Life at 3000m

Upon my return to Australia the pre Worlds organisation starting taking place. I was given the option to attend an additional 2 week training camp at the AIS in Canberra which would have a group of us based in the altitude house and getting stuck into some pretty intense training and testing leading into the World Championships.

After some negotiation and organisation with work I was lucky enough to be released from my duties at school to be part of the training camp! I feel extremely fortunate to have a very supportive Principal, and understanding staff, parents and students who are backing me 100% on my World Championships campaign!

Our huge line up of bikes, both road and mtb that get to live in the lab down stairs.

Upon arrival at the AIS we were briefed on the objectives for the camp and how the first week would pan out. Basically the camp is doubling as 'training' for us as athletes and it is also a unique opportunity for the scientists to gain valuable data and research on a group of elite level mtb athletes leading into a home World Championships.

The gals after our first testing session on the course.

We are living in a house which has 4 bedrooms, a bathroom and communal kitchen, all of these areas are regulated to simulate 3000 metres of altitude. We have filled all beds in the house, our group consists of are 5 girls and 6 guys. They would normally start you off a lower altiude say 1500m and generally get up to around 2000m, but for us they have decided to chuck us straight into 3000m for the entire 2 weeks! To gain the full benefits we need to spend between 12 and 14 hours at altiude each day, so that is typically made up with a game of poker before bed, a nice long sleep, and breakfast in the morning. All our training is done either down in the lab through testing or out on the course and local road rides.

One of our regular evening poker sessions, a great way to wind down while at 3000m!

The theory of living at altitude is to increase the production of red blood cells. It is the red blood cells that carry oxygen throughout the body, so in effect if there are more of them, more oxygen can be distributed at a more rapid rate which is particularly handy when you get really puffed during intense exercise!!

During our first week here, we are going through a very intense 4 day training block. Day 1 involves lab testing where we are hooked up to a machine that measures our Vo2 Max. This is a lab test where you see how long you can ride for while the gearing on the bike continually gets harder every 3 minutes. Once your cadence, or revolutions per minute, fall below 70 the test is over. It is quite uncomfortable as you have to breath through a mouth piece and and every 3 minutes they take your blood to test your lactate levels.

One of the boys completing his Vo2 Max test with the scientists recording all the essential data, ahhhh pain!

Straight after this test we do an 'exhaustion test'. A hard gear is selected based on the outcome of your Vo2 test and basically you ride until the cadence falls below 70rpm and by this point you are well and truly EXHAUSTED, my personal best was 9 and a half minutes!!

After lab testing we head out in the afternoon and do 'paceline' training which is basically a small version of a road race, where we roll through turns at pace, each taking a turn on the front of the group

Out for our afternoon training session, a great way to work up an appetite for another visit to the AIS dining hall!

The Coach came off at 55km an hour and it was not pretty, fortunately he survived with just a couple of broken fingers...... amazing!

Day 2 Is a little more fun but certainly no easier, it is on course testing. We ride out to Stromlo, the race site, and do timed 'splits' (timied sections of the course). These splits are done on the main climb which for us women is up to 9 min and the descent which takes just over 4 min. The first lap we go as hard as we possibly can then get a 5 min break, then we do 2 consecutive laps at race pace (a speed that we can maintain for the entire race).

Testing at the course, doing the weigh in before our timed efforts, and making use of the shelter conveniently placed on the track!

Hmmmmm... now how did that come to get there? Must have been during that spectacular and embarassing crash on course today!

After we have done these two days we start the cycle for the second time, and repeat it all over again for the next 2 days! It is an amazing environment to train in, I am amoungst a group of elite athletes who are all trying to get themselves in the best possible shape before what for most of us will be our biggest race to date. We are all trying our best to increase our home course advantage.

It is a highly competitive environment, our daily results/times are posted in the kitchen for all to see, they are talked about, compared, analysed and commended. You always seem to dig deep and push yourself to find that extra bit of energy and effort when you know your results are being recorded and will be up for all to see! Needless to say we are looking forward to a well earned recovery day at the end of the intensity block.

The much needed coffee shop ride, yay!

Here at the AIS we have everything at our fingertips to help us progress and train as elite athletes; physios, scientists recording all our data, massage, plunge pools for recovery and of course the AIS dining hall serving up fantastic healthy meals with no dishes or cleaning up to do!

The girls braving the cold of the plunge pool, at a chilly 12 degrees!

Gracie enjoying her 3 minutes of spa before she has to brave the plunge pool.

In the recovery centre we do hot/cold this varies but will generally consist of 3 minutes of hot then 3 minutes of cold and is repeated untill you have clocked up a minimum of 7 minutes cold in total. The cold water works at lowering your core body temperature, and the variation in temperature increases blood flow and helps repair damaged and fatigued muscles.

Bigger Fish to Fry

Since my last blog entry I raced the last Canadian World Cup at Bromont, it was 'interesting' conditions, ended pouring with rain part way into the race which turned the course into another mud battle, seems to be a common theme with these Canadian races! Anyhow, my result was an improvement on my forst world cup race, coming in at 34th, so was happy with the race, nothing went wrong, just got to keep working on getting quicker!!

From Bromont I started the trek home to Australia which again was 'interesting' I had connecting flights from Quebec to Vancouver which is where my international flight departed for Sydney. Getting to Vancouver was quite a mission! My connecting flight to Toronto was set back because they were observing 'tornado'watch and had ceased all operations for 3 hours. So our plane landed and we waited the 3 hours to get to a gate and then disembark. I made it to the gate for my connecting flight to Vancouver only to find out that they had already filled the flight with people who had been bumped off other flights that were behind. As a result I arrived in Vancouver at 2am and had well and truly missed the international flight to Sydney, the next flight would run at midnight the following evening!

I did have a stroke of good luck, I got chatting to an elderly couple, Hugh and Wilma, who very kindly offered me a bed for the night/day and to drop me back at the airport that evening to get my flight home!

Hugh and Wilma were wonderful, they took me home gave me a bed, breakfast, took me on a tour of Vancover and also took me out for dinner! It was a huge random act of kindness!

To finish this last Canadian episode off, whicle I was waiting for my connection to Sydney got a call from Neil Ross the National Coach to say that I had made selection for the National Team, and that I would be racing the World Championships in Canberra in less than a months time! It was great getting this news to travel home with, kind of made going back to winter, no daylight and a week of work more bearable!

So the goal for my Canadian trip had been fulfilled, I had made selection and I would now get the opportunity to don the green and gold and repesent my country in a sport that I love.

Down to Business, Count Down to Race Day...

So it was time to head back to Mont Sainte Anne and do our final training and preparations before the first of the two World Cup Races that we are here to do. We had to do some precision packing to get everyone in with bikes and bags, it was a tight squeeze!

We arrived on a Wednesday and although the race is on the coming Sunday, things were really starting to buzz around town, all the professional teams roll in with thier big team trucks and trailers, mechanics set up work stations to service all the riders, you start seeing riders out on the course that you have read about in magazines and watched in videos. It is an exciting time and in general there is a sensation of something big is building.

So race day finally rolled around, it was warm and overcast then of course as they were calling us all up to the start grid it began to absolutely hose down, big fat raindrops that would have made any Australian jump for joy, sure made for an interesting race. Ended up loosing most of my gears due to the mud and grass build up in the drive train of my bike, there was alot of running again and I had selected a dry tyre, for use in dry weather, so in the rain I had pretty much no traction, I spent alot of time picking myself up from some pretty spectacular crashes, all soft landings though!

I was happy with my race considering the preparation I have had. I ended up finishing in 40th position out of a field of 76 and third Aussie girl across the finish line, I did loose alot of time on the leaders of the race, and was a long way off the 10% of the winners time (which is the selection criteria to make the National Team and ride the World Championships in September) but all in all I was fairly happy with my race, and quite relieved that I got through in one piece!

So next weekend I get to have another chance at qualifying with the second Canadian World Cup, so fingers crossed for some super speedy legs and a good solid race!

This is the team in the pit area they also call it the 'race village' It is where each professional team have a big truck and tent to service all the bikes and provide a base for the team riders to, chill out, and also warm up before the race.

This is my bike getting some much needed TLC before race day to make sure everything is working perfectly and minimise the chance of any mechanical issues that could slow me down.

This is our TORQ team with the Pro GT International Team along with the mechanics, these guys are all paid 'really' good money to ride thier bikes! Lucky ducks!

This is our poor attempt at having a professional team van, we felt quite ashamed with out set up as everyone else in the street had huge big trucks all painted up in the team colours and design!

At the World Cup races, there are 3 disciplines: Cross Country (my discipline) Four Cross (pretty much like BMX) and also Down Hill.

This is Sam Hill the winner of the Down Hill, pretty much the fastest guy on a bike in the world, and he is a fellow Aussie! He ended up smashing his nearest rival by 3 seconds and in Down Hill racing this is a huge margin!

These guys are lucky It takes them about 4 minutes to complete thier race as opposed to ours which is generally 2 hours, but the potential for serious injury is a lot higher in the Down Hill as you can see by the equipment they are in!

One of the drops on our cross country course, was quite steep this one and very sketchy in the mud and rain on race day!

This section of the course was the most technical section, It is called the 'Squirell' and it was pretty much a waterfall of rocks, quite fine to ride in the dry but on race day it was covered in mud, most people were running down it, which was pretty sketchy in itself! The commissaire (course inspector) said it was too hard and dangerous so they had to build an easier track on the side of this one the day before the race!!

This was the elite men's race only about 10 riders in the field of 120 were riding this section, and alot were crashing, making use of the mats and hail bales on the side!

Needless to say this section drew a huge crowd, everyone want to get a piece of the action!

Me getting into some post race tucker while watching the men's race.

This is Edgar. I always manage to make some fantastic new friends along the way!

Another one of my new friends Cha Cha on a walk to the waterfall!

Blissful Bromont

We have made the trip back to Bromont to meet the rest of the TORQ team who have now arrived in Canada! So the plan is to spend the following week training on the course and finally soaking in some beautiful summer sunshine, it seems the weather has finally turned it on for us!

We are staying in a lodge/retreat which is set in the rolling hills about 10km from the town centre, it is quiet, peaceful and very relaxing!

This is the local 'swimming pool' which is literally a 5 minute stroll from our accommodation. Perfect for an afternoon swim after a hard training session!

This is our amazing 'bike shed'!!! It has plenty of storage space for the whole team. Generally don't use the front door as they have to pull these open with big ropes, the side door is much easier!!

There are deer everywhere, these ones are regular visitors, they come in and eat the apples that fall to the ground. I'm sure me taking a photo of a deer is similar to a tourist in Australia taking a phot of a kangaroo or even a rabbit!!

This photo is of myself and one of my team mates Tory before training, the after shot may not have been so clean!

Katherine one of my team mates trying to get up close and personal with a deer we saw in the forrest.

The countryside is typically beautiful, rolling green hills, lush forrest, and quite county roads to train on!

Bears, Moose, Waterfalls and a Cathedral

Every few days, it is time to give the body rest and a chance to recover from some intense training or racing. It is these days that allow for some more time to get out and have a look at the wonderful new places, sights, attractions and in general just broaden the horizons!



This is one of the larger waterfalls in the area 74m long.

There were three swing bridges crossing the canyon, this one was the highest!

These guys are huge, this is actual size, apparently they cause a lot of damage on Canadian roads.

This fella was actually quite cuddly, I’m quite happy not to have seen a real one yet, they are out there!

And of course I had to pop a cathedral in, just for good measure! This is the Sainte-Anne De-Beaupre’ Basillica, it is down in the valley, at the bottom of the hill from where we are staying.

Moving on to Mont Sainte Anne.

After the race at Bromont we traveled north 3 hours back through Qubec City and onto another ski resort called Mont Sainte Anne. This is where the World Cup race will be held on the 26th of July in a couple of weeks time.

We are using this as a training base for 10 days until we head back to Bromont on the 15th of July.

This is our pickup truck, a pretty big ute! The turning circle is not great and finding parks at the supermarket is pretty challenging!

This is a trail called La Vietnam, It takes 40 minutes of steep climbing to get to the top but the descent is a fantastic reward!

The trails here are challenging! A combination of mud, rocks, steepness and the most challenging are the tree roots, once they get a bit of moisture on then you can sooooo easily lose control and crash!

I decided it was best to walk down this one, it’s too early to go home injured!

They build these structures called ‘Skinnies’ throughout the forest where it gets really wet and muddy, to cross creeks or just to make for really fun riding! This is a very wide ‘skinny’, they do build them a third of this size so it is a real balancing act!

This is my friend Terri showing some style on the skinnies!

Welcome to Canada, Thankyou Very Much!!

Once we got off the plane in Qubec City, we hightailed it down to Bromont, 3 hrs south from Qubec City, a rather flash ski resort that doubles as a mountainbike mecca during the summer months.

We had our first race here on the weekend, it was a Canadian National race, so quite nice not to have to start with a big World Cup Race first up.
During practice it was blue skys, and the occassional puddle, race day was vastly different! After two days of solid rain, the course was totally transformed. I thought I came here to do a bike race, seemed that I was giving my running muscles a good work out!
The laps took 30+ minutes and I was having to run about 20min in each lap due to the mud being in some places half way up my shins!!
So my race took me 2 hrs and 15min, finishing in 12th place, I was very happy for it to come to an end!!

This is what all the kids do on their school holidays over here, join the MTB school!

This was after one practice lap on the course, after the actual race there was alot more mud!
















We were quite happy to take the chairlift to the top instead of the 40min steep climb!

Off to the Land of Squirrels and Maple Syrup

Finally after the long awaited count down I am off to Canada.
After finishing up school for the term it will be straight onto the plane on Saturday direct to Qubec City. From here we will travel to Bromont where we have our first race the following Saturday, this is a Canadian National Race and it will be a good warm up to the World Cup race which will be held on the same course in 4 weeks time. From here we travel back to Mont Sainte Anne where we will be based for 2 and a half weeks, this will be a solid training block and will take in the first of two World Cup races for the trip. The last week and a half we are back down to Bromont for the second World Cup race, and then it is back to the land of cold, in the wintry down under! So a fairly short trip, but i am definitely excited about getting away and focusing on being an athlete, riding some sweet singletrack and working towards gaining selection for the World Championships, which will be held shortly after in September at Stromlo, Canberra!!