2014 Season Roundup

    2014 has been an interesting year for me both in terms of mountain biking and my life in general. How one performs during a single season usually depends on how the previous season ended so that seems like a good place to begin this blog. 
    I finished last season with the Youth Inter-regional Mountainbike Championships in Essex. Results were very mixed for me as I had managed to pull myself together after 4 weeks of on and off riding due to illness. Following this I set out to build endurance over the winter so that I could start training for racing early on in 2014. The off-season training went pretty well for me with my first National race at Codham Park being strong for the first two laps until a nutritional mistake led me to bonk for the remaining laps. This did however prove that the training had payed off and I grew in confidence which I had lacked pre race. 
   Later on in spring I took part in the Midlands' Eliminator race in Chesterfield. The course was mainly based on a bmx track with a grassy start and finish so as you can imagine there was a big risk of hitting some of the jumps and rollers too fast especially as it was an explosive sprint race with most riding 29ers. I took each heat tactically making sure I didn't waste energy by just getting through to the next heat so when it came to the final I had fresh legs. Unfortunately this meant I went for the whole shot and hit a roller too fast, this launched head first me into the following roller and the rest was a blur. I sat up and noticed my shoulder was misplaced and instead I had an arm in my ribs. Soon we got to hospital and it was "re-located" and then began my journey back to strength and soon racing.
 
 
Post 'relocation' - Morphine in action
 
   
   This wasn't helped by the fact that I had to begin my GCSE examinations a couple of weeks later. Following the injury I discovered a rash which was soon confirmed to be shingles. I think it's safe to say it wasn't the best way to begin the exams.
   My first race back was the National Series race at Sherwood Pines. I finished in 10th after a couple of slips so I felt I had come back strong and I felt good about the fast approaching National Championships race. This went about as well as previous with a 16th place finish due to a bonk halfway in. It was definitely time for me to sort out these nutritional issues if I was to improve my 
performance!

National Series - Sherwood Pines

   My final race at Cannock Chase was better in a nutritional way as I had managed not to bonk but I feel I may have eaten too much in avoiding running out of energy and as a result felt slightly sluggish. It also didn't help much that I had been away from home with Kiwi relatives visiting Britain to get married which therefore slightly hindered training although being a very important event obviously.


National Series - Cannock Chase , Photo courtesy of Chase Trails
 
   That brings me to the present day. Following a few days at the National Talent Camp where I focused on coaching techniques as well as personal philosophy and ethics of our own sports, I look forward to continuing my solid training towards the first National Series race of 2015 at Sherwood Pines.
 

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