A Mixed Bag

April turned out to be a challnging month in both racing and training. It all started off well with another good ride at the KCA 25, coming 1st and beating Seth Kay and Kevin Tye narrowly. This race was a little frustrating in a way, as my powertap battery died about 2 miles in, so it meant no race data. It turned out to be even more frustrating, as I wanted to see what progress had been made since the last TT at that sort of distance. Unfortunately I came down with a cold a couple of days later, and the next few rides subsquently provided not very good news. Was I going backwards before the KCA 25 or was I still putting out good power, I will just never know.

Another thing I did at the same time as coming down with a cold, was to change to an O Symetric ring. Now it isn't ideal to make a change whilst ill, but I thought it would be OK. The sore throat and the cough meant a little time off the bike during the week, but I wasn't feeling too bad by the weekend. I probably did a foolish thing, but I thought I would be OK, and I wanted to try the new ring out in a race. It was also one of the few times I will get a chance to set a fast 25 mile time, so off I went to the E2/25 for the Lea Valley 25 near Newmarket.

The race was not the best in terms of personal performance, power was around 20 watts down on what I know I could manage, and the legs just felt empty. I am guessing a combination of the cold, lack of cycling during the week, and the change in pedalling technique due to the O Symetric ring meant a substandard performance. It wasn't all bad news as I managed to just get a PB by 8 secs, just I wondered what time I could have managed if I had been able to produce the right sort of power, 4th place considering was a good result.

A busy week at work and the lingering cold, meant a slightly disjointed week. No matter how well my coach and I plan these away from home trips, it still means by the time I get home I am tired with at least 2 very long days, in the car and on site. I didn't help matters by causing a leg infection as well whilst away which meant a visit to the doctors and antibiotics.

A more sensible person wouldn't have entertained the idea of racing twice in a weekend, given the lingering cold, leg infection and general tiredness, but not me. I was down to race the Catford CC 10 on the Tonbridge bypass, and luckily I was off scratch so had a relatively late start of 08:00. Unfortunately I was also out on site working until 01:00, so by the time I got up to get the car packed etc, I think I got about 3-4 hours sleep. Now given all that I should have just stayed in bed, but I never like being a DNS if I feel I can race hard, so off I went to race.

I was hoping that I might be able to get a sub 20 min 10 in Kent, and given how I felt 2 weeks ago I though it was possible, but conditions on the day, and how I was feeling meant again down on power and a disappointing time. There were only 2 sub 20 min rides, with one being from Erick Rowsell (pro with Endura Racing), so I shouldn't be too upset, but just worried about the lack of power. Another 4th place wasn't too bad and a low 20 min ride is good, just not as good as I was hoping.

I sort of knew the Sydenham Wheelers 25 the following morning was likely to be another challenging race, I had decided to ride out to the event, 20 miles away, and just try and get some good mileage in as well. This meant lack of sleep again, as it meant a 04:30 alarm call to get ready. I felt better in the race than I did the previous weekend, though power still down, and hence time down. Lost out to Will Mangar and Kevin Tye this time, with my time being 30 secs slower than the KCA 25. Again not too unhappy, it was still encouraging to be close to the top when not 100%

I was getting over my cold all the time though, and with work easing, I had managed to get some good training in, leg infection seems to have gone as well,  so hopefully things will improve a little bit before my next event, the Beacon RCC Little Mountain TT (report in next blog)

Tally for 2012 so far

12 Races, 7 x 1st, 1 x 2nd and 2 x 3rd,  2 x 4th, 4 x course records