ELITE BMX RACER, CARLY KANE, TALKS BOUNCING BACK FROM INJURY WITH WATTBIKE

Carly Kane is an elite BMX racer from Indiana, US. Having fallen in love with the sport at age 8, inspired by her father who rode Motocross, she has been BMX racing for over a decade and is currently riding for the DK Factory team.

In 2020, she was nominated as one of the top 5 USA BMX Pros of the year and has set her sights on racing World Cups but as in all elite sport, it can have its injury setbacks.

SEPARATED SHOULDER SETBACK

In January 2022, Carly took a hard fall in the first round at the Sunshine State Nationals, Florida and after having X-Rays, was found to have a separated right shoulder.

“As soon as I fell at the Nationals, I knew something was wrong because normally I can just pop back up. I just had a feeling. I was supposed to stay in Florida and train in the warm weather, but after the injury, I had to focus on building again and putting the work in.”

LEARNING TO FALL AND GET BACK UP

BMX is incredibly fast-paced, and your body becomes the shock absorber, so you have to learn to be very precise and accurate round the track. It’s about more than just pedalling and throwing the bike in the air, it takes a lot of skill to maintain and gain speed. Naturally, with the risks that need to be taken to get ahead, taking the knocks and the falls can be a regular occurrence.

“I have a fast track pace, so I’m looking to pass people and so naturally, sometimes I get caught up in sticky situations. It’s important to learn to fall and get back up.

If you fall, it makes it easier to do it again. You have to commit, but you’re always going to be scared. You just have to shut your brain off. If you get hurt, you heal.”

ROAD TO RECOVERY

Carly has used the Wattbike Pro/Trainer in the past and has now upgraded to the Wattbike Nucleus, which she uses for warm ups and cool downs as well as for aerobic conditioning, sprint sessions and recovery sessions.

“There’s a ‘secret recipe’ Wattbike interval session which I put together and I absolutely love, but it’s a burner! It’s absolutely killer, I hate it but I love it! If I had to choose one Wattbike workout to do, it would be my intervals for sure!”

If it rains, or when Carly couldn’t ride her bike because of injury, she turned to sprint training on the Wattbike, converting the sprint work she would normally do on the bike, onto the Wattbike.

As well as the Wattbike, Carly has kept her rehabilitation varied with lifting at the gym but is still working on getting her grip strength back so she can get back to lifting her usual weights.

RACE AND REASSESS FOR THE FUTURE

Having seen brilliant progression through her rehabilitation over the last 3 months, Carly is excited to get back on the track and test how far she’s come.

“I’m the fastest I’ve ever been coming back from this injury, but I need to start seeing how that translates when I’m racing so I need to race, see where I’m at and then reassess.”

Through putting in the work, and “training her ass off”, Carly’s ultimate goal is to get to the Olympics but recognising how points based the system is, she knows there’s some milestones to hit first. So one to watch…

To find out more about Carly Kane visithttps://dkbicycles.com/pages/carly-kane