Far out! B****y wainui mountain bike tracks and all the b****y loose gravel which makes the b****y tracks slippery and my lack of b****y skill! Phew. Got that out. Today I was up mountain biking in Wainui for the 3rd time. They are doing a great job cutting the tracks etc, but shit today my skill was AWOL. I should have known something was not quite right when I just tipped over onto the side of the hill. I should have heard the alarm bells screaming then “GO BACK”…but no, I persisted. I should have listened when my gut was rumbling early on….and I should have known that is the sign for “You can’t concentrate properly when you are tired/hungry”……..but NO, again I just went on.
Well…I certainly paid for that. Got up to the pylon, and thought ah I can bike up here to the 4WD. No need to dismount today….grit and determination is all I need, after all it’s only about 10m of track. Well….my bike had other ideas. I ended up on a grassy bit (which was better, as it had more grip than the loose gravel), but then the front wheel turned back down the slope, I had no time to right things, and KA-BOOM I slipped over and fell onto the gravel, then started sliding down the slope on my back, hitting my head on the way of course!!! When everything was still I was hyperventilating something wicked. I had to actually tell myself “You are ok”….to calm my breathing down. Then I felt really nauseated and just wanted to puke my guts out. I just sat there for a wee while, gathering myself together again. Should I carry on for a wee bit longer or turn around and go back to the car? Hmmm…the car won. Probably a good thing too. I started to get cold, and just felt like I was going into shock! I know, unbelievable ay, seeing as it was a really minor crash! But I knew that I was already low on energy, and I really didn’t want to fall off going down the single track. So I went back to the car, with my tail between my legs.
The thing with me and mountain biking is that I really need to be fueled up to do any sort of decent riding. Single track riding requires my full concentration. You really need to be focusing on every little thing around you, especially when there are trees to dodge, tree roots to cross, random rocks, concrete pipes, loose gravel etc etc. I love it for that very reason, as you are working out your mind as much as anything else. Mountain biking is such a full body work out. I just can’t afford not be 100% when I am riding! Will I learn? hmmm. That’s another story! You’d think by now I would have the nutrition side of training pretty much sorted….hmmm. Think I might just head to the pool tomorrow 
