So the head was fully scrambled after
the crazy weekend of racing before and the long hours behind the wheel, but it
was Monday and there was a knock at the door and a shiny new giant trinity tt
bike at the door ( well it was a delivery man with a box that had a shiny new
giant tt bike in but you know what I mean ).
I rushed to unpack it thinking I could put a fair bit of it
together myself , I laid it all out and then realised with my pants mechanical
skills that would be very bad, so it was back in the box and down to see Greg
at Bomber Bikeworks who kindly pulled out all the stops to get the bike ready
for me. She is a thing of beauty looking super slick before anything was even
done to put all of it together.
I got the call on Friday she was ready to collect just in
time as I was racing in the morning, I got a whole 5 mins test ride in but that
was enough to know this was quality kit, the bike was 20mm lower on the front
than I was used to so was slightly concerned on how it would feel and effect my
position and power output.
Saturday came and it was off to the U7b in Dursley, a course
I know pretty well but never go great on, its to up and down for me and I can
never get a good rhythm on it, it can be a fast course if you ride it well but I
never seem to grasp it, but I like riding it as it’s a good marker course of
how I’m going.
Still full of cold and a burning throat I was a bit grumpy
and kept myself to myself at the HQ until I saw Richard franklin who had a bad
accident when I was riding a club event last year on the course and this was
his first visit back to the course since, bloody brave guy and put my cold and
sore throat into perspective.
On the warm up I had quadrupled the ride time I had on the
bike from the day before, the bike was feeling good, the brakes felt strong ( a
tt bike shocker as brakes are normally a joke on tt bikes ). I got to the start
and unwrapped the multi layers I had on to try and stay warm then I was off.
Over the first few miles I was moving around a lot and the
lower position was hitting my power but I was very conscious that I wasn’t well
and that was adding to it so I tried to block it out and keep the power up, on
the way out I was going well, there is a fast run into the roundabout but you
need a tad bit of luck to have a clear roundabout and today wasn’t my day for
it, I think the marshal on the turn shared my pain as he watched me try and get
56/11 moving again from a dead stop and a track stand.
The burst out of the turn and back up to speed was abit much
for the throat and the return was a horrible 4.something miles,I was losing
power and time fast and when I crossed the line looked like I was trying to
breath fire and the throat felt like it was as well,I felt battered and knew
maybe staying home would have been better for my overall health but I was happy
I got a race in on the bike to try and build abit of confidence.
I finished 2nd on the day to dean robson which is
nothing to be ashamed of , 15 seconds down on my course pb, I was nailed for
the rest of the day, I had got the race in on the bike but really done myself
no favours.
The next week I tried everything to shift the sore throat
and cold whilst still plugging away on the bike and gym work which is a battle you’ll
never win, keep kicking your body hard eventually it will kick back. But it was
off to wales for a 25 on the revised R25/7a which is part of the 100 course
from last year’s national.
It was bloody cold and I was staying in the car warm till
the last second, I wrapped myself up with the winter gloves and jacket and made
my way to the start, warming up I had the mental battle of you know you’re
going to do well and you know you’re not feeling great and have you got a good
25 miles in you.
The start is on the back road section and I was keen to get
this done and get back on the dc part of the course, get in a rhythm and get
the speed up, shivering in the 3.4c which was feeling that much colder with the
wind I was glad I kept my huge winter gloves on, aero was the last thing on my
mind at this time.
Power was down but about what I was holding last year, we
had been to Newport velodrome and found it was quicker aero wise that bit lower
but I would have to suffer and getting stronger in that position to get the
benefits that I was currently losing in power so I stuck with it.
Then came the long leg of headwind right down the dc, I knew
the few miles back should be quick so I really had to bury my head and get the
work done here in the headwind, I was feeling crap I could feel I was really
having to fight to hold the power and desperately wishing the turn would come,
you can see for miles on that strip of road which made it worse as you could
see the end of the battering headwind but it never seemed to get any closer.
Finally I got there I was spent, I got back on the dc with the view of if I could
get the legs back up to speed the wind should help me hold it there and it
would be plain sailing for the 7 miles back to the finish. All was going to
plan I was just hanging covered in snot and fighting for breath but the speed
was there, I hit a section about 4 miles from the start that basically the wind
was no longer behind me but slightly trying to fight me again. I used my last
bit getting past it and then it was a fight to the end, form and holding the
position had gone out the window by now I was done but I still had to finish,
crossing the line I was just grateful to finish, plodding back to the HQ chatting
to a few riders you could see that was a tough day for everyone.
All wrapped up again and just wanted to get home I went to
drop my number back and was shocked to see I won by I think 27 seconds which I was
very pleased with and was worth the battering I had given myself, I really
needed that result it had been a tough few weeks.
The inevitable happened the next week and I got ill, my body
just said f off and if you’re not going to stop il do it for you, the shakes
and constant tiredness and not being able to eat tied in with an easy L2
session feeling like top end intervals was a sure sign to stop. I was really
frustrated as I had two races in over the bank holiday before kicking back from
racing in April, the Saturday race was a no go, I was hanging and the weather
looked bad with high winds, I only have one race wheel a 90mm so the decision
not to ride was made that bit easier, I was holding onto Monday on the F11/10
but that got cancelled due to weather so as frustrating as it was to miss racing
the decisions had pretty been made for me so it wasn’t so bad.
Thursday was the first day back training I had missed nearly
a week of training and the first session back I was going to make it count, I needed
to get my motivation and confidence back.
Confidence and motivation are a funny pair to me,ive had
these conversations with many people many times as I really struggle with both
at times for no reason at all and people say how on earth can you be struggling
for motivation, you ride in a great team with great riders you have a lot of
top people helping you out, you’re getting good results etc etc , I know I’m
hitting my numbers in training, I’m getting lighter but stronger so what on
earth is going on. I think it comes down to a few things 1/ I always know I can
do more or think I should be doing something more 2/ in my head I need to tick
all the boxes, could I have a better position, would that wheel be faster than
what I have ( testing says yes ) , will the wind tunnel answer all my questions
etc. etc. .
It’s the unknown and not knowing all the answers that pushes
me back at times and pushes me to try harder others.
I had hit one of those blocks in the last week and I could
see it coming for a while in all honesty until it reached the point yesterday
when I had to have a serious chat to myself and get the work done and have the
confidence in myself that it can be done and really learn to let go of the
things out of my control, I know I can’t afford the wind tunnel and the best
kit so why let it take up so much thought time.
I’m massively looking forward to what will be my greatest achievement
and proudest moment ever my son being born very soon, I think this will take
away the overthinking time I currently have and really make every second I have
in training important and make the little worries about all the little things disappear,
which in turn will hopefully reflect in my racing (once I get used to no sleep).
On a huge bonus note I got into a small, yes a small
Drag2zero endura team skinsuit this week which is crazy at 6”2 and yes it fits
and I’m not ripping out of it.
I’ve also had time to spend with the giant tt bike and I’m
currently setting up my turbo frame to replicate the position to get stronger
and help bring the power back up in the tt position, I was gutted to have to
give the giant trinity advanced back to giant last week that they had very
kindly let me borrow for the last month or so but I’m going to try hard to
fight my nemesis the turbo trainer to get that tt position strength.
On another bonus I’m finally with the help of Lisa from
action potential clinic in Bristol getting on top of my leg problem from the
broken speedplay pedal,my body despite a lot of foam rolling and stretching
based around the problem just doesn’t want to let go of the tension in my IT
bands and Calf and some extremely painful deep massage seems to be the only way
to really get it out.im really looking forward to a visit it team bottrill
sponsors http://functionjigsaw.co.uk/ to have
one of their screening sessions alongside starting to
use their active kit to find out how we can prevent this becoming a reoccurring
problem, which I can then feedback through Simon at www.thesprinttriathloncoach.co.uk
and Lisa to really tackle the problem and make sure we are taking all the steps
to save me future injuries or knocks in performance.
I think this month’s lesson is really a case in yes you will
get knocks and you will get ill and lose motivation but it’s normal and its
what you do about it after that counts.
I’m really grateful to rich at www.jerseypocketenergy.co.uk for
filling the gap I was constantly falling in with on the bike eating and quick
quality after session nutrition and on the go snacks its really helped me hit
my 2950 (not including on the bike food) calorie a day target solely with
quality foods which is helping me stay on the nutrition wagon.
So it’s a block of no racing now and a real focus on
training, I need to really push on now and get the sessions done and really
focus on going forward. Team bottrill is going strong and looking at the
results everyone is driving home week in week out is really giving me a kick up
ass to get faster, I need to get faster to earn my place there at the end of
the day as the compition within is crazy, but hey that’s why I wanted to be
part of it.
I will do a full giant tt bike review soon as its abit much
to tag onto an already pretty full blog.
Thanks again to everyone that supports me in my racing and
has my back it means a lot
