Race Reports
First up is my continued efforts in the Yorkshire Summer CX league. Sunday and Wednesday saw races at York and Killinghall, Harrogate. The weather at both was fine, dry and not windy either. Not my ideal conditions as this makes for fast paced racing with few technical challenges.
York, being my local race organised by York Cycleworks is very important to me. It is the flattest, most featureless course you could dream up for cx racing but the twisty, turny nature of the design and lack of recovery sections makes it probably the hardest course in the series as you are at full gas 100% of the time. The circle of doom is huge and seems to take forever to go in and come back out again.
I raced hard with a fairly good start and aggressive first lap to hold my position. As the race progressed I was quite literally seeing stars as the effort ramped up and I tried to maintain speed. The end came and I replaced the lung that seemed to have fallen out earlier in the race. My vision returned and I handed in my timing chip from my leg which was, surprisingly, still attached.
I had finished well (for me) in the standings, 6th in my age group.
Wednesday came around far too fast for my aching legs. A couple gentle days between had not cleared the muscles of all the pain incurred Sunday.
Oh well, we can but try.
This was an evening race which of course means some juggling with kids, Annabel, traffic etc. As always the family helped as best they could and I got to the course with 30 mins to sign in and warm up. Unfortunately the junior race had started so I could not ride the full course but had "the back half" to warm up on.
This course is one of my favourites. It has elevation change, fast bits, tricky bits, trees and another massive circle of doom to ride in and get lost for a while.
At the start I was feeling pretty good and as the whistle went I surged forward. Again a great start, perhaps too aggressive in some early corners as I locked the rear wheel a few times and had to use other rider to "rest upon" going round. All good fun and perfectly legal.I was ahead in my own private battle with friends Sven and Steve. Couple laps in and Steve seemed some way off but Sven was right behind and soon passed me. Couple more laps and Steve also went by and on to catch Sven and win our little battle. Things were not going great for me.
Another good friend Sam came past me on a corner and my rear wheel slid a bit much, losing air as it burped. I had to finish the race with a half inflated tyre. I managed to keep speed on the straight but corners had to be taken a little more gingerly so as not to cause more problems. A few more riders cruised by on the many corners.
This race saw me finish 14th in my age group which I was grateful for.
Will Strava ruin my life?
Strava is a magical thing that lets you know how fast you were on segments of road, trail, race course etc. It works via gps and a magic website.I am still fairly new to Strava and the gloss has yet to fade a little. I enjoy looking at my segment results and have some favourite local segments.
My problem is that I find it hard to ignore them. As I ride along on my gentle recovery ride my computer suddenly shouts at me the next segment challenge. As the distance countdown continues to the start of the segment I am also confronted with the name of a friend who is a bit quicker than me on that segment, personalising the challenge even more.
This gives me about 30 secs to try to ignore the challenge and continue riding at my gentle pace.
Can I do this?
Can I 'eck!
Before I know what is happening I am "giving it a go, nice and gently" which of course becomes "full gas, go, go, go"
Bang goes my recovery.
I know I should ignore it.
I know it is not helpful to good training.
I know, I know, I know.
Turn it off you fool.
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