English
With cross on the weekends, training hours increasing and uni getting more tense, combine that with the fuss of organising a wedding, there’s just not been enough hours in a day or at least that’s how its felt lately. However, I’ve made a good start to what is and will continue to be a hard winters training combining weight training, circuit training, hard intervals sessions, tempo rides and long and slow to complete my weeks training diary.
On 17th Oct I raced round 3 of the Welsh Cyclo Cross League near Pontypool with a course designed by cyclo cross fast boy Andy Baum who won the first two rounds, I knew that I would have to look sharp if I was to get a result against him on his home turf. The course itself was very fast and flowing with one climb from the bottom of the course to the top to end the lap. Gridded mid pack due to missing the first two rounds I managed by the end of lap two to get the front of the race lead by Andy Baum and William Worrell (1st year Junior).
It was clear to me that I was going to suffer for this race as whenever I was trying to push that big gear my legs just blew up and also taking a long time to recover. I said to myself when I made contact with the two leaders that “if I can sit on the wheel for a lap or two until I’ve recovered then perhaps put some pressure on the race”. However, I never seemed to really recover from the effort of getting to the front and continued to sit on the wheel for the remainder of the race…shame on me!
By the start of the last lap I give it some beans in the hope that Andy was tired from his strong race efforts to see if I could get a gap. Luckily I did manage to open a small gap which allowed me to take my first win of the cross season, but maybe next time I wont be so lucky…
Every week I feel more and more quality work has been put in and that its all a stepping stone to what I feel will be a corker of a mountain bike season in 2011. On the weekend of the 24th Oct I was going to race round 4 of the Welsh Cross League in Carmarthen, but it would also clash with my stag do the previous night. However , my plan was to still wake up after my night out and race the following day whatever my condition…maybe the perfect way to cure a hangover…!?!?
A day paint balling, few hours in my local, followed up by a night at the comedy club in Cardiff proved to much for me the following morning and as all my stags predicted I didn’t make the race the next morning. Now back to normality, despite feeling a bit weak at the moment due to a stomach bug I’m training hard and looking forward to this coming weekend where I will be racing round 2 of the National Trophy Series in Ipswich.
Race Report & Results
http://www.cyclocrosswales.co.uk/leaguereport10.3.html