Swampy, Signal, and Naseby April 17, 2012
Posted by Celia in General.add a comment
Well, well! The past few weekends have been busier than usual on the bike front for me!
A few Saturdays ago, my friend Nikki and I headed up and rode Swampy Summit. I hadn’t ridden Swampy for a good couple of years so it was a nice challenge. A long uphill to get to the summit, then a few undulations and an unexpected detour down the wrong track (which we then had to ride back up..), before finally arriving back to our start point around 2.5 hours later. A loooong time in the saddle for me these days!
Easter weekend was a couple of weeks after that, and we had a new WeeRide bike seat that I really wanted to try out with Cadence. A few times around our cul-de-sac and Cadence looked pretty happy sitting in the front, so I thought it was a good idea to test it out on the singletrack. We headed up to the top of Signal Hill, where Scotty (and a few boy-racers who looked at us like we were insane..) waved us off as we headed down the easy-grade Signal Hill climbing track. Cadence enjoyed the singletrack on the way down and didn’t like it when I had to stop to walk through the boggy parts. The bike handled well with Cadence on the front, and it was all smiles for dad when we got to the bottom of the hill. (See here for Scotty’s perspective of Cadence’s first shuttle run!).
And finally, last weekend, I raced in the 2012 Naseby 12 hour MTB Challenge. Quite possibly a bit silly considering how little riding I’d done in the past 2 years or so, but it was a good experience all the same. I was in a 3 person women’s team with my friends Nikki (from the Swampy ride) and Merrin, and we took turns lapping around the 11km course. The course had changed from previous years and I liked the inclusion of the older more technical tracks in the second part of the course. Although I was passed by (many, many) riders on the flat and uphill sections, I was catching up to and passing people on the downhills, which was pretty cool! My lap times were well off the pace of the fastest women’s teams, but I was fairly happy with how it went considering how little time in the saddle I’ve had of late. My team-mates and I ended up riding 5 laps each, and came 8th out of 12 teams. Best of all, my knee wasn’t sore by the end of it. It has never really been the same again since my 2009 Naseby 12 hour solo singlespeeding effort, and now I have to constantly focus on keeping my right knee in line with my toes when pedalling so my knee-cap doesn’t slide all over the place.
Hmmm so what’s next? Well, I’m eyeing up the Milton Jailbreak event. The last time I raced it was in 2009, when I had just finished up 2 seasons of training and racing so was fairly fit (albeit sore from that aforementioned singlespeeding incident). It will be interesting to see how much slower I’ll be if I do decide to race it this year. But my first priority is to my lovely daughter, so if she’s not feeling so flash that weekend, then it’s no biggie if I don’t get to race, and that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.
Until next time!
C.
Inspired March 21, 2012
Posted by Celia in General.2 comments
Who’s heard of Willow Rockwell? Perhaps better know by her maiden name Willow Koerber. Well, I hadn’t until she seemed to come from nowhere to take bronze at the 2009 World MTB Champs in Canberra. Since then, I’ve been keeping an eye on her blog every now and again and when she announced last year that she was pregnant, I was interested to see how she would go with her ambitions to keep racing after the baby showed up. For myself, it has been quite a struggle to get time on the bike since Cadence showed up in November 2010 and I was a bit sceptical about how Willow was going to manage a training load along with being a new mum (the sleepless nights, the constant feeding, the absolute bafflement about what a baby could possibly want after you’ve changed, fed, burped, sung, rocked, etc..). But she’s amazed me, and also inspired me for what she’s managed to achieve so far. Since the birth of her wee girl in December 2011, she’s already managed two races, including a World Cup race last weekend. Wow. It really is quite amazing what can be achieved if you put your mind to it.
On that note, I decided I had probably run out of excuses for not getting back into things. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’ve ignored my bike completely, but I definitely haven’t made the time to go riding as often as I probably could. I’ve averaged maybe 1 ride a month since January 2011, so it was time to get back into the swing of things.
First goal was to make it along to one of the Monday night women’s MTB rides that I used to go along to before Cadence’s arrival. My final ride with the girls was the Pineapple Track in July 2010, and when I saw that this Monday’s ride was a Pineapple ride again, I saw that as a sign that it was time to return. A frantic rush around after work to get everything ready to head out the door, an understanding husband who took care of dinner and Cadence and driving me to the meeting point, and by 6pm, I was surrounded by familiar faces at the start of the track.
Not much point recounting the whole ride as it was a grotty slogfest of a climb up, with a super-fun descent down, but it was good being out there again. A few new faces I hadn’t met before but aside from that, it seemed like it was very much same-old same-old. The climb home wasn’t too bad as I was warmed up enough, and Cadence was excited to see me when I got in the door about half an hour before her bedtime.
So I suppose the aim now is to continue on this new inspired quest for more time on the bike. I’ve signed up for the Naseby 12 hour race in April in a team with a couple of friends so that should be interesting. My fitness is unsurprisingly lacking but I don’t feel like I’m completely back at square 1 so that’s good I suppose. So it’s onwards and upwards! (then downwards.. vrrrrm!). See you out on the trails 
Cadence’s First Trike! December 23, 2011
Posted by Celia in General.1 comment so far
… and loving it!
How to Combine Bikes and Babies #2 May 22, 2011
Posted by Celia in General, Riding.3 comments
While pregnant with Cadence, we purchased a second-hand Chariot Cheetah bike trailer on Trade Me. It was our intention to take her out on rides – out and about in town, on sealed cycle ways, and when she gets a bit older, on gravel and more bumpier terrain.
The past month has been an exciting time for us – we’ve discovered that our 100 sq. metre house, while compact and easy to heat, was rapidly getting cluttered up with baby-related stuff. So much in fact, that if Cadence was lying on the floor in the lounge surrounded by a few toys, it was almost impossible to lie down next to her. So we started house-hunting with the intention of buying something towards the end of the year. That was until we found “our dream home”. 3 bedrooms plus an office, a big lounge, deck with views overlooking the city, large kitchen, internal access garage, and located in a suburb that we’ve always aspired towards. Within a month, we had bought this place and sold our current place. As people kept commenting, no, we did not muck around!
So how do the two above paragraphs link together? Well, when I pictured us using the trailer, it was with us living in our old place on a valley floor with nice flat access into town. Our new place however, is up Signal Hill (yes – location of awesome downhill, and some lesser-ridden XC, tracks). This however, means a big climb to get home. It appeared that the use of the trailer was now going to be somewhat limited.
As Cadence now has good head control and is 6 months old, we thought it was time to try her out in the trailer. We attached the trailer to my Superlight, strapped her in, and rolled gently along to Chingford Park, conveniently located practically next door to our current place. (As an aside, we’re really going to miss the park, as Scotty’s Ode to Chingford attests.) As Scotty rode alongside keeping an eye on her, it seemed that she was quite comfortable in there (or as Scotty put it: “yeahnah, she’s chilled as”). As we headed home, it looked like she was about to fall asleep in there. So I thought ”hmmm, well while it’s a nice day, I may as well carry on and ride as she sleeps”.
Scotty waved us off as Cadence and I headed down the road. The original plan was to head along the flat following the cycling routes towards the city and back, but as we approached the intersection that leads up the hill to our new house, I changed my plan and headed up the hill.
A quick glance over my shoulder and I saw that Cadence was now fast asleep. So the aim was to keep steadily moving so that she didn’t wake up from sudden changes in velocity. Up, up, up. Spinny, spinny, spin. A few steep pinches where I was on the nose of the saddle and really feeling the extra 7.5kg of baby + the weight of the trailer. A few (OK, a LOT of) strange glances from passers by who looked at me like I was insane for riding a bike with a bike trailer in tow up the hill. A few moments where I wish I had brought a drink bottle along as the heat of the sun got to me. But finally, we made it outside our new house. I stopped and paused to enjoy the view of the city, to catch my breath, and to look back to check on Cadence (who had just awoken). I felt a real sense of achievement that I had made it up the hill in my current unfit state, towing a baby at that!
Slowly back down the hill we went, with me making sure that I was taking the smoothest lines possible, and Cadence happily playing with her toys in the back. As we approached home, I reflected upon the fact that I had just climbed the exact same hill that I had struggled to climb on my first group ride with the R&R Sport Monday night womens group, led by Sara Macdonald (now Richardson). Although I hadn’t done much riding over the past 6 months, I must have some residual fitness left over from the years of riding beforehand. It gave me hope that maybe with some more riding, I can one day get back to where I was before riding-wise. Sure, I won’t have the time to train as intensively as I once did, and to be honest, my priorities are family first bikes second now, but it made me think that perhaps I won’t have to give up racing after all.
In any case, at least I now know that living up a hill is no longer an excuse for not using the bike trailer..
Looking knackered after arriving home from my ride.
Cadence chilling in her trailer
Altitude graph of today’s ride (courtesy of http://nz.mapometer.com/en/) for those who are interested!
From the Sidelines May 17, 2011
Posted by Celia in General.3 comments
I accidentally clicked on the link to this website as I was browsing through my bookmarks the other day, and was surprised to see that the last post was dated 17th January. Has it really been that long??
So what has been going on the past few months? Well, not much riding apparently! I can remember a couple of rides – one down in Balclutha as Scotty’s parents looked after Cadence for a couple of hours, and another in Naseby the day before the 12 hour race when Scotty looked after Cadence as I headed out for a lap of the course. Sadly, my latest ride was down to the dairy and back, of which the ride home (only about 500m or so!) left me slightly out of breath! Oh dear. It seems I’ll have a lot of catching up to do fitness-wise!
But I haven’t been completely absent from the mountainbiking scene. Rather, Cadence and I have done a fair bit of spectating from the sidelines. When Nationals was down here in February, Cadence and I headed out to watch the cross-country and it was good seeing the regular riders on the XC circuit out and about on my home tracks. Astonishingly, was that quite a few of the pro-elite guys and girls actually knew who I was! It was nice to feel that sense of community again. We also headed out to watch the downhill the next day, and last month, we went to Naseby for the 12 hour race where Cadence and I hung out for a couple of hours, again catching up with people. And last weekend, we went and watched the first of the Bike Otago Cross Country Series, with Cadence rugged up warm and in the front-pack.
It’s amazing how even just standing on the sidelines can make you feel involved in the whole scene again. While it would be nice to make the transition for spectator to participant (I say “participant” instead of “racer”!), it will probably take some time. If I’ve learnt anything from this parenting gig, it’s that babies develop in their own time and move onto the next stage when they’re ready. So right now, Cadence is highly dependent on me for food and comfort. But with time, she will (hopefully) grow and become more independent (or at least, less dependent on me!). There’s no point in stressing over not being able to ride, or missing out on events and such. Next month, or year (or perhaps even the year after that), it will be a whole different story.
Cadence models the latest front-pack fashion – booties on her hands.
How to Combine Bikes and Babies #1 January 17, 2011
Posted by Celia in General.4 comments
(The title has a #1 in it in the hope that I’ll find other ways to include Cadence in with my riding..).
Today’s combination of bike and baby:
1. Put baby in car capsule
2. Load up car with BMX
3. Drive to BMX track
4. Relocate baby and capsule from car to the start gate shed (nice and sheltered)
5. Do laps of the BMX track, checking in on bubs at the start of each lap.
The outcome? One happy mum and one sleeping baby. Awesome.
My Other Christmas Present January 15, 2011
Posted by Celia in General.1 comment so far
About a week before Christmas, we received two large boxes in the mail. One contained my new Santa Cruz Superlight frame (as well as Scotty’s new Bullit frame), while the other contained the parts kit to build it up. A week or so later (turns out babies can be quite time and energy-consuming), the bike was built up, and on the second day of the new year, I headed out to Forrester Park/Bethunes Gully (location of the National XC Champs this year) for my first mountainbike ride since September.
It was great being able to ride without worrying about my heartrate. While pregnant, the guidelines were to keep your HR below 140 when exercising, so to not affect bubs too much. I have to admit I quite often ended up going up to 150-160 bpm though – I figured since my max HR was a bit higher than “normal”, then I’d be OK. It was also good not to worry about crashing too much, and I was riding with a bit more aggression and less hesitation. Finally, it was good to get away from Cadence for a little while. Being a full-time mum is great (well, mostly), but having a break every now and again to do something for myself is bliss.
Since that first ride, I’ve managed to head out for another three. I checked out the tracks out at Wakari Creek for my second ride, and rode out at Forrester/Bethunes again for my third and fourth. My legs and butt were quite sore after the first ride but after the others, they were a lot better. Guess it doesn’t take too long to get used to the bike again.
The bike itself is fantastic. A very similar setup to my old Superlight except the forks have 120 instead of 100mm travel, and the new bike is specced a bit higher so the whole bike is lighter (around 25 lbs instead of 28), although I’m negating it with the extra weight I’m now carrying!
So.. what are my goals? Good question. To get out on the bike more eventually would be nice, but that largely depends on how Cadence goes. By the end of the year, I’d like to get back down to my pre-pregnancy weight (I’ve got 8kg to lose), and to maybe do a 3 or 6 hour solo MTB race. At the moment though, I’m just taking one day at a time as Cadence’s behaviour can be as unpredictable as the Wellington weather. In reality, I’ve got years to ride my bikes, but Cadence is only a baby once so I may as well enjoy this time while it lasts.
An Early Christmas Present! December 5, 2010
Posted by Celia in General.add a comment
Turns out bubs didn’t want to share a birthday with Christmas and decided to arrive a month early.
Cadence Alice Lane was born on the 24th November 2010 at 6:31pm. She weighed 6 lbs 14 oz (approx. 3.1 kg) at birth, and was born at 35 weeks 5 days gestation. After a lengthy 12 night stay in hospital for blood sugar level and jaundice issues, we finally made it home today.
Welcome to the world young Cadence!
PS: My bike is still locked up at work from riding to work the day before Cadence’s birth! So looks like I made it all the way through my pregnancy on the bike!
PPS: I have started a new blog for Cadence-related updates so hopefully there won’t be too much cross-over between these two blogs! http://cadencealice.wordpress.com/
T Minus Seven Weeks! November 5, 2010
Posted by Celia in General.add a comment
Well, well, well. Look what we have here – a neglected blog. Probably time for a wee bit of an update.
Today is seven weeks exactly until bubs’ due date of the 24th December (yes, it also means it’s around 7 weeks to Christmas – time to get your shopping started if you haven’t already!). Bubs is doing well and getting bigger (as am I!). Here’s a photo of bubs’ legs from the 18 week scan – pretty awesome technology these days eh!
Looks like some mighty fine cycling legs if you ask me!
As for me and cycling, well I managed a (tiring) two hour MTB ride at Makara when I visited Welly towards the end of August (around 5 months pregnant). It was heaps of fun riding some new singletrack mixed in with the old stuff that I know so well. A shorter MTB ride in Dunedin a couple of weeks later and I decided my MTBing days were probably limited. 30 minutes in, my lower back was getting quite sore and I was getting rather tired and lightheaded so called it quits.
On the upside, I’m still commuting backwards and forwards to work on my awesome Giant Suede commuter bike – even on a miserable day like today (where it’s raining with a southerly blowing). I’m stoked that I’m still managing to get some cycling in, albeit at a more sedate pace than usual. It will be interesting to see how much longer I’ll be able to keep the cycle commute up!
With the realisation that my MTBs were just going to hang around in the bike shed getting old and dusty, I made a difficult decision a couple of weeks ago to sell up both my Nomad (as a complete bike), my Blur XC frame (which I never got around to posting photos of on this blog! ooops), plus a few parts off the Blur, then use the money to reinvest in a brand new bike to ride when I get back into MTBing next year. The new bike is now on order, and I can’t WAIT for it to arrive and for me to be able to ride it! So for 2011, I’ll be on a brand spanking new Santa Cruz Superlight, built up with Fox 120mm QR15 forks and the SPX XC kit. Cheers Stylie at Hyperformance Hardware!
Mmmmmm new 2011 Superlight paint jobs and decals look HOT!
So I suppose that’s enough of an update from me for now. Stay tuned in around Christmas time and hopefully we’ll have pictures of the new addition to our family to show! (I’m not sure if I mean bubs or the new bike here – hopefully both!)
One Trial Learning July 7, 2010
Posted by Celia in General, Riding.1 comment so far
In Psychology, we sometimes talk about one-trial learning – where it only takes one experience for an organism to learn an association between stimulus and response, or between behaviour and it’s consequences. This is particularly true for aversive events – you only have to stick your hand in fire once to learn that it’s hot and you shouldn’t do that again (well, hopefully!).
Last year, I headed out on a ride on the Pineapple track, where I practically froze to death, and wrote a blog post entitled “lessons learnt“. These lessons being:
1. Check the weather forecast, track conditions, and pack a windproof jacket. Especially when heading up to where there’s frost/ice on the tracks at almost 700m above sea-level and the strong, gusty north-easterlies are super-chilly..
2. Don’t ride to the meeting point when it involves an hour of uphill.. especially after racing the day before.
3. Don’t offer to tail-end charlie when you’re only wearing a merino singlet and a “warm-up” jacket.. Brrrrrrrrrrr!! No chance to warm up and no chance to stop and put something warmer on.
4. Louis Garneau windtex gloves are NOT as good as one would think in such conditions. My fingers were thoroughly frozen..
5. Living in a valley called North East Valley is an absolute b*tch to ride home in when the northeasterly is blowing right through. I was riding home in my small chain-ring on the flat.
I’m happy to report that, in addition to all the rats, birds, gorillas, invertebrates (and various other animals) that have demonstrated one-trial learning in various psychology experiments, I too can learn successfully following just one trial!
Tonight’s Pineapple track ride was in stark contrast to last winter’s one. It helped the the weather conditions were calm (albeit cold). But I’m happy to say that I remembered all the points above:
1. I wore a windproof, waterproof jacket, paired with a merino Hot Toddy and a riding top.
2. I was kindly dropped off at the meeting point so I didn’t have to ride there.
3. I didn’t tail-end charlie (although hung around at the back and got plenty warm on the uphill with my lack of fitness!)
4. I wore two pairs of gloves – standard Fox ones paired with some Marmot windproof gloves over the top.
5. Thank goodness for the calm conditions – the ride home was a LOT more pleasant this time!
So all up, a far more enjoyable experience tonight! We had fantastic views of Mosgiel and Dunedin, had an interesting encounter with a possum, and a great time swooping through the singletrack in the trees. Cheers Sara for booking the track, and cheers to all the girls for their company on a great ride
