Progress Report 1 September 11, 2009

For those who are interested, I’m 2 and a half weeks into my gym rehab and things are feeling a bit better. For the first couple of gym sessions, I was pretty unbalanced while trying to do the various exercises, and my knees kept trying to go in the wrong direction (inwards instead of in line with the ball of my foot).  Not surprising since that’s my dominant pedalling style – knees and heels in. Combined with my preference for seated climbing (even on the singlespeed up steep pinches), it’s no surprise that 9 hours of singlespeeding in April pretty much killed my knee..

I’m feeling more stable when doing the exercises now, and my knee/leg seems to be tracking in the right direction. The movements seem to be more natural, and I’m trying to transfer them over onto the bike, although pedalling with my knees straight still feels kind of gammy. The knee still aches a wee bit, but I don’t want to push it for longer/harder rides to see if it aches under those sorts of pressures.

I’ve been out for a couple of rides, but nothing too long or strenuous (which Ash will be happy to hear). Last weekend’s ride up Bethunes Gully was great – I feel that my technical skills have improved since I got the BMX, and I’ve finally learnt the “push the bike out in front of you while throwing your weight back”  thing when going off little drops! Yes, it’s only taken me 5 years or so. All this time, I’d been trying to time the “push down on suspension while trying to pop off the edge” thing, which, to be honest, never really worked for me.

So, I guess I’ll just keep on trucking with these rehab exercises. Surely, things can only get better from here

They Tried to Make Me Go to Rehab… August 24, 2009

I said no.. no.. no.

OK. Enough Amy Winehouse. And contrary to the song (which I don’t really like to be honest!), I am saying yes.. yes.. yes, and will be going to the gym for some intensive rehabilitation to try and sort out my knee troubles. I’m working with Ash Rohloff at Body Logic Active Rehabilitation to try and sort out my hip and muscle imbalances which are ultimately leading to my knee and lower back issues. I’m not quite sure I understand the physiology behind it, so I won’t embarrase myself by trying to explain it. I think the short story is that I’m all a bit out of whack.

So.. what does this mean? Well, in the short term, it means I’m limited to relatively short, moderate intensity rides so I don’t undo the gym rehab stuff. Unfortunately, this means that a few of the races I was planning on entering in the next few months are out the window, in particular, the 6 hour solo at the Haggis Basher in the middle of September, and 12 hour solo at the Timaru 12 hour race at the end of October. I’m pretty gutted about this and am quietly kicking myself for thinking that attempting to ride 12 hours solo on a singlespeed at the Naseby 12 hour race in April was a good idea – that was when all the trouble began (although I’m sure these imbalances have always been there – it took 9 hours of pushing a single gear around a course over and over to really highlight the problem!).

On the upside, the rehab will (hopefully!) slowly improve my imbalances and ultimately help my power output on the bike, and reduce (if not eliminate) my knee and lower back problems. It’s a matter of short-term sacrifice (no races or long rides for the next few months) for a long-term gain.

I’ll admit that this blog post is essentially acting a written reminder for me to follow Ash’s instructions to a T, and to not give up or give in to the temptation of riding at anything beyond a “moderate” intensity for the next few months. It’s going to be hard (and probably quite frustrating!), and I’m not looking forward to it, but I hope to come out better and stronger at the other end

The World’s Smallest Bunnyhop! August 23, 2009

Heh. Hey well, we’ve all got to start somewhere! (Both wheels off the ground in picture 4..). I’m learning how to use flat pedals, instead of cheating with clipless pedals and just pulling up with my feet. It’s a steep learning curve!

Impulse Purchase August 14, 2009

A quick trip into R&R Sport this evening to browse their winter clothing sale led to an unplanned purchase of a new bike!

Molly checks out my new toy!

It’s a 2009 Giant Method 1 in Raw/Pink. Naturally, the pink was a big selling point!

Why a BMX? Well, there’s a BMX track just down the road from our place (less than a km away I think), and I’ve sometimes thought that playing on the BMX would be good for my bike handling skills, and racing BMX would also be a great workout from a short, high-intensity, sprint perspective. When I first met Scotty (and before I got into mountainbiking) in 2002, he only had a BMX. I often borrowed it to get around town and to and from work. Unfortunately, he sold it (to buy groceries or something silly like that) and I went back to walking everywhere, until I got my first mountainbike in 2003.. and the rest, I suppose, is history.

So, I’m looking forward to heading out this weekend and getting acquainted with my new toy. The local BMX track is under reconstruction at the moment, but there are a few sections which are still rideable. I might have to pull out the knee-shin guards again though! I haven’t ridden with flat pedals in years!

Final random thing to mention before I sign off on this blog post: Apparently, there’s live shellfish in the creek at Bethunes Gully. Yup.. you heard right – cray in the creek! Guess you do learn a new thing every day!

(No cray were hurt in the making of this photo)

Naseby 12 Hour Pics (Yay!) August 11, 2009

I thought after 9 hours of singlespeeding around the course at the Naseby 12 Hour race earlier this year, that sooner or later, I’d find some random photos of me riding at some stage. Alas.. I searched and searched and searched to no avail..

But finally, I’ve managed to get my hands on a very short video clip of me pedalling, and have taken some screen shots off it! Huzzah! Cheers Lisa

OK. So I’m not doing anything particularly exciting (no jumps or hucks) but I’m pretty stoked to have the photos! The pink singlespeed looks pretty cool in action too.. as does the “Oh man.. you guys suck!” written on the back of my South Park top!

The very short (i.e., 2 second) video clip can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/v/517185575987

Swampy Summit Pics August 8, 2009

A great day for a ride today. Overcast, warm, with very little breeze. A perfect day to check out Swampy Summit. Here’s a couple of pics from today’s ride with Scotty.

Half-way up..

Scotty looking slightly broken at the top.

At the top.

Checking out the view from the top.

Feeling slightly tired now. Probably a good thing because the first Telethon since 1993 is on tonight. I’m curious to see what it’s all about because I don’t remember watching any Telethons while I was growing up and feel like Ive missed out on some quality NZ nostalgia.

Secret Squirrel Info! August 7, 2009

I went to the Mountainbiking Otago committee meeting last night and there were a few pieces of news about upcoming events in Dunedin that got me excited.

Unfortunately, I’m going to be an absolute tease here and not actually say what they are!

However, if you’re around in Dunedin on the weekend of the 16-17th January 2010, bring your bike!

A Reprieve from Winter August 4, 2009

What a difference a couple of weeks makes! The weather has been great (well, by Dunedin standards) for the past couple of weeks, and as a result, I’ve spent less time on the couch shivering and more time out and about on Dunedin’s trails. It almost feels like spring is here, although I’m sure the weather is just luring us into a false sense of security before the next spell of frosty, cold, wet, and miserable weather hits. Ah well. I’d better enjoy it while it lasts!

The past couple of weeks have included:

- Saturday 25th: A ride out on the Waitati Valley loop with a friend who was on a singlespeed – a nice wee challenge in trying to keep up with him on the uphills, with some recovery when we hit the flatter sections.

- Sunday 26th: A ride around Bethunes Gully/Forrester Park on my sadly neglected Nomad. It took a while to get used to the slack geometry and the extra squish, but by the end of it, I remembered why I like having another MTB with a bit more travel than my XC bike. Weeeeeeee!

- Monday 27th: The weekly womens MTB group ride – we headed out onto the Otago Peninsula, headed down Greenacres track and along the road back to town.

- At some point during that week I tried running again. A very short 2km but after the state of broken-ness I was in after my 4km ride the week prior, I wanted to take it a bit easier!

- Thursday 30th: Alright. I’ll admit I skived off work at 3:30pm and headed out for the trails at Forrester/Bethunes. Hey, the sky was just too blue for me to resist the call of the trails! Ran into fellow R&R rider Mickey out there, chased him around Forrester, and took his medium Superlight for a wee spin as a size comparison to my small Superlight. (I’ve concluded that I’m in between Santa Cruz sizes!).

- Saturday 1st: Another ride out at Forrester/Bethunes, this time with Scotty who was on his 26er (i.e., normal sized MTB with 26″ wheels) for the first time after riding a 29er (i.e., stupidly big wheels for a MTB) for the past few months. Met up with Sheryl and it was great riding around with her, especially since it’s only been around 7 months since the crash where she broke her neck! She’s still got style and skillzzz on the track though – pretty awesome to watch as I tried to follow her on the downhills.

- Sunday 2nd: At some point during Saturday, I volunteered to take the Monday night womens ride, so I thought I’d better scope out some sort of intended route. The plan was to head along the fairly new-ish Ravensbourne cycleway to Ravensbourne, then up the road to Rimu St, up the track at the end of Rimu St to the plateau on Signal Hill, then a wee bit of an explore on the (sadly largely forgotten) XC trails up there. After 20 minutes of riding around the back streets to try and find the start of the cycleway (due to many streets in the area being closed for stadium construction), I ended up crossing a railbridge and climbing over a fence to eventually get onto it.. hmm! There has to be a better way! The rest of the ride went well and the XC trails were in excellent condition – cheers to the trail pixies who have worked on clearing them! That evening, we went for a drive-by and Scotty pointed out the new entrance to the cycle-lane. Phew.. at least I knew where I was going now!

- Monday 3rd: Another great turn-out for the Monday night MTB ride – 15 women, including a few who hadn’t been on the Monday night rides before. We headed out on the intended route and it was great hearing positive feedback about the trails. Signal Hill is more reknown for its “extreme” downhill tracks (Rock Garden anyone?), and I think a few were quite surprised at the number of XC trails up there aswell. Hopefully, it will encourage more people to head up there and do some exploring of the XC trails.

So now we’re up to Tuesday and the predicted highs for the rest of the week are all in double digits. Perhaps this reprieve from winter isn’t as brief as I originally thought!

Wicked.

Package Delivery! August 1, 2009

A few weeks ago, I got an email from local NZ MTBing clothing company Krank Dirtwear saying that they were going to do a special run of winter soft-shell jackets in red and blue. I put my order in for a blue Womens Blast. Today, the Blast arrived and it’s AWESOME! The fit is just right, it has little reflective bits in all the right places, and it has lovely thumb loops and a rear pocket. Unfortunately, it’s too warm today to wear it (apart from around the house proudly showing it off to my husband and the cat…), but I can’t wait to take it out for a ride! Thanks Krank Dirtwear!