Karen Darke Video Blog 1st Feb 2012 from Karen Darke on Vimeo.

Untitled from Karen Darke on Vimeo.

Back from Lanzarote and disappointed to have missed the Berghaus Athlete Camp in Austria - a great chance to learn about the product plans for the next year, and for athletes and designers to share feedback and ideas. It’s been a busy weekend with my three nephews, mixed in with some painful stretching. Stretching after exercise. It’s so vital, yet so easy to skip, and I’ve been baaaaddd. My masseur suggested I stretch more last year, so I did, for a week or two, until the habit fizzled out. It’s only when I reach crisis point (which involves waking up with muscle pain and this morning not being able to get out of bed because my shoulder was so tight) that I’m reminded the hard way, how important it is to stretch. Andy massaged my shoulder enough that I could get up and dressed, and then I dedicated an hour to stretching.

Like any form of repeated exercise, handbiking takes its toll on the muscles and tendons. There is a ring of tightness, from the hands, through the inner forearms, the biceps, the shoulder fronts and into the pec muscles of the chest. I need to stretch those muscles out, and strengthen the antagonist muscles (the outer forearms, the triceps, the rotator cuff muscles of the shoulder and the rhomboids). It helped to get a great stretching lesson from a German fitness instructor in Lanzarote before returning home. It was a hard hour - harder than handbiking for four hours - as when you have the balance of a weeble like me, its hard to keep a good posture and stretch out well. Its not fun, in fact its quite painful, but I’m aiming to do this at least every 2 days through to London (and maybe forever!) and hoping I’ll reap the benefits. Hopefully it will help my shoulders survive all the training of 2012!

It’s not often you come across 80+ handcyclists in one place. Not sure the car drivers know what to make of it, like a bunch of aliens on the road, flags flapping in the wind (and they’re proper flapping as its seriously windy here in Lanzarote) The Berlin marathon is the only other place I’ve seen so many handbikes at the same time. Seems to be a German thing.

Have had a few good chaingang rides out with the German ‘Otto Bock’ team, strung out in a long line, drafting from the wind, trying my hardest not to get dropped. When you go out riding with a bunch of men with arms like Popeye, the easy rides aren’t so easy anymore…

Fantastic job by Team Sopur for organising all this though, including the Playa Blanca races at the weekend, http://www.vueltaplayablanca.com/ Only a few crashes on the dodgy bend, but luckily no serious injuries. Good turn out and race results for the Brits too. A great win by Chris Madden in the mens H2 race (it was disputed, but he did win!!), and a great ride from Brian Alldis in the mens H3 race too. I managed a win for the women too…

After a block of training, its good to find out if progress has been made. So, this week has been one of resting and testing, with the British Cycling physiologist in Manchester, and then with the Scottish Institute of Sport team in Inverness.

First was the lactate and VO2 test, a brutally painful experience, ramping up the power on the bike every 4 minutes until my arm muscles turn to jelly and my chest felt tight to rip. Meanwhile, blood is siphoned from the ear and tested for lactic acid, and the air breathed in and out is monitored to show oxygen uptake. Ouch. A few days of driving and back-ache later (how come it seems to hurt more when I stop training) I was back in Inverness for the ‘muscle-lab test’. In the gym, on the bench press, measuring my power with some gadgetry that I’m happy someone else is operating; it looks kind of delicate with wires tied to weights bar.

I feel a bit nervous now waiting for the results. What if I haven’t improved? What if the months of training haven’t had any affect? I tell myself that’s impossible. At least I hope it is. But one of the SIS guys told me that it took Chris Hoy 10 years just to increase a weight he was working on in the gym by a really small increment. No wonder I’ve been stuck on the same bench press weight for a few months now. Any ideas on how to progress it welcome…

Back to cold Highland weather now, three layers of clothing for every ride, even three pairs of gloves today! Joy… (but the white powder mountains look stunning).

Been doing quite a lot of writing again lately, and remembered how much I love it. Its the perfect antidote to a hard day training, and forces me to sit still and rest physically even if not mentally. Andy has put my first book ‘If You Fall’ into e-book format, and I’m finally getting there with my second book ‘Dizzy Fingers’ which has been sat on my computer for four years now! Thanks Andy for encouraging me, and thanks to help from a patient friend, Rob, whose been sitting editing with me, and giving me the confidence that it might be worth publishing! I’ve also started work on a third that will be all about the journey to the Paralympics. I’m enjoying writing that one most just now, but maybe because its so current.

I’ll be giving a talk in Sheffield on Monday 23rd January, also called ‘If You Fall’, to help raise funds for a community defibrilator in Sheffield. Come along at 7.30pm to St John’s Ambulance HQ (St John House, 5 Broadfield Close, Sheffield, S8 OXN). Entry £10.

Meanwhile, there’s training to get on with. I didn’t manage my session today - just couldn’t make the powers I should have. Trying not to be too down-hearted about it. Probably just a bit tired, and it was also the first super-high heart rate session of the season, so I think its fairly typical not to make it. As Homer Simpson says, ‘If you haven’t failed, you haven’t tried hard enough”. Will try again tomorrow…

The snow fell thick and fast as we sped down the A9, south through the whitening Cairngorms. A few days of travelling around the country later - not least to see the Queen at a Buckingham Palace evening for adventurers and explorers (had a good chat with the dynamic Prince Edward!) - we’ve landed in the calm, breathless winter of Mallorca, a perfect bike training venue. The news says its 165mph winds back home on Cairngorm. Phew, it really was a great time to escape.

John Hampshire (my coach from www.fit-for-purpose.co.uk) is here with me, encouraging me to pedal faster through sweaty interval sessions. Its good to have company when out riding - I spend too many hours alone riding the handbike - and John cranking beside me on his Trice trike is keeping me ‘on it’ instead of drifting into daydreams. Its weird having someone riding at the same height as me to chat to!
The roads are quiet at the moment, no gangs of German cyclists like there are in March (and no overweight men in white lycra); just the pro teams. We’ve had a few waves from Bradley Wiggins now - Team Sky are staying just around the bay so their morning rides seem to coincide with us setting out.

Yesterday was a mountain ride. A great ride through fields of sheep with their bells jangling like mountain goats, up through the forests where locals gathered for Sunday BBQ’s in the picnic areas, and finally into the rocky outcrops up top. The Traumantana Mountains are really stunning. I was excited to find myself at the top 20 minutes faster than last year (over 2.5 hours), so all this training must be paying off.

Snow on the mountains this morning: my fingers numb as the cold penetrates the gloves, heavy breathing fogging my glasses as I work hard to climb the hills, big puffy pants to stop my legs freezing, that extra bit of energy it takes to stay warm leaving me more tired than ever after training. Ah, longing now for the easier days of summer.

Had a hard training week with my coach from Fit for Purpose - who has generously been donated a very fast and cool leg-pedalled trike to ride with me by ICE (Inspired Cycle Engineering). Since then, have wrapped up in a filming project these last few weeks, to help promote the work of the Back-Up Trust in the run up to the Paralympics, London 2012. Its involved photographers and film-making people nestled in heather at the side of the roads, as I’ve biked around the Highland countryside. Whizzing along at high speed, the cameraman hung out the boot of the car, and I cycled as close behind as I dared without splatting myself on the bumper - only a few near misses.

Back-Up is a charity that helps transform lives after spinal cord injury, and the charity we’re aiming to raise £1million for by skiing to the South Pole in 2013. Back-Up helped me re-discover what was possible with a spinal cord injury, soon after I broke my back, through one of the courses that they offer, learning to sit-ski. It involved 14 of us in wheelchairs weebling around Alpine slopes, spending more time in and on the snow than gliding over it, having a lot of fun despite the bruises. The experience, breathing in the cold mountain air and learning a new skill, was a glimmer of light in what was otherwise quite a dark time, and I’m keen to support the life-transforming work that the charity do (which goes far beyond ski courses!). If you’d like to help, there’s a Just Giving link on the South Pole page of my site, or at www.poleofpossibility.com

Thanks, and happy early winter!

Racing season over, its ‘downtime’ time. Instead of prescribing killer training targets and structured sessions, my programme this month simply says ‘Do what you feel like, you need a rest.’
Ahhh, luxury. Free choice however brings hesitation, especially when its horizontal rain outside; weirdly, there is something strangely liberating about being told what to do.
So, having free choice I’ve defaulted to what I enjoy most….cruisy bike rides in Scottish Highland scenery - its good to be home - but I’m having to work hard to moderate it so that it really does include some rest. Its hard to stop, or do less, when you’re in the rhythm of always doing; but sometimes we have to force ourselves to put the brakes on, or we’d grind ourselves into a hole (sure we all know that feeling in one way or another); and for a few weeks at least, its nice to be a ‘normal’ person i.e. not always pedalling, or thinking about when I should be pedalling next.
Talking of Scottish scenery, I saw the film ‘You’ve Been Trumped’ at the weekend. Brilliant. Its a self-funded film which brings to life the arguably media-neglected other side of the Aberdeen Donald Trump golf course story, which smells of capitalism and corruption. How was permission granted for a US millionnaire to destroy a unique dune landscape and site of special scientific interest. It’s a must see film (see www.youvebeentrumped.com/youvebeentrumped.com/THE_MOVIE.html) and one that stimulates thought about saving landscapes, protecting the natural planet, our own impact on that etc.
Leaving the cinema I was challenged to reduce my carbon footprint, and picked up a sheet of paper with options. I checked the box that said ‘I’ll only boil the amount of water in my kettle that I need’, but when it came to ‘I will get a train to a European holiday instead of a flight’, I paused for thought. It’s ironic as an avid cyclist, enthusiastic for all its health and environmental benefits, that since making the cycling team, I’ve flown more than ever to compete in races. Note to self: must do better at that. Have since been thinking of cycling from the UK to a winter training camp in Mallorca.

In Berlin for the marathon, testing my cousin Becci’s patience with the logistics of travelling with a handbike - its big, its long, a no-go in most taxis, and I was refused on a train when we got here for not having pre-booked assistance, and that was before they saw the bike! (Mind you, there were 20 bikes in the train carriage when I eventually did get on - hard to imagine that scene on a British train who usually strop over one.)
Marathon morning rose warm and sunny, a stark contrast to last years incessant rain. To win I would have to beat the reigning World Champion - Switzerland’s goddess-like Ursula Schwaller - which I’ve never managed yet (though only lost to her by 0.1 seconds in a race last month). I got lucky and was donated a perfect, front-line starting position and as we sat for half an hour awaiting the countdown, I worked on my head. “You can do it!” has become my pre-race mantra, and a bit of me believes that I can win - and I’m slightly bored of the seeming predictability of results that comes with handbike racing once the first race of the season has defined the pecking order. Could this be the race where I can do it at last?
3,2,1 and we shot off the start, fast leaving the famous Reichstag behind us. I get a bit nervous in race starts, over 200 handbikes, testosterone levels disturbed by a woman cranking past, wheels almost shaving. Ursula was just ahead of me, but she’s a fast starter, and I struggled to get on her wheel. Things settled down, and I worked in a bunch. Becci saw people racing taking pictures of famous landmarks along the route, but I saw nothing but the wheel in front, and a blur of crowd, concentrating hard not to crash at 40kph.
So, second it was, in 1 hr 17 and around 50 seconds, with Ursula 30 second faster (though she got dropped from a bunch when her brake cable snapped in the last 10km. I have to be pleased with 2nd in the Berlin Marathon - after all, Paula Radcliffe was 3rd - and I rode 10 minutes faster than last year…and I’ll keep holding out for that day when the result isn’t predictable.

Sitting in a Copenhagen cafe trying to make a Chai Latte last a long time so I don’t need a bank loan to stay in here for a few hours (ouch, its expensive). Feeling like there’s a space given all the work towards the World Champs is now over (2 bronzes, so all being well, London here we come!); all that focus and energy for 2 races, and next year for London it will be even more intense.

Since the races I’ve stayed with my friend Melissa in a ‘collective’ - a kind of commune thats part of an eco-village 30 minutes outside Copenhagen. I’ve been inspired by people living in a different way - collectively and more sustainably, with carbon-neutral homes, solar panels, an organic community garden, a communal building where people cook and eat together often, and a whole lot more. Being immersed in such a conscious place for a few days I learnt a fair bit too, especially about electro-magnetic fields (EMF’s), their ill-effects on our health and how to reduce them (don’t sleep with electrical cables under your bed, or a cordless phone beside it), along with ‘earthing’ - a technique much like earthing a plug, but your body instead, to help reduce pain, inflammation and the negative effects of too much physical activity.

Training hard generates a lot of free radicals in the body, along with acidity, and elevated levels of stress hormones like cortisol. Certainly there have been days after hard training this last year when I’ve felt like my body is so stressed physically that I’ve wanted to cry, but haven’t had the energy to, and wanted to sleep, but haven’t been able to. So I got thinking, what else, apart from drinking water with fresh lemon in it and taking wheatgrass capsules (both great alkalisers for the body) can I do to help counter the effects of hard training. Obviously diet is a biggie - getting carbohydrate in within 20 minutes of training, and good quality protein in within a few hours, but now I’m thinking about other things too. I haven’t researched it properly yet, but there’s more info at www.earthing.com and also at www.qliving.com (press google translate to replace the Danish with English).

Anyways, being immersed in an eco-conscious, health-conscious community for a few days has reminded me that there’s so much we can do to help ourselves and our environment to stay healthy, and counter the stresses that we either put on ourselves or ‘accidentally’ get exposed to…whether its earthing, juicing, eating organic, growing vegetables, detoxifying etc etc. The only trouble is it all takes time - that commodity that no-one seems to have enough of - though I’ve noticed that when I slow down, there seems to be more time, like right now. For the first time in a while I feel like I’ve paused to breath, and to remember some stuff thats important. When I get home and training starts again, I hope to bring some of the stuff I’ve learnt here into developing more habits that counter the stresses of training and stop my body from falling apart…and hopefully, it’ll mean riding the bike even faster, and hopefully for a long time to come.