This is the diary of my preparations for my first ever race (look out for mw at Ludlow and/or Hopton on the Specialized Winter Races).

Send your comments to me direct or on the my bit of the MBUK.com forum here .  Bookmark this page now to keep up with my progress.

5th February, Race 2 starts!

Hopton 1 Report
Here I am back again ready for the next race, now I think I really am ready this time.
After the last race we all realized that our DH trails were so unrealistic it was funny so the week after we set about dumping the bulkiest detritus we could find on the tracks. Rocks trees etc. all went in to make some better trails. After a slow start marred by a dodgy wheel and punctures Im now flyin' through the sections, bouncing and rolling like the people I watch in awe of at the last race. Today alone I improved no end, and yesterday I learnt to jump over one nasty corner rock garden at total warp 11 speed. I think Im going to enjoy this next race and come around mid table as apossed to second from last. Here's hopping!!
PS. I was supposed to start this last week but I had flu and head-aches etc.

14th January

Race day, Up early before 6am then off to the race. I was so nervous on the way. When we got there i started to have more fun and after my first practice run I was confused, by the end of my second run I didn't want to race because I might die or, even worse, get in the way of poor Mister 241 (I was 240). I went up the truck to egg on my mates and ended up racing. It was the best thing I've ever done, is was totally crap through 8-% of the course but all along were people shouting for you, it was amazing it was so happy and elated at the end of my run it was total ecstasy. My second run had less happy people and I was thouroly gutted because I was supposed to tighten my break lever and it came off on my run cuz I forgot.

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11th 12th and 13th. of January

To be honest with you a little bit of a blur. Thursday was spent at collage, Friday sorting my bike out and being scared. On Saturday I ended up being dragged around shops all day which was annoying. I slept very little on Saturday night.

10th January

After another morning at collage doing nothing at all I came home (walking again!!!) then went on a mission.

I went to find the steepest, gnarlyest trails I could find, there are some close to me (but not as close as I thought). Referred to as the "Rugby Club" for some reason. Its a very steep wooded hill with trails preciously "pinned" to the side with a complex system of pegs and woven branches the place is a little shoddy, take off's with no landings, landings with no take off's that sort of thing but generally scary. I concentrated on one particular trail, a steep switchback set up down onto a jump then a step down jump, 30 seconds v. steep. I fell off once, I decide to try and lessen the corner on the switchback by trying to drop onto the berm but messed up and ended up falling and falling onto my head then bouncing into a pretty small hole and not knowing witch way up I was. Im OK but my confidence is shattered.

9th January

I spent the morning at collage, then came home at lunch to ride but when I finally arrived home (bloody busses) and couldn't be arsed to go out. Tonight Ifilled in my race form (only a week late) and sent it off, so that's it IM defiantly racing my bike on Sunday, no going back.

8th January

I spent the morning at collage, met some mates then came home and went out to the trails for an hour or so to do some training. Weights to finish.

7th January

T'day I'arve bean moastly............

I went out in the afternoon today and did some riding. I started off jumping and riding the trails like a total retard, through the whole afternoon my jumping seemed to get worse and worse, I repedaly landed short on the small doubles and made it to the second (larger) set twice I came short the first time and the second time went massive and landed almost sideways on the flat after the landing. My DH riding got rapidly better and soon I was wuppin' and we (4 of us today) were bombing trough the trees mere feet apart, fun all the way. About mid afternoon two middle agen men (one on a Saracen Full-sus and one on a very strange (passably homemade) road thingy with massive wheels) and a kid with a Saracen arrived. We taked with them a bit and we were looking a a drop (roll or jump your choice, but prett big and scary (see the sledge photo below) the old guy on the Saracen rode down it with out batting an eye lid then come round again and jumped off it in a massive way. Then the road guy did it too and Icouldn't watch but he did it then fell of cuz of a wet log. Through all this the kid did naff all.

I'm definatly racing (almost) with a few mates at Ludlow next week. I need to sort my entry out tomorrow (£14 bloody hell!). Ive just taken a look at the Pearce Cycles Web site and last year my catagory was spred out by quater of an hour!!! The winner took 04:23.45 and the loser took 18:39.91, so it looks like I won't come last.

6th January

Today I went to the new bike shop in town, Morgans Bikes, Its cool, it stocks Orange and Planet X in abundance as well as Saracen and loads more cool stuff coming soon. I saw a 2001 "222", with was NICE and brought some old school MX grips for £4.

Fitting the grips took longer than expected and (4 hours) so I ended up not going out at all.

5th January

The only thing I did today that could have possibly been training was going on a road ride with a beautiful young lady, not particularly hard work but never mind.

4nd January

No collage today but stayed in all the same trying to make a 3D frog for frogsbottom.co.uk, making frogs is hard!!! Listened to Limpbizkit some more and worked out before bed. Oh and I think this is the longest I've ever kept a diary in my life.

Any comments on the frog?


3rd January
I had to go to collage today, that sucked so I was home for lunch. My LimpBizkit album arrived today, props to HMV.co.uk, crapy site, great price and fast service. It was nice to listen to someone as angry as me and taking the tape to the trails will no doubt help me ride faster and go larger. My particular highlight have to be "livin' it up" my new anthem for the lyrics "Im keeping my pants saggin', keep a skateboard, a spray can for the taggin', and Im a keep a lot of girls on my bandwagon (chance would be a fine thing), cause i don't give a **** livin' life in the fast lane!" I'm not quite there yet but but its certainly an ambition, livein' the life like Palmer and Deagan.
My snow photos arrived today as well, hardly any had come out but here they are anyway. (click for bigger pictures)
 


2nd January 2001
This morning I visited NoFear.com and talked to Smiff about the state of the MTB industry. In the afternoon  I went out on my bike for some downhill training. I really pushed it through some sections today and am starting to go pretty fast. Also we found a new line through the trees that reduces the angle of the corner before the whoop section enough for me to carry extra speed through. I also realized how long it has been since I jumped any of the jumps down there, not including jumping them once on Toms bike in the snow. I hadn't jumped anything since before christmas. I only realized this though after taking them head on a realizing how badly I'd landed.
Some weight lifting now, I think, then I'll watch Deep Impact (the Hollywood version!).
Here's a picture thats worth a look.

1st January 2001, Happy New Year?
I went out riding in the afternoon, totally on my own, just me verses the trail, a, surf like, spiritual experience and all things considered worth the effort. A good omen for the coming year as i rode harder and faster than i had done for a long time, even finding an interesting new line for one section (a complex and committed hip drop thingy). A few hours later Danny's little brother turned up with his Box 2 "Freeride" edition (mmmmm..... 3-4 inches of unpredictable, undampened travel and a saddle from DFS (buy now pay nothing ever!)!!). I had fun "goin' all MX", sitting down through corners and the like, though I got a little sea sick when pedaling and his forks were coming off. A generally good afternoon.
Did you know as a child of the western world you "consume" the same as 50 third world children (and that's just average kids like little old me, not fat kids with Kona Stabs just to go to the pie shop on).
 
  
Here are some T'shirt designs I came up with today.

31st December, New Years Eve
I went out on my bike this morning and everything was incredibly slippy and sketchy, some of the trails had been sledged and walked on for a few days and the snow had hardened into ice.
Most of the comments on my forums regarding my training on the MBUK site have regarded my bike being a hard tail and how this would hold me back. I decided to do a but of rough training today and went up onto a sloping field just above the trails. The field isn't very steep but is very lumpy with tractor tacks and clumps of crops jutting out from the snow. After a few runs I  was getting used to the sensation of being shaken to death.
A brief drizzle at lunch-time made  the hard, icy snow all the more treacherous and we were having lots of trouble pushing our bikes up let alone riding them down. I felt pretty sick after my fry-up so messed around doing trials, I did suprisingly well considering on most of the sections I couldn't even stand up. A few hilarious slow motion wipe outs and slide outs later ( you'd slip, the bike would go sideways, then you'd slide on your back, legs in the air until you hit something) I called it a day and returned home. I did half an hour of sprint training up the road (100+ up hill slushy meters, 24 seconds) and back down again (on the pavement, intersected by kirbs and nasty off-cambre driveways, slush and ice all the way) before coaxing my scanner back into life and preparing for my New Year celebrations.
 
Here's my phone and a picture of Rob Kitchen (he looks a bit like Harry Potter but who cares).

30th December
A good nights sleep but still more festive relatives to visit so no riding today and infact nothing that could even slightly be considered training.

29th December
Yesterdays antics and only 1 hour of tortured sleep ment I couldn't really move today at all. A disappointing shopping trip filled most of the morning  to my annoyance and in the afternoon I was off to my cousins house to meet lots of relatives and eat food. I think I'll count the hours spent on my cousins "Scalectrix" a training, keeping it pinned and pushing the limits. A definite mental improvement.

28th December
"Bloody Hell, Snow!" Is how I woke my entire family up this morning. After a quick Breakfast and a bit of a snow photo session (next years Xmas card in the bag me thinks) it was off to the trails with plastic bags, sledges and younger sibling hangers-on for a truly festive session. The snows talc properties made it a little slow at first but once there was a track sorted out it got pretty fast. Of course we built a jump for a bit of sledge air time and I busted a couple of big drops too. (see sled necks section). Unfortunately an ankle injury ("Is there a doctor in the house") put pay to my attempts to jump the doubles.
 Actual training took the form of riding some of the trails on Toms bike, snow riding rules but trying yesterdays "SX" line was a little difficult because I couldn't tell were the lumps were.
 Oh and I think I have race lifts sorted too.
 !!PICTURES SOON!!

27th December
First day back on the bike after Christmas and I've started thinking of the upcoming local races at Ludlow and Hopton wood. I went out in the afternoon and rode lots of DH instead of just jumping around. The conditions were a very cold and icy, that could explain the lack of anyone else at the trails. I work mostly on a bendy whoop section that leads onto a corner then a double strait after, I started nervously enough but was soon jumping into the berms and smothing the whoops.I've never had motocross "Arm Pump" before it's pretty cool.
 I finished my first, enthusiastic day with a big meal (mmmmmmmmmmmturky) and a little bit on the weights listening to the FatBoy on Radio1 (can i hear a HELL YEAH!!!).
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