My First Mountain Bike Ride

So, long time no post.

I guess it's been a little average - nothing exciting I felt like was worth posting.

I wish I had kept blogging all the way through, but I guess no major breakthroughs, just little realisations.  Which probably would have been good to record, but oh well.

Also, I always find the months of October / November such a struggle, waiting, wanting a new start to the year.  Everything feels so tiresome.  Also, I got sick and between that and feeling tired, have sort of dropped off for the last month.

BUT, last weekend I accomplished my first mountain bike ride.

It was pretty cool.

Not "the most fun ever" as other people have said, but I guess it's hard to have "the most fun ever" doing something that you've never done before and involving skill and experience.

I think our bike shop friends were a bit surprised that I wasn't like IT WAS THE BEST FUN EVER.

We went down the Loftus with a bunch of friends for a roll.

I wore my least worn jersey (I don't wear this one - even though it's pink - because it's so baggy and especially around the arms, which sort of made it perfect for mountain biking).

I put on lycra knicks / pants - as padded pants are the bomb.  

And I don't have any padded shorts yet.  Although, I'm already eyeing off Dharco clothing..

I put on long socks as people talk about the scratching etc from the twigs and branches and I thought that might help.  Plus, I like cycling in long socks. 

I packed my camelbak and patch kit.

On greeting the group, one of my friends said, "oh.. you're going to clip in..."

My husband had said this to me yesterday.

When 2 people do something, I interpret that as EVERYBODY.
2 people = everyone.

To which I started to get paranoid and freak out about why EVERYONE kept exclaiming that - perhaps I was being an idiot and I had made things harder for myself.

Then I realised I had forgotten to put a Garmin mount on the bike so had to try and fit it in my camelbak without pressing any of the buttons..
Husband said there should be a screen lock function.

I couldn't find it.

I could feel my nerves and emotions rising.

So, I told my husband, "I'm freaking out".

And then I proceeded to shout frustratedly some blaming statements at my husband about how he didn't prepare me for mountain biking at all.

To which he didn't respond and just stayed very very quiet until I moved my focus onto something else.
(Which was quite nice of him as I was entirely being unreasonable and irrational).

So we started to roll.

It was fine.

My friend said that sometimes it's good to have a foot ready to put down, but it's not all the time.

I clipped out when I felt like I might need to stop.  Mostly the narrow and curvy bits.

I had borrowed the Liv Lust Advanced 2 demo bike, which is AMAZING.  

It has these huge fat wheels (so much rolling over everything and anything) and it's made out of carbon (oh so light).

It's "dual suspension" (like, on the front and back).  As opposed to a "hard tail".

I keep calling it a "soft bottom" which sounds not quite as refined...  :)

I had received a lot of tips for cycling and it was interesting to apply them in the context of mountain biking:

1.  Look where you want to go and the bike will follow.

This became much more obvious in mountain biking than road cycling.

There's a bit in Blair Witch that turns right really abruptly and both times we did it, I ended up too wide and had to stop.

I realised it was because I kept getting to that point and missing the right turn so ended up looking at the front "oh look, that's where I don't want to go" and would just ride straight into the corner.

There was a lot of space in that corner, so I'm guessing I wasn't the only person who did that!

2.  Lean, don't steer.

I seem to have forgotten this one the whole time.

Probably because the trees felt so narrow, how could I possibly lean!

But the tread on the mountain bike tyres are made for leaning - they have tread all the way up the sides.

I think there was a third point but I can't remember it any more.

Anyway, so there was a lot of rest breaks where we stood and talked, which was:

a) quite fun

b) a good rest because there's a such an energy output - very different to road cycling.

So it was pretty cool and different and interesting.

I fell towards the end, through a very technical bit (very narrow and twisty).

The trees in that section had been burnt, so they were blacked and sticking upwards.

I named it The Blackened Shards of Hell.

I probably fell because fear took over.

The style of cornering was a little like the yellow bollards on Anzac Pde / Allison Rd (my nemesis) that I feel fear every time I come up to it.

So I fell and my friends checked to see if I was ok.

Which I was.

Although, my thumb was in a bit of pain from being jammed between the bike and a tree, so I screamed silently for a bit..

Got back on the bike.

Then I fell again.

This time my bike was up the slope and I was down the slope and I couldn't unclip.

I just lay there laughing hysterically (like a turtle that can't flip over - although they probably don't laugh) until my friends could undo my shoe.

After that I thought I was pretty tired so we went for a little longer and then went back to the cars.

Will I be buying a mountain bike?
Probably not soon.  Maybe in the future.

If I did though, I would totally buy the Liv Lust - my friend said it's pretty good value.

The dual suspension and huge fat tires, made me feel really confident (even as a beginner) that I would be fine just rolling over everything (as long as I kept pedalling).

My other friend also had great advice in that, there's no point buying a stiff bottom hard tail bike to learn skills.  You might as well get the dual suspension / dualie and make it fun as you learn.

My husband and the bike shop agreed.
A while back, the dualies didn't have sophisticated suspension and you lost a lot of power, but nowadays, you can maintain the power whilst still having the comfort and benefits of the dual suspension.

I also got previous advice from the bike shop in that a mountain bike is an investment and you should be prepared to drive a while to go mountain biking, which is very different from road cycling where you just hop on your bike and go.

So, probably not a new avenue for me right now.  

To be honest, I'm at a stagnant point of my cycling and I feel like introducing another genre wouldn't be a great idea while I'm feeling so lethargic.  

Also, I'm not a HUGE fan of nature and the bush..  City girl at heart.

November really tired me out with work and I was off the road bike for about a month and a half and I feel like I've lost a lot of fitness.

Over this Christmas period, I'm planning to cycle as much as I can to get back into the routine, ready for 2015!

I will see if I remember other things that happened to me recently to write up.

Rollerfit (Wheels of a different kind)

So, it's the near the end of the year..  

I've been cycling for a year..  (And come such a long way!)

I have a gold racing license but I currently have no clear goals or events to look towards.

(I intended to do a few more CX races but the one I was intending to do got cancelled and then I felt too overwhelmed by the Rapha Supercross - although had it not been the day before my first MS Gong, I should have given it a crack.)

Anyway, I was internet surfing (do people still say that?) and I came across RollerFit.

(so random: bike valet -> newtown festival -> rollerfit promotions -> rollerfit classes)

(via facebook)

"RollerFit Members. 

Join us tomorrow Morning 7.30am-8.15am for a $5 drop in class. All Levels, plus skate hire. Perfect way to start you day!"

I thought, wow.

And then there was another post further down the page:

"We often hear from newbie RollerFitters that it took them 3-6months to build up there confidence to join our classes! Read why you should stop putting off your first visit from one of our instructors Amy, who started out just like you!
http://www.rollerfit.com.au/uncategorized/why-you-should-stop-putting-off-coming-to-rollerfit/"

My previous memories of rollerskating involved shuffling around, clutching the barriers..

 After some reading, it seemed like the classes were very friendly for beginners.

I decided to head down and give it a go.

I figured my fitness from cycling would put me in good stead and I was looking for something interesting to do.

(via http://www.schmutzie.com)

The night before, as usual, I was bouncing between "OMG I can't believe I am doing this, this is excitingly amazing" and "OMG I can't believe I am doing this, it's going to hurt and I'm going to be so crap".

I spoke to my sister and she seemed to have a different memory to me - "you were good, I was the one clutching the barrier, you were so good you won a hat!"

Sometimes I wonder what my memories are actually made of.  They seem to not necessarily be based in reality.  Who knows!

My husband laughed at me, about clearly only remembering the traumatic moments, and wiping out any memory of being competent and enjoying myself..

I actually wasn't sure what to wear, but I had an urge to wear long socks this week so I did that.

Also, I had started googling skates and found that rollerskaters are also into #sockdoping (not just a cycling thing!).

(via http://shop.rollergirlpromotions.com.au/)

Too cool..  I'm into long socks, I could do this.  :)

(It's all about getting into making it look cool - hehe)

I wear a lot of dresses and my 1 pair of active shorts that fit me was not washed from boxing class, and I didn't necessarily want to wear my denim shorts for activewear.

So I found my Adidas onesie and wore that.  :)  

It was a bit cool in the morning so I wore arm warmers (the best - keep your arms warm without trapping sweat in your underarms)

Packed my work clothes for the day and cycled off to the class.

It was amazing!

It was sooo much fun!!  

My husband is involved in teaching about computer games and they always say to the students that saying something is "fun" is a cop out because the word "fun" isn't very descriptive and doesn't mean much.

I totally understood what that meant when I tried to explain how fun it was!

It was nervous and exciting and enjoyable to learn and inspiring to watch the other skaters do their more advanced moves!

(Yeah.. I'm not even sure how that works..  I can't even get into that position stationary and barefoot...)

So the class involved some drills and exercises.  

I started off just walking (in a marching sort of action) and the instructor Stacey said soon I would just start rolling.  

I thought, yeah whatever, maybe next class, and of course 30 seconds later, I was rolling along!

The drills were tailored to our level, so when the others were doing advanced drills, I was practicing scissors.

I realised there's a lot of leg and core strength required.  I was lucky that I had this from cycling and boxing.

It was also interesting the different leg muscles involved - I felt it most on the outside sides of my thighs the following days.

I didn't know whether they wear protective gear, but when I got there no one was.
I guess it's more a roller derby being full contact sport thing.

I did borrow some wrist guards though.  My husband warned if I break my wrist, that's 6 weeks off the bike!! :(
He said from his experience in mountain biking, there is a twisting arm / rolling weight falling technique.  (Where you roll on the curve of your arm, rather than putting your arms straight out and having the impact and weight go straight up your wrists into your collarbone).
But as I was a newbie, my instinct would probably be just to put my arms straight out.

But falling wasn't really an issue.
I watched some youtube videos the night before and the tip was pretty much: if you lose your balance, get into crouch so you're closer to the ground (less distance to fall).
I did fall a few times but I wouldn't call them stacks or anything, just losing balance and touching the ground. It didn't really hurt.

I'm really so grateful and happy that I'm at such a great point in my life I can try new things and give it a good crack!  Life is so good!

So of course on burst of excitement about rollerskating, next week my husband and I are going to watch the Sydney Roller Derby League Presents the 2014 Home Season Grand Finals!

I've never seen Roller Derby live, only in a Drew Barrymore / Ellen Page movie, so I think it'll be interesting!

Eek!  So good.

Cyclocross (CX)!

(A very belated post)

So a while back in August, Sydney Cyclocross Collective posted about a free workshop with Lindsay Gorrell, NSW State Champion.

(via australiancxmagazine)

And I thought, I can't turn down this opportunity!

I used to think Cyclocross was odd.

I mean, who creates a bike race where you pick up the bike and run up stairs?

Anyway, after watching my husband and his friends do a race, I just thought it was a very fun thing!

Lots of pain faces very early on, but everyone laps everyone, so you never know who's winning or last.

My kind of race!

I even wanted to buy a CX bike!

Liv Giant 2014 Brava SLR 2

It is pink..

Anyway, so I did this workshop - I didn't want to do it and when I arrived I didn't want to do it even more because everyone had Cyclocross bikes or mountain bikes and I had my road bike.

As usual, I decided to have a goal so that I could try and have a sense of achievement at the end.

My goal was to try everything at least once.  Even if it was slow or a walkthrough.  (A pretty basic goal as I was expecting to be challenged.  This would be the first entrance to off-road cycling that I'd ever had.)

Our first lesson was suitcase carrys over a barrier.

(via onespeedblog.blogspot.com.au)

Which meant unclipping, and moving 1 leg over the back of the bike while still rolling, before unclipping the other foot and picking up the bike and running over the barrier.

I had trouble unclipping.

I am still not 100% confident with my clipping in / unclipping.

I felt like crying!

Thank goodness I always cycle with glasses, so hopefully when I'm crying, it's mostly hidden!

The first exercise and I already couldn't do it!

I thought to myself, this is just going to be a horrid day!

But, I thought about my goal - "try everything at least once".

So I sucked it up and gave it a go.

Not me.

It was pretty shit.

Lindsay was super nice though and tried to loosen my pedals (already at max looseness) and then gave me some exercises for practicing clipping in and out.

I talked myself into continuing - as I'm sort of used to cycling without being clipped in.

So I decided to practice by unclipping super early.

That was much better.

And I also did my first down hill slope.

It freaked me out watching the other girls, and I had a mental block of thinking of road bike would slip out.

Finally, I agreed to borrow someone else's bike (see how friendly everyone is!) and I did it!

Not me.  (That's Lindsay)

So after all of that worry and initial mental anguish, it ended up being a really fun day and great meeting other girls interested in CX.

That's me.

The group.

Big thank you to Rob Parbery who is huge in supporting CX in Sydney and Lindsay Gorrell for taking the time to run the session.

A few weeks later, I ended up doing 1 race at Terrey Hills but I felt like my attempt was a bit lame

I did it on my road bike with my road tyres.

I was too nervous and I didn't really apply anything that I learnt.

My transitions were really awkward and clunky.  Basically, stop, get off bike, walk over obstacle, stop, get back on bike, go.

The technical parts were also really difficult (even for those on mountain bikes).

Something to think about for next year.  ;)

Favourite part of the race - at the beginning - speaking to Lizanne:

Me: My goal is to do 2 laps.

Lizanne: Oh, you'll do more than that, unfortunately..

Yeah.. I did 5 laps.  (The winners did 8).

2 Things I Learnt From Husband Doing The Newcastle Overnight

Last night, my husband participated in the Newcastle Overnight.

via http://newcastleovernight.com/

It was a 170km ride starting at 9pm at Observatory Hill, Sydney to Newcastle Baths.

I initially considered maybe doing it, but it sounded a bit long and tiring..

I was irrationally worried about my husband doing it as I had been affected a few months earlier by the gentleman who was killed by a truck while participating in a long ride.

My husband reassured me that one must not go through life avoiding things that 1 person once died from.

Which is a really valid statement.

Otherwise we'd all either be sitting in the middle of a room not doing anything, although, I'm sure someone must have died from doing that at some point in history..

Anyway, everything went fine and apparently the group stuck together quite effectively (however my husband is a pretty strong beginner rider who can keep up with the more experienced riders if need be).

2 Things I Learnt From Husband Doing The Newcastle Overnight

1.  I don't think I want to do it (right now).

Despite it sounding like a challenging event with a bunch of nice people (I mean, who has the energy to be an arsehole while cycling 170km.. surely you run out of air at about 80km.), my husband's by-line for the ride on Strava was "Everybody hurts . . . sometimes . . . everybody cries . . ." which is the song he sings when he climbs.  

But, his description of the last part of the ride and how at the last stop, everyone's pretty subdued, and it's about making conversation and being easy going and staying positive..  I'm just not sure if my personality would be that conducive.  

My husband even mentioned there was a point on the ride where he thought "if my wife was here, she would be crying right now".

Anyway, not for right now, maybe when I'm old and wise AND A MONSTER CYCLIST.  Teehee..

2.  Using lots of chamois cream is important

I always marvelled at photos of how much chamois cream was used by experienced cyclists - eg.

(via euphoriabeforetotalimplosion.blogspot.com.au)

Without going into too much detail, despite my husband bringing along a ziplock bag of chamois cream to reapply.  It was not enough.

He described parts chafing that I didn't realise even made contact when cycling.

As I have never ridden close to 200km, now I understand why this (formerly considered EXCESSIVE) amount of chamois cream is required.

Yay for chamois cream.

Today I won a game of chicken

Today I won a game of chicken.

But it doesn't feel like I won anything.

I was cycling towards La Perouse (1 lane each way).

A vehicle coming the opposite way, overtook another vehicle and completed this move.

Then he decided to change into my lane and head towards me - ie. going the wrong way in my lane.

I was planning to turn left so I held my lane (to get a good turning line and so no cars could overtake me).  There were also no cars behind me.

I eyeballed him and just before we got close, he changed back to the correct lane.

I feel like I held my lane because
1.  the car was not accelerating
2.  there were heaps of people around as witnesses

I think if those 2 things had been different, I may have made a different decision.

Now, it didn't really affect me because when I'm cycling, I turn into an absolute hardarse.

I have developed this because I found when cycling, I feel like I need to focus on staying calm and making measured decisions without panicking.

But in hindsight, this morning was probably a risky move and I'm lucky I didn't get injured.

I know everyone will be like "be careful" and I wish I didn't have stories like this, but it is what it is.

It's good

Most of the time it's great fun.

I really think things are getting better - I think odd incidents for me have dropped from once a fortnight to probably once a month.

One day..

(via www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk)

P.S.  How good is the Sydney weather this week!  :)

I finally worked out how to get my bike to lean against a wall with the back wheel only.  

By "worked out", I mean I did it for the first time and it worked...

Something to do with aiming the front wheel at that particular angle....

First Time Trial (25km)!

So I thought with the Rapha Women's 100 done and dusted, I could have a bit of a break. .

But then Giant Cycling Club Sydney decided to run a club championship time trial at Calga.

I joined Giant Cycling Club Sydney (with a recreational / silver license) since everyone I ride with is part of Giant, I thought it would be fun to participate in events.

The Australian Time Trial Association (ATTA) runs this time trial event every first Sunday of the month from 8am.

They have the little ramp and clock and everything!

$25 for those with licenses or $30 for unlicensed.

The distance we chose was 25km - you ride out 12.5km, turn around and ride back.

And I thought, what a great opportunity to channel Tony Martin and try a time trial!

(via www.gettyimages.com.au)

On the coldest day in Sydney.

It was pretty cold.

A friend was adamant I wouldn't be last.  So I looked up last month's times and saw that the last person had done it in 1 hour.  

I like to have a goal, so if I achieve it, I will feel a sense of achievement on the other side.

So I made my goal to make it in under 1 hour.  That would make it a 25km/hr average, which I thought was a good realistic goal to aim for.

(I love S.M.A.R.T. goals - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time Bound - I find them so effective!  They take a little while to think of but are much easier in the long run.)

My registration number was 6, so that meant I started at 8:06.  What a logical system!

I asked the man holding my bike for the start whether anyone had fallen off the ramp and he said no.  (I'm allowed 1 irrational thought for every cycling event I do, right?)

So I had googled this event (I never do anything without researching first) and the main points seemed to be:

1. Don't be late to the start.  
2. Don't go too hard at the start.  
3. Save some energy for the big hill at the end.  

Some more tips here - Coach's Corner - Club Time Trial Edition

So,

1. Don't be late to the start.  Tick.
2. Don't go too hard at the start.  Mmmm.
3. Save some energy for the big hill at the end.  Granny gear all the way baby.

5km in, trying to find a good pace, I realised I was in the red zone...  Oops..

Once I recovered, I found a good pace.

Well, as good as one can do on rolling hills going uphill.

It was lovely because my club Giant Cycling Club Sydney are so super friendly and encouraging and everyone doing warmups or heading the other way was yelling encouragement at me!

The turn was really obvious, lots of signs leading up to it and a person holding a road sign.

My time was 31 minutes at the turn and I thought uh oh, I'm behind schedule...

The return trip was much easier (downhill) until The Hill.  

Also, I was much happier knowing I was halfway through!

I thought my very fast friends would catch me, but they didn't.

Probably due to that hill at the end.  It was worse than I thought.

I went into granny gear and "paperboy" as they call it where each pedal makes you veer that direction.

We must have looked like one of those comedy chase scenes where the first group is going to get caught, but then both parties get slowed down by the same obstacle!

The last few kms, I pushed as hard as I could (because I knew there was only a few km to go) and was doing 35km/hr with pain face.

Which paid off because my time was 56 minutes!!!

I achieved my goal!  So I was very happy.

And it was actually really fun to do.  

I always joke that I hate people, so time trialling is good for me haha.  But I just like that it's just you against the clock, no other variables.  (well apart from wind, and terrain, etc).

No other people to hold pace or break you, you have to find your own rhythm / pace and push yourself.

My husband laughed because I went straight home and put all the dates in my calendar for the upcoming time trial events.

I'm looking forward to doing another one when it's not the coldest day in Sydney. .

Road cycling's barrier to entry and Women's Tour de France

Barrier to Entry

So, thinking about it, I am very lucky to have followed in my husband's footsteps with road cycling.

One would say that I wouldn't really have done it if my husband hadn't started first and that would be true.

However, on buying one's first road bike on average fitness, there is not much you can do but ride by yourself.

On average fitness, your speed is probably around 20km/hr and a group ride probably starts at around at least 25km/hr.

I say I am lucky because bought my road bike and was quite prepared with realistic ambitions of group road cycling by my husband's stories of riding with the local group and being dropped on the first few times.

Despite being friends with most of the group now, on my husband's first ride, it appeared either no one realised he had dropped or they knew and they kept riding.  No one stopped or tried to help him back on.

(via kwc.org/cycling/photos)

Hence, our advice to anyone doing a group ride is:

1. Know the route
2. Know how to get home

I really wanted to join the group my husband was riding with because it sounded fun.

So, what I did was use Strava to track my average speed and train on the local group ride routes that my husband taught me until I got up to 25km/hr.  

I worked really hard.  I rode by myself for weeks, pushing myself harder and harder.

Looking like a noob.

Then:

This picture inspires me to remember how far I've come since then!

Now:

But at least I had the information about what to aim for.

I feel like there is bit of a barrier to entry for group road cycling.

The only accessible regular group ride for beginners I could find in around Sydney is the Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club (DHBC) who run a Slowies ride.

"Saturday Slowies is our ride for everyone!

Leaving from outside the Marrick Cafe at 6:30am, this low key bunch ride makes its way through Newtown and Redfern to Centennial Park. All you need to ride Saturday Slowies is a roadworthy bike, a helmet and lights. Too easy ;-) 

Once you arrive in the park, go as hard or as easy as you like. Hit the hills or cruise the flats, but be at the Western (Robertson Rd / Horse) gates by 8:00am to return to Marrickville with the bunch for coffee and breakfast at the wonderful Marrick Cafe. Remember that following two or three rides, we ask that you join the club and obtain a 'Silver' license from Cycling Australia. This ensures that our ride leaders have the comfort of knowing that you are insured and helps to build DHBC as a club.

You will never be left behind on Saturday Slowies: someone will always get you back to the starting point of the ride and help you out if you have a flat or a mechanical"

But I still think there is a gap between buying your first road bike and cycling with other road cyclists.

I think women are a bit luckier in this respect.  As a result of being a male dominated sport, there is a bit more effort involved in encouraging women to gain skills and get into cycling.

I always wonder though, what about helping men too.  It can be intimidating for any beginners.

Perhaps once there is a bit more equality in the world for women, the cycling programs can be about helping everyone!

Women and the Tour de France

(via www.bicycling.com)

La Course by Le Tour de France is on Sunday night.

120 women will race a 90km course through Paris on the last day of the Tour de France ahead of the men's race.

You may not realise:

While this year’s La Course features just one stage for the women, the 1984 Tour de France Féminin nearly mirrored the men’s race, with the only notable difference being the distances raced. The women raced the same 21 days and every mountain pass. Each day, the women would finish roughly 30 minutes before the men. The mileage was shortened on the front end (flat, parade pace sections) to comply with UCI rules regarding women’s racing distances.

(via velonews)

I didn't realise until I read this interesting article a few days ago in the Washington Post about "The Tour de France, again, has no women cyclists".

It mentions the history of the Boston Marathon as a similarly prestigious endurance event that did not allow women for a long time.

Women were not allowed to enter the Boston race officially until 1972, but Roberta "Bobbi" Gibb couldn't wait: In 1966, she became the first woman to run the entire Boston Marathon, but had to hide in the bushes near the start until the race began. 

In 1967, Kathrine Switzer, who had registered as "K. V. Switzer", was the first woman to run with a race number. Switzer finished even though officials tried to physically remove her from the race after she was identified as a woman.

(via dingeengoete.blogspot.com.au)

(P.S.  Tip - be careful reading the online comments around these stories.  A number of sexist, narrow minded people commenting..)

So, with the huge increase and interest in women's cycling at the moment, it'll be interesting to see what will happen over the next few years.

I was thinking about it and it's great that there is access to images and information about women's road cycling starting to appear now.

Despite being obsessive about watching the Tour de France and men's road cycling for years, the lack of available images / information about women's road cycling (similar to most women's sports) probably influenced me a little into assuming it was more of a men's sport only and that women didn't really do it.

Images and stories are so important.  It helps inspire you to think about what could be.

Anna Meares on Instagram

(via www.dailymail.co.uk)

Nettie Edmonson on Instagram

& Amy Cure on Instagram

(via www.facebook.com)