The lack of blog entries in the last month is very much representative of the number of rides I’ve done recently. In fact, I don’t need all 10 fingers to count the total numbers of rides – two BMX club nights, two rides up Nichols Creek, two rides at Bethunes/Forrester, one up to Sullivans Dam and one road ride. Instead of spending my two week “holiday” riding bikes (which I would’ve loved to have done), I spent much of it inside working on house renovations, and entertaining my parents who had decided to visit. But that’s life I suppose, and you’ve got to just get on with it.

Yesterday was the second round of the South Island XC Cup, held at Forrester Park/Bethunes Gully in Dunedin. I had been umming and ahhing about whether to race throughout the week. Up until Friday evening, I was still sitting on the fence – the main reason being that I’d never gone into a “Nationals” race feeling so undercooked. For the past couple of seasons, I had a coach (thanks Lisa!) and a few months build-up to the Nationals series. This season, with no training and comparatively less riding in general, I knew that I was going to be in a whole different world of pain.

The main reason I decided to race was because the course was so fun, I knew it quite well, and I’ve never raced on it before, despite it being on my local tracks. The last time we had a Nationals round on that course in Dunedin was back in 2007. They still had a Sport category back then I was intending on giving it a go. However, I crashed on the road the day before the race (I was riding out to Signal Hill with the intention of spectating the downhill) and ended up sliding my hip across the road and bruising my ribs in the process. (Scotty got a speeding ticket on his way to find me because I sounded so distraught on the phone.. but that’s another story.)

So, back to the race report. I had a great start for once – I got the holeshot and was first into the singletrack – quite possibly the highlight of my race! I guess all the gate start practice at BMX has paid off! Unfortunately, BMX races are less than a minute long, which meant that I only had a minute’s worth of intensity in my legs. So, for the next 10 minutes following, I was passed by most of the womens field. Ah well. It was fun way to start!

The course consisted of two “major” climbs, each around 5 minutes of solid up (well, at my pace anyway), and both followed by decent downhill sections – nice, flowy singletrack with some little drops and technical bits thrown into the mix. I didn’t have the leg strength or fitness to attack the climbs, so was spinning up them (still breathing hard though!), knowing that I would be rewarded when I got to the tops. I managed to pass one of the women on the first downhill (after she’d passed me on the uphill), then spent the rest of the race determined not to get passed by her again.

As I came through the start/finish for the first time, I saw on the scoreboard that I was coming second in Senior Women, which I was quite surprised at. OK Celia. Let’s see if we can make it through the next two laps without being passed by anyone behind me!

The second lap was a bit faster than the first, because it was without the little start loop, and I was settling into a bit more of a rhythm. The uphills still put me into my little box of hurt, and the downhills still left me grinning at the end. Lather, rinse, and repeat for the third lap, adding in some calf/quad/hamstring cramps to keep it interesting.

In the end, I managed to hold onto my 2nd place in Senior Women – 8 minutes down from 1st, and 10 minutes ahead of 3rd. I was relatively happy with that, considering the lack of riding (and racing) of late. My average HR was 187 (about standard for an XC race), with a max of 194 (a bit lower than usual). I’m glad I decided to enter, although having a bit more fitness and endurance would have made it a lot less painful. The tracks were in excellent condition, considering the numbers of riders they’d had over them in the past few days, and the weather we’ve had for the past couple of weeks – cheers to the crew at Mountainbiking Otago for building and maintaining such wicked tracks!

So, what’s next for me? Well, to change tack slightly, I’ve entered the Regional BMX Champs in Alexandra at the end of the month, and the South Island BMX Champs (in Dunedin) at the end of February. So for the next six weeks or so, I’ll be focusing on BMX. I don’t expect to do well in either of these events, but I do like the challenge of learning how to ride smoother and faster, and racing against different groups of people. And at the very least, it should be an interesting learning experience!