Being Involved

Some of you may know that I've been really ill. Like, proper ill. I'm only just starting to leave the house again after a few weeks stuck indoors, in hospital, in an ambulance, in the operating theatre. It's been so bad, I never thought it would happen to someone like me, I thought illnesses happened to lazy or unhealthy people, I thought bad things happened to mean and unfriendly people. It was the most terrifying and distressing time of my life (except the time I got dragged out to sea into huge waves, with no board and got rescued, that was pretty shit too). I now get nightmares about pain and am half convinced/paranoid that I'm going to die in my sleep!

But it was my Mum and my team mates that got me through it. Now, as the latest medication begins to kick in and I realise I can say goodbye to the racing season, I can look back with clarity and know that ultimately I'm still one of the lucky ones. Every week my team mates would come and visit me, and every day they asked how I was doing. It gets pretty annoying when you speak to someone and all they do is moan about how ill they are, but they still asked everyday, and gave me the confidence I needed to talk about it and moan about it everyday. They explored solutions and gave me sympathy, and didn't stop asking.

And I still asked about them, and whenever I had a good day I'd go watch them race, or even train! My Mum said something cringey, she said "at least you can be involved." I thought that was crap. But it's totally true. I watched and supported and talked to them, and have been proud of them. With the Tour Series upon us I have become Pit-Girl (which is hilarious, as I'm super scatty and can't fix a bike) and it has allowed me to be part of everything that's going on. I love cycling, specifically I love women's cycling, but whatever the hobby is, I reckon the people who can stay involved in some way or other, and the people with good friends, are the people that can stay the happiest during shit times.

So go get a hobby before it's too late!! haha

everything turns out fine, always

I had a really, really important meeting. It was with Evans cycles, to show them my products and see if they'd like to stock them. I was pretty nervous and had spent the day before preparing. When the time came I had memorised the 1.5 mile route and hopped on the train with my fabric bike.

I got off the train and rode towards the A23, I knew I had to head south and turn left at the first round about. Easy. But south and the first round about was towards brighton, on the M23!! I freaked out at the exit of the round about, that joined the motorway and pedalled as hard as I could in the outside lane, in my high heels, to avoid getting hit by cars peeling off at 60mph. I found a workman and got some directions of him, to go South I had to go North first.

I got terribly lost. 

I didn't have a phone, as I generally don't. So I asked someone. I said "I'm lost" he said "where are you trying to go" I said "south." I realised that in memorising the really simple route from the station that I hadn't bothered to remember the address! I ended up in a car showroom, and they googled "evans head office" for me. "do you want their number?" They asked, knowing that by then I was already 20 minutes late "...I don't have a phone" I mumbled. They were pretty weirded out by me, but let me use their phone to leave a voice message to say I was 5 minutes away.

Clutching my newly printed map, I got back onto the A23, under Gatwick terminal and just before I got to that first round about my crank fell off!!! I was cycling down a speedy duel carriage way, with no pavement to my side, and was suddenly grateful that I had clips and straps. This allowed me to pull up and push down using just my right foot, and destroying the gorgeous patent leather on the toes of my shoes. I pulled up and pushed down as fast as my right leg would allow me! 

I arrived, 40 minutes late, sweating like a beast, scuffed shoes and holding a screwed up map and a crank complete with pedal.

It turns out the dude thought the meeting was at 3, not 2.

So it kinda proved my point. Every thing is fine in the end.

Plus, they liked my stuff! See AnaNichoola soon in Evans.....

A video of meeeee!

http://www.eta.co.uk/node/8180

I'm tired, but it's my own fault

I'm getting run down, I have a cold now, because I'm tired, but everything is too fun! On Thurs we went to a Red Bull minidrome fixed magazine party, the red bull building in london is insane!! Must be an amazing place to work. There were free drinks and I brought my hula hoop, we danced and played with some old and new friends, and we fell about laughing when we went to the kebabie and there was a sink in front of the counter.

Work is snowing me under, blogging is fun but it's just putting off all the work i'll have to do later. With my first production run in the country and shops I'm really having to learn fast, recover my mistakes quickly and keep planning for the future. But I'm getting fat and do need to ride my bike more, so I committed to Rollapaluza's Pity the Fool on Friday night. I was riding the mixed doubles with Tom Pande, he's really quick, I told my boyfriend he could come along and support me instead! haha! Me and Tom won last year and we hoped to win again. We got into the finals against my teamie Wiesia and Rhys. Wie and I said it didn't matter who won because at least it was a MBG victory, but that's not true, we both wanted to win! It was pretty close, we did a pretty shit change over, which meant that the other 2 confidently won it. It's true though, before the race I wanted to win and I tried so bloody hard, but afterwards I was pretty stoked it was Wie and not someone else.

We were in fancy dress, 80's TV.

Got back at 3am and had a lie in, but by midday I was ready to go again. I met my lovely friend David for lunch and learnt lots of things about the world, because he is really clever. I went home with some flowers with glitter on for mothers day (real flowers, with glitter on!!!!) And got to work. Cousin Alex came over and talked at me whilst I did colouring in. I loved it.

Then it was Sunday, I woke up, did some work and then met the boys for an XC ride. 6 hours later it was dark, we'd ridden from West Doking up and over Ranmore, holmbury, Pitch and Leith Hill and back again. We did jumps and drops, burms and sprints, coffee and videos. It is never a chore riding with those guys, they know all the best trails and even make the boring ones fun. We were still riding as the sun was setting, we got lost and it started raining. I was well and truly shitted by the time we got back to the car. Wen't to sleep tired but happy.

Details of a race day.

I was stupidly nervous. I hadn't ridden the course yet and had only spent an hour on my brand new bike. It wasn't fear of crashing, it was fear of doing badly, my sponsors are chilled, they understand that I'm gaining experience, but I was putting pressure on myself. I WANT to be good, and now with a good bike I have no excuses. This race was the race that, to me, would let me know where to aim this season, it was to realistically show my ability, and that bareness left me scared.

I got to Aston at about 0830 and walked the course. I met the guys from Aztec who immediately made me feel welcome and looked after. They checked my bike and changed the spring and even helped me with the push-up!!

THE COURSE

The black run at Aston Hill is described as the most technical descent in the south east, I'd looked at YouTube vids but wasn't really sure what to expect. It started off long, straight and pedally, that pleased me because I know I've got a good sprint. There's some bomb holes that if you hit too fast and don't suck it up you get air and that's slower. After a bit of flat single track it suddenly becomes very rooty and very steep. I might use the wrong words in my descriptions here as I don't know all the terms, so bear with me! The steepness and rooty ness and tightness of the turns made it hard, it wasn't scary as such. Any ok rider could get down it, but getting down it fast was a trick to my mind, I didn't know how to or what to do. I was right over the back trying to lean hard into a corner and get traction, but at the same time wanting to unweight to allow the bike to flow over the massive roots. Some of the drops were about a foot and so tricky to understand how to do that fast on a tight turn. The course finished with a 3 foot drop with a steep landing, it was easy and fun to hit with a bit of speed, and then a final sprint to the line.

On my third attempt of the steep section I felt myself relax and was able to think about what I was doing and how to do it best. I wish I'd had more practice though, because it takes a long time to learn a 2 minute course and I wasn't really ever sure of what was coming next.

THE RACE

The 7 girls waited in queue together after introducing themselves, and we were chatting and sharing past expereinces until our go. 3 beeps and a couple of metres to clip in and then I went through the laser that started my timing. I went balls out. Half way through the flat section I had to sit down, I was so tired already! I went as hard as I could, I could hear my panting in my helmet, but could still hear people cheering for me and my hot pants! (such a show-off!). My arms, chest, thighs and calves burned before I finished, down hilling is going to take a lot of strength, fitness and core training. After the first run I was in second. I was so happy!

I hoped to maintain my position, I knew that first place was miles ahead and that third was only a second behind. Your fastest run counts, so I had to go faster or hope that third didn't go faster. Unfortunately for me I wen't the same speed and third place went 3 seconds faster to take second! Chapeau, she gave me a hug and we all walked back up.

I had a wicked time, my teamies the MuleBar Girls came to support me and we did a photoshoot after. It was lotsa giggles, lotsa fun and good to be out on a new bike, pushing my body and my knowledge with a bunch of my mates.

injuries and improvement

sitting here with an ice pack on my grotesquely swollen knee i'm thinking seriously about my goals this year and the best way to axhieve it.
i'm focusing on track and downhill. some people have suggested thats a bizarre combination, but to someone like me, with an annoyingly fast moving brain that never chills out, it makes perfect sense. cycling for me is not a chance to be left with my thoughts whilst working out my body. in fact, being left with my thoughts pisses me off, i think about all the things i wanna do and suddenly the frustration and boredom of being miles away from home and unable to get on with it makes me cross, as anyone who has ever been on a long ride with me can confirm! my bike is a tool to distract me, i want to only be able to think about the task at hand, i love the repetition of practicing stuff, i love relying only on my instincts and i love the mind games of a race. track and dh are the perfect choices.

my goals- track is fairly simple, i have nothing to prove, i want to do the team sprint nationals in oct and not embarrass myself. the thrice-weekly sessions at herne hill with my friends should allow for that, without much extra thought. but dh, thats a different matter.

i am soo honoured to be sponsored a bike from mongoose this season. the only other mongoose rider in the uk is the almighty hailed chris akrigg, so i feel rather awed. i had to pass the test though, mongoose want to sponsor cool riders, that bit was ok, so long as you dont get to know me too well i'm pretty cool! then my ride at the red bull mini drome impressed the right guy, and then i had to promise results. and that's the problem!! i've done 3 local dh races, have beaten 6 girls and been beaten by one. i looked at the girl who beat me on facebook, her complete saturation of photos of her doing freeriding stuff gave me confidence. i was only a second. 5 off her.
but really, i know this doesnt mean much (not that im suggesting facebook lies) but i have no idea how good i'm going to be, all i know is that i WANT to be good! i've finally ot the proper equipment, now all i need is experience. i was sensible and told the sponsors that i might do one of the national round near the end, but this season is for me to get good, to learn, to improve.

however, business is taking off, ana nichoola now has a number of stockists, i have a couple of amazing, technical manufacturers, i'm sponsoring riders and pushing the brand. i want the best garments on the market, i want to be stocked by every cool shop in the uk, and all that testing and researching takes time. this leaves me less time to get good.

so the goal is to improve massively with every ride i go on. no staying at a level, and definitely no going backwards. but that leads to injuries. 3 weeks and 3 injuries, last week was a minor gouge to my shin, but it may leave a scar and my looks are important to me too!!

todays injury- i was practicing a gap jump. they come up a lot in dh, and mostly,  at least at the races ive been to, the girls take the chicken run. if i can confidently get mis sized gaps nailed i'll be at a quick advantage. after 5 attempts on a small gap, that was rollable if you didnt want to get air, the ever supportive ed offered to lie underneath and film me. i have NEVER EVER been so flattered by a proposition from a guy!!

the thought process- i dont want to land on his lovely face. i mustnt press my brakes. i wont cover them! wait! i gotta cover them to keep in control of my landing. ok covered. woah! were you about to press them there anna? you were weren't you! it ok, im in the air, i'll quickly look down and check i've missed his face. SHIT, FUCK, CRAP THAT HURTS!!!

i'm noisy when i hurt, no dignity, just howling!

if ed was ugly i probably wouldnt have crashed.

i had a mule bar gel for medicine to get me back to the car.

now here i am, happy to have cleared a nice little gap, with video evidence. but with my weeks riding plans scuppered. the swelling is very bad, i know because of louise that its not broken, but i still cant walk. i have a perfect circle impression of my brake lever screw in my knee. it makes me question the most efficient way to fast, freeride improvement.....

it makes me sad because i want to be good and i wanna ride this week.

More Stuff....

Had the best 3 days ever this week riding Elite Rollers for the Madison Ice Bike show. I rode enough for my legs to be burning by the last day, and yes, I did crash a couple of times, in front of the crowd, but only when I was showing off! I can't remember the last time I felt so relaxed and happy, no responsibilities other than to ride my bike, lots of friendly people and great food, the evening parties were immense and in all I was very sad to leave.

I arrived with my bike and two heavy bags, it was hard work on the train, but manageable. In the evenings there was a casino with fake money, at random points there would be a chance to win a prize, e.g. by getting 21 points on your cards. Out of 6 prizes to be won over 2 nights I won 4!!! I LOVE gambling! Some bloke was moaning that it was a fix, but the evidence was right there, I got the jack and the ace. I gave away 2 bottles of wine (as booze was free there) but kept the giant tub of jelly beans and box of champange. And then over to the karaoke, where we sang for about 5 hours!
At this point I just want to break away from my story about stuff and quickly talk about Katie, a super-loud, super-friendly Dutch girl from Sustrans. She introduced me to the other Katie and for the first time ever at a trade show I found myself partying with a group of young, fun girls. It was wicked! I have a feeling that Madison are going to hire Katie to come to every event they do to break the ice and make sure that everyone becomes friends and has a good time.

So, during the day I was told that some of my personal kit was the wrong brand for a madison show. I then got given a pair of beautiful Shimano shoes, pedals and cleats. Pearl Izumi then complimented that with a multi pack of socks, and then threw in a couple of jerseys ( I was well chuffed, Pearl Izumi are a gorgeous brand!) and San Marco dropped by to give me some hats and a saddle. Whilst I am slightly gloating here, the point of aquiring all this stuff leads me to a journey from hell....

leaving the hotel on the last day the receptionist felt so sorry for me so loaded up that she went running to find me an old, zippy suit bag, which if I didn't have I wouldn't have managed what I did. The taxi driver laughed at me as I tried to get in the car. And this was without my bike! When the dude I was working for dropped me at the station in the evening I took my bike out of the back seat and stood there whilst he loaded me up like a mule (haha, geddit) and finally put the money for my ticket between my teeth. A lovely man helped me onto the train, he used to race at Eastway as a boy, we chatted until he asked me if I was still at school...after which I went into a sulk.

Unfortunately he got off before me, and after that no-one else bothered to give me a hand. I got off at Willesdon Jct, somehow got up the stairs, only to find the train line to Clapham was closed. I went back down the stairs, and by now I was grunting and snotting from strain. I was told to get the train to Paddington and the District line to Victoria even though my ticket didn't allow me through London. Back on the train I saw it went to Waterloo so I thought that would be easiest. To avoid blocking th doors I sat on the seats with my bike next to me, taking up 4 spaces. Suddenly we were in central London and it was 7pm and proper crowded. Going through Oxford Circus I thought I was going to get lynched, I kep my blushing face down and held my breath. At Waterloo I carried my bike up the escalators to the gates. The man looked incredulous at me "you know you'r not allowed your bike on this line love?" I didn't say anything, I was panting too hard, and in silence he just opened the gate and let me through.

it was ok then getting to East Croydon, where I banked on getting a taxi to my studio a 10 minute walk away, but, the taxi driver wouldn't take me as it was too close!!!! I was furious, and I regret not telling him what I thought of him. I dropped my stuff and fell over about 5 times on that 10 minute walk. The journey took over 3 hours and nearly killed me, and in hindsight, I feel like I worked really hard to get that stuff, and I deserve it. Humph.

too much stuff

Another weekend, another adventure.
I was preparing to go to Bristol and Bath with the AnaNichoola gloves to show to some of the cool bike shops there. I was combining the trip with a DH race, and aware that on Monday evening I'd have to be packed for a 3 day trip to Milton Keynes where I have a job promoting rollers by riding them. I've never ridden rollers. With a bit of forward thinking I got my boyf to fix up my track bike on Friday night (it's been in pieces since the mini drome) so I could have a quick practice/learn. But a load of things went wrong, and the bike wouldn't work and the series of events led to me sitting on the floor crying because I have too much stuff for 5 days worth of thinking and most of it doesn't work, or I can't do it, and it was a bit overwhelming. And I had a cold. And I'm just a bit of a cry baby. We decided that the track bike was now "good enough" but still a bit fucked, I guess I must have crashed it harder than I thought...
Apparently at 6 am the alarm went off. I disagree. So at 8am there was a rushed panic to the car. It actually turned out to be a fantastic day, meeting the people running independent bike shops and having great success with the gloves. Fingers crossed for 5 new stockists! TBA. As I had my meetings Ed wandered around the towns patiently, we had packed lunch ready in the car (cheese and pickle rolls) and finally ended up the day in the Mud Dock bike cafe. As it got dark next to the river we had a beer and a wine, it's a really, really great place and I recommend anyone to go there.

We met our hosts for the night, my team mate Wiesia's best friends. I'd never met them, but they let us stay in exchange for a dinner of carbonara and Jamaca cake and custard for desert. It was nice to meet some new, lovely people and chill out somewhere different.

The next day was down hill day. I had google searched "down hill near bristol" and was delighted with the result. The Black Canon Collective is one of the best things I have discovered recently, it's like a club for people who want to ride in Frome. The guy that runs it was really welcoming and ensured that we found it ok and the kids that populate it are friendly, chipping in to help mark out their local course and making sure that no litter was left around. You get given a timing watch and time yourself on the run, using honesty to write down your time. I dragged my boyf into racing, he doesn't own a mountain bike (well, he does now, he just bought on on ebay) and I was quite upset that he was hot on my heels. I feel really lucky to date a bloke who is proud when I beat him in a male dominated event, and instead of just leaving me to it, he gets stuck in and gets involved. There aren't many guys like that. And he's really good looking, so it's a double bonus. We both beat a few people, there were no girls there which was a shame. On my final run I crashed on some roots and crushed my fingers under my body armour. I stood up and felt the familiar heat-wave of pain flow through me, I thought they were broken. But then I remembered being laughed at by Louise when I thought that before. They are just bruised, but bruised black and gooooood.

So now it's monday night, I have black fingers and instead of recording my life I really should go and learn how to ride rollers in time for tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!

Racing up a hill then down a hill

Packing the car for the weekend was tricky, I needed my cross bike, skinsuit, different pedals, my Mums shoes, my boyfriends wheels, warm clothes, MTB shoes, SPD pedals, full face, body armour, goggles, make-up, baggy DH kit, track pump, pedal spanner, wallet, car key, sat nav, phone, 3 postcodes....I see now it'd have been a lot easier if i wrote this list BEFORE I left. I picked up the wheels from Ed's, which he horribly hadn't told me were punctured. But I gave myself 3 1/2 hours to do a 2 hour journey to the Hill Chasers in Bristol. It wasn't enough.

Sat Nav nearly blew a fit in the tight town centre, my sponsor Jimmy was on loudspeaker on my phone trying to give directions from Salisbury.I eventually parked up, abandoned ship and ran to registration with 10 minutes to spare until the riders briefing. I was panicing as my bike wasn't ready and I had no time, so Red Bull very kindly gave me 2 hot guys to serve me!! Once I stopped staring at them I gave them their instructions
"here's my car key, my car is grey and parked up the hill on a road called Elm...something, which is off another road off the one way system. Open the car get the bike, the spare wheels, helmet, shoes, the big bag of stuff that are in the boot and the pedals, inner tube and spanner that are in the drivers door pocket."
Nearly 45 minutes later they returned, sweating heavily (mmm) dumping my stuff and swearing that they would no way help me bring it back up!
I missed practice run.
I changed the pedals and pumped up the tyres, but had no time to put on the road wheels as I meant mending a puncture. Knobblies it was. Fuck it, I was racing Danny Mackaskill on his trials bike!

We were the last to race, Danny trashed me, with two nuts pedals turns from the start and holding the same distance all the way up. Once at the top of the hill, and I was knocked out of the race he said "I hate competitions, I don't enjoy this at all" "thanks" I said "I love competitions, I'd have loved to go through and carry on racing, so really, you should have let me win and then we'd both be happy."

It was very exciting though, because my two very cool freinds from London, Ben and Claire, were there. Ben the Superior (the lesser known son of Adam as appointed by Aslan) knocked out the urban hill climb champion and made it through to 3rd place!

Red Bull put on a lovely spread, fruit salad and free drinks for the riders. No drinking for me though, I had to get to Triscombe. But I'd forgotten to take downt the address that was in a faecbook message. A helpful stranger let me use his internet phone to access it, but it wouldn't let me login from a strange location. My parents were out, so I couldn't call them. Some lateral thinking was needed. Suddenly I spotted Helpful Jamie, a boy I met on a surf trip. "Call my brother" he said "he's in the hotel room on a laptop" "Hi Ben, I'm Anna, Helpful Jamies friend, can you help me please" we painstakingly talked trhough all the security questions and I ended up with the address. They really are a helpful family.

but the drama wasn't over yet. As I sat in traffic, typing the address into Sat Nav, not paying attention to the crawling cars around me, BANG, I slammed into the car in front. We jumped out "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry" "what are you doing!??! Did you fall asleep??" No damage done. Thank god.

Idrove for about an hour and a half, it was nearly midnight, I was 15 minutes away, then sat nav went mad again. It can't cope with cities, or quiet roads. I drove down some pitch black lanes, no sat nav and no phone signal and a newly acquired fear of grizzly bears. My car also ahs a habit of breaking down. I was getting quite frightened. I knocked at a small house that still had it's lights on, a young couple came out and gave me directions as best they could. I ended up in a village, where i suddenly had some signal, I made a quick phone call to John, got directions and my phone died. If i didn't make it now, I never would.

At nearly one am I arrived at my sleeping place. Everything is always ok, I have learnt this to be true, so I really should stop getting into such a flap when things go wrong.

Day 2. The descent.

I got lent a downhill bike. A vary good Intense 951. I no bike genius, but I do know that when a bike is set up for a 6ft, 14stone man, and the suspension and saddle hiehgt can't be adjusted, that I'm in trouble. I've never ridden a DH bike before, so I was feeling rather unsteady. Out of curiosity I sat on the handle bars, the shock moved down by about an inch.

However, I had a bike I had an entry, I was happy with that. I did 5 practice runs, and that really helped. I'd prefer to get to a DH race and practice the day before in future though. I felt slow and coulnd't get the flow going, a French racer (placed 12th in French rankings I have since found out) was my only competition. Some other girls who had signed on, and even turned up, didn;t race, which I thought was a big shame when the women's scene needs so much support. Ah well, at least I'd podium!

In fact, I won, beating marjorie by 3 seconds. I was really pleased, I also beat about 20 men. But I wasn't satisfied, I want a bike that fits and is adjusted to me, and I want to get midfield in the men at a local race. I want to know how good I can be, and without the right equipment I'll never know.