Annaliisa's Part

Hi everyone,

Annaliisa here. This is my two cents worth as to what is happening/has been happening with Neelu and myself.

When Kevin first approached me in Palmerston North about riding with Neelu and helping her get to the Beijing Paralympics I thought it was too big for me. After some considerable thought and talking with mum (can’t get by without my mum) I decided that I would give it a go. I hadn’t discussed it with my husband Nigel at this stage but I didn’t think it would be too much of a problem (we have ways and means of fixing problems……).

It took a few months initially for us to get going because the tandem that Neelu and Kevin were riding was way too long for me and I couldn’t get the seat down far enough.

Neelu had a recreational tandem which was exactly that. The seats were wide – ouch – and the seat up was totally wrong. So with the help of Nigel we got it going, changed seats, handle bars etc.

Our first ride together was hilarious. I had only ever been on the back of a tandem, never on the front. I felt every little movement that Neelu made and for a start it really freaked me out. Its fine now, I hardly notice the movements. Nigel has been a great help to. He has come with us on a few rides and pointed out some things to Neelu that she was doing that affected me on the front, as in when we were out of the saddle I’d be going from left to right then back again. It turned out that what Neelu was doing was looking over one of my shoulders then the other hence the to-ing and fro-ing. Little things like that have mead a difference.

Now Neelu is a real character. After our first ride together she thought it would be a good idea to get going up on the hills!!!!! You can imagine my response to that! Patience my dear….all in good time. We got into Time Trialing and it was great. We can now get out of the saddle at the start and at the turn around. I looked forward to going riding with Neelu because we have a lot of laughs. We have finally been up around the hills and it was a blast. Very interesting with the extra person but Neelu really gives it everything.

I’ll be away from the 22 June on a five week holiday in Europe – with no bikes!! What I hear you say, NO BIKES!!! It is true. It’s my time for a break in riding. I normally have May off but I’m still riding and training with Neelu. Tracy Clark has come on board to help with Neelu while I’m away and has been out for a couple of rides with her already and guess what…..after their first ride together Neelu mentioned about going up around the hills! I told you she’s a character.

It is great having Kevin Searle on board as our manager and part time rider with Neelu. We can concentrate on our riding while Kevin is in the background drumming up sponsorship and support. Neelu and I really appreciate what Kevin is doing/going to do.

Our task now is to get a proper racing bike and take it from there. I’m looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead and tackling them head on with Neelu. I’m very privileged to be helping her achieve her dream – Beijing 2008.

Let the fun begin……

Until next time, stay upright.

Things are happening...

I am absolutely exhausted today. So much has been happening I am still strugging to get my head around it all. I guess it is best if I tell you in bits.

Cycling camp
Annaliisa, Kevin (who is now our manager) and I went to the camp last weekend. It was a good camp that clarified a lot for us about exactly where we are going. The whole Paralympic system is really complex. Basically from what I figured out, Annaliisa and I will earn points by doing races. These points will be a part of the total that all the paralympians get. Then the paralympic comittee decide which athletes they want to send to the games. So I guess it means Annaliisa and I have to do our best in all races so that we will be picked to go to the games. Annaliisa has gone to France for 5 weeks and will be back 3 weeks before the road champs in Switzerland. For this reason we have decided to give them a miss as we won't have time to train well enough. At the camp we met some pretty cool people, both athletes and coaches. We got to work with them on planning of training (Rachel Smith, Brian Gilbert and Steve Rickerby), bike setup (John and Willy Rastrick). and we got info on lots of stuff like nutrition, drug free, sport psych etc. It was a well spent weekend and I feel a lot happier knowing where Annaliisa and I are heading.

School
2 days after the camp I had my last exam of my degree! I will rephrase that as yesterday I found out that I have done 2 too many papers for my degree! Oh well at least it was a good excuse to tell people I was at uni when they asked"So where do you work?" I am stoked and have just got a job with Community and public health at the DHB.

Training
As I have finished exams and am not expecting to start work for a while I have taken this opportunity to increase my volume of training. I have increased my weights program due to some muscle loss with the help of Matthew Ingram and have also increased my time on the bike (or the windtrainer due to the crap weather) with Malcolm Humm. This is why I am very tired. My body is still trying to work out what has happened and what it has done to deserve it. I am only going to keep the present program for a few weeks and am monitoring my recovery and resting heart rate quite closely. My worst fear would be to blow. I am constantly scared of it and due to my brain injury I am more at risk than most people. This is really hard for my parents too. They see me in the fatigued, incapacitated state I'm in and pray like hell no complications will arise. When I first got my virus it was because of a reduced immune system. Fatigue and overtraining will also lead to a reduced immune, hence their worry. I guess it is just a case of me taking it slowly. Letting my body adapt and being fine with taking a step back when needed. Gary Sword has come on board as my coach so no doubt he will also play a process on keeping me within my limits.

Health
Well the last paragraph was on health mostly, but this is different health. This is on my foot. A lot of people hate me running and not just because time running mens time off the bike. No, there is a story. Last year when I was very into my running, one morning I decided to go for a run down Memorial ave. At the corner of Greers rd, I started busting for the loo, but the lights had just changed. I made a split second decision which turned out to be a bad one. I thought I could outrun the cars that were crossing the Greers intersection. I didn't. One car did not see me and did not slow down. He hit me on the foot. After going to hospital and being discarged as fine, I continued my life but could never get running again. In Jan this year I got diagnosed with a large fracture which needed surgery. This surgery put me in cast for approximately 6 weeks in April/May. I lost a huge amount of muscle in my leg and an trying to get it back. It has been about 1 month since getting the cast off and I am still struggling to get full use of my foot back. I have seen so many physios and podiatrists I am worn out. But tonight my podiatrist told me I am getting close to the end. The rehab is nearly over and the corrections to my Gait are nearly finished! This is very good news for me as I have been dealing with this foot for about 11 months.

So that about sums it up.
It is cold, The weather has been below average, Annaliisa has gone, and training never stops, so just do it!

So on yer bike!
Neelu

Hi there. My name is Neelu Memon. I have just finished my BSc. at university and have recently picked up a new hobby; cycling. After watching Sarah Ulmer at the Olympics in Athens I was inspired, so I have decided to take this very enjoyable hobby as far as I can. The most limiting factor in this dream is my disability. Sadly I lost half my sight through a viral illness 6 years ago. I am now legally ‘blind.’ So I thought my dream of cycling was terminated. Then some pretty exciting stuff happened. I got hooked up with Brian Gilbert the manager of Paralympic cycling and found there is actually a grade for me to cycle in: AWD or athletes with disabilities. Vision impaired riders can cycle in the Paralympics on tandem with a sighted guide! So my dream is to go to the Beijing Paralympics in 2008. When I was talking to my Recreation officer Craig Motley at uni, he told me he would become my trainer till I had the knowledge I needed to train myself. With Craig’s support this dream in mind I spent a long time on the phone trying to find people who would train with me. The difficulty here was that I needed to train with people who were confident to ride with me, but not many good riders had extra time out of their own training to give me. This meant it took a long time to find partners and I did more running than cycling. There were several times I wanted to give up my dream of cycling for running. I did short stints of riding with Andrew Widdup and Gary Sword and then I met Kevin Searle. Kev gave me his time and would fit around my hectic final year of uni life. Kev became my fulltime training partner. We rode 1-2 times per week for the rest of the year. We did a few time trials and road races with single bikes. I didn’t like road races at all as keeping up with the bunch on a tandem is very hard due to it’s poor acceleration rate. Time Trial was awesome fun and easily became my favourite event/ And then we found out that there was going to be a tandem race at the nationals in Palmerston North! Kev and I competed in both a road race and time trial. The biggest asset we gained from nationals was the experience as we actually got to race against another tandem couple from Timaru. Then another hurdle. If I was to go on in tandem cycling I had to ride with a female partner. This meant Kev and I had to find someone willing to share my dream. And that is how Annaliisa Farrel came on board! Annaliisa is a national rider and has an incredible cycling history! I could not believe it when she said ‘yes.’ When we got back to Christchurch Annaliisa and I began to make plans. We have been training together for about 4 months and Annaliisa is as keen as me to get to Beijing. We have our first high performance camp in a few weeks and then competitions here and overseas! I have complained for the last year about how slow this dream is taking form, but now the ball has started rolling I don’t know if it will stop! So that is how this dream was born. I plan to use this blog to write updates as to how this dream goes. This will be a record of the highs and lows as Annaliisa and I strive to achieve our goal. If you see us out training, give us a wave and I will try and keep you updated… Ride on! Neelu.