Otway Odyssey 2010 Race Report

Well that was a toughie if ever there was one!

Here I am at 6:30am ready to race, did I know what was to come?

I knew I was going to hurt. 

I knew I was not in top form...but I just hoped I could pull a trick somewhere!

Initially up the climb, I was not too far back of the lead group, only a minute behind.  Then we entered the private property and I just felt the energy leave my legs.  I wondered how I was going to continue to find anything extra apart from just pedalling and moving forward.

In the end that was what I had to do.  Draw upon my local knowledge and just keep taking another pedal stroke. I dropped a chain, stopped and fixed it and watched no less than 4 girls pass me.  Probably was going to happen anyway...my legs were sapped already and we were still in the private property in the Heavy Smoker section. 

Finally when I reached the Mt Sabine fire tower I was keen to pedal a bit faster.  West Barwon Tk and Noonday were my faves.  The uphills hurt and the down hills were fast.  I just kept focussed on what I could manage today.  Not much - but enough to keep respectable.

Oh gee, it was hot - I have not mentioned that!  

Anyway, let me fast forward to the best bit...6:39 minutes later I finished and it was a long time on the bike for me today.  I crossed the line and was in a daze, sore, tired, exhausted, aching, thirsty but not hungry, just plain well OVER It.

Still too early about planning for 2011 OO, its still very early days in the pain epicentre.

A great kick up the butt to tell me where to head next if I want to achieve my goals this year.  

On a positive note, thanks to De Grandi's for setting me up on my new fantastic Fulcrum wheels , far out they were the best!  Thanks Giant Bikes for all your awesome support and the new Shimano shoes .  I took the risk and wore them and they were stiff as!  great shoes and not a blister or foot issue in sight.  This is good news.

Great work to all you other crazies out there who thought this race sounded like fun..may we meet again one day soon to reflect on the race together, group therapy sessions to help us move on!

Its now Monday...another week...and time to get ready for supporting Normie boy at the Mt Beauty 6hr - I am excited.

Its Friday - the day before the big opening race for me in 2010, the Rapid Ascent Otway Odyssey .

A sleep in, well until around 7:30am was on the cards. 

Here is my best mate, Soxy Boy, Fatty, Boxy, Fatty Fat Fat...he has many names but he is very cuddly.

When I woke up the sun was shining and the view from my room, spectacular.
Even the chooks and sheep were quiet for me today. Normally they are noisier than living on a main road at 7:30am on a weekday.

We have done all we can to get me to the start line in top form, but as things always pan out...something inevitably goes wrong.

Last week I was meant to go to the inaugral Husky 100km near Jervis Bay, and it was a hard call to make, but I pulled out on Thursday before due to illness. 
Just dead tired, swollen glands and feeling like I was about to be hit with a cold of some sort.

Unfortunately for the race promoters , the rain set in big time and they had to call off the race.  Lucky for me, I was at home resting.
I had 4 days off the bike and I was stir crazy, bored our of my brain and terribly agitated.  Worse still, Norm was in Melbourne all weekend.

Finally on Monday I was back on the bike. My new sponsor, DeGrandi Cycle & Sport , has given me some new Fulcrum carbon wheels to use, and I got to finally test them.  Also, some new bits from Giant to round off a new set up. 

First ride - feeling like a new born foal, could not quite find my feet, or my wheels in this instance. 

Second ride a few hours later, it was like the good old days of last week!

Good luck to everyone competing. 

The weather will be perfect, the trails in awesome condition, an amazing array of riders from national champions through to first time racers.
Most of all I hope for everyone to finish safely and reach their own personal goals for the day and finish with a big dirty smile!

See you at the finish...and dont forget to smell the roses whilst you are out there riding.

Since my last update which was around the 25th Jan, things really havent slowed down...infact they have sped up considerably.

Saskia turned 16 and got her learners permit, thankfully
Norm has been taking her driving. 
She has also gone back to school and started her school based apprenticeship in Fitness.  She has also started pre season netball training and Thursday summer comp netball in Warnnambool. 

So that alone is HUGE. 
NO MORE just yet please!
One thing that was totally amazing over the school holidays though, was Saskia went for a MTB ride with the Harringtons and actually had a good time. 
She was out ont the bike for a few hours - and survived.  Wow! 
Good work Saskia.

Then there is racing. 
We had a great time at Forrest Feral Friday doing an Individual TT on the proposed State XC course for 20th March. 
Now I am getting ready to head off to NSW for the Inaugral Husky 100km, ran by the great people at Black Heart Events, Matt & Amanda.
The 100km race is around the beautiful area of Jervis Bay.  I am really looking forward to it.  Thanks Matt and Amanda for providing accommodation too. Wish I could stay all week!

Great people and rides all weekend...

Jac, Christy, Darren, Joe, Ben, Juppy, John, Foxy, Normie, Steve & Peter were in attendance on Saturday.  

So its supposed to be summer...but as you can see it was pretty wet.  We kept riding into the clouds and it got colder and colder.  The proposed route was supposed to be Forrest - Beech Forest - Lavers Hill - Glenaire - Apollo Bay - Skenes Ck and back to forrest.  140km all up, but we just went through the beautiful Turton's tk onto Beech Forrest.  35km one way and then on the return trip - much to Normies disgust, we ended up racing it back, mostly to keep warm. On the return to Forrest, the sun was shining and a better day emerged.  70km on the roadie with 1000m of climbing done.

.

What a week...

I got home on Sunday night from the road trip with the boys back from the Nationals.
Drove home knowing that I would be seeing my dying cat.  She was 18 and dying of old age. Saskia had told us this only 2 days ago that she had stopped eating and drinking altogether.

Within 30 mins of me arriving home she died in my arms of old age, very peacefully.  this is a pic of her a few months ago sleeping in the sun on a window sill.

Forrest MTb & Cycling club is very lucky to have attracted so many enthusiastic juniors to its club.

so much so, that we decided it best to send them to the National Championships in Adelaide over the 14th 15th & 16th of January.

The hard work had started a while ago now, and thankfully all the boys have supportive parents who like to ride with them and are keen to see them have fun on their bikes albeit a bit costly at times.

Friendly competition had evolved with snippets being divulged of "secret training " ventures.

The boys who went to Adelaide:

1. Thomas Power u19
2. Calum Middleton u19
3. Hamish Middleton u17
4. Ben Scott u17
5. Simon Harrington u15

A culmination of some solid riding and a hefty increase in temperature brought the final day on new years eve to a grinding halt.

It ended for me at the Dam wall.  No longer could I keep cool in the shade, it was time to pull the pin.  50kms done and dusted, happy to leave it at that.

We should have started earlier, like 6am, but that would require a very early start. Sleep was most important to me today.

The plan was to manage the entire 100km Otway Odyssey course in one day.  No worries, except for the heat really.  It was forecasted to be 39 degrees, which indeed it got too with some serious humidity.

Joe was on fire and riding most things in the BCR.  But he did have yesterday off!  Unfair? or smart?

I love the trail no 3. Red Carpet.

Its fun, but you have to work hard for every meter, off the brakes, pedal, test your limits, ride hard and brake hard. 

A sparse few turned up on Day 4, the humidity high, energy levels low, fun factor high! 

Reward at the end of the day = swim in the quarry again. 

After a cruisey day yesterday, it was now time to hurt again.

The climb out of Apollo Bay up Wild Dog and then Busty always sorts the group out.
However, today was about keeping the group together and waiting every 10km or so to regroup.  The faster riders go more rest and the slower riders got the chance to get fitter!(little or no rest!)

Here is a pic of the only bit of shade up at Mt Sabine, one of our many re grouping spots.

Loads of fun after this, a great descent along West Barwon Tk, and then a pretty intimidating climb awaits, thanks to DSE and some 4wd tracks,the climb is so much more manageable than previous years.  Smooth as a freeway really.  Got to take a pic of this one day, the climb is pretty intense and you really need to get forward unless you are really good at monoing up steep granny climbs!

72km of hard riding done...now lets back it up with the final 50km of the Otway Odyssey ride(100km version).
 A biggish group headed out from the Southern Trailhead around 9am.
Summer in full flight, hot already.

After the big day yesterday, I was looking forward to riding a bit more single track and less of those tough fire road climbs.As I look back on my HR data today, it was definately a low key day in comparison to yesterday. 

The trails were in awesome condition and we totally had a great day. Finished off with some food and a milkshake at the guesthouse.  Perfect!

Ok so after Boxing day, the hard work began with a "hard core" MTB Epic to Lorne and back.  I knew this would be the hardest and longest day.  Only 72km but a heck of a lot of climbing and some decent hike a bike sections early on.

What a great time I had towards the end of the year.
Tour of Bright with Cal and Norm.
Family Christmas's with both sides.
social MTB Rides.
Hard core epics.
Totally awesome road rides.
New years eve party with board games.
...and Saskia got a job in Apollo Bay.

I have been back home since Sunday 6th December.  Today is Thursday 17th December.
What have I been doing?

After the wonderful weekend in Bright, beautiful weather and magnificent riding, I have been re-inspired to get out on the bike.
Still no "specific" training, I would call it a hefty base.  I think I am up for a circum-navigation around the world on bike.  Brad, if you read this, your bike treks are inspirational!
one day...when I am 40 perhaps...

Freshly primed hill legs had me doing Hill Repeats with the MTB bootcamp group at the You Yangs on Tuesday, it was fun right?
Wednesday 9th even better, with a ride over the range and down to pick up Phil at skene's Ck, a sensational ride through to Lorne, coffee and a great 10km climb out of Lorne, through Deans marsh into a westerly wind and back home to Forrest.  Poor Phil had to ride the 22km climb by himself back home to Skenes.

Finally a massage on Thursday from "the man" Bengt Carlson, Oh I needed it.

Then Friday, the end of the week for some, the beginning of my working week really.
To get into Colac, I rode the mountie in via dirt roads, only 29km away.  Met the Forrest MTB womens group and did some more hills on the dirt just out of Colac.
1.5hrs later, I have to face up to the Junior boys and their dads for some serious hill repeats.  A nice hill of 5km at around 3% but we did some nasty repeats that had me wishing I had a postie bike with a motor!
Having not eaten since 3:30pm, it did not take any convincing to agree to some pizza at la porcheta.  4 slices later I was well satisfied.

Total rest day Saturday.  Sleep in, nana nap and an early night.  Prepare for the course on Sunday.

Sunday 13th December.  MTB skills course at the You Yangs.  Great people, great riding, great skills.  I always have fun doing this.

The Tour of Bright

This race has been on the cards for a few months now and it was time to meet my "fears".

1. Road Racing in general.  Fear of the unknown. How good are these girls?  What if I cant keep up?
2. Hills, hills and more hills.  Rosewhite Gap, Tawonga Gap and of course Hotham.  Not my best leg of any race, would I be able to do it competitively?
3. Time Trial.  Having done one ride on my TT bars over a month ago, all I knew was that I had to go hard.  Scared silly!

Four of us took the trip to Bright. 
Me, Norm, Saskia and Calum. 
Me and Cal were the only ones riding(or racing), but Saskia came to watch and Norm to do bike maintenance and drive the car.

Arriving Thursday afternoon, Calum and I tested out the Time Trial course and then went up the easy side of Tawonga Gap to test out the descent.
An easy 55km in the legs, feeling happy to be here. 
Pizza and salad for dinner tonight.

Friday was time to get the legs out again for an easy roll to ovens and back.
Another flattish 55km done, coffee and cake and a bit of recovery in Morses creek for the legs.
Pizza and salad for dinner tonight - again!
Off to bed around 10pm, ready to roll for an early start tomorrow.

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!

Its Wednesday, 1st October and we have now had officially 3 days without rain.  I am pretty stoked and all training has gone to plan for this week.  Amazing what a bit of sunshine can do the ones motivation!

Well, the weekend just gone would have to be the hardest I have worked, yet still managed to have fun.

Norm and I ran our first WOMENS MTB Skills Camp in Forrest. 
10 eager women braved the cold and I am telling you it was cold and wet!
We even got a night ride in on Saturday, with only 2 people out of the entire group opting out.

What a wonderful group of people, it always amazes me that we somehow are lucky enough to have enthusiastic and happy people attend our courses.

With the weekend being a great success despite the weather, Monday was a day of recovery and relaxation...and a tonne of washing.

But it was also the start of an awesome week of training - which has been lacking a bit of late.

A fun ride to Lorne, a great ride with Norm around Colac, a night ride with the crew and I am yet to do the 33km You Yangs Yowie for a bit of training and fun.

Its been a few weeks since my last entry.
Have been struggling with training, motivation and tiredness for sometime since returning home from the World Solo Champs in late July. 

It has now been 2 months since that weekend and finally things are starting to pick up again.

On return from Canada, we were confronted with some gloomy Victorian weather, some of the longest bouts of rain and wind I can remember in some time. Cold, wet and windy. I was sleeping lots and training less.  Training was hurting, sleeping was like a drug, whilst I was in bed, I had no responsibilities and time would go by without having to think or do anything.
Living in Forrest, with 200 residents and only a handful of cyclists, its hard to get out and train when you are in this situation.
I was starting to have second thoughts about where I was heading next with my racing.
A bit of a perfectionist, I was probably overanalysing everything and not taking the proper mental and physical break from my cycling.

I am now feeling much better and starting slowly to pick up my power on the bike and eagerness to train.  It will be at least another 8 weeks before I will feel 100% again, but I am going to be patient and cant wait to experience fresh and fast legs again!

Since the Worlds, I have been busy and have had loads of fun doing the following:

1. Female Pairs at Castlemaine Enduro with Helen Newman - we came 1st.  Thanks Helen
2. Australian MTB Marathon Champs at Bendigo. Awecome course, strong competition and great weather...and I came 5th!   

Here are some great pics of what I have been doing.