Lisa Morgan - Kiwi Mountain Biker

Crikey - road racing!  This afternoon I’m heading for the Naki, famous for… well not very much - a cheese factory and Mt Taranaki topping out at 2518m.  I was once told if you couldn’t see the mountain it was raining and if you could, it was going to rain.  And I’ve been warned it’s invariably cold at this time of year.  Hmmm… this should be interesting!

The tour is a 3 day, 5 stage event.  Plenty more info on it here. 

I’m not kidding myself, my road racing experience is limited.  The odd fun ride over the last few years and a couple more serious types where I have ended up OTA and have a fair idea of what went wrong, a vague idea of how to address it, and a painful lack of confidence to do so.  So, that’s what this weekend is about.  Putting myself in a good position to stay with the bunch and see what is going on. 

Hopefully I’ll report back with good news on how that goes :o)

I’ve uploaded some photos recently too.

Some days are meant for riding, and today was certainly one of those days!  After preparing myself all week for the weather to turn when I was scheduled for a 6 hour ride, and the forecast being for a southerly change at midday, I was happy to wake up and see blue sky, the sun, and a very calm outlook.  It turned out it couldn’t have been a better day for my planned ride at this time of year.  It was so warm at the summit of the Akatarawa’s that the cicada’s were out and I’ve got renewed tanlines - and it’s the end of May!!! I’m happy for conditions like this to continue as long as they want to.

But the strangest thing happened too…  Every now and then on the mtb I ride a section of track, or see a view from the top of a climb, or just have a moment, and a smile spreads across my face.  I don’t control it, I just feel it - and it is proof of just how much I love what I do, just how happy I am when I’m on the bike.  It’s a stupid grin that makes me feel I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.  It’s hard to describe, but it feels as though everything is as it should be in the world.  I’ve never had that sensation on the road, until today.

It’s not that I don’t enjoy spending time on the road, and certainly with the purpose each ride has these days I enjoy it more than I ever have.  I’ve never really settled in to a rhythm on hills with the road - today I got that.  And then, about 100kms in to the ride, on a slight down hill I looked up, and what I saw and the way I felt merged in to a single sensation and I got my grin on.  A quiet, tree-lined road stretched out in front of me, the sun was shining, the birds completed the cliche with their singing, I could hear the rhythm of my pedal stroke and I was feeling strong.  And with that, for the first time, I felt I loved the road.

This bodes well given that around 95% of the time I spend on bikes these days is on the road.  If you’d told me even 6 months ago this would be the case I would have scoffed and pedalled away in a cloud of dust, on the dirt!  I do however remember Robyn telling my on the night of the national series final this year that I would love the road.  I did agree at the time that yes, I could learn to love the road.  But I sill maintain the reason is because it’s going to make all the difference to my mountain biking.

Whatever the reason, it is an amazing feeling when everything comes together in a single moment and just makes you smile :o)

Sometimes it seems like my whole life is about riding, or doing things that relate to riding - time on the bike, time in the gym, recovery activities like massage/getting on the roller, making time for altitude simulation training at IO, preparing meals to ensure I’m adequately fuelled for training and racing.  Not to mention getting piles of training gear through the wash, and cleaning bikes!  I also like to spend some time giving back to the sport where I can.  It’s really flattering to have people approach me for advice so I always try to give them the time they deserve.

I’m fortunate that a lot of the cleaning and maintenance can be done while I’m at the shop on Saturdays (Bicycle) where I help out as the token girl and sponsored rider.  I get quite a buzz out of dealing with customers from putting young kids on their first bikes, to giving advice on the best equipment and trails, to dealing with women who come in and might otherwise be intimidated by the guys (not that they’re not great guys), all sorts of people who share one thing - a love of riding bikes.

Amongst all of this however, I have a day-job - the one that pays the bills and funds the bulk of the riding.  I’m what’s called a Human Resources Business Partner at global telecommunications company Alcatel-Lucent.  The 2 sides of the company merged 6 months ago and it’s been tough work bringing them together - it’s not over yet either.  The work is demanding and the hours are long.  The one saving grace at the moment is that I largely get to pick and choose when to fit the hours in. 

With the days being short as we head in to winter, and being something of a solar-powered person, I really need to get out and train during daylight hours.  So my day starts well before the sun comes up, and at some stage I emerge from my windowless office and spend 1 to 3 hours at the gym or on the bike.  After that I usually put in a few more hours, take a break to head home and eat (and get on the wind trainer if the weather hasn’t allowed me to get out during the day) and usually log back on and do some more work.  The last 3 months since the season ended have been particularly demanding and it’s not a lifestyle I would recommend to anyone let alone an athlete.

So at the moment, life is a pretty hectic thing for me.  I certainly get to test my organisational and time management skills and it’s really important to me that I’m getting adequate rest to ensure that I can follow my programme and recover well from day to day.  It certainly helps having an awesome set up in the garage on days like today when I couldn’t get out on the road due to time constraints and the weather.  Pretty cool to be able to come home and chuck a DVD on and watch that on the projector screen while I was doing 2 hours of tempo work.  Movie of choice today was Shawshank Redemption - a nice long classic to pass the time.

I was looking forward to the Moonride for weeks!  It’s an awesome 12/24hr event in Rotorua (vegas) attracting over 2000 participants in 2007.  I first experienced it as a 12 hour solo rider (because I could) in 2005 where I lasted 11 hours on a super fun, dry, fast course before basically getting bored.  I managed to place 5th and it’s still the longest I have ever spent on a bike, and I dare say that record will stand for the rest of time!  In 2006 thought I’d have a crack at the podium.  I put in some long rides in the weeks building up and was feeling pretty good.  Unfortunately the weather thwarted my plans.  It had rained for days in advance so the course was changed making it much less fun, there was lots of tacky, energy sapping mud, the grass areas were tiring bogs and it was so cold I just couldn’t get warm after the sun went down.  I spat the dummy after 8.5 hours, finished in 4th and waited out the rest of the event battling cold and cramp, and knocking back hot milo and hashbrowns.

For 2007 I decided to return but in a team.  After weighing up my options I hit up the local Jamis rep and told him he could put me in a Jamis team for the event.  I had expected to be in the mixed team so was surprised to find myself in the mens team.  Officially it’s an ‘open’ grade, but in reality it’s all male.  We had a good drive up on the Friday with Robyn, Emma and Mum (on driving duty).  Robyn was also racing the 12 hour in the womens grade (team Scott-no-men, unofficially) which they won, Emma found out half way up that she was doing the 24 hour, also womens grade - I can’t remember their team name but they wore pyjamas, her pink dressing gown made her very easy to spot!  Emma was on of the girls in the Karapoti training group and Ilsé from the group was also in the team.  Robyn, Mum and I had a quiet night first hitting the supermarket, then going out for dinner and finishing up with Robyn writing my latest programme (woo hoo!) and me killing time surfing the net and watching a short documentary on the Great Wall of China Marathon that Robyn would do the following Saturday (just coz).  It made me go ‘eep!’ and ‘rather you than me’.

Although it rained all the way up the country, and seemed to rain all night in Rotorua, the 24-hourers told us there had just been a few showers over night and the course was dry and mint!  The day dawned cold but the sun was up and the sky was blue so with the excitement building Rob and I got packed and ready to go.  Mum dropped us at the event village and went to find hot pools to soak in for the better part of the day.  We found our respective sites, did a walk around catching up with people and team mates before settling on our sites and getting ready for the start.

Being the only girl on the team I took that as a licence to be a bit bossy and assigned myself to anything but starting rider and announced we should do double laps.  2 of us ended up sticking to double laps, and the others mixed it up a bit, but that way I still got nice long breaks.  It also meant gearing up and going out only 3 times instead of 5 or 6, and saved time in transition as you just rode on through.

After the first few laps we were down in 22nd place.  I was 3rd rider out and was pretty happy with my lap times, matching the girls in the mixed team.  With over 300 12 hour teams, plenty more 24 hour teams and around 40 (from memory) solo riders  out on the course things got pretty congested at times.  The constant calling ‘on your right’ and ‘thank you’ was fun but not something you’d normally be doing so much of in a race but I’ve done events like this before and had plenty of practice - so much that often I’d pick up a train of riders behind me who would just use me to clear the track in front and be happy to stick to my pace (for as long as they could in some cases…).

By around the half way mark we were in 6th place and quickly moved in to 4th, 3 minutes down from 3rd.  I gave the boys a rark up and told them I wanted some podium time.  Soon enough we were just 30 seconds down so I strategically gave what would have been my 6th lap to on of the faster guys, a move that would save us about 2 1/2 minutes.  We finished up comfortably in 3rd and I’d been pretty happy with how I’d ridden.  I’d also had a fantastic time with my big long breaks being able to move around and catch up with people.  It’s so much fun being at a huge event like that where so many of your friends are around and the focus is simply on having fun!

Prizegiving was a drawn out and cold affair but it’s always important to stick around, even if you haven’t placed, I often get a bit annoyed at people who leave early.  Good spot prizes are always a drawcard that keep people around.  Certainly it wasn’t a problem here as hundreds were present (didn’t make the last spot prize any easier to give away!).  After that we piled back in to the car as Mum had come to pick us up, and drove back to base camp where we had more food (as if we hadn’t already eaten too much) and relaxing tea as we got cleaned up.  Then after a bit more chatting about the day it was off to bed for a well-earned sleep to let the bods recover.

On Sunday I dropped Rob at the airport as she was flying to Auckland for the day then on to China.  Emma caught up with her brother and Ricky came over for a shower (he had done the 24 in a team on a silly 700c bike with skinny tyres - silly boy - and was taking the spare place in the car for the trip back).  I dopped Mum and Ricky in to town and went for a ride - lots of fun in the forest including 2 runs of Be Rude Not 2 and a variety of other old favourites.  We then had lunch before hitting the road again (Willy Nelson on the stereo) and making the trip home.

Yay for racing, new programmes, catching up with friends, finding the podium, riding vegas singletrack, ‘on the road again’ with Willy Nelson, chocolate brownies in Taihape :o)

It took about half an hour to crack open the first beer after finishing Karapoti, the last race of the season.  And it only took that long because I was too busy fizzing and catching up with people, getting cleaned up and checking and rechecking my ride time.  During the course of the afternoon I caught up with heaps of people – in particular a lot of those who hadn’t been on the national’s circuit so I hadn’t seen in quite a while.  Robyn and I made a point of catching up with each of the girls from the training group as they crossed the finish line.  It was great to see everyone at the moment of achievement – we’d come together out of a desire to each achieve our personal goals in this race so it was fitting share in the moment.  The sun continued to shine right through prize giving and everyone was on such a high – the superb conditions meant hundreds of competitors were walking away from the day with a new personal best.

After dinner out with the boys, and some obligatory celebratory beverages to mark the end of the season I crawled in to bed that night very tired, very happy, and full of enthusiasm and optimism for the future.

Over the next 12 weeks I had no training programme to follow.  The first two weeks were the hardest.  The weather was still beautiful, I was on a high from so many great weeks of racing and it just didn’t feel right to wake up and not have to get out on the bike.  I was still allowed to ride, but struggled without the focus I’d become used to and had really grown to love.  On weekends it wasn’t so bad, in fact it was great to just be able to take some days and do nothing at all but enjoy the sun.  But during the week both mind and body hadn’t caught up with the fact that it was time for a break. Our local club champs were held two weeks after Karapoti.  My sponsors were gold sponsors for the event so I really had to be there.  At around 1 in the morning the night before Robyn was practising her holistic approach to coaching (not that I was complaining) and advised me to switch out of the open grade to take any pressure off myself.  I would still be riding the same course and have the same start time – as usual I did what I was told (and was pretty glad to remove the pressure after the night before!).  Turned out there wasn’t much to worry about as not only did I have a really good race but I also finished ahead of Samara for the first time, and put the biggest gap on Nicole that I had all summer.  Racing masters grade meant I didn’t get the overall title but that wasn’t important at all – mostly I was thrilled to know I could still cut it without training. An annual fun race was held about a month later – a runners vs. mountain bikers vs. roadies up one of the highest peaks in Wellington .  I’d been doing more running and road riding for a while but elected to get the mtb out and see how I went.  Robyn was running and by the time we could see each other having taken different routes for the first half of the climb it was a 2 woman race.  Unfortunately around ¾ of the way to the top my freewheel busted and ended my race.  I waited for Robyn to run past and asked her to dnf me at the top before rolling back to the start.  I never react well to having to dnf and even though it was only a fun race I was bitterly disappointed to have not completed. After that there was a month left before the Moonride, which would mark the start of training again.  I ended up having quite a few days off with a stomach infection and before that was over got hit by a flu virus so finally had some real downtime while my body recovered.

After being woken up several times through the night by noisy neighbours I wasn’t a very happy camper at first light this morning. I felt really unrested and a bit achey from the lack of sleep. The Aunt Betty’s crew had been kept awake as well, so between us we managed to set off car alarms, bash around rubbish bins, play stereos very loudly and make a fair bit of noise in the hopes of a bit of payback.

Unfortunately there’s no getting more sleep, so you have to try and put it aside and focus on the task at hand…

Race venue - we’ve come all the way to the sub tropics and it’s so cold I’m shivering!!! But it warmed up fairly quickly and I had picked a good spot for the wind trainer which ended up in the sun about 5 minutes before I had to get on. On the start line we had 4 in the grade and Nicole soloing senior. There was a start loop on the road cutting out the first section of singletrack for our race so a fair bit of time to ensure being first in to the singletrack, which I was with a few seconds to spare. A couple of minutes up the climb I lost my back wheel in a dusty rut and dropped the chain - the few seconds it took me to get going again cost me 2 places and a couple of slices to my finger (blood still all over brake lever!).

I got back one place within a couple of minutes just before the top, and had to sit behind Nicole on the first downhill til she let me go as it started to go up again. From then I just focused on getting and keeping a gap. Through the first loop I was stretching it out getting through the rough better than the others and going in to the open loop with a good gap. Being so open I could look back and see what was happening behind me and Nicole was closing the gap out the back, but once I was in to the steepest sections it evened out again. Quite a few spectators were out on the dodgy downhill keeping the motivation high to stay on and keep the pace up.

Going through the start/finish I had about 30 seconds on Nicole so knew I was leading my race. I knew I could pull away a bit mroe in the rough loop and by the end of the race decided the rooty climb was by far my favourite section of the course. No issues in this lap, but coming through the flat sections almost felt like I was going backwards, and I really felt the lack of sleep out the back going up the main climb for the last time. Again I saw Nicole back a bit, told myself this was the last time so suck up the pain and get on with it. Once I was in to the last downhill I knew I would have it so just focused on staying on the bike, something that was getting harder as the day went on.

I’m stoked again to have come across the line first (poor Nicole had to finish a 3rd lap, which she took super easy). This was definitely a tough course - probably the toughest so far because if you stopped pedalling you wouldn’t just slow down - you’d hit a root or a rut and literally stop! Hard work, but still as much fun as ever.

Afterwards I kept as much of an eye on the U19 girls as I could - Sam came through their half lap with a pretty good gap and stretched it out as the race went on. Monique took a nasty fall early on but toughed it out to finish - awesome stuff for Samara though and takes her in to the final next week with them 2 a piece in the series - if you’re in town, you want to come and watch that race!

The elite’s had the toughest race of the day. Super dusty and wicked hot! Was awesome to see Kaytee hauling big time to take it out in superb fashion and she was stoked! (She also liked my vorb t-shirt). Gav got 10th again - awesome!

And of course a great race for Ricky too, 2nd only to the burglar.

We’re now all at Gav’s bach just out of Turangi (Gav, his parents, Mum, Ricky, Hiskey, Cabin, Anita - Hiskey’s sister). It’s been a looooooong day, but a great one.  It’s time for me to get some sleep - another early start tomorrow.

A nice start to Valentine’s Day…

Warm up from camp and through A-trail, finish warm up by finding a good 3 minute gradual climb close by

*mumble* intervals *mumble*

In break between sets take a cruise down be rude not to

*mumble* intervals *mumble*

Now you’ve finished your nasty intervals (make sure they hurt good and proper right through) have another play on brn2

Still time left’ Why, lets go do a lap of diamondback on our way back to camp - how convenient that Paradise City should start on the iPod right as we enter the track

So, that’s it for vegas. Shortly we’ll be on the road again heading north. See you in a few hours Auckland