Welcome to the first blog post of my 2012 race season. You will be able to read all of my trials and tribulations for the coming year, what I thought of my performances, what I liked about each course/ event and what I did not.
Without further ado!
So it’s the middle of January with my first race the season six weeks away and the first national series race nine weeks away it is fair to say I am not where I’d like to be! Although the first race if the season is BUCS (British Universities & Colleges Sports) where I am more likely to get more respect from drinking five pint’s in five minutes than a top ten finish it still has ranking points available and will be a good opportunity to see how I am shaping up for the season.
The problem is that the first national series race 3 weeks later at Sherwood Pines is going to be the polar opposite to BUCS track wise. Sherwood is renowned for being flat as a pan cake and has a technical difficulty rating of a road thus the reason for it being my worst track; where the XC racers who primarily train on their road bikes power away along the wide long fire roads with me trying my best to hang on to their back wheel. On the other hand, the BUCS course is likely to be up a steep fire road climb and then down a downhill track which is pretty much my ideal course! I was gutted I couldn’t race last year’s BUCS and after seeing the video that went viral of many riders mincing, crashing and even running the descent I was even more gutted.
So the problem is which do I train for most? Obviously the national series race has more points on offer but it is unlikely to be one of my top 8 races that will count towards my end of season total. Whereas with BUCS I will be able to place higher up the order and I will get a bigger buzz from it because it means so much more to Plymouth Uni and also the universities cycling club (UPCC)
So why am I not where I’d like to be?
Well to be brutally honest I’ve had a lack of motivation and been rather lazy after the 2011 season left a sour taste in my mouth.
A brief(ish) summary for those who don’t know I did one race for my new team Certini – McCaulay’s and then broke my thumb just before Christmas 2010 so I did next to no training over the Christmas which led to a loss in fitness. Just as I got into some great form with the national series race at Margham Park (my best course) in my sights, my knee gave out. I literally woke up the Thursday before Margham, straightened my leg in bed and gave out a scream as a severe pain came from my knee. I couldn’t walk without pain at first but over the day it reduced so I travelled to Margham anyway (my parents were there). The pain got better but then during my practice lap and warm up it came back so I reluctantly pulled out; to rub salt in the wound I looked at the results and think I could have finished sixth. Once again, just as I got back into some fitness after my knee injury, I raced the South West Champs at Combe Sydenham (up a fire road down a downhill track!!) and was loving the course and was lying 2nd in my category after pulling away rapidly from 3rd place on the massive descent only for my tyre to burp off the rim over one of the big table tops.. Cue a rag doll at 25mph, result: landing in a bramble bush with a broken collarbone, a trip to A&E and 2 months off the bike.
A brief(ish) summary for those who don’t know I did one race for my new team Certini – McCaulay’s and then broke my thumb just before Christmas 2010 so I did next to no training over the Christmas which led to a loss in fitness. Just as I got into some great form with the national series race at Margham Park (my best course) in my sights, my knee gave out. I literally woke up the Thursday before Margham, straightened my leg in bed and gave out a scream as a severe pain came from my knee. I couldn’t walk without pain at first but over the day it reduced so I travelled to Margham anyway (my parents were there). The pain got better but then during my practice lap and warm up it came back so I reluctantly pulled out; to rub salt in the wound I looked at the results and think I could have finished sixth. Once again, just as I got back into some fitness after my knee injury, I raced the South West Champs at Combe Sydenham (up a fire road down a downhill track!!) and was loving the course and was lying 2nd in my category after pulling away rapidly from 3rd place on the massive descent only for my tyre to burp off the rim over one of the big table tops.. Cue a rag doll at 25mph, result: landing in a bramble bush with a broken collarbone, a trip to A&E and 2 months off the bike.
I also started a placement year at the start of October (2 weeks late due to my collarbone) and moved out from Home which took up a lot of time to begin with, and then came the flu and colds!
Also, I started working weekends at my old job New Look as a Christmas temp due to my placement pay being terrible so I could get some extra money for car insurance and the like.
This meant that I had pretty much no time to get out on the bike and those of you who know me know how much I can’t stand turbo training! In honesty I could have made time to go out on the bike, manned up a little bit more but like I said before, I just had no motivation or desire.
This meant that I had pretty much no time to get out on the bike and those of you who know me know how much I can’t stand turbo training! In honesty I could have made time to go out on the bike, manned up a little bit more but like I said before, I just had no motivation or desire.
So where am I?
I have started to get back into training properly since the New Year. I have done a few turbo trains (reluctantly), started riding to work and replaced working weekends with riding weekends instead.
For now it is more about getting longer 3 hour rides in to reproduce the endurance that I had. One of the things that I learnt from the previous year of injuries is that my power didn’t drop too much but my endurance did; when I first raced again I found that I could stay with the usual suspects for a lap and a half but then I dropped off as they powered on.
Packed Schedule
During a quiet period at work just after Christmas I decided to produce a spreadsheet with all of the races I initially plan to do this season along with their respective dates and distances from home.
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| Bristol Bike Fest 2011 |
There is only one 12 hour race I plan on doing after the close at the national XC races which is the Torq 12:12. I plan to do the Bristol Bike Fest 12hour Team, Bontrager 24/12 12 hour solo and the OS Mountain Mayhem mixed pairs but they come very close together with a national series race sandwiched in between. The schedule is such, 9th-10th June Bristol, a week later Kirroughtree BMBS, a week later Mountain Mayhem, 2 weeks later Bonty 24/12. Ahhh heck! No rest for the wicked and all that.
Early Goals
My main goal last year was to try and get inside the top 20 in the expert national rankings and get a podium in a 12 hour race. I actually finished joint 20th in the national ranking as I think that if I had an injury free season I could have reached the top 10. I finished 6th in the Bontrager 24/12, 20 minutes off of 3rd but that was one of my first races back from injury and I had prolonged stops to stretch to prevent the knee injury playing up so I think that this year I can defiantly get onto the podium.
So it is going to be a good seasons with lots of races (not counting some triathlons and duathlons I’m sure I’ll be forced into by Maddie and Jay!) and I hope I stay injury free and can put in some good results to get somewhere near to the Elite category!
Out for now
Out for now
