Friday 1 April 2016

the ups and downs of racing


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

No comments: