XC Racer Blog Post

The Demon Drink and New Year's resolutions:

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BY: Louise Robinson

Published: 2nd January, 2013


I know the elite riders out there never touch a drop of alcohol but the majority of club riders seem to drink like fish - or is it just my friends?


 


At an overly alcoholic bike club Christmas do, discussion swung round to smoking, alcohol and bike racing. In a room of 80 mountain bikers (ranging from serious racers to casual Sunday cruisers) you could count the smokers on the fingers of one hand but nearly everyone in the room had a drink on the go. In fact, I was the wrong side of my weekly "units" by the time we finished dinner.  Now I am not proud of this (it is not big and it is not clever) but I may have got a bit drunk. In fact I may have got quite a bit drunk. The ride home was interesting (through the woods, not on the road "Your Honour") but a small altercation with the ground left me with a ferocious bruise all down my left side and a new dent in my pub bike.

 

So why am I appalled by the thought of lighting a cigarette but happily reach for a glass of wine, or three.  Would I be faster if I didn't drink? Or a more realistic question; would I be faster if I didn't drink quite so much? Hmmm dilemmas. Now obviously serious athletes know that alcohol consumption is detrimental to training (the 541 Olympic athletes in team GB can't all be wrong) but I'm not an Olympic athlete so what does it mean to me?  We all know that significant consumption of alcohol does reduce athletic performance (hands up, who's raced after a night on the beers and lived to regret it?) and regular consumption will put the pounds on so I should probably steer clear. Yeah right! However, it is New Year and rather than make commitments I will break by the end of the week I will take a little more flexible approach. Drink a bit less and make sure I have at least 4 non-alcoholic days a week.

 

After the carnage of the bike club Christmas do, it took me a week to recover. So in an attempt to be good and get in a bit of quality time with my other half we decided on a new approach to New Year's Eve this year. I think I have seen in midnight every New Year since I was 15 years old but I have never once seen sunrise on New Year's Day.  Time to put that right. My parents were already organised to have the kids overnight so Jason and I had a nice romantic meal in and were in bed early (stop sniggering, this is serious).  With alarms set for 5am we were on our bikes and riding before 6.  From home to the Devils Punchbowl in Hindhead is about 20 miles and we arrived at Gibbet Hill just after 7.30am after the long "Pride of the Valley climb" up to the top.  Given the weather over the Christmas break we were really lucky to get a dry, almost cloudless morning. We stopped just long enough to see the sunrise peak above the horizon and take in a little liquid refreshment (l said drink less, it was a very small bottle).  By the time we arrived home I was freezing (the temperature had fallen from 2 degrees  pre-dawn to -0.5 degrees as the sun came up) but feeling quite liberated. Riding at silly o'clock is one thing, doing it on New Year's morning with a glass of Champagne was something else.  Here's hoping 2013 continues in such a good vein.


 

Gibbet Hill, 7.30am 1st January 2013 - 272m


 

It was really a very small bottle


 

Happy New Year

 

Louise Robinson - Mum, Pharmacist and part time mountain biker
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Louise Robinson

Mum, Pharmacist and XCracer Team Rider

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