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Carl and Katie - NZXC Racing
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
Xterra New Zealand MTB
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| Katie prime spot off the start (Panasonic NZ pictures) |
Katies Race
Wow it has been a loong time since I have written a race blog update.
The T42 this time last year was my last race prior to my surgery at the end of August. After getting the go ahead to get back on the mountain bike in February I have steadily built up over the last 2months on and off the road. On the weekend I raced the Xterra MTB, and pretty stoked to be honest absolutely loved hurting, pushing myself up and down the hill. On my new 29r and with my lack of race fitness the downhill was the best part. I managed to finish second by a few minutes to young speedster and team mate Amber Johnston who has been flying all season.
It took a bit of mental strength to get to the start line, and after some epic mental battles after not racing for so long, and some early nights to try get rid of my mild change of season cold it was time to get it over and done with and start the race comeback, so I entered late Thursday night.
Feels great to be back into the racing, so glad I picked up the courage to enter. Still many more ‘comeback’ obstacles ahead to keep me physically and mentally occupied. Currently I am working on building my strength back from my time off but as of the end of next week I will be throwing in the towel at the gym (yay no more squats… for awhile) and getting into more some faster training… hope the lungs are ready after a year off.
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| Carl nipping up the side at the start (Panasonic NZ pictures) |
We were abit rushed this morning and didn't get the warm up we should have but never the less, the races started at 9am. After a good hit out I went hard from start and lead from the start to the finish, with only the junior boys of Brett Stokman, Josh Parkin and Nathan Johnston chasing me after 10mins I could no longer see them but I was able to push on and keep on above my threshold, I wanted to have the fastest time of the day on the ride so I had good motivation. The roads around the back of the lake were superfast and I whipt 5minutes off the course record and won the mountain bike race by 5 mins, I also had fastest mountain bike time of the day by 3minutes, so quite stoked to get the 1st win of the year in style.
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| After race interview (Panasonic NZ pictures) |
Carl
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Oceanias 2013 Hobart, Australia
Late Oceania Update I have been full on since getting home with work and finalizing plans for Europe.
The NZXC crew still minus Katie headed down to Tasmania in Australia mid week to get on the track before the race Saturday. The track wasn’t very technical but with a bit of speed it was pretty slippery, the Up hill was a whole lot of switch backs on a hard pack ground with little rocks and loose dirt to skate on. The Decent was a hard pack with loose dirt and rocks which soon ripped up to be a blinding slippery white dust. I didn’t do any hard laps of the track but did hit the decent as hard as I could and got pretty good at it. Not that it helped my race as you will read.
Race day I had a feeling that I told the crew I hadn’t had for a while, I didn’t no if it was good or bad, but boy I was primed up wanting a good one. The night before I was told there were only 8 in the race so I was always going to get some good points that I was after. Race day there was only 7.. all of us on the start line were pretty disappointed about that, but it was good for us we had spent the money getting there and will be rewarded with higher world rankings.
Off the Start I was good but sat back a few wheels into the first climb we started with the U23 riders this was a wee mistake because I ended up been dropped by the front 5 guys up the 1st climb, by the start of the next lap I was closing fast and got as close as un under arm stone through to the front of the race by the top of the hill 2nd lap. That was as close as I got, from this lap on the down hill became my enemy. I didn’t no what was going on but my skill to go hard on the decent was gone, I had no balance and felt really strange, by the time I got to the bottom of the hill my heart rate was at a recovery ride state?? but then I could push back to above threshold for the up and the flat stuff.
Not sure what went on but maybe a hard lap should have been done to really get the body thinking before the race, or maybe I hadn’t recovered from hard races and training in the last few weeks. Anyway finished off 4th very disappointed with how I rode but got 4th place points and more than last year so happy in that aspect :-)
Both myself and Katie have done testing this week I’m still sitting on par with the best tests I have done and Katie’s hard work is paying off she is making massive gains and is back to results she put out before 2012 nationals, Still not quite where she wants to be but pretty bloody cool, so now she needs a bit of race hardening over the next few weeks and she will be back, 8 months after her surgery
We have booked tickets to Europe with NZXC Racing, we are traveling together to help make it cheaper and doing a 6 week stint from the 6th of May until June 17th Check out or race schedule page to see where we will be.
Cheers
Carl
The NZXC crew still minus Katie headed down to Tasmania in Australia mid week to get on the track before the race Saturday. The track wasn’t very technical but with a bit of speed it was pretty slippery, the Up hill was a whole lot of switch backs on a hard pack ground with little rocks and loose dirt to skate on. The Decent was a hard pack with loose dirt and rocks which soon ripped up to be a blinding slippery white dust. I didn’t do any hard laps of the track but did hit the decent as hard as I could and got pretty good at it. Not that it helped my race as you will read.
Race day I had a feeling that I told the crew I hadn’t had for a while, I didn’t no if it was good or bad, but boy I was primed up wanting a good one. The night before I was told there were only 8 in the race so I was always going to get some good points that I was after. Race day there was only 7.. all of us on the start line were pretty disappointed about that, but it was good for us we had spent the money getting there and will be rewarded with higher world rankings.
Off the Start I was good but sat back a few wheels into the first climb we started with the U23 riders this was a wee mistake because I ended up been dropped by the front 5 guys up the 1st climb, by the start of the next lap I was closing fast and got as close as un under arm stone through to the front of the race by the top of the hill 2nd lap. That was as close as I got, from this lap on the down hill became my enemy. I didn’t no what was going on but my skill to go hard on the decent was gone, I had no balance and felt really strange, by the time I got to the bottom of the hill my heart rate was at a recovery ride state?? but then I could push back to above threshold for the up and the flat stuff.
Not sure what went on but maybe a hard lap should have been done to really get the body thinking before the race, or maybe I hadn’t recovered from hard races and training in the last few weeks. Anyway finished off 4th very disappointed with how I rode but got 4th place points and more than last year so happy in that aspect :-)
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| Pictures Debbie Retief |
We have booked tickets to Europe with NZXC Racing, we are traveling together to help make it cheaper and doing a 6 week stint from the 6th of May until June 17th Check out or race schedule page to see where we will be.
Cheers
Carl
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