Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Beautiful early morning ride to get Christmas day off to a good start. Yet to open chrissie pressies...woohoo. Merry Christmas xx.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

2012 - A year in review



It has been a year of highs and lows.



Last year I was so stoked to win the Real Insurance Half Marathon XCM series. I had such a fantastic time competing at these events (well.as much as you can when racing bikes). I trained really hard over winter in preparation for the Summer season. That’s a hard thing for me because I am a total ‘lizard’ and find the cold Canberra winter really hard to train in!!. I was incredibly focussed and committed and was looking forward to lots of training and racing (in non enduro events) over summer to ensure that I would be really ready for the 2012 season.

Going back to the first of December – I was riding my new S-Works 26er hardtail for the first time. I was sooo excited!! Riding over to Stromlo to race the summer afternoon dirt crits, the bike felt awesome, I felt awesome and the planets were in alignment ;)

In 3 mins everything went pear shaped and the whole season derailed really quickly. In the first 100m of the race, I was in 3rd place in B Grade coming into the first corner when the guy in front of me didn’t counterbalance going round a corner and binned it, going down. I remember seeing his body position and my brain was going “danger… danger – bad position, bad position”. Funny how you can think all these thoughts in a split second as everything slows down.

I tried to go round but unfortunately I was already in the apex of the turn and I had nowhere to go and that was it!! In hindsight I should have just gone straight over him. In the crash my hand ended up pinned between the bars and the ground..... Most cyclists can tell straight away when they’ve broken something and I knew. X-rays later that night confirmed it – a broken hand. Most un-necessary crash ever!

In that 3 minutes, everything was wiped away – all the winter training and the summer racing season. I think having an injury for any cyclist is the hardest thing to handle. I had surgery to wire my hand. They were external wires that stuck out of the flesh. It was so gross, even I was repulsed (;

The biggest issues was that I could not get them sweaty due to the potential for infection and I was told no exercise... Mmm…to say that this reduced my fitness was an understatement. So even though there was no summer in Canberra, I was off the bike for 2 months. The specialist must have known my potential for evil doing as I got a phone call to “check I was on the lounge and doing nothing!!”… Too funny.!! I found it hilarious…I’ve never had a specialist contact me before. Amazing but true!! ! I didn’t know what to do with myself… For weeks, I was like a deranged chipmunk wandering around the house.



It wasn’t until mid-February before I got back on the bike and it was a race to get back to some sort of competition level. It was a struggle because your mind and body remembers the level you were before an injury but you’re just not there. I also wasn’t allowed on my mountain bike for an extended period of time so I acquainted myself with the roads of Canberra. Without having a race since December it was really hard to know where I was.

The first round of the XCM series was in Victoria in early March. We were travelling but didn’t get to there, due to James being ill. So the 2nd round at Capital Punishment the following weekend became my first race back. I took what I had fitness-wise and lined up. I always think you can wait forever “to be ready to race”. When the race got going it was clear that I was underdone. Plus, my hand didn’t respond well to the bumping and jarring of the trails particularly through the Majura section. I ended up with total numbness in three of my fingers which made it incredibly hard to brake and shift gears. In the end I limited my losses to 2nd place.

The following weekend was the Convict 50km in the XCM series. I was worried about my hand and what it had copped the previous weekend. Due to the nature of this race, I was also worried about recovering from Capital and making sure I was fit enough to ride, let alone race the Convict.

The Convict lulls you into a false sense of security as you roll along the flat 10km prior to the first hill. Then all of a sudden, BANG. Straight up! I suffered a lot at this race and it was a bit of a struggle to be honest, but I ended up 3rd which was ordinary by my standards but adequate.

My hand still wasn’t great, nor was my fitness, so I took the gamble of sitting out of The Husky event, which was round 4 of the XCM series to both gain fitness as well as let my hand try and recover some more. With the race being a little muddy once again, I certainly did not regret my decision!! There had been some interesting tactics of one of the female racers who had her male partner ‘pace’ her the entire race, which is definitely not allowed and all of the rules in each race state this quite clearly. I am glad that I wasn’t racing and did not have to deal with this.

Over the Canberra winter, I trained right through and had targeted the Back Yamma Bigfoot as my first race. James had entered himself into the Wollombi Wild Ride which was the 5th round of the XCM series and was peculiarly only a 75km race for him. The half marathon race was 42km. We talked it over and thought that it could be a good stepping stone \ tester for the Back Yamma and to see how my fitness was.

Come race day, I was actually looking forward to racing. It was freezing, but that just made it feel like Canberra. I had done a recce the day before to sort out the course start so I knew what was in store. I had my plan and I stuck to it. I also had my new secret weapon which was the S-Works 29er hardtail, a little 8kg weapon. What a weapon this bike is!! I won this race, which was really satisfying and made me feel like things were sort of getting along the right track.

The following weekend, we headed up to Parkes and raced the Back Yamma Bigfoot. I love this event, and to ultimately win it for the 3rd year in a row was really satisfying. I love racing against the boys here and to also get 6th overall against them was also a nice little thrill.

Holiday time in Bangkok allowed me to switch off and just chill for a bit not having to worry about training or anything like that. I love Bangkok… crazy city that never sleeps.. and you can get a massage for $10!! The mind and body got a nice little recharge prior to the last race of the series, the Highland Fling.

Now, I love the event atmosphere, the people of Bundanoon and hanging out with MTB friends, but I don’t really like the Fling. Too funny!! The thought of riding through grass fields and crossing creeks just makes me feel like an ‘adventure race’ rather than a high profile MTB race. But, you have to race the course that’s presented. So I did. I got through it, got 3rd on the day, and just did what I had to do in order to get through to the end. It doesn’t play to my strengths but I knew that I just had to treat it as one of ‘those’ races. ;)

To be honest, I hadn’t looked at the series rankings in the lead up to the Fling. James covers that and I just chose to focus on getting through the Fling. I was convinced that this was not even going to be close to being an option after such a crappy, mixed year. When Theo from Cyclenation announced that I had won the Half Marathon series again, my first feelings were of happiness and relief. Getting the oversized winner’s cheque, apart from being something that I have always wanted to have since I started racing, also symbolised that I had got through the season and had been consistent. I had for my mind, a nice little 2 week block in September for Wollombi and Back Yamma, where I felt really good and picked up two wins, but the series was just one of those nice unexpected bonuses that comes along. To get this two years in a row was fabulous as it was one of those things I had pretty much let go of after that first race in March when my hand was left numb at the 10km mark.

All the good things and bad things aside my most memorable moment comes from the people side of racing. It was from Back Yamma Big Foot, my most favourite race in the whole world…. Yes yes I know, said that before (: It has the most fantastic atmosphere, small, friendly and unpretentious and a stand out as far as organisation goes. But my experience came from the actual race. From early on in the race two guys and the eventual winner Lachy Paton went off the front and there remained five of us left from the starting bunch. There were two guys from Central Tablelands Cycling Club (awesome) and two guys from On the Rivet, Stuart and Juan Santa Luna and myself. I hadn’t met any of them before this race. We were all about the same pace and formed a group working together. We were all taking turns, some of us were stronger in some parts and some stronger in others but no one was shirking or doing light pulls, and everyone was talking to each other, pointing out obstacles and keeping an eye out for the kangaroos that were at times veering wildly out of the bush. It was the best sense of camaraderie I’ve had. It pretty much reflects how it feels riding with the guys in the 50km races, they’re an awesome group. I’ve met the best people out there on the track. Since the Back Yamma I’ve caught up with Juan (now in Sydney) and hope to see him at the TDU and I see Stuart all the time at the Thursday night dirt crits and recently we were reminiscing about how awesome that group dynamic was! You know if you’re still talking about how great it was 6 months on… it was that good!

All in all, the year has been interesting with the good, the bad and the ugly which has tested me both mentally and physically along the way. My hand isn’t yet 100% but hopefully it will get there sometime soon.

Over the next 4 months of summer, I just want to enjoy riding my bike on road and off-road and build on my rushed, staggered fitness of 2012. Next step, the ‘cult’ dirt crits of summer, with an Adelaide Tour Down Under training camp followed by more dirt crits then the 2013 half marathon season!! Woohoooo!!!



To everyone out there… have a fabulous Christmas and New Year with your family and friends. Have fun on your bike and be safe. Hope to see you all at the next race somewhere…. xxo Kylie







Sunday, December 2, 2012

SuperD at Stromlo

The SuperD was an interesting one today - usual start to mid way down Skyline, but then backwards down Heartbreak into Little Seymour, Break out and then home.   Its been so long since I've done any real hard fast racing that requires high end skills that I felt really rusty. Add to that the annoyingly repetitive ihand issue.  But I really wanted to get out and enjoy the feeling of speed and corners and it was fun.  Numbers were a little low poss due to a XC at Sparrow but the organizers did a great job (big thanks to Eduardo for the cheers!!!) and everyone had a blast.