mountainmorgy

..and yes, I am living on a prayer! The season's half done and compared to this time last year I'm much more settled in to racing. Thankfully my form has started to creep in a little earlier and I've been getting some OK (nothing drastic) results so far. I'll be targeting races mid August now as this is when my next batch of solid RR's comes about, as well as some season finales in September. (C) the eternally talented Ellen Isherwood - check her out on Flikr! The half-way marker came this weekend when I returned to Pimbo this weekend. A large field (over 60 apparently on the original start sheet!) with some top quality riders in there meant it was always going to be one where I'd have to keep all of my wits about me to stay in a comfortable place in the pack. Some amazing leadership from our team mate Alison and some all round great sportsmanship from everyone in the team meant it was a satisfying race. I didn't feel quite as fresh as I have done o...

This time last year you might remember my topical post on Gender Gaps in Women's Motorsport . Well it's TT week again - and I've been blessed with the amazing opportunity of working with the team who do timing for the event. It's literally been the best two weeks in my working life by far, broken up in the middle by a quick stage race (more on that soon!). Anyway, I thought I'd follow up with a post on the subject this year following some conversations and observations made throughout the 2015 event. For those of you who haven't seen last years post, or just don't know what the TT is - it's a motorcycle road racing event, one of the largest in the world, which has been held for over 100 years comprising of several categories - where riders are set off in intervals to ride a "time trial" (yes, just the same as ours in cycling) around the famous Isle of Man TT circuit. Interestingly later in the year we'll be doing a similar event on our p...

Before I've even had a chance to reflect, a 3rd of the racing season is already done and dusted! So this is probably a good time to have a quick catch up and cover some of my results. All the time is going! So here's an update! April/May has been a bit timetrially - with March & April early season covering some much needed leg openers (arse kickings). I've made a few silly mistakes in the road races but thankfully they're mistakes I'm not all that gutted about. I can compare my strength now with last year and despite having another slightly desperate sickly late winter I'm actually in quite a really good place with  my fitness. I'm a bit weird with training too, when I'm working towards racing season doing lots of intervals and things I always seem to get sick very easily. But as soon as that training time decreases and time racing increases my legs seem to find some sort of magic. It takes a while, thankfully this year it's started to com...

I was going to write this weeks post on yet more race results. More "how is training going?" responses. More of the same old same old. It reads well, doesn't it? Everyone wants to hear about that. Team Time Trial - pic (c) Kevin Kissack Then I thought...I've done two races since my last report. One of them a hilly women's road race in the North West, another a 3-up team time trial with some local lads. The former didn't go so well..... I have no explanation for that other than I'm really not a great climber and on the day...my legs really just couldn't be arsed. The latter much better, we smashed my 25 mile PB by over 5 minutes, I got to ride with two fantastic guys both of whom are exceptionally talented, and nice to boot. We were the first mixed team in at 1.02.41 - a very commendable time for a cold, early season time trial on a Manx course. So there's my report. I've been training for around 10 hard  hours a week (it's always a...

DONE! First races finally out of the way! What a weekend it was, too. I'm absolutely shattered! So I'll start my report from the very top... OUCHIES I travelled out on Friday ( Steam Packet boat, then train as usual) to meet up with some of the team & management. Exhaustion from plodding around the country on boats and trains is commonplace for me so it was a welcome change to my usual routine that I'd be staying at the team managers Nicky & Neil's house. You begin to realise just how much people who manage teams & coach riders pour into the sport, and it's evident more than ever in Nicky & Neil - it's inspiring, and very humbling, to see how much they really just adore bicycling, racing and the teams they put so much into. A brief catchup with everyone and some much needed coffee and it was a trip down to Club Energy of Otley to do a spin class! Now, we have to bear in mind Mooleur is rather new to fitnessy-type-things not least the...

It's been 3 weeks since my last post, I've been so busy with training, preparing to move house and generally keeping on top of life...this may indeed be my last post for another 3-4 weeks as racing officially begins in just under 3! I've been umming and ahing over what to write about and thought, well, this time last year I was (over) thinking the up coming season and brimming with an eager anticipation..perhaps this time I might plan a little more sensible. Perhaps I might set reasonable goals. Perhaps I might just act the way I'm supposed to act, as if this were just a hobby, something I do on the weekends. ....so then I thought NO. I don't care if I'm still not experienced. I don't care if I'm not yet that strong. I don't care if I've got no points on my license and I don't care if anyone thinks I'm shit or not. My goal posts have not changed, in fact if anything my desire to achieve the most I possibly can is even stronger. I can...

Not really...but we are edging ever nearer to the start of the racing season and it feels like there is so much I need to get done, talk about, rant about...etc! The awesome 17 strong ladies collective & manager Neil. I missed posting again in National Obesity Awareness Week mainly due to being off-Island to attend the VCUK team launch. This was awesome, very pro, and we received a fabulous motivational speech from Wayne Greenhalgh, the boss at VCUK . We all left feeling very much part of something special, and part of an overall cycling family willing to accept and encourage all regardless of status or level. It's exciting! After arriving there was a formal introduction of each team which included a quick Q&A session. Some photographs and of course - CAKE. It was lovely to see families and friends arrive to support their respective participants. Again the event overall promoted the idea of the VCUK concept being very much a community driven, development base...