Age is Just a Number

Its been a crazy end to 2014 thats for sure!

A not so perfect run into the 2014 World Masters Track Champs included an infection that took two months to diagnose and IV antibiotics to fix, buying a house in the Canberra region, putting our house in Kiewa on the market and Kev starting up the new Flex Out Physiotherapy in Canberra!

I thought I was never going to find the form that I took into the Australian Masters Track Champs, but a couple of weeks out things were starting to look good. The confidence that Daryl gave me also helped. In Manchester, I won a silver in the 500mTT with my fastest time I'd done in years. Janelle Smith and I teamed up for the Women's Team Sprint and we were confident we could get a good time and place. We qualified third fastest behind two UK teams but unfortunately we were relegated due to an illegal change  where Janelle's wheel overlapped mine as I was swinging up (literally only millimeters in it). This meant we were out of the finals and denied a medal. I also won a silver in the Sprint, after qualifying fastest in the flying 200m. I had a good run through the rounds, but just couldn't quite fire for the gold medal ride off. A great meet and few more lessons learnt!

When we got home from the UK, it was time to go into single mum mode, as Kev was commuting weekly to Canberra for work. In the lead up to Christmas 2014, I completed my Level One coaching course, we sold our Kiewa house, moved out, Sebastian finished school, I coached the Under 12 Div 2 school boys team to the grand final (we were runners up and I had never coached basketball before!), we changed cycling clubs and Sebastian and I moved up to Canberra.  I managed to get a few training sessions in somewhere, but was relieved to finally get to our new home, unpack and start working on some consistent training with the ANU Cycling Club crew.

I was also very honoured to not only be nominated but also be awarded the 2014 Cycling Australia Women Masters Track Cyclist of the Year again! I was in good company.The awards were held in Melbourne and as Kev was in Canberra, I decided to take Sebastian.We dressed up and it was great to catch up with so many fellow cyclists.  It was a very exciting night for a ten year old especially when you get to meet Cadel Evans and Simon Gerrans and hold the Oppie medallion! The Tour de France Australian Team of the Century was announced - such cycling royalty! A special thanks to Daryl Perkins for all his encouragement and words of wisdom and my partner in crime Kevin Laws for...everything.  Also thanks to Apres Velo, Flex Out Physio, Champion Systems, Rydges Bell City Preston, and Auto Brokers Australia for their support to help me achieve what I did in 2014.

Last week Sebastian and I attended the Sydney Xmas Carnivals. With five days of racing in a row for me (and four for Sebastian) I decided to use this for some training and strength. The carnivals were held at Dunc Grey velodrome (250m indoor wood), Tempe (333m banked outdoor), Hurstville (400m flat track with no straights), Lidcombe (440m outdoor and slighty banked but newly resurfaced) and then back at the Dunc for the last day.  If the weather was inclement there was always a backup to go indoors! There were 2 grades of women everyday and the racing was good quality with a mix of enduros and sprinters! There was an overall points system for the five days of racing and also a Madison points series. Races included a mix of endurance, wheelraces, and sprints so something for everyone! The children's races were on from 3pm every day so I was there with Sebastian first then I would race in the evenings. Sebastian rode awesome and I was so proud of him he never gave up! I certainly gained a lot from riding the whole series - I think I was getting smarter as I got more fatigued! I ended up getting 3rd overall in the series points which meant some cool prizes, but I think the training and racing was invaluable! I would highly recommend it to everyone!

2015 looks like being a promising year of opportunity and reaching new heights. A few days ago it was announced that I was selected for the ACT Elite Track team! Its been a few years since I have raced at Elite Nationals but I am quite honoured and very excited to be going back down to Melbourne in a few weeks to represent the ACT as a sprinter. I will be giving it a good hard crack!



You see, age really is just a number!