Training and more catchup...

So its been a while but I am finally managing to integrate back into my programme after the 3 months or so of doing nothing much. In hindsight, taking a break of that length was one of the best things that I could have done. While doing hillclimb intervals the other day, I was putting out more power at a lower heart-rate than I had ever done last year. I think my body really grew during that period and will allow me to reach to higher places this year and beyond.

Otherwise its just been a whack load of training and work. I'm still at school, just starting grade 11 and I take my school work pretty seriously. I'm aiming at straight A's next year, and I think it is possibly through the right balance of work and cycling. So many youngsters (I say that like an old wise grandfather!) get so caught up in sport at school and fail to realise the value of education. My plan is to go to varsity, get a degree in either accounting or engineering and then have a crack at becoming one of the world's best on the MTB circuit. Call me a crazy dreamer, but somebody once said that its better to aim at something and miss than aim at nothing and hit.

Didn't race this last weekend, I was up in the Drakensberg hiking (another hobby of mine!) but I'm racing the next four weekends in a row! Also finally saved up enough for X.O Gripshift, so thats going to be a cool upgrade. Will keep you posted!

Ciao,

And now... a word from the sponsors...

Athletes need organisations to sponsor them, and organisations need athletes to represent and promote their brand or cause. So a sponsorship is a business agreement between an individual and an athlete (I learnt all about his at the High Peformance camp, see post before!) Cycling is a very elitist sport in South Africa, mostly because the running costs of racing and training are incredibly high. Sponsors are the people who, in exchange for putting their name on you back, plus a little bit more, will help you cover some of the costs involved in cycling... I am very blessed to have a few awesome people behind me every step of the way. The main man is Johann Wykerd, a guy who has done so much behind the scenes for mountainbiking in South Africa. He is a beast on the bike himself, and is also an absolute bike guru. He is the original founder of the bike shop/club Maverick, but now is involved in other businesses. He and his wife Allegra are also the creators of Life in Motion, the name on our kit. Here is a bit more about them

Life-in-Motion is a non-profit business that Johann and Allegra Wykerd started. It's aim is to create a vehicle through which young people who acknowledge their God given right to be someone, can be afforded the opportunity to live life by design.

Life-in-Motion is a vehicle for anyone that has a deep desire to make a difference; one life at a time. In our community right now their are young people who are alive, but do not have a life. They are in this position not because of their own design, but because of the hand they were dealt. Some are orphans, some come from broken families and some just never had the opportunity to excel before, because of their curcumstances.

The business supports the followin initiatives:

• Grassroots Mountain Biking team
• Makaphutu children's village
• Lily of the Valley community projects and children's village

Life-in-Motion raises funds through:

• Selling of Allegra Wykerd's art... (www.allegra-art.com)
• Hosting of cycling events
• Project Sponsorships

See www.lifeinmotion.co.za 

Other co-sponsors are:

Pure Adventure Wear

PSG Konsult (a short term insurance company)

KZN High Peformance Mountain Bike Workshop

(we were having a wheelie competition of one of the nights, I'm useless at it!)

With all the excitement and hype around the XC nationals at Jonkershoek, I almost forgot to write a little about the High Performance Camp that was held on the 5th and 6th of January, at a stunning venue called African Enterprises high up in Pietermaritzburg mountains. The brains behind the whole idea were Johann and Allegra Wykerd, who are also the main people behind the sponsorship of our team (Life in Motion). 

The purpose of the workshop was help young (14-25) mountain bikers specifically from KZN to reach their true potential by having a number of professionals come in and share their vast knowledge in different areas. It was a large amount of information in quite a short time, but this camp was the 'test run' for a possible national high performance camp, and it was a big success. We had talks from sports psychologists, nutritionists, physiotherapists, doctors, lap experts, event managers etc. I learnt that there is so much more to riding a bike fast on some weekends a month, and there were a lot of areas that I could improve in to help create a much more rounded athlete. I particularly enjoyed a talk by Max Cluer, of Max Cluer Event Management about presenting yourself more professionally at events. 

 We also had a chance to ride the world cup course at Cascades, which was just down the road. All I can say is that it is very steep, and still needs a lot of world before it is world class, but most of the single-track is unbelievably sweet. All in all the weekend was a great one for learning, and a valuable eye-opener. The food was great, and it was awesome to bond with guys that ride bikes in you province... Well done Johann and Allegra!

XC Nationals #1 - Jonkershoek

(this is the start of the Junior men's XC race, I am on the right of the front four, next to teamate Travis Walker)

Shock and horror! (but in a good way!) Yesterday I absolutly suprised myself and everybody I knew. I ended up 2nd in Junior Men in my second national event, and my forth XC event ever! I still don't know where I found the legs to ride, but somehow it all just went right. On Friday, when I was doing my practice laps, I was battling in the singletrack and when I went for a fast lap I felt pretty sluggish. With no major expectations I lined up at the start of the Junior Men XC race, as a first year junior, hoping for a top 10. Junior is a category for 17 and 18 year old boys and it is often the most hotly contested race, fueled by huge amounts of ego and testosterone. The race kicked off at a blistering pace, and I was 5th into the first singletrack with my teammate Travis Walker following right behind. The long singletrack climb left no room for error, and a group of five formed on the next long, rocky jeeptrack climb. I managed to break away slightly with top athletes Adriaan Louw and Rourke Croeser and we finished the first lap with me trailing slightly behind. Then Rourke had a mechanical and I was into second spot and very shocked. Because of the lack of training, buy the end of the third lap I was cramping and so my last two lap times were much slower. I finished 2nd, and very happy. Travis finished 5th, and Sbu, the other guy in our team was 11th. 

Official Results

Junior (5 laps)
1 Adriaan Louw 2:02:44
2 James Reid 2:07:46
3 Ruan du Toit 2:11:29

Now I'm finally at home and I can get down to some proper training. I'm trying to make a habit of posting once every two weeks, so till then...

Filling in the gap...

So this is the very first post. The beginning. Its like the start of a race, which, for me, is always the worst part. There is always that guy who is going to be just a little faster or a little stronger than you, and you have nothing to work with. Oh well, such is life...

I've spent ages thinking about starting this blog, and there are a few things that you need to know as a keen follower of my progress. It's about cycling, and not much else, so if you don't like cycling, then congrats for reading this far. I basic idea is that I write race reports like all those other kids out there (you'd be suprised be how many actually do!) and the people who told me to make it (the higher powers) would read it and think that I was following orders well. But they're wrong. This is not just a blog. This is so much more than a basic transcript after every race, this is a inspirational life story of a light-hearted, fun loving teenage kid who enjoys life enough to write about it and hopefully inspire others. Ok, that was a bit deep, but I think you'll eventually get the general idea. 

It's all about having fun, and to those who don't ride a bike regularly, you have no idea of the world you are missing out on. What is cycling? Is it art? Is it life? is it a science? To me it is all three, and it can be a lot of things to all different people. This may sound far to deep, but when you are out on the road for 3 to 6 hours most days a week, you have a lot of time to think about these sorts of things. Cycling relases endorphines, (a chemical more commonly known as happy drugs) in your body, which can block pain and create a feeling of happiness. How awesome is that? If cycling leads to happiness, then I'll always be up for that 2 hour burn in the early hours of a weekday morning, even with the idea of a tough school day ahead.  

So lets come down off planet Phli0, and get back down to Earth. I am 16, turning 17 in August this year. I am not only an avid cyclist, but also a runner, multisporter and duathlete. The one thing that people think I should do is swim, but lets just get this straight. I don't swim. Instead I sink like a drowning cat. So triathlons are out of the question. I started competitive cycling at the age of 15, starting out of inspiration from my older brother, Luke Reid, who was quite a hotshot mountain biker in his day. I got into the road bike scene and found an awesome sponsor through House of Paint, and road with them for 2007 and 2008, ages 15 and 16. 

In my second year as a Youth, or U16, I was blessed with a number of awesome victories in races, including 3rd overall in the U16 National Tour at Midmar, as well as the overall winner of the Illovo Eston 40km race. The other major acheivement was a solo win the U16 age category of the Amashovashova classic, a race which is hotly contested by youngsters all over the country. I also managed to do quite well in the Eric van Enter Cycling festival held at Gariep Dam in July 2008, winning the team time trial, the road race, the hill climb and finishing up 3rd in the final crit. 2008 was an awesome year, and I was incredibly lucky to have no injuries or major problems. 

Then came November 2008. I had been a part of a international exchange programme at school, and I applied to go overseas for half a term. I ended up in an awsome school called Boxhill, an international school just south of London. I ended up being overseas for about 2 months, and I did absolutely no training or excercise of any kind (it was the middle of winter). I came back a little pork pie, but the experience made it completely worth it. It was also incredibly good to give my body a break from all the training, and not just a short two week break.

So that brings us to where I am now.... Just about to race my first race of 2009, the first XC National in Jonkershoek, Stellenbosch. I have done about 3 weeks of training, and I am with a new team after switching to racing MTB full time, called Life in Motion (more about them later). I am not at all confident about tomorrow's race (I am writing this in a book on the dining room table of the place I am staying!) but I will give it everything. I have a brand new Kona Kula Delux, and I am anxious to put it through it's paces. I am racing in the Junior Men's category, a strongly testosterone driven one that is brutal. Normally I would have done at least a month of solid long base training, but with being overseas and everything I had no time. Oh well, we'll see how it goes...