The past 9 months since I took up cycling racing has been an
enormous roller coaster. Being chosen to join the Specialized Womens SA cycling
team brought me an amazing Specialized bike that seemingly accelerated itself,
sweet kit, awesome team mates, endless opportunities for racing and training
and a need to overcome my fear of cornering and bunches. All of this put me on
such a high and at first I was achieving very strong results and continued to
improve in all my races.
However, as much as I was racing strongly, I was so fatigued
from it that I had trouble actually training in between the races, and was left
soft pedaling the majority of the time. Racing became my only quality sessions.
By the time uni exams came around in June/July, I found myself in a hole which I
was having a difficult time climbing out of.
Every race my performance seemed to get worse and I was quickly losing
confidence and self-belief. Sometimes motivation to prove yourself can cloud
your head and I just kept training every day in the hope I’d start to feel
better soon. For a few months my training was so interrupted by sickness and
then injury that by September I was probably in the worst shape I can ever
remember being in.
Although I didn’t appreciate it at the time, having 3 weeks
off for a heel injury turned into the break I believe my body desperately
needed. I hadn’t had a break from training in 18 months, and usually I’d have 3
weeks in April off following tri season, but having taken up cycling, I
couldn’t have time off then and just forgot about it. I raced the NRS
Goldfields Tour in October off 3 weeks of structured training, and 5 back on my
bike, and can barely say that I raced. I was dropped in the criterium after 2
laps and after 5 km in the first road stage after a critical error which I was
unable to recover from. I rode a much smarter race in the last road race but
still only stayed with the bunch for 23 km. I finished the tour and was the
last of all finishers with a time of GC+an hour.. Although I was very
disappointed with this tour, realistically it wasn’t that bad given so many
months of poor and interrupted training, despite my best efforts. Coming out of
this tour, I knew I had to start being a lot smarter, and really listen to what
my body can handle and when it’s time to rest. I had to stop worrying about
what everyone expected of me because if I can’t even listen to myself, how will
I ever get anywhere. I realized I really needed to slow myself down. I also
needed to lose the 4 kgs I'd managed to put on to be at a more ideal race weight.
I came out of the tour so much stronger than I went in, and
began to see positive signs. I then set my aim for the Australian road
championships to be held on the 12th of January. This gave me 3
months of solid hard work, and my coach Dave Gomer started my program from the
start as we tried to build up my strength again. I raced in a number of criteriums with my team
including Noosa which gave me confidence that one day I might be able to ride a
decent criterium race, and the realization I could turn corners just as well as
the other girls. I dropped off the bunch with only a few minutes remaining
which is an amazing effort from me, particularly given the training phase I was
in which had very little emphasis on speed. Unfortunately, I was a little bit
too excited the week after I finished my first year of Uni as I had so much
time on my hands and spent almost 200 km more on my bike than the previous
week, with quite a high intensity too. I was still paying for this the next
week when I was on the start line in Cronulla for the NSW Grand Prix criteriums
in December. I felt awful warming up and as soon as my heart rate went anywhere
near threshold, I felt dizzy. Needless to say, between my bad positioning and
feeling faint, I didn’t last long at all. The next day I started to feel much
better but lasted even less than the previous day. Racing professional women is
rather difficult at the best of times! I was very disappointed but as I always
do, I found many positives and new things to work on as well as the same old.
Coming into January, I was feeling amazing. I’d lost 4-5 kg
since the Goldfields Tour and knew I was pretty close to being back in the
training form that I was in from before I started racing minus some speed
perhaps. In the week before nationals, I was flying (for me) and felt so strong
and was climbing really well. I came into nationals with a goal of top 5 in the
U/23 womens category in the road race, which was always going to be a tough ask
but I knew I had to believe that was possible, for me to do well. The power of
self belief is astonishing and is something I’d lost over the year that I knew
I needed back.
 |
| Bec off the front in the crit |
In the criterium race on Thursday evening, I wore my first
ever skinsuit in the colours of Specialized Securitor, with my new awesome
Adidas eyewear and matching Specialized Prevail helmet. After riding a few laps
of the circuit in warm up, I was confident I could corner the bottom fast
corner just as well as everyone else. Unfortunately I had trouble getting away
from the wheel of one girl in particular who continually went too wide which
led us both astray and constantly chasing up the long slightly uphill drag. By
10 km my legs just exploded but I was happy to have felt as strong as I did and
the difference in my state of mind re criteriums is incredible and I was constantly
focusing on trying to move up. Unfortunately at times, this was to no avail as
I still seem intent on overtaking on the outside, but there often wasn’t a lot
of room on the outside. I told myself to have a go at moving up on the inside
but almost cooked the corner and lost a lot of confidence. At least I tried! I
actually quite like criteriums now and am pumped for the Santos Womens Crits at
the Tour Down Under. This is something I never thought I’d say!
Even though I hadn’t lasted long in the criterium, my legs
were aching rather badly. My training really hadn’t been focused on this race
and I hadn’t lasted more than 10 km in a high level criterium ever, other than
Noosa at the beginning of November. By
Saturday morning they still felt a bit achey but I knew I couldn’t over focus
on this. I had hot-cold showers, stretched, used a foam roller, spun out my
legs on the rollers and knew I’d done everything I could to feel better
including drinking protein soon after my criterium.
 |
| Roey and I enjoying some Ballarat cafe time |
My race was 107 km and included 2 x 27 km laps followed by 5
x 10 km laps. This meant 7 climbs of the Mt Buninyong ascent which didn’t seem
overly difficult when I rode over the course on Wednesday but was much
different come race day! Fortunately for me a break went early which included
my team mate Bec Werner and so our team had no obligation to work to bring it
back and I was able to focus on positioning. I was feeling ok but everytime
there was an attack, I was generally losing wheels. I was hoping by the time we
finished the two big laps that my legs would feel better but it wasn’t to be. I
suffered up the climb and just lost contact on the first of the small laps and
was unable to get back on. It was like a bomb had exploded and just shattered
me to pieces. My whole body was aching even on the descent. A bunch caught me
on the climb the next lap and we worked well together for the lap but we were 7
minutes behind at this stage and were pulled out of the race at the 76 km mark.
I was bitterly disappointed as more than anything, regardless of the result, I
wanted to finish the race and not be pulled out. I also didn’t understand why I
had felt so average and climbed so weakly, when just the week before I had felt
awesome climbing much tougher climbs.
 |
| National Road Race After enjoying a rather humorous dinner with my boyfriend and his parents that night, I was feeling worlds better and was able to see my race in a different light other than just one of disappointment and failure. There were so many things I did well in the race. I positioned myself and rode confidently in the bunch, I coped with the bodily contact and managed to avoid so many near accidents in the bunch. I also ended up off road a few times in the section with a cross wind, and although it scared me, I maintained focus. I was very grateful for my team mate Amy Bradley for reminding me to relax though, I didn’t realize how tense I had been! |
After looking at the positives, I analysed what factors
might have lead me to blowing up like I did in a point of the race that
shouldn’t have been that difficult for me. I believe it really came down to a
lack of racing since June and potentially hunger flatting. Racing kms are
crucial, trying to replicate that sort of intensity in training for a long
period of time is difficult. In the nutrition area, unusually for me I was
eating enough out on the bike with gels and GU chomps but with our race
starting at 1 30, I think I was lacking a main meal pretty badly by 3 30 when I
blew up. I had thought about that prior to the race obviously, and knew I needed
to eat about 1.5-2 hrs before the start, but in hindsight I should have eaten a
meal like a small bowl of plain pasta rather than 2 pieces of toast.
All in all, I am excited with where my form and mind is at
now and know with some more racing kms, I should start seeing myself improve in
racing again. As a cyclist, I’ve come an exceptionally long way, even if the
results don’t show that. Results are just that, it’s the process and all the
little things that go into it that other people can’t see that at the end of
the day bring about results in the end.
 |
| Celebrating Kimbers' win. |
I couldn’t have asked for more amazing team mates. They’re
awesome people who are so much fun to be around. They provided me with so much
entertainment on my birthday (the night I arrived at Ballarat) and it was one
of the best days I’ve had in a long time, especially because I finally saw Roey
for the first time in almost 5 weeks. Being at the national elite championships
was a great experience to say the least and has provided me with so much motivation
and drive. Watching Kimbers stand on the top dais of the podium with her
national champion jersey on while the national anthem played was something that
will remain with me. I know I’m in a sport I want to be in for the long term
with the ultimate aim of being able to stand where Kimbers was one day.
 |
| Kimbers, 2013 Australian Elite Womens Criterium Champion! |
Thank you so much to all my friends and family, Roey; the
Roe Family; all my team mates Kimbers, CJ, Trudy, Amy, Bec, Stacey; my team
manager Liz Phillipou; team mechanic Paul and everyone else who inspires me,
encourages me and supports me. I appreciate it so much. Bring on the 2013 NRS and local racing!
No comments:
Post a Comment