Humbling/off pissing

I started mountain biking in April 2006 on my Dads mountain bike. I enjoyed it so much that I eventually bought the bike from him for R1 (thanks again Dad) and was hooked. the bike was a steel steed with shocking front suspension. I loved that bike and rode every weekend giving me the weeks in between to recover from the regular falls and lactic acid build up. I eventually upgraded the pedals to clipless, saw my a$$ more than once but got used to them and started riding better. I did the Argus Mountain bike Challenge back in 2007 as my first long race and really suffered!

I decided to make the investment and buy a faster, lighter, more bling, full suspension Merida Mission 3000D. Love this bike! I bought lights so I can ride in the dark and try to go for evening or morning rides at least twice a week.

Why am I telling you this? Well I was riding the Burger Mountain Bike Challenge over the weekend (31 July 2010) and am struggling through this race, dying on the uphills and managing to not fall off with exhaustion on the downhills. I knew I hadn't prepared myself enough and hadn't done enough training for this race but the one person I was focused on beating was a women in her early twenties on the same bike as my first bike and riding circles around me!

HOW FRUSTRATING IS THAT!

So what am I going to do about it?

I have no idea! Train more? Eat less? Use race nutrition better? Buy a better more expensive bike? definitely not! I had energy bars, Goo, enerjellys and a banana before I started.

Bottom line is it's not the bike or the nutrition or the gel or the goo or the gear. It all seems to come down the preparation you have or have not done. So you might be thinking "about time you realised that!" but to tell you the truth I ride quite often but I'm not riding right. I need to get a training regime and stick to it like a religious nut!

This is going to be my diary, my where, my why, my results check and I had better start improving else this is all for nothing!