The Off-Season
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.
