A month can be a long time in racing
and since the last blog when the legs where just starting to get into the game
and the plan was coming together has gone really well , matt has been
destroying me with the training plan but boy the results are now speaking for
themselves with power pbs and race results.
The crazy nopinz so called silly socks are now well into the
main racing arena and can been seen sported by a lot of riders and the recent
event at the K41 where nopinz had a stand set up they were a sell out, so it
would seem in not the only one happy to look silly in the name of aero. But never
one to stand still and let the aero world pass him by Blake was onto the next
advance in wind cheating with the new custom placed trip strips added to the
Nopinz supersuit which I was lucky enough to get added to my suit recently,
clothing seems to be the next big area to find savings on race day and nopinz are
definitely leading the charge.
Training this month has taken its usual route, im smashed to
pieces then built back up stronger to be smashed again, but its finally come to
the point where I believe in myself abit more, I’m not wondering if I can hit a
certain power target for a race I’m wondering how much I can beat it by and if I
can push myself that little bit harder.
Racing has become fun again, a challenge, and no longer a constant
stream of disappointment. First up was the national 25 which I had been looking
forward to as I love the bigger events, I knew I wouldn’t be on my best form as
we were building for other targets but I knew I would be pretty strong. The week
leading up to the race I got ill on the Wednesday , just a stomach bug and I didn’t
think too much about it thinking it would pass, how wrong was I ! . up early on
race day and I was feeling pants, arriving at the HQ the first mission was to
find a loo , this was followed by another 8 trips before warm up started. I was
going to try and race so I thought in my head that if I start and its
horrendous I could just turn around at the roundabout a mile or so in this
course had loads of roundabouts so I always had the option, then if I got to
half way well I was on my way back anyway so I might as well keep going.
Power was down and I was expecting that, I got held up at
one of the early roundabouts and really had to get the power down to get back
up to speed and it was just a tad too much and resulted in me being sick whilst
trying to get my speed back but after it strangely felt alright like I needed
to get that out of my system. I survived all the way till around 18 miles when
the effort was really kicking in and I was sick again, just a little bit but
enough to really make me feel crap again.
I was on the dc again now with not long to go so it was just
head down and get back, the last section was really fast thankfully and I got
back with a 51:54 and a surprising 23rd place in a super strong field,
the next few hours resulting in just trying to smash as much food down as I could
to get my strength back up and it took till Thursday the next week to get back
to feeling right again.
Next up was the K41/10 course this is the course for this year’s
national 10 , I had heard it was a slow course so wanted to get a chance to
ride it before, Blake and I rode the course before the start and I liked it
strangely, it was a honest course no gifts and only one roundabout to deal
with, this one roundabout proved to be my down fall, I had super-fast Justin layne
starting one in front so had someone to chase fully expecting to get mullered
in the results mind, only to be shocked approaching the turn and seeing he hadn’t
made any time on me. I got to the turn just as a huge lorry was doing a full
circle around it followed by 4 slow moving vehicles , I had the moment
approaching it thinking will I make it across before he gets here but then
realising this was never going to happen had to slam the anchors on, what followed
was a lot of frantic arm waving and swearing which only held me up more as
people on the roundabout looked at me wondering what on earth was going on,
then I had the joy of trying to get 56/11 moving from a foot down start. I went
to the turn slightly under power expecting the return leg to be really hard but
it wasn’t that bad, I really pushed the second leg and finished with a 20:55
and a power pb so ticked off everything I wanted from the day and hopefully got
any bad luck out the way so il get a nice clean run at the turn on nationals
day. Looking at the result board I got 8th which would normally be
very disappointing but it was very close after the top 3 who stole the show and
I knew I deserved better from the day but that’s racing.
Confidence was good, I hadn’t touched my position for about
a month which is unheard of for me and I arrived at the R10/17 feeling great ,
legs where feeling good even though we had been training really hard and I felt
awesome in my head, I don’t generally like the R10/17 , I don’t know why it’s
just a to the turn and back dc course but I’ve never really got on with it so haven’t
been there for a few years, nut its fairly close and I needed another race in
the legs.
I went over with fellow nopinz rider crystal who trumped the
woman’s event claiming the 2015 welsh championship so the pressure was on. It was
a strong field , dean robson had beaten me by 30 seconds a few weeks before but
I was stronger now and really wanted to close that gap , ben anstie has always
beaten me , and Paul gamlin along with tom ward so it was a great chance to see
how everything was going. It’s a long drag to start then slightly drops into
the turn then the opposite on the way back so I knew I had to go hard on the drags,
I was holding power much higher than I had in previous races and holding my
position well, I had the battle in my head of this is more power than normal
lad you might wanna ease off ,but it felt good and I wanted to see how much I could
push on.
After the last drag back I knew I was on for a good time so
really buried myself for the last bit, I crossed the line for a 19:44 on a
course that a 19 is seen as I top ride and a big power pb even on top of the
power pb from the previous race, I rode back to the HQ knowing I had to be
close to the top and if I wasn’t well I couldn’t give anymore on the day. I
scanned the result board I had beaten ben by 3 seconds and Paul by 12 this was
looking good, then I see dean done a 19:41 and tom a 19:37 but I was still
happy with 3rd and the fact it was so close , but the power pb was
the key and it edges the tt power abit closer to the road bike.
It was the last club 10 last night for the Bristol VC which
is fairly local for me so it was a case of add some extra load to the legs.it
was a windy night and I had a rest day on Monday and I always go pants after a
rest day, so I donned my old skinsuit saving my race one and committed aero
suicide by not shaving my legs either. Time wasn’t a target tonight it was just
looking at where my power was. My pb on this course was set on a good day at
21:02 so finishing with a 21:06 and a course power pb was a big bonus, my legs
where screaming wondering why I was pushing them so hard after a rest day but
they produced when they are at their worst so it really sets me up great for
the last part of the year.
The seasons fast slipping away now and September will see
just local races and trying to iron out anything we need to and basically go
into the winter with everything hopefully looking good, get a solid winter in
and hit the ground running in 2016.
