Yes, that discipline known for not need anaerobic fitness 🙂
If it took place in summer I'd be tempted! If I had more time in the evenings I'd like to do some testing. Quite honestly if I [i]really [/i]wanted to then I probably could, I've only really got myself to blame! I'm happy though!
After last year, I can confirm that if you already have high basal fitness, a few MONTHS off won't have much consequence! You're already starting from a place above most cyclists and the general public. Now I don't worry. A race taper should be two weeks anyway ;-).
Set some realistic but achievable new objectives to keep your motivation up. Then crack on.
Not quite I the same league as you lot, but my Wife having a baby in October meant that I did literally no riding for 5 straight month at all!
Since then, I've been lucky to get out for a spin in my lunch time at work once a wek, which I have to keep fairly short at around 50 mins.
I was pretty unfit last year, but have since seen new lows of all out crapness.
Got the Twentyfour12 in a team next month & basically sacked it off as a weekend's camping with a bit of riding thrown in. I struggled round the course last year, and am much unfitter this year 😆
In fact, that reminds me - the full sus hasn't been ridden since last years Twentyfour12 and the number board is still attached to it!! Should really give it a spin at some point before July to make sure it's alright!!!
Set some realistic but achievable new objectives to keep your motivation up. Then crack on.
It's this I'm struggling with at the moment. Hear some people reporting fatigue lasting months after the actual illness has passed for glandular fever so I've no idea of recovery timeframe. And a big scale back in ambition after much hard work is difficult to swallow.
Not quite I the same league as you lot, but my Wife having a baby in October meant that I did literally no riding for 5 straight month at all!
🙂 That was me 4 years ago when we had our first child! Coincided with an injury but I didn't run or ride for about a year, got very unfit and put on quite a bit of weight. With the second child I think I only missed two days of training (a lot of turbo with the baby monitor.)
Off the antibiotics, back at work, managed a couple of hour long Z2 sessions on the turbo.
Now starting to regress - feel really crap with no energy.
adsh, that sucks.
Fairly positive here. Done a few z2 rides, hard work but it's not killed me. Have an entry for a race on a good course on Saturday and I'm half thinking of doing it. Probably not a great idea. Shall test the legs a bit this week and see if they are up to it.
No Beastway tomorrow then? Bad luck...
Well rather unusually for me (doesn't help having 2 little kids) I've not had so much as a sniffle since the first week of January.
I've only managed one or two XCO races and decided they're not for me, I much prefer the longer events.
I've managed a bit more training / riding that last year and have got my average speed up on the road (where the majority of it takes palce), improved my climbing and been banging out PR's off road also.
With Mayhem this weekend as a soloist I'm looking forwards to it and feel in fine fettle, last time (2014) I dragged my way round 17 laps and 41st after being on the verge of hospitalisation at the end of April due to suspected pneumonia and having to take over 6 hours off to have a kip. If I'd managed another 4 laps I would've been breaking into the top 20.
Hopefully I can keep going for the full 24, get over 20 laps in and try and bag a good top 20 finish.
Good luck Steve, think you 24hr guys are all nutters! Race pace for 1.5hrs is more thna enough for me!
adsh, take it easy, Last time i was really ill it took a month of just going for an hours walk each day before i felt like fatigue left me.
Not doldrums here exactly, but busy beating myself up about my performance last weekend. It was the course I had pinned for a decent result and i had my worst national showing this year. Severely lacking confidence in my technical abilities so riding b-lines when I know I'd be happy riding the a-lines if just riding. Should have pushed harder on the climbs (easy to say now), if I'd ridden the a-lines I'd have stuck with a group and probably pushed harder, went from a 30 minute lap in first lap to 35 minutes for the other 3.
At least you raced the course ferrals! As I said to you at the weekend I massively freaked out right at the top and didn't line up (probably the sensible decision to be honest)
So like you, I'm not really in the doldrums but I am really beating myself up about it still. The worst part is I feel like I've completely lost my mojo for riding anything at the moment.
That's bike racing I suppose...
In the meantime I'm spending my non-riding time looking up my options for a FS 650b race bike
Cheer up chaps I feel like that after every race 🙂
Just got in from work and I'm not racing until next Wednesday (marshalling tomorrow), so I'm supposed to be on the Turbo tonight for some Over Unders but all I want to do is drink beer... Help!
Good Luck Steve b77. Im doing 2 Twelves (Hadleigh & Torque) and the Bonty 24 this year, just switched my weekly routine to include long Z2's to accommodate, and have a whole day riding around and around a Forest scheduled for a few weeks time.
Everyone, I've decided only a 'Dale FSI is good enough for my HT race desires, I've just got to find out how to pay for one....
Just drink some beer, won't make an iota of difference to anything
Kryton, the answer is clear.
Man up, do the intervals and have the beer as a recovery drink 🙂
Lol, the decision has been made; I forgot its Mrs K's dancing lessons tonight, so I'm [s]having a beer and watching a movie[/s] babysitting, my turbos too far away from the house to leave the kids alone.
Haha Kryton, valid point, I rarely feel happy with my performance! I'm also on beer training this evening after my chain snapped twice within 45 mins of my ride.
Everyone, you weren't the only one to not start after a practise lap, I know one other in sport definately didn't and there were a few people not lining up for one reason or another. A few didn't start the Welsh either, it's not an easy course in the wet.
t's not an easy course in the wet.
Too true!
Cannock is the next national round for me so I think that should be a little less technical.
Yeah Cannock is the only national left. Looking forward to it. Looks like pretty smooth singletrack with a couple of bomb holes and a rock garden? How hilly is it? Videos make it look flat but they always flatten things. I loved how tight the racing was at Pembrey so hoping for similar, the big hills and hard descents blew apart the field on sat.
Yea there's no savage long climbs like Dalby/Fforest fields but they do manage to always pack in a surprising amount of elevation changes. I'm interested to see how much of a time penalty the B line around the ruddy massive rock garden will be, I don't even fancy trying to mince down that!
Everyone, I've decided only a 'Dale FSI is good enough for my HT race desires, I've just got to find out how to pay for one....
Nice. Which one? The carbon 2 probably looks the pick of the bunch if going for a full build. 24 months interest free credit at pedalon 🙂
A session on the turbo last night, 90 mins with 40 mins of tempo which went ok, and don't feel wiped out this morning either, encouraging. May attempt a local 10 on Thursday to test the legs. Race season reboot in July!
Speaking to one other good testers in our club, he's raced 30+ times already this year and getting some great results. I've done 6, that was not the plan 🙁
I'm interested to see how much of a time penalty the B line around the ruddy massive rock garden will be, I don't even fancy trying to mince down that!
Hopefully not too much! I'm going to go up on the friday so will give it a crack with knee pads on! I'm pretty certain it'll be out of my league.
Interestingly at FF, they shortened the second b-line after the first lap as it had a massive time penalty. I counted 6 riders go past me on lap one. Think it was a good call as I also heard juniors in practice saying 'I don't think i can ride that, but the b-lines too long so I'll have to try in the race'
Kryton, those cannodales do look amazing!
There's a video on YouTube with the rock garden from the last time the nationals were there. It looks like there might be a nicer line on one side of it but even so, some of the elites still had some moments on it!
I think that B line from the weekend was something close to a 30s penalty, I know the climbs were big but trying to make up that sort of deficit is ridiculous!
Cycle to work. Get hit by car. Have bike and kit trashed and have doc tell you 4 weeks off bike (and work) for torn leg muscles to heal. There's nothing like an enforced break to help with getting mojo back.
Up until the accident I was averaging 150 miles a week and had got through winter without as much as a cold, supposed to be on holiday in Belgium riding iconic roads this week and racing a summer CX series in July...
ferrals - Member
Good luck Steve, think you 24hr guys are all nutters! Race pace for 1.5hrs is more thna enough for me!
Hang on a minute, who said anything about race pace 😯 All I need to do i average about 11-12 kph. Its more of a ride at a pace where i can hold a conversation with similar nutters and get to my target of 20 laps. Anything after that is a bonus.
Hang on a minute, who said anything about race pace All I need to do i average about 11-12 kph. Its more of a ride at a pace where i can hold a conversation with similar nutters and get to my target of 20 laps. Anything after that is a bonus.
That sounds highly civilised. My only 24 solo attempt was at Relentless last year, and the entire course was either steep climbs or descending - conversational pace was non-existent for mere mortals.
Cycle to work. Get hit by car. Have bike and kit trashed and have doc tell you 4 weeks off bike (and work) for torn leg muscles to heal. There's nothing like an enforced break to help with getting mojo back.
Shiiiiit 😯
Ah ****.. The final 2 races of Beastway tomorrow & Saturday and MSG on Sunday and...
...I've woken up with a bad cold. Blocked nose, stream nose & eyes, headache...
If only it had waited one more week!
[i]I'm interested to see how much of a time penalty the B line around the ruddy massive rock garden will be, I don't even fancy trying to mince down that! [/i]
Use a dropper?
In an out of the doldrums / no good at XCO kinda thing, I rode my way round to 9th overall at Mountain Mayhem in the Solo category in rather grippy muddy conditions, 19 laps, 213.5km & 6200m of climbing 
I now have my first cold of the year and a whacking great Coldstream on my top lip, bloody hard work this 24 hours solo stuff.
Nice work Steve. I'm currently prepping for my own - 3rd - solo attempt at the Bonty at the end of July.
oh god, I just went for a pootle with Mrs K on the school run, as a pretext to tomorrows race with no intensity due to my cold.
I'm aching all over, this isn't going to go well is it?
🙁
My racing plans have been ruined this year, the southern enduro series which I had pre-entered all rounds + a handful of local dh races.
Damaged knee at bpw at the beginning of may. Waiting for a date for the op still.
Additionally my 1st ever morzine trip in july has had to be cancelled also.
Use a dropper
Unless he has one that's quite an expense for one section of one race, and it's not that likely to revolutionise his riding of said section!
I've still not done a proper XC race this year, which means I have no points, which I think means I lose my expert licence. No great loss - not like I'm racing anyway! Bit shit though. That's my last memento of the times when I won races. **sigh**
Well, the new plastic bike has arrived, and Lemsip Cold & Flu max is in full effect.
So for the sake of a) my new shiny bike and b) me do I race/pootle my first ride on it in wet muddy conditions?
*drums fingers*
a) I would, but
b) trumps it - give it a miss and get better. Nothing good comes of racing with colds/aches.
Njee - you were right about Pippingford. Great venue with lots of elevation. But it was muddy - proper muddy. Running up hills muddy. Still enjoyed it though and definitely rate it as a good venue. Just needs some dry weather - none of this 'month-of-rain-in-a-day' business the day before.
Njee, I thought that you kept your expert licence regardless of what points you get. I know elites can get demoted back down to expert.
You're right about the dropper as well, I definitely think my next race bike will have a dropper (will probably be full suss as well) but for now I don't want to put a dropper on my hardtail, it really doesn't help that I've got no provision for internal routing and that all the 27.2 droppers look terrible! (Gravity dropper I'm looking at you)
[i]Unless he has one that's quite an expense for one section of one race, and it's not that likely to revolutionise his riding of said section![/I]
True and tbh I've not done any XC-racing since leaving the SE and the Gorricks but I did the GT7 last month and had a dropper on the HT. It meant I could keep up with folk far more skilled than me on the descents, especially the steep gulley that many walked down, probably was worth 30 seconds. Also meant I could ride the drop-off bombhole which was worth about 5 places compared to the chicken-run.
This one, my HT is 27.2 and I just use the underseat lever - it just works, not as ergonomic as a remote, but no cables so easy to swap etc.
Or get some coaching I guess.
Or get some coaching I guess.
I was strongly considering this but I just haven't got the cash!
Well, the new plastic bike has arrived, and Lemsip Cold & Flu max is in full effect.So for the sake of a) my new shiny bike and b) me do I race/pootle my first ride on it in wet muddy conditions?
*drums fingers*
Unless it's going to lose you a series podium the honest answer is don't bother. You'll get wet, cold and make yourself ill.
I'm not going - torrential rain, mudbath 130mile round trip blah blah
My Epic remains unridden...........
I'm still tempted as its on 18miles round trip for me looky looky
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Very nice - looks like you need flat bars or stem slammage.
Ill is ill regardless of new bike.........
Don't ride. The longer you can put off finding out that buying a new bike had made no difference, the happier you will be.
Lol!
I am aware. But I NEED the latest geometry 😉
Well I'm still alive, and faster on that ^^. I'm amazed by how much more spritely and better handling it is over the Anthem, excellent. Surprisingly comfy too.
ADSH, it was amazingly dry - a couple of puddles that was it. Took me 5 min to spray down the bike & re-lube.
Kryton, did I miss a new bike thread? What you got?
Thinking of pulling the plug on my racing season here, which is pretty galling given the winters efforts. It was all going well in March. Just didn't race enough early season and then lost about a month to illness then immediately after lost a couple of more weeks of proper training to a holiday (which should have been a nice mid season break.) Just nowhere near to where I should be right now. Balls 🙁
Not sure I have the motivation to crack on with the racing for probable mediocre results. Maybe time to think about some winter cross 😕
Kryton, sorry, I should have looked at the previous page! Nice.
