Crash the Old and Start a New

Been Easter it is clearly time to get serious about training and started eyeing up the worlds start line. Summer now slipping though too harsh mornings and good old dreary plods though the hours of damp back road wonders. Wonders of why you did pick a sport like squash or figure staking. They don’t require thousands of hours of ignoring the logic of staying inside on when the southerly kicks in. But out there I am and will be repeatedly for the next six months.

But to set these hopeful predictions for now as I have a new coach in Andy Patterson. With an impressive list of credentials he brings so much experience and knowledge to the table that I have already been swamped by new ideas and I am sure that I have barely scrapped the surface.

In the last few rides I have been fighting my heart rate down against much of the thinking I have been coming up with. Trying to knock out two, three or more hour rides around the region known for hills and wind without getting your heart rate much above idle is something of challenge.

I have now joined the ranks of the real side of the cycle industry with my first job in two years. Now during some business hours I can be found playing with bikes in the Porirua Avanti Plus. Having sent a large amount of my time in bike shops as well as most of my income it is familiar domain. But with this comes the very real risk that I will spend my pay at work. The temptation has so far been restricted to some long overdue brake pads for my road bike which I now ride the 40km return to the shop most work days.

Recently I felt it was time to throw myself down some trails of technical nature. But first to deserve this there are some rules. First one must ride up some steep technical sections that will require riding to finish and pushing to start. Then one has to gain the fearless bravado style that will intimidate anyone in sight. Then after making sure the seat post is all but hidden by the frame and there is enough squishiness in your suspension you are ready to hurl yourself to gravities will. So long as you despair from the sight of all riders that saw you drop into the trail you are safe and have are now a peg high in the descending status game.

Thankfully there was no one anywhere I went on my technical exploration. So I lost out on the visual based status gain and have to rely on the respect won by telling tales of my conquests. Which should go something like this; ‘yeah I went down trickle falls the other day, great track. Reminded me of all those runs I did on the north shore but just allot easier. Probably have to hit it with some real pace next time, I was just going easy.’ It’s always good to make a caparison to a more difficult track or tracks, this maximises the emphasis that even though it was expert track that for you it was easy.

However what happen to me after trickle falls was something that should be left out of any bravado. I went for a run down a familiar track that is rated intermediate but amped by my recent conquest I wound up the speed. This meant when I drove the Niner into a slight left hand curve I failed to bring my 720mm handle bars inside a tree. What followed was brief and violent disperse of energy that left all involved unhappy.

For a long time I maintained a record of only injuring myself in crashes. I broke this last year at the 24 hours of N-Duro when I went down in lame crash and tarcoed my front wheel. And again in this much more vigorous and spectacular crash I also pulverised my front wheel. Tragedy. Oh and not that I matters but I writhed in agony for a good few minutes before limping home bruised, felling sick, tail between my legs and knowing that I had been done over by nature and my own miss judgment.