Seeing as this season now seems done and dusted I thought it was an ideal chance to recap on my season and look forward to  the challenges ahead.
 
At the start of the season my aim was to get to more events than I had done the previous year and generally build a bit of experience. I had had a poor winter of little or no riding for various reasons so I had no expectation of results and I really just wanted to get to some events and enter the fun/open categories and see what happened.
 
The early events went well; taking part in a couple of the Evans trail rides and the local Black Park XC race. The Evans rides were a good chance to stretch the legs and to ride and experience some new trails. The TrailBreak/Evans events as always were both well organized and enjoyable to ride. The XC race at Black Park, well what can I say about that, bit of a shock to the system, the distance was no problem but I struggled with the pace.
 
From there I took a bit of time away from races to try and put some miles into my legs in preperation for the 2nd Round of the Marathon series. I came towards this marathon event optimistic of a solid ride in the 100km, but it wasn't to be, I totally fatigued after just 50km and had to retire. I learnt a lot from this event, mainly regarding the importance of suitable fuelling during events and again the lack of winter riding showed in my inability to ride consistently.
 
Cue once again, time taken to put extra miles under my belt before the 3rd Round of the NPS series. This time I chose to enter the Open Category of the XC race. On this occasion things came together well and I rode strongly, it seemed that I had finally found a bit of form. I finished 4th, by far my best result of the year. A result that would have placed me in the top half of the sport category race. I took a lot of confidence from this as I was only fit due to haven ridden regularly a lot rather than having specifically trained for the event.
 
Sadly my race season was cut short there due to being away for work in the latter part of the summer. So overall, I did ok, I was inconsistent and the lack of winter riding showed and I didn't get to quite as many events as I would have liked but I still met my season aims. I have learnt a lot about riding, racing and about my own capabilities and most importantly it has left me hungry for more. So looking forward, what's next?
 
Having looked at my results and what I enjoyed from this season I have decided to target XC races rather than the Marathons next year. I will move up from Open Cat to Sport races so that I can actually potentially gain some series points etc. I am looking to rectify my consistency problems and I have entered into a winter training program of which I am currently on week 3. I am spending more time on the roads and turbo than I would like at the moment but I will be out hitting the local trails again soon.
 
Next seasons aims are to race full season and to be competitive in the races I enter, aiming for top half finishes. Time will tell how I get on and results will be on here

Look out for my event reports and race results over the course of next season
 
Mark

A season of ups and downs. Mark will be back...
Watch this space over 2008...