now. I definitely need to get fitter and build on my navigation skills.

Victorian MTBO Champs – Middle

The middle was on the same day as the sprint but held in the afternoon. The Middle discipline is similar to a sprint but further in distance and on a larger scale map. You approach the middle as you would a sprint and in general. In reality it is how you should tackle most courses but it emphasizes knowing when to go fast and take caution.

What can I say about the Middle. It was if someone reached into my brain and took everything I knew about how to navigate and plan routes and tore them out.The vague tracks and bad route choices combined pretty much killed my race and I was way off the winners time.

I felt so unsure of my decisions after early navigation troubles. I had trouble with interoperating the map and my route planning decisions changed based on my interoperation of the track grades which other people seem to have less of a problem with. Just another skill that I need to improve.

Looking back at the race I should had of persisted and continued with my routes and had not let the vague tracks and track quality deter me. I still can’t see why my errors came upon me, either I was out of practice or I was tired. When it comes down to it. I didn’t race fast enough or navigate well and I that I will had to pick up my game for the long.

Victorian MTBO Champs – Sprint

I didn’t know how I was going to go against the seniors this year. Only having roughly three weeks of training on the bike under my belt. I knew the Sprint discipline is all about knowing when to hit the gas and when to practice extreme caution. You have to remind your self to slow down.

Blasting out of the start box I hit the first few controls with no problem. I didn’t put a wheel out of place. Minor errors were made but in reality they were not much of an error. My eyes tricked me, which almost forced a huge error but convinced my self that a track did in fact join (5-6) at the junction on the map.

I had caught some of the other competition and they got a few seconds on me on a long descent. This descent left my shin a lot of pain after a huge rock flicked up under my front wheel smashing directly into my shin.

My head and my legs were all in the right place for this race and raced in and waited for the rest of the field to come in. It had seemed like my semi-clean ride came through and scored me my first senior win. One rider had gotten close, Alex Randall would have had me if he hadn’t made some small timely errors.

Racing Nerves

In lead up to these selection trials I have been calm as still water. Even when the water was stirred I felt that I remained calm and focused on my goals and ambitions. I didn’t feel down about my chances on making the team because at the end of the competition my training and determination will reflect my results.

Breaking situations down into manageable pieces and forging on by it all only makes ones mind stronger. I am still not quite there mentally but it is definitely building into something to work with.

A strong mental mind can help ease the nerves. Although one can’t get rid of them. You will always have that feeling in your stomach. A mixture of excitement and being scared, just sitting there and making your feel on edge. So your body tells you to distract your mind.

I feel that you don’t want to lose these nerves that don’t sit well. If you don’t have them buzzing about you will never race as well as if you have them. To control these nerves and to stop them getting out of hand is something you have to be careful of.

 

Mountain bike orienteering is an interesting sport. It’s similar to a road time trail racing. Pacing your self, knowing when to go hard and when to slow it down to minimize errors. With mountain bike orienteering you have something extra. You have to train your mind to navigate on top of that and more to time trial against the course and your competition.

With these nerves they can make you excel. Being all revved up and ready to go, wanting to race fast and thrive for success is what nerves are all about. Then again they can make you go too fast, crash and head straight into disastrous situations.

This is where a strong mental comes into play. It brings you back down to reality and makes sure you are focused on the task that is on hand and what it asks of you. Break down the challenge you have been handed and minimize the risks and traps whilst capitalizing on where you are strong.

Right now I am getting the nervous feeling while studying maps that we will be racing on or near. I get all nervous thinking about the races but at the same time I am working out what are my flaws and weaknesses and attempting to minimize them.

Where art thou confidence?

March 28th was the date of freedom.

Cheekily I rode to the doctors appointment on the Thursday morning to get the O.K. to cycle again. The doc said, first week light road riding, then the next week I can do more and try light mountain biking. The following week after that I can do the amount of road cycling that I was previously doing as well as a bit more intensive mountain biking, finally third week I should be able to ride the mountain biking normally.

Riding road I slipped straight back into the groove of things and feel like I did before the crash. The collar bone feels a little odd but nothing that bothers me. I can pull and lift through the shoulder so bumps and sprinting are fine.

I have ridden the mountain bike on the trails but I am not all there. It doesn’t help that there hasn’t been dry dirt out on the trails since I crashed but through corners and even down some simple descents, I feel shaky. Shaky isn’t good when you’re on the mountain bike. You need confidence to hit something to control what is happening.

Even today I was out on the trails with a friend and we were just rolling down a trail I have done a heap of times. Admittedly it wasn’t an easy trail since it’s aimed for downhillers. Never the less I could usually ride it all but today I felt as if I was going to hit the ground hard.

Prior to riding this track I went and had a look at where I crash or at least where I thought I had crashed. The way I remembered the crash didn’t fit the area where I crashed. This has me a little worried. Seeing where I crashed wasn’t anything spooky but riding down to it was weird and I felt vulnerable.

The plan for now is to ride more and more on the single tracks and build up my shoulder strength and confidence, not much strength was lost, but enough to make me feel weaker.  The confidence has taken a big hit though. The way I have learnt to get faster and improve is to do a lot of small steps to get to bigger steps, not giving it my all and then crash and spend another week… or month sitting on the sidelines.

There is no point in trying something ‘big’ in order to improve. I have seen too many crashes of inexperienced even experienced riders trying jumps or drop offs and eating so much dirt. Sure there is some crashes that are unavoidable by random variables but in reality if there is something you want to do, work up to it.

For a small tip I will use an example. If there is a jump, small gap or lip you want to get air off or jump over and you know there is a good chance that your skill level really isn’t appropriate then this is what you should do.

If you can’t roll it don’t do it. By ‘rolling it’ I mean if you can’t ride over the obstacle then don’t attempt it at high speed. Try smaller jumps or similar obstacles that will help you practice the skills you’d need to tackle your goal. Once you can do those smaller things and you feel as if you know what will happen when you hit your desired challenge then grab a couple of mates and go try it.

I would advise body armour and obviously a helmet. It’s really important to have friends because if you do hurt your self you don’t want to be dragging your self to the road alone.

Determination or Caution

Since the crash things in my day to day life has changed like my my priorities and my focus. My days have slowed down, the things I would normally do I can’t, or they take a lot longer to complete. Things as little as putting on clothes to making breakfast, doing errands and trying to type up blog posts with one hand.

Number one priority is to heal fast and let my clavicle heal well without any set backs. At the same time I am eager and focussed to keep fit and maintain my previous months of base training. I have been taking it easy this first week doing only an hour of wind training each day which I break up into two, thirty minute session for mental purposes and comfort. With the sling and doctors orders I am not allowed to lean forward meaning I have to sit up right and spin – my butt gets sore and numb.

Wind training is quite hard to get motivated for, due to the fact I have only recently had surgery and I want to play on the cautious side of the situation I am in. Not only that I feel the need to play it safe, I am also on medication that can make me feel quite woozy and not a 100% trough out the day. But I feel as if I sit on that bike and chip away at it my mind will get stronger and as I heal and get better I will have a stronger mind to train with.

I do seriously miss clipping in to my bike and rolling out into the world and have that wind flow past my ears. At least I have more time writing up blog posts of rides I have done and have not gotten around to typing up.

Didn’t need it anyway

So this happened.

The previous day I had picked up my bike from the shop that just had its top stays repaired. I hadn’t ridden my mountain bike for a couple of weeks now so it was time hit some trails. Setting out to cruise for two hours on the trails. About ten minutes into my ride I was on some fun single track barreling down over some awesome technical parts when suddenly, through a corner my front wheel jolts up a bit, just enough to shift my weight so exiting the corner at nice pace I fly straight into a tree snapping my collar bone in two places. So now a piece of my collar bone is separated.

Luckily I was close to an access road  and I got walk out with my bike (yes the bike was ok) and wait for them. From the hours of 6:30am to 10:00am I had to endure peak hour traffic road trips and bumpy roads cradling my collar bone.

You may ask why I didn’t call a ambulance? Well my Mother is a doctor and I was able to get slotted in for an early X-ray so when we came into the emergency they could asses me and I was in and out without any mucking about.

I am seeing the specialist on Monday and possibly surgery on the same day. So I will try and keep you updated.