More Sun, Less Rain...Beechworth 6hr

10629646 10152284293801003 3258255058426552725 nEven though its just gone Spring, the wintery days are still here and I really don't mind.

August 2014 has geniunely been good to me.

Instead of training indoors and getting cranky at doing so I spent my days working in the morning, hopping on my hardtail in the afternoon and riding into the twilight clocking up 2-300km of riding outdoors mostly on gravel roads.

A few road races on weekends with Colac, Geelong, Ballarat and the Colac Vets ending with a trip to Beechworth for the Six Hours in the Saddle mountain bike enduro.

I had been so good all winter, I rewarded myself with the purchase of a 2015 Liv Brava SLR 2 CX bike.

 In amongst all this fun riding and training and racing Norm and I even managed 3 days at Mt Buller skiing, which neither of us had done in nearly 15 years.

10338700 10152290560441003 3849640349042230102 nMy training regime of climbing 1000mts or so a day was working a treat, racing on the weekend in shorter road races and then I had the MEGA week.

Ride, ride, ride, Race, Race, ride and then on the Monday after a week full of kms and climbing and intensity, I topped myself off with a 90km Chase the Dog course reccy with Bec, Tony & Sandy.

The ride itself was not so bad, it was what followed...the Tuesday 4am start drive to Mt Buller. Fully fatigued, ready for a meeting at 10:30am and then skiing at 1pm – 4:30pm and then a whole day on the Wednesday and another ½ day on the Thursday.

I knew I would be risking my health, the good form I had gathered up and then on our return, I went for a few more rides, all good!

 

On the Saturday I went for what I wanted to be a mega ride, only to be greeted by a real lack lustre feeling, so I just rode until I felt ok, which took 2hrs before the “ok” feeling appeared.

And then it happened, the dreaded cold!

Since then I have been blowing my nose constantly, riding or resting.
We all know that these things hit you right after some good form and then a spanking. I was cool with it.

10600492 10152284306291003 7582656936472149457 nTo finish off the month with a bang, I had entered the Beechworth S.H.I.T'S, a fun 6hr race, and Norm and I had not been there for quite a few years.

The weather was gorgeous and we arrived in time for a practice lap late in the afternoon.

Just as I remembered, rocks and more rocks with some pinchy technical climbing and also loads of technical rewarding downhill stuff too. Legs were tired, breathing was laboured even the in the practice lap. I dared not think about it. I was here, I would do my best and give it a red hot go.

Even though I had been doing a lot of climbing in my training, this cold was not assisting with any form and the race started with a 1km climb up a dirt road, doing my best to breath I could hear the shallow raspiness in my lungs.

Thankfully it was warming up quick though less could be said for my legs.

First lap I hurt, the whole lap was me trying to find some form. Racing is rarely perfect, and I knew that this was going to take at least 2 laps to feel decent.

The actual track was amazing, so much fun and many things to break down each lap into manageable blocks.

A beautiful sunny August day in Beechworth with good people, we caught up with Kenny and Kevin and mate Ross, and then the Muirs, with Hayden racing and in good form. I had 3 other solo females to keep me honest and Kate would be a true contender with Sally doing her first solo effort.

To top it off Norm was doing the MC work for the day, keeping his voice going for 6hrs except for when he would give me some food or drink along with Craig each lap. 

This ended up being one tough race, despite all my best efforts to get fit in four weeks, I still suffered like a dog and experienced exactly what I knew I would, the slow low lap, where everything hurts and mood is short and cranky, followed by faster laps and much better mood. 

As I came in for my 8th lap I was not quite sure what would be in store at the end, would I need to do another lap? I think I secretly knew this would be the case and when I came back to transition with 10 minutes to spare I chose to not complain and just went out again to complete 9 laps. 

Whilst my race was going on with the girls, it was always a treat to watch Phil Orr smash it and pass me twice in the 6hrs and Kevin securing a convincing 2nd.

It was 4 months since I last did a 6hr solo effort, but this one definitely hurt.
I keep reminding myself it was my cold holding me back...but then again maybe it was the course.
Beechworth is fun, but oh my 6hrs solo hurts a lot!

10404441 10152292437456003 7580456163420139961 nFeels great to get winter officially over and done with.
More sunshine, longer days, a little extra warmth and more racing.

My next big gig is the Scott 24hr on 27th/28th September in Canberra...now thats is going to hurt!

Thanks Iain and Sharon Moore for looking after us and Nathan Lorkin.

Here are the results:

http://www.sixhoursinthesaddle.com/Results/2014/Six-Hour-Results-by-Category.pdf