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Saturday 11 February 2012

Winter Summary

Its been 2 and a bit months since my first post on the subject. Its been a good thing to have done I think. I've raced 7 times, won twice, crashed once, finished in the top 10 three times and finished in the bunch once and came 10th in the series. So its been a fairly mixed bag and its certainly opened my eyes to a few things.

Mostly its been a bit of an up and down, its quite annoying to go from winning to not, I would much rather it had happened the other way around, but in the main there have been good reasons for it, and usually they were positioning or timing. Which I've now come to appreciate are probably the most important things in Hillingdon races (and probably other similar circuits) . So lets hope what I've learned I can take in to the road race season, I'm hoping to race most weeks over the season, which should teach me a lot more, and empty my bank account at the same time! Hillingdon will still be something I'll do every now and again as I can go from work, but I want to concentrate my efforts on the longer stuff. And I'm excited to see what I can do this season, not to mention ride in the warm again! I probably did about 1000 miles ALL winter last year, whereas I did just under 1k in Jan this year, so it does feel like I've not seen the sun or warmth for ages and ages!

The last 5 months or so have been probably the months that I have started to take cycling a bit more seriously, I've started to drink a bit less, try not to smoke too much, and watch what I eat, so its been quite interesting to see how I've improved over that time. Mostly though the improvement was down to riding the bike, I've averaged about 200 miles a week since October, and that has been mixed up hugely, mostly commuting, but I've tried to plan them, also done a good few hilly rides, and plenty of fast chain gangs. So there has been no easy way out as such, and I've taken winter at a nice pace. Of late I seem to have re-found my passion for a bit of football, which although great, doesn't bode well for cycling as the knocks and muscles you strain and pull that cycling doesn't use at all certainly have an impact when you get back on the bike. So will have to strike a balance!

I'll keep updating this as I go through the year, I'm now a 3rd cat with 15 points, so 25 to go this year before I am a cat 2 rider. That is still the aim, and I hope to take some points in road races, obviously we will see how that pans out as 25 fast and frantic miles is a far cry from 60 round the roads, but I'm hopeful that I've put in some good work so far, and with the on-going training other members in the club are undertaking it makes it a bit easier to get out there and do some miles with like minded folk and I'll be able to get some results on the road.

With regards to equipment, its also on the cards to buy a new bike for racing at some point and relegate mine to training and commuting, and having recently strapped on a HRM for the first time, no doubt my training will get more geeky as time goes on. But I have got this far without any of that, so riding the bike will still be my main focus, but its nice to have nice stuff right? ;-)

First race is on the 11th of March and its our club race, so lets hope its a good one!

3 comments:

  1. Not really that much now, but I do still drink and smoke here and there. I'm working in an environment where drinking is almost part of the job (advertising) so its tough to be as good as I'd like. One of if not the strongest rider in our club apparently smokes so it doesn't mean you can't be any good!

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  2. I'm just really surprised that a clearly talented rider does something that's so spectacularly damaging to your lungs. Don't want to appear to be preachy though! I've just started racing and really enjoy reading your blog - really hope to learn something as time's not on my side - 44 in a few weeks :-(
    Thanks
    Dave

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