My first race is 10 March... alas well behind on training now :(
There is hoping I can still go on training camp though, first week of February... Fingers crossed! All dependent on needing a repair op or not...
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Well, I rode the MTB for half an hour, on the road. It was ok, so going to try the road bike tomorrow, for 45 minutes and see how that goes. Ride with a friend who is also convalescing after an op on a race injury on Sunday, idea is half hour out, coffee and cake, half hour back :)
Hopefully ok for commuting to the art fair in London next week, about half an hour each way, should be good for getting used to riding again... as long as the wound stays calm! Fingers crossed... Seeing a specialist for follow up and to assess if I need another repair op in two weeks time...
Lets hope I don't need one and can get back on the bike, been climbing the walls!
Did a 75-miler with the club last Saturday fairly steady (26kph av or summat) and felt like I'd been hit by a truck til Tuesday. That's what taking Dec off does.
Club vets racers' meeting tomorrow morning at Richmond Park for pre-season conflab and to see who's up for LVRC and who's suffering winter loss of form.
Hoping to get a couple of 3-4 cat crits under my belt in Feb to set myself up for some LVRC road races in the spring ...
Be prepared Zoot, LVRC road races are harder than 3/4 cat local races! Only, the standard of riding is usually way better in an LVRC race, which is why I preferred them... not as many risks of crashing due to stupidity from other, largely inexperienced, riders...
yeah I've heard both ways though: 3-4 cat crits can be v intense if you've got a bunch of 25-year-olds who are essentially on their way to being 2nds.
Whereas in LVRC the peloton tends to roll along a bit more sensibly ... but hey we'll find out.
Gonna target a 3-4 (or 4th only) for first weekend in Feb and then a couple more in the following month.
130km yesterday, largely on my own after getting fed up of stopping and waiting for people on the club ride ('I need something to eat' - for god's sake :confused:)
Av speed 26kph - just getting that base aerobic endurance ticking over.
You can eat something while you ride, ffs indeed Zoot :)
Be prepared in your first race to be shelled out of the back... It is normal and doesn't mean you aren't fast enough. Almost everyone has this expereince in their first race. I'd advise to stay near the front of the bunch at all times but not quite at the front and do not do any work, just look and see how it is done. If you stay near the front of the bunch you get dragged along, can see what racing is happening AND it gives you a buffer to drift back without being dropped. Also, the bungy effect is least at the front or near the front so again less chance of being spat out of the back around a bend or on a hill :) Also most crashes then tend to happen behind hyou and not in front so you are out of harms way!
I managed a little ride again today... building up slowly. Half an hour Friday, 50 minutes yesterday, today we did 1hr 45 minutes of riding time with a coffee and cake stop an hour in. My friend and I are both recovering from operations to a cycling race injury so both feeling a bit fragile and all that, so it worked well. Only, when we came to our original coffee point, 40 minutes in, we decided on a different route and coffee point which we later regretted as the ride really was about 25 minutes too long... ah well, the sun shone and we turned the pedals :)
it won't be my first Han, and I didn't get shelled out the back in that either ... :)
120km yesterday into Surrey - Battersea out through Carshalton, to Box Hill, Coldharbour, Leith Hill, Walliswood, Ewhurst, Cranleigh, Barhatch Lane, Shere, Ockham, Cobham, Esher, Kingston, back home. Stunning but bloody cold.
(PS. Han, I didn't know there was a 'pack' in women's road races - I thought five was the maximum field and everyone went home with a prize? :rolleyes: )