Its not cold in Scotland its freezing!

To break up the winter training a little and chill-ax (apparently thats the new cool word!) Kerry and I packed our bags and headed north for the weekend. I love road trips it means I can sing along to songs for the whole journey . . ha ha its beautiful, just ask Kerry :) The weather was good, dry and clear but oh my god it was freezing! Always a good excuse to stop for lots of coffees and bowls of soup . . . mmmmm! Check out Chi Chi on your right, he was having a rare sight seeing trip! In the photo he is on route to the gondola at the Cairngorms, although a little frightened by the wind he braved the trip well!

It was good to get away and do some training elsewhere at the weekend. On saturday I headed to the old race track at Aviemore, god it was good fun! It still makes me sad ever year when it doesn't appear in the racing calander. On sunday it was off to Laggan for some narly riding around the black, that route still asks a few too many questions about my riding . . . . but I am most certainly getting there!! After all rocks are pretty scary right :)

I am also delighted to announce that Tunnocks have continued to support me for the 2009 series. A big thanks to those guys as without that kind of support I would struggle to race the whole season. Next time your in the shops remember go for the tea cake option!

Yee ha

Les

It’s not a joke, it is scary . . . . It is Tinto hill race!

Check it out thats me number 136 on my way up the hill!

This time of year is always a funny one in the world of biking! The 2008 season is a distant memory, the rest after the season has gone and believe me that is a good feeling as the cobwebs start to build a little too easily, and you find yourself entering a funny transitional state. You remember what it felt like to be able to climb up the hills so comfortably it was bliss, but unfortunately that feeling has been lost. My legs feel heavy getting back into training, things just aren’t easy but I guess that what makes you work that little harder because you know in a few weeks things will start to improve and when you hit that stage man it just becomes soooooo addictive!

So I am now in my 4th week of winter training and things are going really well on and off the bike! This is an exciting time as I am currently trying to secure sponsorship for the forthcoming season and of winter training is starting to kick in. So this year when G and I sat down and started to plan things out, he suggested we try something a little different at the start of winter training to help keep me fresh. So that’s what led to Tinto hill race being set down as the first goal of the season. Now don’t get me wrong I am no hill runner, I had to go out and buy some shoes and actually get into the hills and do some running. Generally I found the ascents are tough and on the descents you just kind of have to let yourself go and hope for the best! Their was something really nice about Tinto, registration was in a village hall, there were lots of bustling runners around and the atmosphere was really friendly and it only cost 3 pounds to enter. Their aint much you can get for 3 pounds nowadays! After registration G, Graeme (number one supporter) and I headed to the hill and all was looking good! So after a little warm up we were sent on our ways, the climbing was a toughy and went on a bit too long for my liking, but when I got to the top and started to descend I found the true beauty of the hill race and I love it. There were a few dodgy points on the way down, for example when I got a double stitch that lead to an intense feeling I was seriously going to barf. Then you cross the finish line and as if by magic all those horrible feelings start to disappear, maybe that was helped by my spot prize of a hat! So I survived, check out the heart rate and altitude graph of the race below, Polar have really enabled me to analyse my training to the best quality this winter. I finished 170 out of 260 and was 11th female overall, not bad for a rookie ha ha! After not feeling that great G pulled off a great race finishing 13th, well done G man you rock!!!

So it is now a few days after the race and I'm a little stiff but hey it could have been a lot worse, G says I didn't run fast enough down the hill, I say if you want to go fast down a hill get on a bike!

Yee ha

Les