Her coach, Craig Palmer, drove his car to Roxburgh to rendezvous with Shanks.
"I had no option. I had to keep riding until I got there," Shanks told the Otago Daily Times at the Skeggs Foundation luncheon at the Otago Cricket Longroom at the University Oval yesterday.
"Riding from point to point gives purpose to my training."
Shanks is working towards the 2010 Commonwealth Games in the Indian capital.
She was one of the elite Otago sportspeople who received category one Skeggs Foundation grants.
Black Fern Beth Mallard was also at the luncheon.
Shanks (25) had two months' rest after returning from the Beijing Olympics where she finished fourth in the 3km individual pursuit.
"I'm moving to higher-intensity sessions and trying to ride faster," she said.
"Craig is looking at different training regimes to see what is best for me.
"It means increasing the intensity and decreasing the mileage slightly. I'm having more tempo rides and having two to three hours instead of five-hour rides."
Shanks starts her racing campaign in January at a World Cup race in Beijing.
The New Zealand championships will be held in Invercargill in early March and the world championships in Warsaw, Poland, at the end of March.
She is negotiating with a US team to race on the North American road circuit to improve her background mileage.
Her target time over the next six months is to reduce her 3km time from the 3min 32.40sec she rode in the second round in Beijing to a sub-3min 30sec time.
"I'm looking for a personal best every time I race in major competition."
Shanks used her two months off to catch up with family and friends.
"I don't see them much when I'm on a strict training schedule."
She also became sick after returning home from Beijing.
"I got a bit sick and my body shut down. It took me month to get over it."
Chairman David Skeggs told guests at the luncheon that the Skeggs Foundation had distributed $2.7 million to promising Otago sportspeople since its inception in 1994.
Achievement awards were made to Warren Shirley (Dunedin) and Ted Tempero (Oamaru), who are both life-members of the Otago Cricket Association.
The guest speakers at the luncheon were Olympic synchronised swimmers Nina and Lisa Daniels.
