Its just on 2 weeks since the Scott 24hr in Canberra and I have been back on the bike doing some 2hr "social" mountain bike rides to get back my legs and mojo.

I suspect next week I will start to get back on the roadie and do some specific training again.

So where to from here?

Normally I would have been racing the Surf Coast 6hr at Anglesea this weekend and smash myself to ensure I won it, but being 1 year smarter than 2008, I have learnt my lesson and will recover properly and this will enable me to train more specifically.

However, I am still going to be there for all my friends and fellow riders to be on the other side of support for a change and I am looking forward to it.

Next on the racing agenda would have been the Kona 24 hr on the 28-29th November,  in my home town of Forrest.  A fun and very friendly event, this would normally signal the end of the year and time to rest up for a couple of weeks.  But once again, being smarter and being a bit more goal orientated this year, what am I going to prove to myself by fitting in yet another 24hr race in 2009?  I plan on hanging out at the event Saturday until around 9pm - heading off to bed and driving to Melbourne the next day for some StKilda CC road crits instead, drive back and be there in time to check out the finish.

So what am I doing instead?

December 5th & 6th - Tour of Bright.  Hills, road racing, time trial.  All the stuff I am not good at and I am an unknown in the roadie world, so this will give me a chance to train without expectation.

Jan 2010 - Bay Crits. Head into Geelong and do the Bay Crits series for some fast paced, sub 1hr max efforts.  For some great training and something totally different to mountain biking!

Jan 09 - National Open Road championships at Bunningyong.  More of the same.  Hills, Hurt and staying with the bunch as long as I can. Surviving the attacks and smashing up some hills.  Just to finish the 10lap circuit will be a pat on the back and a step up.

From here, I will work up to improving my time and position at the Otway Odyssey.  Each year since it started I have moved up in the finish line positions, so 2010 instead of coming 7th, 4th would be awesome!

So we will see if some road racing cant toughen me up some huh?

Let’s go back to August, 10 weeks ago when I got back from the World solo Champs in Canada. I was mentally and physically exhausted.

Even though everyone I spoke to was so happy for my 4th position I was ready to stay under the doona for as long as I could.
Somehow or another I managed to creep by day after day.
I got some good days on the bike and some pretty bad ones including non – existent days. It was doing my head in.

Was I in or out of this 24hr racing business? Did it matter? Who cares anyway? People stuck by me, sponsors, my husband, friends, mtb club, my coach, my clients, my family…everyone!!! So when you have people like this around you, you soon start to realise that your worries are so stupid and life is awesome and having that warm fuzzy feeling of LOVE and being wanted and valued is all that one human needs!

That sorted, one still has to get out of bed, train, work, keep a house, be a wife, be a mum, be a daughter to parents, run a business and be a volunteer to a growing mtb club. I gave myself a couple of events to have fun at and then the MTBA National Marathon Champs in Bendigo. So little form – running on empty and just going through the motions to see what I have got left in the tank. The Marathon Champs were fun in Bendigo. I came 5th so walked away happy and a friendly reminder that I still have the base in my legs and the will in my mind to finish these events without too much hassle whilst still being reasonably competitive.
The race was on Sunday 20th September, and on Monday 21st September I came down with my first cold of 2009.

Damn it. 3 weeks until the Scott 24hr and I was going to start ramping it up too. Managed 1 week of decent training and had to just settle with this.
The cold got worse, the sniffles turned into the snots, and a decent head cold. Not wanting to ruin my chances of racing the Scott 24hr on the 10th and 11th of October I had to settle for reading sports psychology books, drinking fresh squeezed juices and downing any concoction that even remotely promised to be a cure for my cold.
After 5 days off the bike, I got the rollers out and started to warm up my legs.
First 10 minutes I was coughing and spluttering, feeling awfully unfit.
Finding it hard to manage 90rpm on 53/19 for the warm up.
Amazingly, I came good and started to invent my own on the spot interval session that had enough recovery to convince me to go hard when I had to. Low and behold I got into E3 and felt great. Left the Vo2 zone out of the equation on this occasion and 60 minutes later I was a finely tuned machine ready to shower and get to bed, totally prepped for the Scott 24hr.

Yes that’s it, a 60 minute Roller session was what got me over the line!
In fact, it probably was and due to what it did to my mental state, I grew some self belief again that perhaps I still had it in me to win the race on the weekend.
The next day I flew to Canberra whilst Norm was driving up with the gang.
Pre race prep was still on the go with my final massage at 1:30pm and lunch with my mum.
Arrived in Canberra late in the afternoon, I was now here and some fun to be had from today on! We went for a practice ride before lunch – checking out the day lap. A great climb of around 7kms to the top with a fantastic descent finishing off with some awesome flowing single track back to base. There was one final section that was a bit annoying, but none the less, a great course. After a quick bite to eat and a refill of the drink bottles, we headed out again to check out the night lap. More fun! Now I was excited to be racing, feeling happy with the course and loving the flow, my “mojo” was back.

Mentally I was so prepared and physically I just had to do my best. Win or lose, I was ready to ride.

A cold ...a lingering cold.

I am trying anything and everything to get better...including pretty bright colours in my drinks!