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

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.

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.

OPening my eyes to different ways to enjoy my bike.

www.ananichoola.co.uk

Well this week I've done plenty more cycling, although I was still ill all week. Still ill all, that doesn't look english. I was teaching cycling every day but one, when I was doing a photoshoot. We took the kids out in pouring rain for the first hour of their lesson, then took them back and made them hot chocolate for the second hour. It was really pleasant, and the kids were great, as all kids are in Kenley. On the way home from work on Friday I decided to go for a sprint up a small hill near me, so I got as much speed as I could out of the corner at the botton, stood up out of the saddle, pulled up on my pedal and my cleat slipped out launching me over the handle bars!! I lay in the road for a bit until an old lady turned the corner and I had to get up so that she didn't think I was dead. Injury pics coming soon.
I have a bruise the size of both my palms on my thigh and bloody elbows. I learnt something from this though. Like, yeah, it hurt, I'm not saying it didn't, but it reminded me that falling over and hurting yourself a bit is ok. Kids do it all the time, and I know that adults are heavier and have further to fall, but still, the fear of falling is not worth the reality. Falling over and cutting and bruising yourself is OK. Trust me.

The next day I entered the Women's National Track omnium at Herne Hill Velodrome. I didn't realise it was a Nationals. I just thought it was a local race because it was local. It was my first track race in ten years, and at one point I felt so nervous I thought that I was going to get sick. I didn't have a chance to warm up because I was late, so Simon let me use his rollers. I've never been on rollers before. They're 3 plastic cylinders that lie in a frame and spin under your wheels, a bit like a running machine. You have no support and just have to go faster to avoid falling off. Simon took most of my body weight, until I was given great advice "Look ahead and wiggle your fingers," it really works!!


There were about 20 women there, which was amazing and inspiring! Some of the young girls are already really fast at only 14. Our local Estelle Rogers was storming and as a fairly unknown name I think she took a lot of people by surprise. I did a few sprints and a scratch race, I also did the pursuit but it was so boring I forgot to start when the gun went and nearly fell asleep doing my4 lonely laps. The other races were awesome though and I've signed up to do another one in 3 weeks, to try and beat my last place position!

Sunday offered me more riding- this time I made it to the bicycle ballet rehersal on the right day. www.bicycleballet.co.uk. I met up with a bunch of performers in a tennis court in Woking- who were all delighfully friendly and welcoming. The volunteers included me, a retired gentlman, a Woking coucil member who was forced into it, and a curly haired girl called Marigold. We had to practice a routine that we sort-of made up together, and then put it to music. It was sweltering hot, and we all hand our clothes rolled up to almost nothing (I just wanted to show-off my bruise).
It was a geat 2 hours well-spent. I met a bunch of people who had a TOTALLY different outlook on cycling. They had a mix of bikes, just whatever they had at home and a range of cycling skills. I don't know what I was expecting, maybe people showing-off and doing tricks. But it was much calmer than that, it was about entertainment, interest and making shapes. Each performer had their chance to shine with solo part, but the best bit was watching them snake around in tight circles with perfect timing. It wasn't mindblowing, it was more mesmerising, a soft pleasure for your eyes.

We had to do the real thing in Woking town centre on Tuesday in front of lunching office workers. I got given a really cool green satin scarf that tied up with wire, making it stand back and looking like it was billowing. I loved it!! We got to watch the whole 20 minute performance, which had a vague storyline, before our moment of glory right at the end. It was lovely and really good fun, opening my eyes to a different way to enjoy my bicycle.

I also had a stall in Woking for the Tour Series, that I manned along with my brow-beaten mother. No-one else could work since it was on a weekday. We had a nice time though, and sold a few bits and pieces all the while getting opinions on female cycle clothing and hearing everyones stories. I must say that there were a few grumpy women cyclists in Woking. One woman nearly spat at me when I told her what we were about and said "I don't cycle with women!" Which I think is a great shame to completely rule other women out and dismiss them as worthwhile riders. I bet she's not even that good! We also got a couple of women to start having cycling lessons, becauase they've always wanted to but are nervous now that they are adults. It was wonderful to meet them and my fingers are crossed that they join all the other new cyclists who are being given the opportunity at the moment.

We watched the race, which was won by a Rapha Condor guy who lead the race before as well. It was a tight course, with fast corners and more than one crash. The crowd was huge and with the warm evening and excited atmosphere it was like being on holiday. I'm happy that Britain is starting to put on more events like this, it was clear that the public loved it and the work the Woking council put it was well worth it. The best part was oogling the lycra-clad cycling teams with their oiled legs. Me, my mum and 2 ladys in the cafe really appreciated the view from behind the interviewing stand, mmm!

Legs like a little boys

This has been a great riding week so far, I'm going back to my roots!
At Herne Hill on Saturday I had a good training ride, I stayed riding for about an hr and a half but packed it in before the races started. It was particularly exciting this week because Sam Hart, a London fixie rider, came down to take portrait photographs for Cooler Magazine. I also had a stall set up. The sun didn't exactly shine, but it was warm and pleasant enough. There were a good few girls riding, and a very friendly gang they were indeed.
And if I hadn't had enough, I got on my BMX and headed over to the rollapaluza photoshoot that evening. I raced against the legendary Estelle, who is immensley strong and probably unbeatable. I was well happy with my first ride where I did 23.98 seconds, albeit accompanied by yelping noises that I couldn't control. For those of you who aren't aware of Rollapaluza visit www.rollapaluza.com. They hold races on static bikes that are rigged up to a timer, 2 people race at a time, side by side. A crowd gathers around and scream at you to ride faster and harder until you think you are going to die. It is without doubt the most painful thing I have ever done. Its wicked! See the "making of" pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/creativeexposures/sets/72157617858194081/
At the back of the studio I got chatting to lots of cool people, who were all bike fanatics. We practised tricks on the fixed wheels and BMX's lying around, and I still have a beautiful bruise on my knee from it.

When playing badminton in the garden on Sunday it was pointed out to me that I have legs like a little boys, with their fading yellow bruises, giant new purple bruises and cuts and scratches.

For the rest of the week I have been working from home. Spending countless hours on the internet and making phonecalls. Which reminds me, I need to call the dentist. To keep me sane and to clear my head I went out for a BMX ride on Tuesday. I think that there is a bug (no, not swine flu) going around, and I barely had eaten anything when I went out. My mate Deke and I explored the local area, now that we can't go to our local skatepark because people, Deke included, keep getting attacked by a gang with knives. We found some halfpipes dotted around the place and a run down dirt-jump place in the woods. I decided to try and clear a small gap jump, it really was tiny, but the gap on the other side although it wasn't wide was very deep, you could almost call it a void. I reckon. So I amped myself up and gunned it down the start slope, pulling up massively in a panic. I landed on my back wheel, which rolled out from beneath me and I dropped cartoon-style onto my bum and coxix. I nearly cried, but was too winded to get the tears out. After that, combined with not having eaten, I got very shakey and we decided to call it a day and head to Deke's mums house, who brought us tea, buscuits, sweets and breadpudding.

I headed to Crystal Palace in the evening to watch my big bro and my Dad race. I also wanted to talk the girls there into doing the Smithfield Nocturne. Rebecca Charlton and I came to a "if you will, I will" arrangement, and have managed to convice a few others to give it a go. It will be my first race in 8 years! I should get some training in, and stop just messing around trying to do tricks.

Although Thursday night is BMX night at Skaterham, so I suppose I'll have to start training another day.

Fame at last

I had a great day with a film crew in Hyde Park last week. I was asked by Footstep Productions to come along and talk about cycling in London and our clothing line. I then gave a lesson to the presenter, a lovely, smiley 23 year old actress call Jing. She was nervous at first as she hasn't ridden a bike since she was 10, but after the first few minutes we couldn't get her off and had to keep calling her back for filming.
I will be part of a 5 minute clip in a TV series called "London Files" that will be shown to teenagers in Germany!!

I will post the clip once it's edited, to allow everyone to laugh at my awkwardness infront of a camera!

BikeHood

I met with the Kingston BikeHooders yesterday and the designs are coming along amazingly! The girls have been speaking to their yeargroup to decide on the best colour scheme. They have shown great imagination, and hopefully we wont have to compromise on the design too much due to budget constraints.

Today the girls will be asking for the opinion of everyone in their schools to ensure the most popular design gets produced.

Whichever one it is, I can guarantee that it will look really cool and have features that make it great for cycling in. Watch this space...