you win some & you gain some
The first thing I had to focus on was losing weight& that meant eating properly (well at least after all the Christmas food was gone from the fridge) & setting up a new training plan to get fit & strong again.
It was just on four weeks till the first Shimano GP, three hours down the road at Glenrock MTB Park & I was asked if I was attending from a great sponsor of mine, Jason Moxham, owner of the business FIZO Cycling. Once I mentioned that I wanted to get fit for 24 hour racing again this year he entered me to race in the seven hour category solo (now it's getting real).
The day before the race I had forgotten to eat until late afternoon & tried to catch up on what I should have eaten. This caused a lot of problems while trying to sleep at night on a full stomach & a diuretic effect the next morning. Not ideal prep for racing.
To top it all off, I went for a kayak a few weeks before & caused some injury to my upper back. With only a few short visits to Enriched Health Care my upper back was starting to come good before the race, but the pain was now moving down to the lower back muscles as the upper muscles relaxed. The back pain in my lower back made it even harder to pedal up the hills. I only have myself to blame though with the lack of core strength.
As everyone was called down the trail to the start line, I was making a quick dash to the toilet in hope that I would make the start. Busting out of the toilet, the only people I seen were those lining the side of the trail with camera in hand waiting for the riders to come past. I quickly made my way down the trail to the start worried about the riders coming at me at full speed. I managed to make the start & seeded myself somewhere in the middle of the riders with no intentions of having a good race.
Second lap was much more fun with the pace starting to increase & the bike sliding into the corners & over the scattered rock drops & jumps.
I have never raced at Glenrock, only ridden a couple of times while visiting & I found the track to be load of fun to ride at a faster pace. A large climb from the back half of the course was taxing on the legs but rewarding with the cool winds & views of the ocean near the summit.
I decided to sit down & have a break for a bit each lap & treat it more like a training ride over the last three laps only giving me a total ride time of just over five hours instead of the races seven.
I dropped from 5th place all the way back to 10th in Masters 40+.
Great Friends
- I would like to thank Enriched Health Care in all their help aligning my back so I could ride in the race. I don't think I would have been riding if it was not for their physio.
- A big thanks to FIZO Cycling / Macarthur Designs for talking me into entering the longer seven hour distance & organising entry.
- Thanks for my great friend Guru for letting me set up cam for the day under his new 6X4 event tent.
- A massive thank you to Jason & Jen English for inviting me over for a shower & dinner before the drive back to Port Macquarie.