Lisa Morgan - Kiwi Mountain Biker

Isn’t it nuts how one minute it’s Friday and you’re planning all the stuff you have to get done on the weekend, and next thing you look up and it’s Wednesday???

I had a pretty big week on the bike last week but fortunately it was like summer for much of it (sadly the same can’t be said of this week during which the weather has regressed back to winter) and I got some great rides in, including spending a couple of hours with a couple of the girls (Celia and Jo) up on Mt Vic on Friday afternoon, scoping out the course for the race this Sunday.  There’s been a lot of grading done in preparation for the 12 hour in November which is going to make some sections wicked fast to climb but a week of rain should leave the rest of the course good and challenging like it should be for this weekend.

Speaking of the 12 hour, it’s on Saturday 17 November and is the first 12 hour hosted in Wellington in something like a million years.  I’ll be racing in Team Bicylettes with Nicole Swain and Amanda Jenkins, and I’ve managed to snare us a secret weapon as our 4th rider who is bound to make the day even more fun.  You can bet the Pink Ladies from the Day Night Thriller will be making a return so be on the look out for hot chicks in hot pink hot pants!

This weekend just been I went to an incredible wedding.  Incredible not because of over the top extravagance or an invite list of thousands, nothing silly like that.  Incredible because the guest list was so carefully selected.  During the speeches it became really apparent just how much thought had gone in to who had been invited and why, and it was a real privilege to have been one of them.  It was a really great day and night and even though I had to wear a dress, and my feet really hurt, and I ended up doing my Sunday ride on all of 2 hours sleep (!) it was fantastic to be a part of and I wish Catherine and Rod all the best for the future - I know they’re going to be incredibly happy together (and they will always be welcome to have me over for dinner).

This week I’m having an IO booster, the once every 6 weeks 5 days worth of passive altitude simulation training.  It certainly helps me sleep well!  And this Sunday we have round 3 of the PNP Spring Series, on Mt Vic.  Looking forward to that!

That’s right, just a weekend - not a race report!  After the extended bad hair day it seemed like a good time to peg back the racing as well.  Between this and the first PNP race it’s only 2 I’m missing, and this one always had a question mark over it anyway.  But I couldn’t just stay at home, so road-trip-buddy Paula and I headed up to Taupo on Friday where we met the other 10 (11?) people we were sharing a house with.  A big house thank goodness - and huge thanks to Paula for organising it.

I decided to go for a solid training ride on Saturday morning before heading out to the event so headed for Turangi in pretty near perfect conditions.  Just a touch of drizzle down that way, but on the return leg the sun came out and the winds stayed low.  I added a little bit extra on to the ride by heading out to say hello at the event and only had about 10 people comment on the fact that I was on a road bike.  Then I headed back to the house for a quick shower, bit of massage in the legs so they wouldn’t kill me later, sucked back a good amount of fluid and grabbed some pasta salad - oh, and the Blur - I’d just done a hundy-plus k warm up ready for my lap :o)

When I got back to the event things were well and truly in full swing, the sun was out, and the Pink Ladies site was where it was going off.  These girls had more pink than is legal at Barbie’s summer BBQ but I must say, hot pink hot pants over lycra shorts isn’t nearly as bad a look as I thought it would be!  Just don’t expect me to sport a similar look any time soon…

After an hour or 2 of sifting, eating and socialising I decided it was time I hit the dirt to see what the course was like.  I knew I should be looking at a lap in the low 20’s so I hammered away in big ring and stayed in it for the lap.  After about 2 minutes winding my way through the sites on the grass I started to hurt a bit, and it only hurt more as I went on - maybe less of a warm up next time…  But it was great.  The course was dry and riding pretty nicely.  The last section coming through the gorge was incredibly fast and I thoroughly enjoyed my cameo effort.  I wasn’t inspired to do any more laps after that, but there was plenty more time to sit in the sun and hang for a bit.

The crew from the house had a great day (with some controversy in the solo results raising a few eyebrows at the moment) - lots of podiums and medals, and prize for the most colourful team and a bungy spot prize!  I dare them to take their bikes!

Oh, and have a look here for the perspective of the day from one of the guys riding on a fixie/ss team who took the Blur for a spin :o)

Apologies for the blog shortage lately. I had a bit of an extended bad hair day…  But I’m back, and with a race report even!

I was absolutely gutted to miss the first round of this year’s PNP series.  It’s my 3rd year competing and it just gets better every year - not to mention that round 1 was on my ‘home trails’ at Makara.  But, some things can’t be helped, and at least round 5 is hosted by Makara as well.  But a few rounds to go before we get there, including today’s awesome race hosted in the valley over the hill at Wainui - or the ‘nui, or the Y as it is also known.

In the past Senior Women have usually left with Junior and Masters Women.  It’s traditionally been a pretty small field in total, so it was kind of nice today to head off with the Junior Boys.  I’d had good legs through the week and felt good in my warm up too.  I knew the course wasn’t the most suited to me consisting mostly of 1 long 4wd climb and not a lot of technical stuff, and given the last few weeks I opted to go in to this one pretty much without a game plan - more just a ‘just go nuts and see if I can leave it all out there’.

Fellow Bicycle rider Nicole and I lined up behind Laura Smith (2nd in round 1) but as soon as the gun went I shot to the lead ’sprinting like a woman possessed’ according to Scotty!  The smart juniors jumped in and drafted off me down the few hundred metres of road and dirt to the bottom of the climb.  A fair few of them jumped out from behind and sailed up past me - and fair enough too.  The climb wasn’t exactly a picnic, but it seemed to split itself up pretty well.  The water tank was about half way and after that it was pretty undulating with a few challenging pinches - a couple of which I deemed ’strategic walks’.  Around half way on the first lap I started having some problems with my asthma with really laboured breathing and some nasty pains which slowed me up a bit.  Nicole got past me on one of the pinch climbs and Laura seemed to get by pretty effortlessly on a flattish section I should have been hauling.  Nothing quite like it to accentuate the pain!  I pegged it back a notch to try and recover and figured I’d see how I was going at the end of the first lap. 

Heading up to the high point for the first time I was really feeling it, but I knew there was a truckload of downhill not too far away where I’d be able to get in some recovery and hopefully breath a bit easier.  I messed up my line on the dodgiest section of rock at the top and somehow just got away with slipping my wheels in to a rut in a very dicey fashion.  Anyone who saw it would have been convinced it was going to end in tears (or at least a lot of pain and blood…).

Heading up the gentle climb towards the singletrack I saw Nicole ahead of me and noticed I was catching pretty rapidly which gave me an extra boost to keep pushing.  The nature of the course also meant there always seemed to be quite a few riders around so there was always someone up ahead to target and catch.  As I passed Nicole gave me a friendly ‘Go Lisa’ but I was hurting and all I could manage in reply was something about asthma and I think I’m out, so I just gunned it for the singletrack.

Once there I took a few spot checks of my heart rate and was shocked to see how high it was sitting - on a down hill!  That’s not right!  About half way down I had a high speed stack which has resulted in some grazing and bruising (and a very sore tailbone where my seat had a hell of a go at me - for once I would have liked a bit of padding on the saddle!) but everything still worked.

Near the bottom I caught Laura and passed her when she fumbled on a corner.  Can’t pull out when you’re in the lead so back up the hill I went and hoped like hell it’d go a bit better this time around.  It did, a bit, enough.  Laura passed again just before the top of the first part of the climb so I worked to stay in touch enough to make it up on the downhill again.  I had a much cleaner second lap, nailing my lines and holding some good gears on the final climbing sections, then simply unleashed again on the downhill with one thought in my mind - catch her.  Not far from the bottom again I saw her and rode up calling to pass.  She knew it was me and wasn’t too keen to let me go so I sat in calling and waiting for an opportunity readying myself for an all out sprint to the line along the road to finish.  I got a bit of a break though when she went down heavily in front of me - after a quick slow down to check there was no major damage (no response but plenty of movement) I cranked it up and hammered out of there on to the road in the biggest gear I could push, head down, lockout on. 

I came across the line in an hour 38 - an hour and 13 of which was spent above 190bpm.  That’s pretty nuts even for me!  Poor old heart working overtime to compensate for lack of oxygen in the first lap.  Little bit sore now but pleased I was able to push through it (reminder to self, take inhaler before races!).

Nicole and Laura gave me a great race today really forcing me to ride to my limits on that big climb.  The trails that the ‘nui trail fairies have built were mint and stood up well to the hard riding (might need some maintenance now though…) and the rain held off even if it was a bit cold while not riding.

Yep, I’m back, and loving it.