As most of you will have noticed, I’ve been rather quiet on
the race/blog front recently. In typical me fashion, I got injured. Again! But
this update is going to be a wee bit different to anything I have done in the
past. It is going to be a review of the last year, relating to work, racing,
life, and rediscovering my passions. I apologise in advance if any of you fall
asleep while reading this, I have discovered that putting my thoughts on paper
(or in this case online document) is a valuable tool to remind myself of
lessons learnt through either success or failure, and ensure I keep moving forward.
As someone far wiser than me once said, “don’t bury your failures, let them
inspire you!”
One year ago (today) I made my first step into the corporate
world with a full-time job as an auditor at Moore Stephens Markhams. While I
can’t say I 100% enjoy the corporate world lifestyle of sitting at a desk and
wearing a suit, the people, clients and opportunities have made the year fly by
rather fast, almost too fast! The only major negative (or is it a positive?) is
the amount of cake that is always floating around! I’m sure my scales have
suddenly decided to lose their accuracy… My only regret in the lead up to this
moment is not taking my studies at university more seriously. A combination of
a lack of dedication towards study, and a love of going out kayaking or biking
every day resulted in poor grades, more resits than I would like to admit, and
a very delayed introduction to the real world. I am however very grateful for
the support from my parents and their push to make me save hard over the years
as I have managed to get through my many years at university with no student
loan.
Now to the part you all actually came for, racing and the
reason why I haven’t been riding my bike for over 6 months. But before I get
straight to the point, I’ll go through a quick overview of my season and cover
off a couple of events I didn’t/couldn’t bring myself to actually write about.
Timaru 10 Hour – 4th
November 2017
Timaru can be summed up in 3 simple letters, DNF. Not the
greatest way to start off a season but I felt like I learnt a lot from that
race that would be beneficial later in the season. I finished off the report
saying I would be back at the event this year. Well that didn’t quite happen,
maybe next year! (for those that haven’t seen the report yet here is the link: http://jordan-pearson.blogspot.com/2017/11/timaru-10-hour-2017.html
)
Concilio 679 – 28th
January 2018
After a big summer block of training with plenty of pb’s I
was feeling pretty confident going into this event. However big “diesel engine”
training kilometres and short, top end power races don’t quite mix and I limped
home in 7th place. I mentioned in the post that I saw the value in
getting a dropper post. Well I haven’t quite pulled the trigger on that yet but
it may happen in the coming months. ( http://jordan-pearson.blogspot.com/2018/01/concilio-679.html
)
South Island Champs –
4th February 2018
After the previous weekend realising I wasn’t quite as quick
as I thought, I had greatly decreased my expectations for this race. While I
knew the course well due to living just down the road, I also knew that I
didn’t have the legs to race as an elite so I went in the age group category. At
the end of the day I slipped home with a 3rd place but gained a huge
boost in confidence thanks to the data I got out of it, my legs had finally
come alive! ( http://jordan-pearson.blogspot.com/2018/02/south-island-champs.html
)
Redzone 6 – 11th
February
While I didn’t go into this event fresh (3rd week
of racing, and the day prior I was doing safety all day for the Coast to
Coast), I knew my training was more specific for this style of race. However,
as I was rather vocal about in my report, this race did not appeal at all.
Racing on slippery footpaths with missing manhole covers and overgrown trees
made for a very boring but dangerous course with plenty of big crashes
occurring. After 6 hours of racing only 42 seconds separated 1st
place and 3rd. Will I be back at the next one? Definitely not. This
race was brutal on my bike with the patches of remaining liquefaction from the
February 2011 earthquake ensuring everything metal on my bike was in a terrible
state. While I didn’t mention it at the time, I aggravated an old wrist injury,
which while I thought it would be manageable for the rest of the season, I
already had a plan in place to strengthen it over the winter. ( http://jordan-pearson.blogspot.com/2018/02/red-zone-6.html
)
SCMBC 4x2 – 17th
February
This was the beginning of the realisation that my season may
end early once again due to my wrist. While I lined up with my wrist brace on,
it only took a couple of laps to realise I really wasn’t on form to push with
my wrist making it hard to stay holding onto the handlebars. I persevered for 2
hours but ultimately pulled the pin. ( http://jordan-pearson.blogspot.com/2018/02/scmbc-4x2.html
)
Naseby 12hr – 7th
April
After missing out on this event last year due to a wrist
injury, I was determined to get to compete this year. Training had been
non-existent since 4x2 as I nursed my wrist but I was confident that I would be
able to manage it for the race. For those who haven’t competed at Naseby before
the race begins with a Le-mans start resulting in a spectacle of lycra and
carbon soled bike shoes trying to run as quickly as they can up a hill to their
waiting bikes. Long story short, I had a terrible start (running really isn’t
my thing, especially with bike shoes on!), managed to ride myself up through
the field to 4th place, then at the 4 hour mark my hip decided to
suddenly cause me issues. I pushed on for 2 more laps trying to adjust my
cadence and seat position to see if things would get better but they didn’t. Once
again another DNF.
Around Brunner Enduro
- 28th April
After a mountain bike season plagued with DNF’s and mediocre
results, I decided it was time to hit the road and see whether a personal goal
of mine would be possible. While enduro is the new buzz word in mountain
biking, in these circumstances it just meant 2 laps of Lake Brunner, or 260km
of road biking. I knew I was capable of the distance as I had achieved it
several times before, but what I didn’t factor in was the conditioning required
to continuously pedal for that distance. Mountain bike conditioning is
definitely different to road conditioning, and after one lap I was feeling
pretty flat already. The conditions were far from ideal with rain right from
the beginning and gusty wind building. Just as I was hitting Kumara for the 2nd
time, a momentary lapse in concentration resulted in me being blown off the
road and a sharp pain through my (already) damaged wrist. I tried to continue
riding but I knew my race was over. Look at that, yet another DNF. I had a crazy
plan that after this race I would build up and do the 640km, 4 laps of Lake
Taupo event in order to qualify for Race Across America… Instead, I’ve spent 6
months being jumped from specialist to specialist to surgeon to try and sort
out what’s wrong with my wrist. Over the last few months I’ve been told I will
never race my bike again, while in my current state that is certainly true, I’m
working through a plan to strengthen my wrist since surgery isn’t an option.
I’m no where near capable of riding my bike properly yet but the time will come
in the future.
As you can probably tell, life recently has been a combination
of work and waiting rooms, but there has been time for other things as well! I
was lucky enough to receive a scholarship for a 21 day Outward Bound course
from the 30th July – 19th August due to my involvement in
the community through RATS (Rescue and Technical Support/NZRT 1 Response Team).
If you have never heard of Outward Bound or have never attended a course, I
would highly recommend going on one! I went into the course not expecting a lot
due to my outdoor experience, however I came away with far more than I could
have ever expected. I can’t go into specifics without ruining the experience
for others, but there is something very special about Anakiwa and I would love
to have the skills to work there as an instructor. While I can’t go into
specific details on the experiences, I have had several requests since the
course for my list of dinners we ate, so here you go Scott Watch 644:
Day 1 – Chicken & Wedges, Banoffee Pie
Day 2 – Tomato Polenta & Pasta, Swiss Roll
Day 3 – Tuna & taco seasoned rice w/ dehy vegetables
Day 4 – Roast Veges & rice, Cheesecake
Day 5 – Chicken & Rice, Apple Crumble
Day 6 – Steak burgers & Rice risotto (The infamous Weka
incident night)
Day 7 – Sausages & Pasta w/ Tomato Sauce
Day 8 – Bacon & Mushroom Pasta, Plum cobbler
Day 9 – Beef burgers, Banana Cake
Day 10 – Fish curry & beans, Baked Cheesecake
Day 11/12/13 – 3x flapjacks, 3x carrots, 3x apples, 1 bag of
scroggin
Day 14/15 – Sorry team, Leah wrote this part and didn’t
include food
Day 16 – Chick peas (Everyone’s favourite dish 😉
)
Day 17 – Probably a lot of bread
Day 18 – Nachos
Day 19 – Korean inspired noodles
Day 20 – Bread. More bread. And then some more bread as the
other watches were slack at eating everything on their table
Many things have changed in the following months since OB. My
priorities and focus have shifted and as some of you may have seen over the weekend,
I purchased a kayak. While a few years ago this may have come as no surprise,
these days it is a huge deal as I haven’t really been in a kayak in over two
years. In fact, my last paddle before OB resulted in me swimming while showing
off! I lost my passion for the sport due to many factors, and as a result I
sold every kayak I owned. My spark has been rekindled though, and while it’ll
take an encouraging push to get me on the Waimak again, you will definitely
find me floating around in a whitewater boat.
And so here we are, 6 months of injury, 1 year of suits,
countless hours of dreaming up my next adventure. Do I have any idea what will
be next for me? You will just have to wait see…
All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers –
Orison Swett Marden
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