March 26th, 2007

Another week has past and it was a pretty good week with training and a race.

My week started pretty bad because I had that crash last Sunday so I was stiff and sore but quickly got better…. I trained it up this week… One day in particular I would like to mention was Wednesday - man!!! I train with the guys on Wednesdays and I did 160km with Avg speed of 31 kmph with hills, cross winds, head winds and temp of around 5 degrees… It was hard!!!
I do this every Wednesday and I’m hoping it will get easier…hahaha, but I doubt it!!

Some other cool news I have is that I bought a cool car to get around and have some freedom, the car is a Opal Corsa (Holden Barina) she goes like a treat and I have named her because I have a bit of spare time on my hands.. I am missing home a little so I combined Sydney and Cronulla together to get ‘Sydnulla’ and that’s her name, yes I know pretty lame but I miss my town. Emma and I drove to a crit on Sunday and we have some cool road trips, we make up a thermos off coffee and drink far too much on the way to race and we sing very badly to the classics… Always a bit of fun!

The race was a 60km crit, our team did great. We had 2 in the break away and myself, Emma and two other team mates in the bunch to protect them, That was hard because there was attacks left, right and center although despite that I was really happy with my race because I am starting to feel like my old self again, I was at the front the whole race and nothing fazed me… So all in all I had a good one… I finished in the bunch at the front and Monique ‘medium’ won and Liesbeth was 6th so we as a team had a good day.

I head to Italy to the national team base on Thursday so that will be in the next entry.

Stay safe.

March 19th, 2007

Well the first race of the season what can I say about it??? I tasted dirt twice…. Yes that’s right twice and broke my bike.

I’ll start from the beginning of the day- I drove to the race with the team mechanic Leo in the team truck and it was pouring rain and I mean pouring…
We arrived and the rained stopped and I went inside and chilled for a bit but saw everyone I haven’t seen in almost two years, this was the first road race since July 05.
I got ready for the race and the roads had dried out, “thank goodness” I thought to myself, I lined up at the start line, I was about 20th on the line which was a good spot to be but when the race started the craziness began.
I was at the front and thought I’m in a good spot just cruising but then people were going crazy to be at the front and so it was a fight to be in there.
At the 25km mark I was coming up the front on the outside to get away from the wind and a girl locked it up on a bit of wet road so the next thing I knew I was about to come down….. I thought ‘Oh man’! I T-boned some chick and some how I didn’t get hurt but my poor bike got hurt, it broke… Over the radio I yelled new bike, new bike and I got one but it was a size “51” and I ride a “55” so I kept going and waited for the car to come up next to me to fix it, I had to hang on to the car at 60kmph while they were putting my seat up after that I was chasing for about 20km because the road went really narrow and I couldn’t get though with all the cars.
I was about 100m off the back of the bunch about to get back on from the first crash and then some other girl in front of me drops herself in the cross wind and then ‘WACK’ straight over the top. This time when I got up the bunch was about to go over the top of the climb and so there was no way I was getting back on…. My director drove up next to me and said to me ‘it’s not a good day for you today’ its ‘like a handicap’ race.
All I could think of when I was riding into the finish was how did this happen? My first race in 18months I crash twice, what luck I have… Oh well I guess, that’s bike racing!!!
I didn’t take off any skin really because I had that many layers on because the weather was about 3 degrees and when the race finished it started to snow, yes snow!!
So now I have to gather my thoughts and not worry too much about it. I had a 2 hour conversation with my dad and mum about it and I feel much better after them just reassuring me that these things happen, that’s bike racing and I can’t doubt myself now.
 
I race again next week in a crit so I will have to just stay clam and not worry about the past and focus on the future. Sometimes I think life just wants to test us and see how strong we really are, I plan on being stronger!
My boyfriend sent this quote to me today because he knew I was upset and that I doubted my capability-
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
 

 March 11, 2007

Well another week has passed… What a week though - Bloody rain!!!!!

Everyday was raining and I didn’t have a wind trainer for a while so I had to go training in the rain and that was cold. Emma and I could only get out 30-40km before we froze. On Thursday I hear Emma got hyper-thermia. She didn’t go out with enough clothes for rain and 3 degree weather so on our way home her heart rate dropped to 100bpm and mine was 150bpm because we were riding into a head wind, I thought Oh Sh…..T what do I do?????? Luckily we were only 10km away from home so she got home but the next day wasn’t so good for the both of us, we road with the boys and I think we cooked ourselves the day before.

I am now learning a lot about the cold and how to dress, I have come to the conclusion that you should just over dress and take stuff off or take a lot of spare clothes in your pockets although I have found that if you over dress you sweat to much and when you take the clothes off you are cold so better that you take spare clothes.

Today is Saturday and it was 5 degrees but NO RAIN...
So I took advantage of that and went out for 4 hours and I am totally nailed now because I had efforts to do but I swear it felt like there was a head wind any direction I went...
I reckon that with the temp, wind and rain, 4 hours here in Holland you get home feeling like you have done 6 hours in hills or something. I don’t know how to explain it.
Tomorrow if the weather is good and hopefully no rain I will do another 4 hours and efforts again, Monday easy and then I will build it up and then taper off for the race on Sunday.

Anyway have a good day.

February 26, 2007

Mallorca training camp: What a beautiful place, the weather, the scenery and of course the people I'm with.
We left Amsterdam airport at 6.20am the 22nd of Feb. and arrived at 8:30am in Mallorca to a temperature of 19 degrees and the sun beaming down. We headed straight to the hotel and got our rooms, then we set out on the bikes for 2 hours recovery but it wasn’t recovery that’s for sure… To go anywhere from our hotel you have to climb for about 10km to get to the flat…

So far we have done 5 days of training and each day has been different, although we have had efforts everyday .
Day 1 - Arrival then 2 hours (60km)
Day 2 - Morning = 2 hours
           Afternoon = 2hours with a 8km climb (110klm)
Day 3 - 4 hours with 7 power efforts (120km)
Day 4 - 4 hours with 3 sets of team tempo training (120km)
Day 5 - Recovery day. We still have another week here and I’m glad because it’s raining and cold back in Holland from what I am told.

My room!!! Well, I’m sharing with Jaccolien Wallaard and we are on the 9th floor with a balcony that looks out to the Mediterranean sea and a panoramic view of Mallorca itself, after our ride we go and get some lunch from our massage therapist's room and then kick back on our balcony looking out to the ocean eating our lunch and watching the yacht regatta.

I haven’t quite got a grip on the Dutch language yet. Never the less I am trying and making a total fool of myself doing so. The language has a lot of spitting sounds that I just can’t get out and the rolling of the letters, so I have given up on trying to say Jaccolien’s name because I can never get it right… It’s now Jackie!  As for the team there are 3 Monique’s so I have given them Monique “tall”, Monique “medium” and Monique “small” which makes it a lot easier than their last names.

The team is great, we all like to have a joke and no one is too serious, so training is great fun although they love to drive it on the front when it's their turn and if you're suffering that day I suggest you pick who you ride next to very carefully.

I will write again about the next five days at the end of the camp, until then stay safe.

January 31, 2007

The first entry on the web site so here goes .. Whats been happening!!!

A brief look at January because its almost over and what a packed January I had.

I decided back in August 2006 that I wanted to start racing, so that's what I did, I lined up for the Adelaide Crits and wasn't that exciting -  20,000 people lined the fence.
The day was an emotional  one because that was my first race since July 2005 and what a  day I picked to start racing, 46 degrees, oh yeah...

I lined up at the start line and all the media were there to capture the moment I made a come back, the race was 30 minutes plus 2 laps and flat out from the word go. My heart rate from when I left the start line to when I finished never went under 175 beats per minute and my maximum is only 195 bpm (tuff).
All in all I was happy with the day and the following 2 crits also, I mean I finished in the bunch, at the back but what else could I have expected having been out of training and racing for 17 months. I think that was a good effort and I can only be happy to know I will continue to get better and better.

What else has January brought?? Well at the moment I am sitting in a single room at the Australian Institute of Sport writing this entry and wondering what information you would all enjoy hearing.
I arrived yesterday, the 30^th after  a discussion with my coach, Warren McDonald that I should do a power test to see where I am at before I head away over seas and that was TODAY...

Today, what a day, I did 30 klm in the morning thinking I was doing a VO2 test once I got to the lab.  So I wanted to get my legs rolling before I hammered them. Then I arrived at the lab to meet Laura who told me I was doing a power profile test this morning and a VO2 this afternoon, my first thought -  hmmmmm (I won't write it). Hahaha

So here I am, at the end of the day " nailed" ! Having done two tests in the one day but extremely happy with my results, I wasn't expecting to be so close to my old PB's, however I was. So maybe I will be better than what I was before the accident, now that could be exciting. As long as I continue to look after myself and manage my injuries I think this year around June - July could be very interesting.

We will just have to wait and see, your guess is as good as mine.

Until you read again, have a great day and stay safe.