At the breakfast table with ... Katherine Sharp
Q: Hi KJ! Thanks so much for sharing an insight into your world as a Yorkshire mountain biker! Could you start with a quick overview of what or who inspired you to pursue mountain biking?
A: Hello, thank you for asking me to get involved!
Hmmmmm, biking inspiration, I did grow up with a highly enthusiastic biking farther. Haha, for those bikers reading this and knew him/of him, you will know.
As a child, I loved being encouraged to ride as much as possible, unfortunately, those pesky teenage years kicked in, with the rebelling stage in full effect by the age of 15. I wanted to wear make-up, go out in the evenings, and be left alone during the day… ‘Be cool’, apparently. Once I’d started my 1st degree, I was given the freedom I craved, to which I finally realised I wanted my family very much involved in my life; the rebelling teenage years were over by the age of 18, thank goodness! By the end of my 3rd year at university, I was out riding bikes with my father and brother every other weekend, combined with a home visit to catch up with my mother and sister, it was my ideal set-up.
I was never inspired to be a racer, I never wanted to win or be competitive and the idea of becoming this fast female Downhill Mountain biker was never on the cards. Initially, I simply loved spending time with my father, brother and family. Unfortunately, a few months after I’d finished my first degree, all too soon, my dad passed away. Rather than taking a step back, I became obsessive with biking. Within 2-years, I took myself from beginner level to 14th in the Enduro World Mountain Biking discipline, whilst also completing my Masters in Nutrition and working 30-hours a week as a bike mechanic. Looking back, it was my shock phase of grieving. As all may guess, I fairly hated my sporting life by the end of those 2-years. I’d lost that initial enjoyment that comes with bikes. Taking 2-months out at the end of 2018, reassessing my goals, I decided to make the switch to Downhill mountain biking, with enjoyment being the priority. 2-3yrs later, I’m as happy as I ever have been with my racing/training progression and excited for the future.
Q: What does your morning routine look like at the moment? (What time do you get up, have breakfast, train etc)
A: Since finishing my 2nd degree, I’ve set myself up as a self-employed nutritionist, creating and designing bespoke nutrition plans. On weekdays, I tend to wake up ~7am, open my laptop and start working from the off. Around 10am I take a break for breakfast, get changed out of my night pj’s into my day pj’s (pandemic lifestyle), have a quick brew and then back to work. Breakfast tends to be either bacon, avocado, mushrooms and a bagel, or fruity oats, nut butter, mixed seeds and a banana. I normally finish my work off around 1pm, have lunch, then dedicate my afternoons to training.
Currently, at weekends, I have breakfast first and train in the morning, leaving my afternoons free to go walking, read books, practice yoga and relax. When we aren’t in lockdown, every other weekend, I’ll be off to Wales or Scotland for a weekend on the Downhill Bike.
Q: How important to you is eating the right foods to fuel your body for biking, and how does breakfast fit into that?
A: Ohhh my, VERY important. I can’t express how important it is. When training 6-12+ times a week, you need a continuous and substantial energy intake to simply keep going. Our energy expenditure rockets with training. To think that people who train regularly and decide to thoroughly restrict calories or cut out carbohydrates to focus on a high-protein diet hurts my head. Especially from a female point of view, our bodies are demanding and very difficult to monitor. One week we feel great, confident and motivated, the next we are bloated, constantly tired and feel as though the world is ending, metaphorically speaking. We’d like to pin-point the bad weeks to the start of our menstrual cycle, but then mid-cycle we randomly experience similar tiredness symptoms (most likely the post-ovulation stage (~mid-cycle), where a large decrease in estrogen levels results in tiredness/sluggishness, furthermore leading to increased food cravings, and so on, and so on. It’s little snippets of information like this that can make a huge difference to the effective planning of our diet/training regimes, and therefore, increase one’s ability to stay on plan and successfully and consistently progress from month-to-month. Knowledge is key in this area.
Back to the question… I know that everyone is not a breakfast eater, due to preference, fasting routines etc, however, if you are a breakfast person, the quality, quantity and timing of the meal is important. The first meal of the day is the base of your pyramid. It needs to be balanced, strong and long-lasting to support and maintain your individualised energy output throughout the day, and/or leading up to your next meal.
Q: What are your main goals for this year, and how are you going to achieve them? (Covid depending!)
A: I haven’t raced on a World level since switching from Enduro to Downhill Mountain Biking (2-3years ago). After speaking with my main sponsors (Pivot Cycles UK and DMR), we have decided World level racing is the goal. I have a realistic top 10 goal; however, racing is racing, even when we can’t admit it out loud, the goal is always, to win.
Q: If you ever struggle with motivation and energy levels, what really helps you to get through and back on top form?
A: At the back end of January this year, I did go through a couple of weeks were my motivation was lacking. The scare of not being able to race for yet another year, due to the pandemic, started to creep in. I started to tire with the repetitiveness of my days. It sounds cliché, but the whole wake up, work, train, eat, sleep routine, over and over was getting to me. When I start to lack in motivation, I allow myself to stop training altogether. I make myself take a step back, and logically, with the help of my coach, Chris, from CrossFit Skipton, we reassess my current training status, with focus on my short- and long-term goals. With this information, Chris sets up a fresh diverse training plan. From the moment I take a step back, and have that conversation with Chris, it takes me around 1-week of recuperation before I’m ready to start following plan again.
Even though I only take 1-week off, we never go straight back into a high-volume training week. It can take up to 2-months before we are hitting the higher-volume training weeks again. Consistent slow progress is quicker than inconsistent rushed progress in this game.
Q: How important do you think positive mindset is when it comes to pushing yourself and your body physically to achieve your best?
A: Once I’d made the switch to Downhill Mountain Biking, I decided I needed to start talking to a counsellor/psychologist if I wanted to enjoy being competitive at a world level. Day to day, I’m a relaxed person, however, whenever it came to racing, I used to feel like this angry green hulky monster. Leading up to World races, with 90+% of my thoughts/feelings negative, the recipe for a strong race day isn’t possible.
I started seeing my counsellor (Dr Aime Smith) throughout summer 2019. Our initial focus was racing, but as our meetings progressed, we started to reveal certain past memories that needed re-wiring. I had these memories that caused a lot of self-doubt and low levels of confidence. Once I was back home and settled into my 2019-2020 winter off-season, we started working on re-wiring these negative thoughts and feelings. It took 6-weeks of therapy to flip everything upside down, clear it out and then put it back in the correct place. I went from hating and doubting my abilities and speed on a bike to believing and knowing that I was a very fast woman and had/have the potential to be faster still. Imagine how effective a switch in your mind-set like that can have on your willingness to be the best you can in your chosen sport/hobbies/career choices.
It made/makes me feel humbly invincible.
Q: Finally, where is your favourite place in Yorkshire to go biking?
A: I don’t really ride off-road in Yorkshire very often. I tend to stick to road riding around here. I have a 1-hour route just out the back of our village that heads towards Grassington. All on back roads and quiet lanes. With a bit of sunshine, it ends up being quite a nice relaxing spin for the legs.
When I do get out for a spin on the mountain bike, there is a hill 5-minutes from our house that ticks the boxes for a good, simple ride. Good views, natural single track, a few small jumps and soft grounds to cushion the crashes. My main riding, however, gets done on the Downhill bike over in Wales and Scotland. The tracks are a lot steeper and quicker, with larger features (jumps/drops). A full day on one of these tracks ticks a thousand boxes for me, I’m assuming similar for other fellow downhill riders.
Check out Katherine on Instagram @kh.sharp
