Well, it's been a busy last 12 days...
Sunday 9th June - Scottish 25m TT Champs.
Hosted by our very own Aberdeen Wheelers. What a lot of work went into that, and I'm not talking about the cyclists. I have a lot to learn about cycling but even more to learn about how to organise a great cycling event, but the Wheelers pulled it off. Road surfaces were repaired in time, enthusiastic marshals, slick time keeping, constant leaderboard updates projected via laptop to keep everyone up to date, outstanding cakes and sandwiches. We even managed to keep the wind and rain at bay long enough for the top lads to record some awesome times.
I was well off the pace and way down the board but my 00:57:31 was my first time under the hour, and season target number one checked off the list. We were well supported by the other clubs in the region and some of our lifetime members came out to wish us the best... great club. Proud day.
Tuesday 11th June - Meigle 10m TT
I signed up to this one because I needed some competitions to give me more experience and I was advised that it was a fast course... (John Hunter, you've been named and shamed). I drove down from work with enough spare time to give the course a quick recce, I was of the immediate opinion that it was neither a night or a course for fast times but as I said, I needed the experience.
When it comes to gaining experience, there's little point in doing exactly the same thing every time or you'll never know what works and what doesn't. So for the warm up, previously I've jumped on the bike and ridden 2-3 miles and generally got my heart rate up to about 90% of race pace, eased off, waited at the line for 5 minutes then set off. This time I started my warm up precisely 30mins before my shove off time. I gently wound the pace up over a mile so that I was close to race pace then backed it down and did the same thing over again half a dozen times. I got back to the start line 2 mins before the off and got my heart rate down as low as the adrenaline would let it (110bpm).
On the road, I gave it slightly more gas over the first mile than I usually would getting up to speed as quickly as possible, then easing off before my heart rate caught up and went shooting into the red. I tried to stay as close to my threshold (which seems to be about 174bpm) as I dared. It was a rolling 5 miles into Coupar Angus, a double roundabout then back out. It's a toughish climb back out of CA onto the rolling road to Meigle. I crossed the line with a low 23min which was enough for 5th place on the night but I felt that I had managed to get about as much out of myself as I could, which gave me confidence that the training was coming together and a good performance wasn't too far away.
Thursday 13th June - District Road Race #3
It might have been the 3rd RR for the district but it was RR number 1 for me.
I was really looking forward to this race, knowing that there was zero expectation from me. A lumpy 37 miler littered with Cat 2 and Cat 3 riders. The instruction had been to stay with the group, stay safe and enjoy.
With zero experience of riding in a group of this size at this pace, I felt out of my depth immediately. I quickly dropped myself to the back of the group and stayed there for the first 17 miles until lap 1 was complete. With 1 x 17 mile loop plus a 3.5 mile finish left to go I thought it best to move up through the group before any meaningful breaks started up. Over the next 4-5 miles I managed to manoeuvre myself up to about 15-20th place. Tucked into the group sheltering from the headwind, the confidence was growing that I could first of all - finish, and secondly - finish with the group. That feeling lasted all of about 1 mile when I got a puncture... Bugger!
One of the lads went past and told me to hold my hand in the air to warn the other cyclists to go round me and to let the follow up car know that I was having a problem (Cheers Fletcher). I got the wheel whipped off and changed out within about 60-80 seconds. I gave chase as hard and as long as I could but into a decent headwind I couldn't make much more than 18-20mph, the peloton disappeared into the distance at about 25mph. After 3 miles of pursuit I sat up on the saddle and decided with another 2 races to go it wasn't worth busting the legs to finish last. The purpose of the race was to give me some experience and some miles in the legs - box ticked.
I cruised round the remainder of the second lap and stopped at HQ. Got the bike cleaned up and put away just as the finishers were coming back with grins from ear to ear. I met up with a couple of lads from other clubs that I've been following on Strava and we chatted away. A great event staged by Deeside Thistle - again, great post race cakes and camaraderie.
Sunday 16th June - Ian Brodie Memorial 10mTT
Having done nothing but chill since Thursday I was reasonably happy that my legs would be back in good shape and ready for another assault. With no other local 10m TT on the calendar for this year (family holiday booked in September - Doh!), I had targeted this as a potential season peak.
Relatively pleased with my warm up from Tuesday I thought a repeat would be a good enough idea. So I took care of the rest of my pre-race rituals in plenty of time so that with 30mins to go I started my clock, snapped the pedals into place and set off down the road. 6 miles and 30 mins later I was ready for 5-4-3-2-1-GO!
Having looked at the wind direction and being familiar with the course I had decided that going hell for leather from the off was a reasonable plan. Again, it's better to try and fail than to play it safe and fail anyway. My plan was going great for about the first half mile until I caught up with the cars in front of me who couldn't decide where they were going. My speed slowed and slowed again until the Sunday driver decided it was intact the second right he was looking for. It wasn't his fault that there was a cyclist doing a TT behind him and I probably only lost 10 seconds but I was spitting bullets for the next 10 minutes, which probably got me to the half way point faster than I was expecting. With no tailwind for the second half of the horseshoe course the lumps were taking their toll. But knowing the finish was getting closer I emptied the tank with a little under a mile left to go. Anybody watching would have though some angry asthmatic was taking life entirely too seriously. I crossed the line in a PB of 22:21 which was 9 seconds under my personal target (22:30 - box ticked) but a full 30 seconds under my previous best. I knew I was in with a shout of a podium but was surprised to find it enough for 1st place on the day. A great way to start Father's day.
HQ was again full of smiley faces, everyone with their own tale to tell about their personal experience/race. Deeside Thistle doing themselves proud with another event smoothly organised and well supported within a few days. Almost all of the Aberdeen Wheelers recorded a PB, some taking off over a minute (James - Kudos!), all testimony to stalwart, Boab Gibson, giving up his Tuesday nights to go round setting up the various TT courses, clearing it all up afterwards, organising the timekeepers and shovers, all the while keeping it a light hearted welcoming environment for anyone looking to come along and join the club.
Wednesday 19th June - Ythan 15m TT
My 5th race in 11 days was looking doubtful for a short while. When everyone arrived at HQ it became apparent that the council had seen fit to re-surface 3 miles of the 15 mile course with loose chippings that afternoon. The marshals had a look and quickly decided to abandon the planned route and instead adopt a non standard 10.8 mile route which had a Cat 4 climb near the start. Although I've managed to come down from 14st 5lbs at the start of the year to 13st 6lbs, I still view myself as too heavy to be a threat in the hills. But still buoyant from Sunday's performance I was keen to get to the start line and see how I would hold out.
The new warm up routine, quickly becoming the standard warm up routine, served me well again. Arriving with a few minutes to go and the honour of being last man off. The hilly course offered a few hard challenges over the first half. With a dead turn in the road, which was well marshalled, and with a few words of encouragement from the Ythan flag bearer I set off on the return leg of the last local TT I have planned for 2013, feeling surprisingly fresh. I managed to increase the pace a bit on the way home. A couple of Wheelers had cycled out from Aberdeen to lend their encouragement to the riders and gave me a few cheers as I came into the last few miles (much appreciated lads). The long drag up to the finish saw the engine go past the threshold into the lactic zone for the last 30 seconds - Job done.
Back at HQ, I found out that my 25:11 was enough for 2nd place on the day, 63sec behind a very classy SVB. It wasn't perhaps as glorious as the 1st place on Sunday but I was happier with the personal performance, as I'd exceeded my expectations by quite a bit. On one hand I'm disappointed that my personal race calendar doesn't have much left on it, so early in the season, but I'm happy that I managed to have a few honest runs this week. A puncture, slipped chain, head cold/flu, work or personal commitments could have converged to scupper a busy week but my luck held and I'll enjoy it while I can, as on another week, the training might have gone in, I might be in great shape, but it might not all come together on the day.
My next event will be tackling the Alps early in July. Hope for a safe trip there and a few lbs dropped on the scales - 13st target for end of season!
Sunday 9th June - Scottish 25m TT Champs.
Hosted by our very own Aberdeen Wheelers. What a lot of work went into that, and I'm not talking about the cyclists. I have a lot to learn about cycling but even more to learn about how to organise a great cycling event, but the Wheelers pulled it off. Road surfaces were repaired in time, enthusiastic marshals, slick time keeping, constant leaderboard updates projected via laptop to keep everyone up to date, outstanding cakes and sandwiches. We even managed to keep the wind and rain at bay long enough for the top lads to record some awesome times.
I was well off the pace and way down the board but my 00:57:31 was my first time under the hour, and season target number one checked off the list. We were well supported by the other clubs in the region and some of our lifetime members came out to wish us the best... great club. Proud day.
Tuesday 11th June - Meigle 10m TT
I signed up to this one because I needed some competitions to give me more experience and I was advised that it was a fast course... (John Hunter, you've been named and shamed). I drove down from work with enough spare time to give the course a quick recce, I was of the immediate opinion that it was neither a night or a course for fast times but as I said, I needed the experience.
When it comes to gaining experience, there's little point in doing exactly the same thing every time or you'll never know what works and what doesn't. So for the warm up, previously I've jumped on the bike and ridden 2-3 miles and generally got my heart rate up to about 90% of race pace, eased off, waited at the line for 5 minutes then set off. This time I started my warm up precisely 30mins before my shove off time. I gently wound the pace up over a mile so that I was close to race pace then backed it down and did the same thing over again half a dozen times. I got back to the start line 2 mins before the off and got my heart rate down as low as the adrenaline would let it (110bpm).
On the road, I gave it slightly more gas over the first mile than I usually would getting up to speed as quickly as possible, then easing off before my heart rate caught up and went shooting into the red. I tried to stay as close to my threshold (which seems to be about 174bpm) as I dared. It was a rolling 5 miles into Coupar Angus, a double roundabout then back out. It's a toughish climb back out of CA onto the rolling road to Meigle. I crossed the line with a low 23min which was enough for 5th place on the night but I felt that I had managed to get about as much out of myself as I could, which gave me confidence that the training was coming together and a good performance wasn't too far away.
Thursday 13th June - District Road Race #3
It might have been the 3rd RR for the district but it was RR number 1 for me.
I was really looking forward to this race, knowing that there was zero expectation from me. A lumpy 37 miler littered with Cat 2 and Cat 3 riders. The instruction had been to stay with the group, stay safe and enjoy.
With zero experience of riding in a group of this size at this pace, I felt out of my depth immediately. I quickly dropped myself to the back of the group and stayed there for the first 17 miles until lap 1 was complete. With 1 x 17 mile loop plus a 3.5 mile finish left to go I thought it best to move up through the group before any meaningful breaks started up. Over the next 4-5 miles I managed to manoeuvre myself up to about 15-20th place. Tucked into the group sheltering from the headwind, the confidence was growing that I could first of all - finish, and secondly - finish with the group. That feeling lasted all of about 1 mile when I got a puncture... Bugger!
One of the lads went past and told me to hold my hand in the air to warn the other cyclists to go round me and to let the follow up car know that I was having a problem (Cheers Fletcher). I got the wheel whipped off and changed out within about 60-80 seconds. I gave chase as hard and as long as I could but into a decent headwind I couldn't make much more than 18-20mph, the peloton disappeared into the distance at about 25mph. After 3 miles of pursuit I sat up on the saddle and decided with another 2 races to go it wasn't worth busting the legs to finish last. The purpose of the race was to give me some experience and some miles in the legs - box ticked.
I cruised round the remainder of the second lap and stopped at HQ. Got the bike cleaned up and put away just as the finishers were coming back with grins from ear to ear. I met up with a couple of lads from other clubs that I've been following on Strava and we chatted away. A great event staged by Deeside Thistle - again, great post race cakes and camaraderie.
Sunday 16th June - Ian Brodie Memorial 10mTT
Having done nothing but chill since Thursday I was reasonably happy that my legs would be back in good shape and ready for another assault. With no other local 10m TT on the calendar for this year (family holiday booked in September - Doh!), I had targeted this as a potential season peak.
Relatively pleased with my warm up from Tuesday I thought a repeat would be a good enough idea. So I took care of the rest of my pre-race rituals in plenty of time so that with 30mins to go I started my clock, snapped the pedals into place and set off down the road. 6 miles and 30 mins later I was ready for 5-4-3-2-1-GO!
Having looked at the wind direction and being familiar with the course I had decided that going hell for leather from the off was a reasonable plan. Again, it's better to try and fail than to play it safe and fail anyway. My plan was going great for about the first half mile until I caught up with the cars in front of me who couldn't decide where they were going. My speed slowed and slowed again until the Sunday driver decided it was intact the second right he was looking for. It wasn't his fault that there was a cyclist doing a TT behind him and I probably only lost 10 seconds but I was spitting bullets for the next 10 minutes, which probably got me to the half way point faster than I was expecting. With no tailwind for the second half of the horseshoe course the lumps were taking their toll. But knowing the finish was getting closer I emptied the tank with a little under a mile left to go. Anybody watching would have though some angry asthmatic was taking life entirely too seriously. I crossed the line in a PB of 22:21 which was 9 seconds under my personal target (22:30 - box ticked) but a full 30 seconds under my previous best. I knew I was in with a shout of a podium but was surprised to find it enough for 1st place on the day. A great way to start Father's day.
HQ was again full of smiley faces, everyone with their own tale to tell about their personal experience/race. Deeside Thistle doing themselves proud with another event smoothly organised and well supported within a few days. Almost all of the Aberdeen Wheelers recorded a PB, some taking off over a minute (James - Kudos!), all testimony to stalwart, Boab Gibson, giving up his Tuesday nights to go round setting up the various TT courses, clearing it all up afterwards, organising the timekeepers and shovers, all the while keeping it a light hearted welcoming environment for anyone looking to come along and join the club.
Wednesday 19th June - Ythan 15m TT
My 5th race in 11 days was looking doubtful for a short while. When everyone arrived at HQ it became apparent that the council had seen fit to re-surface 3 miles of the 15 mile course with loose chippings that afternoon. The marshals had a look and quickly decided to abandon the planned route and instead adopt a non standard 10.8 mile route which had a Cat 4 climb near the start. Although I've managed to come down from 14st 5lbs at the start of the year to 13st 6lbs, I still view myself as too heavy to be a threat in the hills. But still buoyant from Sunday's performance I was keen to get to the start line and see how I would hold out.
The new warm up routine, quickly becoming the standard warm up routine, served me well again. Arriving with a few minutes to go and the honour of being last man off. The hilly course offered a few hard challenges over the first half. With a dead turn in the road, which was well marshalled, and with a few words of encouragement from the Ythan flag bearer I set off on the return leg of the last local TT I have planned for 2013, feeling surprisingly fresh. I managed to increase the pace a bit on the way home. A couple of Wheelers had cycled out from Aberdeen to lend their encouragement to the riders and gave me a few cheers as I came into the last few miles (much appreciated lads). The long drag up to the finish saw the engine go past the threshold into the lactic zone for the last 30 seconds - Job done.
Back at HQ, I found out that my 25:11 was enough for 2nd place on the day, 63sec behind a very classy SVB. It wasn't perhaps as glorious as the 1st place on Sunday but I was happier with the personal performance, as I'd exceeded my expectations by quite a bit. On one hand I'm disappointed that my personal race calendar doesn't have much left on it, so early in the season, but I'm happy that I managed to have a few honest runs this week. A puncture, slipped chain, head cold/flu, work or personal commitments could have converged to scupper a busy week but my luck held and I'll enjoy it while I can, as on another week, the training might have gone in, I might be in great shape, but it might not all come together on the day.
My next event will be tackling the Alps early in July. Hope for a safe trip there and a few lbs dropped on the scales - 13st target for end of season!
Season Peak 2013 - Part B, looks like it might be a 10m TT PB sometime around late August / early September. See if that 22min barrier can be looked at.
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