AN AVERAGE GIRL DISCOVERS MOUNTAINBIKING: A YEAR'S JOURNEY OF BLOOD, SWEAT, MUD AND TEARS.

A year ago I was an average “runner”. Wait, let me be honest and rephrase that to “jogger”. I attempted cycling on my entry-level mountain bike and finished the grueling 2009 Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge after only training for 3 months on the spinning bike, and it was 5 hours of TORTURE!! 

I decided that I wanted to be better and faster I just didn’t know how to get there.  Then I met Cornelius aka The Multisport Encyclopedia.  He invited me to go mountain biking with him at Groenkloof, a very technical ride for a beginner.  It took less than 2 hours of single-track for me to fall in love with both Cornelius and Mountain biking.  

On our 3^rd date Cornelius had the honor of filling in all my private personal details at the emergency room while the Doctor stitched up the gash my knee. This was just one of many falls and trips to the ER.  With time I realized that if it doesn’t need stitches, you don’t need to cry, just cowgirl the f#*k up and get back on the bike!

My bike underwent a gradual transformation; tubeless tires, new seat (it got bent at the same Groenkloof trails), lighter crankset, lighter wheels and then the REVELATION: a set of second hand Magura Louise disc brakes. Braking was now happening with only 2 fingers, this meant more momentum and I was able to navigate single track with more precision (while shouting ‘whoohoo’ several times).

Mountain biking opened an entire new world to me. The previous winter I was sleeping late, skipping gym, this year I’m out of bed daily at 5:20 am for a 90min ride before work, in the COLD(Pretoria temps avg 2-8degrees at that time of the morning in winter)! 

6am ride on Klapperklop

I started reading back-to-back issues of TREAD, Bicycling, Go Multi and ride magazines, buying shammy cream instead of make-up and shopping in Dischem’s supplement aisle with bodybuilder salesmen hovering around. 

With a lot of patience and advice from C, my skills improved weekly.  The best way to learn is to ride behind someone with superior skills, pay attention to the lines they are choosing, notice where they brake and accelerate. 

Every weekend and holiday became an opportunity to discover new trails all over our beautiful country. Some of our favorite weekend trail discoveries: Mount Hope Private Game Reserve, Lindani and Sabie.

Weekend at Lindani

Sabie Trip

A year later I do not only have a leaner and stronger body, upgraded bike and improved nutrition but also a sense that I am able to achieve and better myself during every race and training session.  After so many rides I still get a silly grin on my face when I roll onto a piece of single-track!

I am looking forward to our first century/100km race (Hill2Hill) in just 65 days!

till next time

Tarrin

Nissan Trailseeker #1 Hazeldean

This past weekend we took part in the first of the Nissan Trailseeker Series at Hazeldean - and it really was the coldest race i have ever done! 70km of freezing wind is something else! The Previous record was held at Babba’s Lodge where the temperature at the start was 5 degrees - this time however the mercury hovered just above zero as we pushed off!! It was a huge event as there were 2000 entrants (although judging by the list of DNF’s I imagine a few people opted out on the day!) Really well organized, and quite refreshing to see the organizers choosing a venue that could actually handle the number of people. The seeded starts worked really well, as we were the last batch to leave and there were no real bottlenecks anywhere along the course, which included quite a bit of singletrack.

I reasoned the weather HAD to warm up sometime so i opted for the minimalist approach to winter clothing (my reasoning being that i would be frozen after an hour any way) - and i was right! So without legwarmers or a windbreaker i literally WAS frozen from start to finish - especially after the nice watercrossings which had pretty much deteriorated into un-rideable-ness after 600 wheels came through! Icy Feet always a hit! The other half of our team opted for more ample winter protection and she never complained! (from now on she is the manager!)

Our strategy was to ride within ourselves and test our fitness, which held up amazingly well - Klapperkop is a good spinning class after all!(we do three sessions a week if anyone is interested?) Testing our nutrition (muffins and bananas) as well as Hammer Perpetuem/PVM Octane XTR went awesome-ly well, no issues with cramp, bonking at all. must say the waterpoints were nicely stocked, if a bit overcrowded - especially one section where the 40km joined our route. I also tested a packet iof 32GI gums right at the start and it did last me a good hour into the race, very impressive and good tasting stuff! will definitely add that to my future stash.

All in all some pretty standard farm roads for the first half, with all the fun in the second half, singletrack, tree lined canopy - twisty stuff, riverside dropoffs and one little tough hill right on 65km - also a good test of the legs and we passed! Great day for us in our first 70km race for the year, aiming for the Hill2Hill in September.

We are also in the middle of the Gauteng Winter Trail series, with the last race taking place this Sunday. Tarrin is leading the Series and she has a good chance of winning the Short course Championship! Holding all thumbs and toes!

Till next time

Just keep spinning

New Direction

Welcome to the new home of the Adventures of Flint and Fuel. This will be our account of our travels as we see new places, new races, search for the best trails and aim to be the best athletes we can be! We are a multisport couple who love to Bike, Run, Swim Repeat - We will document our journey as we try and experience as much as we can! Our long term goal is to ultimately do a stage race like the Absa Cape Epic, or the Joberg2C (which we are approaching one race at a time).

We started off last year successfully completing the 94.7 road race on our mountain bikes with skinny tyres in around 4h15. Since then we have incorporated the principles of Joe Friel (a sure Genius!) and seen great leaps of improvement through consistent effort! This year we have completed one Babba’s  Lodge race in Northern Gauteng (which most people will know is flat and fast), the Rapids Country Estate Challenge out in Dullstroom (1100m climbing in 40km!) and recently the first of the Nissan Trailseeker series at Hazeldean (in 2 degrees C!). In between we have managed to take a few weekends away with bikes in tow, to Sabie and the Waterberg - all of which good training camps! So if you want to see what we’re up to, or what new goodies we are testing, or you want to join our training rides, check back here for a few laughs!

Survival of the moment

I Woke up this morning a bit fragile after working late, had a tempo session at klapperkop planned – and I thought: how am I going to make this day?with training, work, dinner etc.? The mountain looked way too high from down where I was! These past few days I have also been thinking about the idea of staying in the moment, whatever that moment is, in order to be in a better mood in general. It has been proven that people who are totally ‘in’ the moment, whatever they are doing at the time, are generally happier than people who are not.

So trying to put these two together in one head – I realised that one should not think too far ahead in general, ie that presentation, that meeting, that big training session. All one needs to do is think about the moment you are in, and maybe the one after that!you only need to have energy for whatever you are doing next. This way you will stay present (where the grass is generally greener) and take each day piece by piece; however big it might be!