Well the end of my season has arrived with the end of the school holidays and an apparent drop in my form. I decided to listen to my body and take a month off before building up the base miles in October.
It’s been a great few months since I last updated. I moved focus from the criterium / circuit racing side of the sport to Open Time Trials. Most club cyclists will be familiar with 10 mile TTs as they are the backbone of many a UK club these days. We run one every wednesday in-season and I had seen some great improvements in the past year, having gone from a mid 27 minute 10 mile down to a mid 24. I thought that I was now at a level where I could try my hand at the next level up, the Open scene.
Open TTs are run under Cycling Time Trials regulations and need to be entered 10 days in advance with details from the CTT handbook. Once I’d worked out how to fill the entry forms, I entered a number of events in South Wales. Usually riders would start with a 10 or 25 mile TT and many will never compete at any distance longer than this. I was drawn into TTs by some friends who were entering the Welsh 12 hour championship. In this event you ride for 12 hours and record the longest distance you can. A baptism of fire in TT circles, but what the hell. I’d done 120 miles on the Dragon Ride and than was hilly. How bad could it be?
Not to bad on the legs but very painful in other areas apparently! I rode the event on what was probably one of the hottest days of the year in Wales. Temperatures hit 28C in the mid afternoon. The Welsh 12 is very well supported by roadside helpers with wet sponges, ice cream cones full of rice pudding, drinks, food bags and lots of encouragement. I was pacing myself by heart rate after a visit to the sport science lab to gauge an effort level which I could maintain for 12 hours. I kept to this for about 2 hours before upping the pace, fearing it was too slow. I was able to keep the higher pace but was hampered by problems with saddle pains later in the ride. This forced me off the bike for longer and longer periods. In the end I was off the bike for an hour and a half and recorded a distance of 201 miles.
After the 12, I was due to enter the Welsh 100 mile championship a few weeks later. This was a lot easier on the body as I had ordered a new saddle which alterd the way you sit entirely. Although not recommended to trial a new saddle in a long distance race, I figured it was better than the alternative I suffered in the 12. It was fine on the day and I managed to complete the distance in 4:32:56.
Next up was a 50 mile. I decided to pace this differently and split the event into 10 mile chunks which were displayed to me on the computer as I rode. This helped me keep a much faster pace and recorded a 2:08:36 which I was very happy with.
After the Welsh 12, I was disappointed that I hadn’t covered more distance. Whilst feeling strong mid-season, I entered the National 12 hour championships to try and better my PB. I put another 30 miles onto my distance bringing my 12 hour PB up to 230.90 miles on what was a tough course in the middle of the day with headwinds and rough road surface.
Finally I entered a 10 mile TT on the same bit of A40 which is common to the Welsh 12, the Welsh 100 and the Welsh 50. I certainly knew that bit of concrete Dual Carriage way well by now and a few club mates were entered too. This was my chance to record a 23 minute time. Unfortunately on the day I suffered up the drag to the turn and was only able to equal my PB from our much slower local Llety Gwyn course (24:34). This PB will have to wait for next season to be beaten.
