About Me
- Ashleigh Moffatt
- It all happened to me when I jumped on the seat and became one with my bike. Nothing else around you matters at that time as you are in a world of your own. I share a passion for cycling and encourage you to join me on my journey in 2012, riding in colours of BMC. its going to be a very exciting year!!
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Thursday, 26 July 2012
Training Camp and KZN XCO Championships
Building up to KZN (Provincial) XCO Championships, we had a ‘life in motion’ training camp. The theme of the camp was ‘race prep’ which was great, as many athletes need to know what we doing not only the day before the race but the days building up to the race. And what better way to learn about this at a wonderful camp and then finishing off camp with KZN champs, where we could apply what we had learnt.
Camp was fantastic!!!! I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I’m positive that many that joined us on the camp will agree with me! We not only learnt about race prep and the importance of the sport we have chosen, but also finding ourselves and where our strengths and weaknesses lie.
We had the pleasure of having Allegra Wykerd come and chat to us about nutrition and how important it is in our daily lives, especially when needing the right amount energy for riding. As well as showing us the correct foods to eat to not only to sustain the energy needed when training and riding so much but to have a healthy and well balanced diet too. It was a awesome talk and a great deal of it was taking in, as it didn’t only inform us what we were doing was wrong or right but directed us in the right path, as well as it wasn’t just a nutritionist point of view but it came from an athlete’s perspective too.
We also had the privilege of meeting Robert F, who is a personal trainer. He came to show us the benefits of stretching and strength training in the base phase of one’s training/riding. This is very critical in any sport, especially stretching when it comes to cyclists as we tend to make muscles tight and therefore shortening them. It was very interesting to see when doing the exercises and stretches what parts of the body/muscles are stronger than others. A big thank you to Rob for taking your time and showings us some exercises and stretches.
And of course we had the famous Charles Roberts come and chat to us about the future and the present of cycling, especially in KZN. This was extremely interesting to see how much interest the province and nation has in cycling and to see that it is becoming a fast growing sport. As well as to see how much support we have (as riders) from outsiders means a lot when one wants to make cycling a career choice. It was great to see how well Pietermaritzburg is doing as a cycling hot spot, to see all the events that are coming to this little town. Not only do we get the advantage of riding some fantastic trails that are all relatively near each other (Cascades, Cedra, Howick, Karkloof, and Giba Gorge) and knowing they are world class areas but we having the most amazing talent in the KZN cycling, ranging from little’s to the top pros. I think we are very fortunate to have such wonderful facilities right on our door step.
Race Day!!
We were having such a great time at camp that before we knew it it was race day! Excitement filled the atmosphere as every athlete prepared for action and to see some tremendous racing.
This weekend at the KZN XCO Champs riders experienced a different system being introduced, where certain categories were combined with other categories making it more competitive as there are more riders out on the track at once. For example the age categories nippers, sprogs and sub-junior’s were put together (both male and female) making it more of a challenge to race and it pushes the rider as he/she compete against both genders and riders older or younger than them. I was quite intrigued to try out this new system as it involved my age group as well, as Youth, Junior, U23 and Elite women were put together, it also applied to the men. It was going to be some exciting racing both in the women’s race and men’s. I was keen to race with the other age groups as it will push not only me but other riders as well. It will prepare us for having bigger competition in the future and teaching us to fight it out to the end. As we not just racing against our own categories with little competition but racing against other riders we don’t normally race against. Therefore making sure we race/ride to the best of our ability as athletes, either making sure the younger riders don’t catch us or that we try and catch the riders ahead of us.
There was some great racing done by all the athletes and big congratulations to all that competed in the race! The new system really worked well and I thoroughly enjoyed and I’m sure the other athletes will agree. A big thank you to Nick Floros for making such a fantastic course for us to race on, it was a fun course will many switch backs both downhill and uphill. The perfect track for a 26inch bike (hint: the BMC Fourstroke 01J), it was a fast course where one could see their competitors throughout the entire race, which was pretty coolJ.
Well done to the riders!!!!
Xxx
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