The joy of racing

Nothing better than refreshing the mind on the MTB

 

Last year I tried to juggle racing MTB Marathons with racing Xterra triathlons and even though I was told this was not a very good combination to try make work, by more than one person, I was stubborn and filled my 2013 calendar full with races every 2nd to 3rd weekend.

I was alternating 100km MTB races with 3-4hrs off road triathlons and fitting in weekends work on call in between. My whole life was scheduled. And as a competitive person I wanted to do well and pushed myself to the limit to try climb on that podium as often as I could. Whilst being disappointed if I couldn't achieve my goals.

With an already tired body I followed the Australian season with the European season racing Xterra's and by September my body and my mind were completely and utterly fried. I had nothing left in the tank and although the experience in Europe was awesome, the results of racing with an exhausting body was not.

 

It took me a while to recover physically and mentally. I signed up with Nico Lebrun for the 2014 season who had experienced my personality through the Xterra season and I knew he would be able to help me balance myself better. When I told him my (ambitious) plans for winter racing and the 2014 season he very honestly said to me "what do you need me for? if you stick to that you will be dead before the season even starts" He made it very clear to me that winter was for sleeping, and that I needed to chill. I listened. And "chill" I did. Literally. Moving to Scotland and training in bitterly cold winter conditions was quite an eye opener, but the stunning scenery I did it in was like chicken soup for the soul.

Winter training in paradise

This year I thought it would be wiser to swap the MTB Marathon format for the shorter MTB XCO format to work on two weaknesses of mine,  1) my MTB technical skills and 2) my top end power. The first round of the Scottish National Series were held 10 minutes from where I live, it couldn't be a better opportunity to start my 2014 season; Trying out the MTB XCO format for the first time so close to home. I hadn't raced since September and with absolutely no race fitness or speed in my legs I knew this was going to hurt!

The course was already completely marked on the Saturday afternoon and very easy to follow. I heard it was one of the lesser technical courses of the series but whilst practicing it  my heart skipped a beat a few times!! I have this mental block with pure single track, you can give me the steepest, rockiest stuff and as long as its wide I am fine, but narrow single track and I am one of those people who rides like they need side wheels on their bike's!!
I found it amazing how much variety one can put in a 6km lap!! I really enjoyed the course with lots of different difficulties to keep anyone on their toes. I eyed up the two longer wider climbs as it was the place where I needed to make up time and tried to roughly memorise the course.

Pushing hard on the less technical parts of the course

Race morning arrived and I was nervous, not as much for the race itself though. I was nervous that mentally I would still be weak, I was nervous that I hadn't recovered enough from last season and that I wouldn't be able to push myself. Nervous that I wouldn't enjoy racing and finding out that may be that dream of becoming the best athlete I possibly could be, was not what I really wanted. I always get really nervous before a race, its something which affects my performance and I have to work on it, but never for these reasons. I wanted it so bad in 2012 and 2013 that I pushed myself through all sorts of pain and I wondered how much of that hunger was left in me. There was only one way to find out.

The organisers of the event did an amazing job, there was a very relaxed friendly atmosphere, instructions were easy to follow and before I knew it I was on the start line with the other girls ready to go. It was a small, but like always in these kind of events, quality field. Off we went and as always I got spat out the back at the start, I didn't panic as I was very aware I didn't have a fast start in my legs at the best of times but definitely not this early in the season. I tried to relax find some rhythm in the first bit of single track and waited patiently for the first climb. When it arrived I attacked and pushed as hard as I could. It felt great to be able to ride myself back to the front of the group. I tried to make use of the non technical parts as much as possible and pushed hard to make up for mistakes I might make on the technical riding. The course had a very nice flow and to my surprise I managed to ride quite smooth through the single track for a triathlete!! One lap to go and I started to feel the accumulation of lactic acid in my legs from the weeks training. The joy of a "training race" you never feel fresh at the start line! When I reached the finish I was very happy with the day, not because I came home in 2nd place, because lets face it the big guns were missing in action, but because I loved the race and although the faster crazier XCO format hurts like hell, I enjoyed pushing my boundaries again! The realisation that this is what I wanted and regaining the joy of racing made me very happy.

The whole day was very well organised, watching the kids race must have been one of my favourite moments of the day and I was very impressed with how smooth everything went. A big thank you to the organisers of the first round of SXC series in Forfar for a great event, I have already signed up for round 2!!

After a big break the 2014 Season has finally started!!

Oliver artfully dodges death

 

              

Oliver home with his family 

Most of us study veterinary medicine because we love animals. We want to fix things which are broken, save life’s or help animals in need. During university you don’t really get taught how to deal with “when things go wrong” and I had to learn how to manage it during my 10 year long veterinary career so far and even after all these years it is still something I find hard to get used to. Unfortunately no matter how hard you try, patients will die. Sometimes its known from the start, sometimes unexpectedly. The week leading up to meeting Oliver, I had one of those weeks where all my cases seemed to turn the “wrong corner” and being someone who has a habit of getting attached to my patients it had left me feeling empty.

I was called out to Oliver to examine him for not being quite himself. When I laid eyes on him my heart sank, Oliver was reluctant to move, trembling, salivating, his heart rate was very high and his heart sounds were muffled. He was breathing heavily. I had seen this before, he was showing all the signs of Atypical Myopathy caused by poisonous plants, this Autumn it had been mainly linked to Sycamore seeds but it has been reported with other plants, grasses and dead leaves. We had seen a lot of cases this year in the UK and mainland Europe. Often fatal, unfortunately our practice hadn't had any survivors.

Oliver’s illness was confirmed with blood results and he was admitted to our hospital 2 hours later. He was lucky to have parents who, even with the very poor prognosis I gave them, they were willing to do everything to save their boy. Oliver had been part of their family for over 20 years.

The previous cases we had with similar signs as Oliver would become recumbent quite quickly and I felt as soon as that happened it was a losing battle. So I made a pact with this handsome man, he had to stay with all feet pointing to the ground and I would do everything in my power to get him home safe and sound as soon as possible. And whilst I was wrecking my brain reading almost every article written about similar conditions and questioning all our staff at what else I could give him, Oliver was fighting for his life. The gelding was on around the clock treatment which was mainly aimed at supportive therapy, trying to correct the imbalances caused by the damage done to his body systems due to the poisoning as there is no cure for this horrible condition.

Oliver whilst he was fighting for his life

 Although shaking, weak and painful, Oliver never laid down. His recovery was slow but every time I saw him he would give me a little sign he wasn’t giving up, a little chew on my jacket, a threat with his ears back at my dog Fynn for wanting to steel his untouched feed, or just a stamp of his foot showing me he was not happy about being ill. His lovely owners made daily visits to reassure their beloved friend. It took 5 intensive days and nights to flush everything through, and get Oliver’s body system to resume their normal function again. It’s funny how excited vets can get about seeing normal looking poo’s in a patients stall! After a few interrupted sleeps my heart jumped for joy when Oliver greeted me happily with his head over the door early morning, instead of standing in a corner with is head down which he had been doing whilst being so ill.

Very happy to see him healthy again

Oliver showed us he is made out of tough stuff by beating an often fatal condition and made me remember how good it feels to actually save a life!! it was great to see him again happy and healthy 2 weeks after he left our hospital In his own environment.

"If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a  lot of humans" James Harriot

 

Chamonix, The Mont Blanc, 5 days of fresh powder and magic days

Trying to work full time and train full time means that every now and then everything seems to become  all about fitting in as many things as possible in the smallest corners of time.  The feeling of continuously being on some sort of a “schedule” has left me mentally drained from time to time. And although I love what I am doing, I was reminded it’s just as important to break the routine and live a little when I spent 5 days in Chamonix. 5 days out of my comfort zone trying to keep up with Greek x French Multisport adventurist Alex Dimitriou.

I had met Alex through the Xterra network of people but would have been barely be able to recognise him in a large crowd of people before catching up with him in Switzerland. Meeting up with relatively strangers seemed to have become a common factor in most of my adventures the past year!!

My Alpine holiday started with a tour around Scott Head Quarters in Switzerland where Alex worked together with two familair Xterra faces Peter Naegeli and Ian Pyott. Pete introduced me to the brains, designers and engineers behind the Scott brand. What a cool place to work!! A toy store for adventurists!! There even was a pump track in front of the building!! We left the Head Quarters loaded with Scott Skis, boots and poles which Alex had so kindly organised for me. I felt very spoiled; no stone had been left unturned in the organisation of our trip to the French Alps.

                        A view of the Mont Blanc from Alex's appartment
I woke up in Chamonix with a view of the Mont Blanc, the skies were blue and the sun was shining, my heart skipped a beat. I had skied one day in the last 4 years and it had been more than 15 years since I had spent time in the French Alps, I felt very nervous and excited at the same time. There was no room for faffing about with my new friend Alex. As I only just left the apartment, he would be already at the bus stop. In the rush of trying to keep up with him I even followed the wrong “yellow jacket” onto a chair lift. The normally very chatty GreekxFrenchman seemed extremely quiet which made me start to think I had said something to offend him, until I realised half way up the mountain I was sitting next to a complete stranger!!

                                 

 We spent the morning on the groomed slopes for Alex to see what my level of skiing was and for me to find my ski mojo. It was such a bright day and the snow was perfec. Paradise. After a good 4hrs of skiing we started our “promenade”.  Immediately I was pushed out of my comfort zone walking up the Mountain on skis with skins. And I realised a “promenade” was “ski mountaineering” in disguise. Walking up on skis felt very strange and I expected to slide backwards all the time. Although I had fallen in love with the Scott freestyle skis I was using, they were not ideal for this sort of stuff and I found it hard work with the heavy skis and heavy ski boots.  As the gradient became steeper and more technical I started to lose confidence. We were half way up the face of the mountain when I started to feel anxious.  Alex tried to relax me and explain nothing could really happen, yet I felt that with every move I could fall down at 90 miles per hour, and I was close to tears. I couldn’t move and as my body started to shake, I doubted Alex’s decision to take me here. I felt stuck. I decided to take the skis off and climb up instead. There was a path, basically steps were other people had gone before and with hand and feet I made my way up repeating to myself “mind over matter” with every step I took.” Don’t look up, don’t look down just keep going”. I heard Alex’s voice reassuring me. As I got higher the gradient got steeper and the snow got icier, a massive rush of adrenaline every time my ski boot slipped. “mind over matter, mind over matter, mind over matter"

                            We got rewarded with fresh powder on the way down

 When I threw myself over the other side of the Mountain at the top I was relieved to see that it was nowhere near as steep. And slowly I felt my body relax again. I waited for Alex, it was amazingly quiet and indescribably beautifully peaceful.  The hardest part of our adventure was completed and I enjoyed every minute of the remainder of our “promenade”. It was breath takingly magical.

No visibility high up the mountain

 

The next day we woke up to no view at all and instead of blue skies there were grey clouds and heavy snow. It was windy, cold, wet with no visibility. This did not stop Alex. Groomed slopes were not for him, so he took me for another adventure away from the normal runs. High up the mountain I couldn’t see a thing, and although my Scott skis were amazing to handle, the steepness of it all in the deep snow made me feel completely out of control. “merde” I heard another struggling skier mumbling.  Exactly my thoughts. Alex was a small dot in the far distance going down with ease. He was hard to keep up with on a sunny day let alone in these conditions. I started to feel slightly agitated “I wouldn’t have taken you here if you weren’t able to do it, you were fine yesterday on similar descents” he defended himself when I was questioning his choice of plans. “hmm yes, yesterday there were blue skies and you could see!! “ I mumbled. It was tense for a while.  Alex wasn’t taking any of my lack in confidence and instead he pushed me to practice and learn how to ski properly in knee deep powder. “why complain you can’t do it, just learn how to do it” was his attitude. This time he took me down a less steep part of the mountain with the option of taking the groomed way down if I found it too much. The snow was amazingly soft and with a bit of guidance from Alex I started to embrace the deep snow, I somehow got the hang of it and I got such a boost from being able to do it and not giving up! It was snowing heavily, no visibility, yet I was throwing myself down the mountain and loving it!! My confidence grew and I couldn’t get enough of it!! This was winter heaven!

 

                                       Happy days in powder heaven

When I had been talking about coming to Chamonix to Alex there had been only one hiccup about the timing of the weekend I had in mind. There was a cross country skiing mountaineering race on. No problem I said, I will enter also. “have you xc skied before, like the skating discipline” “no but I can ski and I can skate so I will be fine” Lucky Alex was a lot wiser than me and teamed me up with his friend Anne Klaye for the shorter event whilst I was ready to sign up for the long version.

                                       Alex and Luc taking the win

Race day arrived and I had practiced the cross country skiing twice. I found it quite hard balancing on the skinny skating skies but was hoping my fitness would get me through the race. Thank god I had such a fun, patient team mate in Anne, the course was brutal for a beginner like me. I went around like Bambi, up steep hills and down even steeper ones, completely out of control, legs and arms going everywhere hoping I would find a soft landing somewhere. Although I did think at one stage I would never reach the finish line, my competitive side pushed me to my max and I hit the snow quite hard a couple of times! Bruised and battered I battled on. Unfortunately for the ones behind me I took out a whole train of people in one crash. Great way to get rid of some of the competition!! I was lucky to experience another beautiful sunny day with beautiful scenery surrounded by beautiful people. Alex and his team mate Luc took out the men’s event and Anne and I finished mid field! A day for smiles all around!

 

                                              Anne and I finishing mid pack
A big thanks to Alex for organising an awesome week and challenging me in ways I haven't been challenged for a long time! And Anne for being so patient with me and being a great race partner! Again a trip to remember and friends made for life. Happy days

"Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively." Roosevelt