March has been and gone, and racing and training have been going very well. In fact sometimes I think too well, though I am sure the coach has planned things right and we can still make some more progress as the longer races approach.
After the East Surrey Hardriders I was back racing locally in Kent, I entered the Kent Cycles RC 25 mile TT on a course I quite like. It doesn't get used alot to be honest I guess it is because it is a bit lumpy, but not every TT has to be a flatish dual carriageway speedfest (thought they are fun in another way). Obviously I had been going well the week before, and training had been going well, doing well in racing helps massively with motivation in training, but I still wasn't entirely sure of where I was compared to previous years. The race was a good one, and power was up compared to the previous year, and I set a course PB, not bad on a cold misty morning. I won the event as well which was great.
My next race was going to a big test of progress though, as I was working up North I entered a Yorkshire event, it was the first time I could race alongside my new teammates from Team Swift. There was a good entry, and although I don't really know some of the Yorkshire racers, I did know that Joel Wainman (Team Swift) and Philip Graves (Clifton CC) where seriously fast racers, and to be honest I was hoping to get in the top 3 at best. The race was the Harrogate Nova 24 Sporting event, which was 2 laps of a 12 mile loop on mainly B roads. It was a pleasent course, and although lumpy it didn't seem too bad compared to other courses I had done recently.
I knew what sort of power I could expect to do and I was a little surprised of how quick some of the parts of the course were. I tried to keep both laps an even effort and I gave it full beans along the A168 towards the finish. I set what I thought was a good time of 52:51, but I did expect others to go quicker. I was very pleasently surprised when I got back to the HQ and found out that I had actually won the event from Joel, with Phil Graves in 3rd. To say I was shocked was an understatement. It did prove that progress had been made though, with power being spot on with what was predicted. Another bonus was finding out that it was a new course record.
The last event of the month was another local event, and this one was going to be a flat one, but by no means easy. I was down as the scratch man for the De Laune CC 10. I am not really a fan of 10 mile TT's, they are just a wee bit too short for me to get into (or so I thought). For this race I thought I would ride out to the course, 20 odd miles away, do a recce of the course, and then race. This meant a nice warm up of 30 miles, which helped take any lingering stiffness out of my legs. It had turned cold again, well temps around March normal, but after the weather we had been having it felt very cold, and there was quite a bit of a crosswind for the majority of the course.
Being last off I could see what some of the early riders had managed, and it look liked it was fairly quick even with the wind (which made bike handling more challenging). I did think that one of the local riders might be more up for a 10 than myself, having done a few in the last week, so I thought I would have to be really on it to win the event. I had decided to try and race at similar power to what I had done some intervals in training, why I thought I could handle 20+ mins at a level I was doing 5 min intervals I am not sure. I guess really wanting the win, and the possiblity of another course record clouded my judgement a little.
I went out hard and kept it up to the turn, and then just tried to hang on on the return leg. One of the best things about being last off, is that you can do time checks on your rivals, I did this and realised I was up on the others. Now it was a case of trying to maximise this and trying to extend the gap, not always easy when right on the limt. I just kept on making sure power didn't drop too much, and then really trying to ramp it up over the last mile or so. I crossed the line and knew I had broken the previous course record (as long as no-one else had gone faster). I was extremely happy on getting back to the HQ to find out I had won by 43 secs, reduced the course record by 39 secs, and I had set a best ever 20 min power average. A 20:31 on a rural single carriageway course with no traffic, with 2 level crossing to cross twice, gives me a very good indication of what is possible later in the season.
It brought to an end a very successful March, and I am hoping that there is still progress to make so I am even fitter for when the main races start in the middle of May.
Tally for 2012 so far
8 Races, 6 x 1st, 1 x 2nd and 1 x 3rd, 4 x course records
