My winter so far - training, motorbikes and mud! 31/1/2012

So as this is the first blog entry on my new website as a Downhill racer, I should probably be talking about mountain bikes but bear with me...

This winter has been very different compared to past winters for me; for starters I've finished school and I'm not working, and I have a proper training program so I have plenty of time to spend getting myself fit and strong for the coming season. Therefore I have been spending a lot more time doing things like this...

This -

Sweating on the turbo

This...

- Weights in the gym

This...

- Playing around on my bike in the mud (and hail!)

And this...

- Motorbikes!!

Turbo trainer sessions and weights are not something I'm totally unaccustomed to as I have spent a bit of time on them in the past, but never on the scale/intensity of this year! It's pretty exciting how hard you push yourself when you think of the huge benefits it will bring and I'm really interested to see how it pays off in my riding and racing.

New Gym

I've recently started going to a new gym near my house, I've always known it was there but was always been a bit nervous to go in as it's a proper ghetto bodybuilder gym that's got a bit of a reputation. However I needed to use free weights and they had them so one evening I decided to have a look... Walking into the gym I got a few confused looks and had to ask a few times before they turned the music down, realizing I wanted a gym session and wasn't looking for anyone! They've never had any girls in there before and the first thing I saw was a sign on the wall stating 'get big or die trying'. That made me smile as it reminded me of 'go big or go home!' that's always scrawled on the side of skateparks or BMX tracks. After a few sessions I've gotten to know some of the guys in there who help me out with spotting and everyone is really cool in there, although last time I went I got told everyone thought I had balls for going in there on my own... I'm kinda used to being to being a girl and sticking out like a sore thumb now, walking into the gym felt exactly like when I ride into a new skatepark for the first time - you can feel everyone looking at you thinking 'what is she doing in here??!' They get used to it after a while though.

I've also started spending more time on basic bike skills - something that girls in mountain biking seem to lack and I know I could do with quite a bit of improvement, so I've been spending some time out on my Hardtail and Downhill bike finding some obstacles and generally playing around on them!

Motorcycles

Finally the other thing I've been spending a lot more time on is my motorbike! I've always ridden motorbike ever since my Dad sat me on a PW60 when I was tiny but never really spent much time getting good on them, which was one of my aims for this winter.
- Repping Ugg boots and the number 1 plate!

At the end of the season we said goodbye to my CRF 150 as apparently I looked silly on it because I was too big for it and wasn't good enough to make it look right, and I wanted a bike to go fast on so we got me a KTM 150 2 stroke - a proper bike, a big bike. As soon as I got on it I realised what a difference having a full sized bike made; it's so much easier to go faster, you can literally take anything on it, and the best bit? Jumps! I'd never really done jumps on motocross tracks before but on the new bike I'm loving them. Everyone reckons motorbikes are great training for Downhill... Now I'm not sure if it's a proven fact or whether they're using it as an excuse to have some fun but I'm happy to go along with the theory! All I know is it ruins your arms, makes you go fast and is awesome fun.

Enduro

I'd been saying for ages I was going to do an enduro race on the motorbike but kept finding reasons not to but once I heard an enduro race was occurring fifteen minutes from my house I knew I had no excuse... A few weeks later and with a bit of trepidation I was sat on the start line not knowing what the hell I'd let myself in for! Well actually I knew it was going to be hard, very hard, but I hadn't even seen the track and once the starting flag went down I realised I didn't even know how it worked... Sat at the back of the start mass, I heard engines start so rushed to kick mine and get going, almost crashing into the guy in front of me and looking up to find out only the first line had gone... were they the marshals? Nope turns out everyone was lined up in categories and one line went every minute or so, I'd just found a space at the back and settled there - luckily in the right place!

- Start line at the enduro I was somewhere at the back, I don't think I've ever inhaled as many petrol fumes as when everyone was warming their engines up!

As soon as the flag went down for our category and we reached the first corner I got an idea of what it was going to be like, twenty bikes trying to fit in two ruts before heading into a massive bog... this was going to be fun. Once everyone had spread out a bit I wasn't feeling too bad, got round the first section of the course fairly reasonably and could see a fireroad ahead with my Dad and some friends waiting for us to come round and down I went! Slipped out on a root or something - there was a lot of them - and I was on the floor squirming around before I knew it. Now this happened quite a lot on the first lap, and the second and possibly the third, I could hardly feel my shoulders anymore from picking my bike up so much by the time I got used to the track but I did get better. The forest had been felled recently and there were stumps all over the place covered by fallen branches with roots underneath so it was a challenging track but I like the technical can-hardly-get-round kinda tracks. They're fun!
- One of the less muddy sections of the track... I had a bit of drama halfway through when I crashed onto a stump and jammed my throttle, we don't really know what happened but it wouldn't turn at all; so big thanks to Tom who rode off to find my Dad who came running down the track to the rescue with his bag of tools! The whole debacle took about twenty/thirty minutes but it wasn't long before my bike was fixed, I'd had a good rest and could set off again. I felt a lot more comfortable on the last few laps and a lot of people had dropped out as the track deteriorated so the track was a lot quieter - with a lot less 7 bike pile ups in corners! - and I was really enjoying it. I'll be honest though I was relieved when I got round after my fifth lap and the chequered flag was up, I could hardly feel any parts of my body anymore and keeping the bike upright was a struggle... and that evening was definitely the first time I'd had cramp for a while!

- Finish line! 2 Smoker smoking...