Didn’t ride the Battle in the Bowl yesterday, bit took the bar instead to keep everyone refreshed. Excellent day’s racing with fantastic views of the course from the event area – thoroughly recommended for next year when hopefully it’ll be over two days with camping on the saturday night.

Some of the guys in my club made the trip over for it and said it was an excellent event with a high standard too. Definitely one for next year!

Totally demoralised. After half a lap I was just in a solo time trial, by half way through my hr was dropping and the last lap was firmly in z3.

This sounds familiar. I had it explained to me (by Oli Beck no less) as when you’re mentally and emotionally exhausted, you can’t tap into that fight-or-flight instinct. Might be physically fresh, but just totally unable to get the sympathetic nervous system going.

I’ve been there. and it’s passed with a bit of time and recovery.

I didn’t race at weekend.  I was planning on doing the Midlands race at Cannock but decided better of it since my shoulder was niggling me most of last week.

Fortunately the shoulder seemed to pick up and feel good again in time for the weekend so I went for a 3 hour blast around Llandegla on Saturday morning.  I think most people stayed at home to watch some wedding or something as the place was empty!

Then for some reason I decided to go for a fasted Z2 ride Sunday morning which isn’t something i’d done before.  I was expecting a full on bonk but managed to keep going at quite a steady pace for 3 hours.  Quite a satisfying ride and my god I was hungry when I got back!

I’ve decided my main focus is just going to be on the Nationals this year.  It’s quite nice not having the stress and preperation for race weekend one after the other.  I was going to specifically target the Midlands Series as well but I scored a DNF at the first round, missed the 2nd round and my shoulder kept me from the 3rd round.  I’ll probably just do the 5 nationals and some other random, spur of the moment races.  Would quite like to get at least 8 races done to give me an honest overall national standing at the end of the season.  Not sure what that’s worth though as it’d be easy to fnish really high if you just pick the races with easy points.

After being beaten by my main rival at the first round, and subsequently beating him at rounds 2 and 3 there’s only 2 points between us in his favour!

Thanks for posting that @padkinson – I can see thats exactly where I was on sunday and great to have an explanation. Barely an ache in my legs today but mentally I’m frazzled – thankfully its a day of admin chores in work!

I think I can relate to that as well.  I’ve noticed some of my midweek workouts seem a massive struggle when my mind is occupied with other things.  On those days rest is best!

my shots were 5 x cans of coke 45 mins pre race

Say what now ? You had 5 cans of coke pre-race  ? and we’re wondering why it all went wrong ?

I was thinking the exact same thing. I would recommend having nothing but water for 90 minutes before a race and then doing a caffeine gel just 5 minutes before the whistle blows. 45 minutes gives your body time to have a massive insulin hit, which will make you sleepy and lethargic just as the race starts. If you are going to do caffeine and sugar, do it MUCH closer to the start time of the race.

@r8jimbob88 I know what you mean. Its for that reason I’ve given up on turboing – too easy for the mind to wander when staring at a wall / tv screen.

I would recommend having nothing but water for 90 minutes before a race and then doing a caffeine gel just 5 minutes before the whistle blows. 45 minutes gives your body time to have a massive insulin hit

While not wrong, this doesn’t take into account a warm up, and the associated glycogen demands of this (if you’re doing it properly, warm ups are not easy).

I also must admit I scoffed slightly at Kryton’s theory of not going well with caffeine. I’m a very stereotypical cyclist in this regard, the more espressos the better while I’m riding.

The study below however would suggest a lot of weight to the fact that caffeine isn’t everyone’s friend. I can only hope that I’m of the genotype that reacts positively, I can’t imagine life without it!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29509641

I’m also a big advocate of the caffeine.  I almost feel like I’m cheating with it sometimes…

Bit of an update on my own exploits/mishaps:

I had vaguely planned to race Battle in the Bowl, at least until I found out that MTBs aren’t allowed in the elite race (fair enough for a CX event I suppose). Bit of a get down on Saturday put a stop to any plans though.

4 hours into a cracking MTB ride, and I’d just been thinking about how pleased I am with my skills progression of late, having finally reached the point where I’m doing things without a dropper that I wouldn’t have done last year with. Coming into a fairly hefty gap jump (bottom of Eric on Pitch if anyone knows it), and I think I must have have been focusing on the jump too much, forgetting about the preceding steep corners.
I ended up having one of those slightly scary crashes where it just comes out of nowhere. No warning, no “oh shit” moment. Just riding one millisecond, face on the ground the next. I rode the 10km ish home fine, then went to A&E to get my head and nose checked. Nose is slightly broken (deviated septum), but not badly enough to do anything about. Head is fine too (as weird as ever).

That night I woke up at about 2am with pretty bad wrist pain and the sort of sick feeling that goes with broken things. I couldn’t get back to sleep so walked to the hospital, where they reckon it’s a fractured metacarpal and another of the little hand/wrist bones (forgotten the name). Riding on the road seems ok with a brace, managed 4hrs yesterday, but might have to give the regional champs a miss. BIt of a shame as defending champ, but don’t want to make the damage worse.

That sucks @padkinson Hope recovery doesnt take too long.  It’s far too easy to throw months and months of training away with a simple mistake.  A friend of a friend was doing great in Sport Category this year & did his collarbone in yesterday.

Padkinson – thanks for your first post, that sounds so much like it could have been the issue with my – almost the same as Ferrals – experience also.  I can remember my internal monologue being ” I’m done with this, I can’t be arsed, maybe I should quit, maybe one more lap.  Actually I’ll just finish the race and call it training, oh look, another one passed me, I may as well quit now… etc”   I had no fight or flight at all!  I was thought, very stressed in the week preceding.

I’m sorry to read your second post, good luck with the healing 🙁

Weeksy/Schmiken – it was a SIS caffeine shot, the equivalent of the caffiene in 5x cans of coke, not actually drinking 5 x cans of coke and the associated sugar.  Nothing other than sips of my bottle or a gel goes past my lips within 2hrs of the start.

It wasn’t just the caffine but also the sugar. Each can is 9 spoons of sugar, so 45 spoons of sugar!

There is no sugar…..

I get that now.

Those SIS shots have 150mg of caffeine. I was using some caffeine tablets last year at 200mg!  Funnily enough I struggled to sleep those evenings!

Ive ditched those tablets for the SIS shots and they seem to work fine and don’t affect my sleep as much

Caffeine and stress are not happy bedfellows with intense exercise. I seem to remember  that they were contributory factors in an episode in an athlete in on of the articles on heart damage for older endurance atheletes that was shared on here a while back,

I had a minor arrhythmia last wednesday after diving straight into Beastway with no warm up after a nightmare 2hr commute after a full on day of work, coffee and stress.

I had a minor arrhythmia last Wednesday

Bloody hell, be careful!   Didn’t see you there, I was observing and will be doing the same tomorrow.

So, I’m upbeat and low stress so thought I’d do a little experiment. My Tuesday weekday maintenance workout is a 7x 15s sprint so what the hell, I’d paid for them so I thought I’d use up the last caffeine shot and see what happens – exactly the same process, 45 mins pre workout

Boom!  Some of the best 15s sprints in ages putting 3-5% onto the last few weeks with the first 5 in excess of 1000w.  Mentally I was gung ho and enthusiastic also.  This on the turbo where I can’t usually get peak watts as high as on the road/a wattbike.

So in a low stress environment, caffeine appears not to have affected me at all, but if anything been positive.

Good news, Kryton!

No riding for me this week, not sure I can get my helmet on over these bloody staples in my head!

Nice one Kryton. I’m also feeling less demoralised after a nice 2hr ride in the sun before work. Despite deliberately just cruising to enjoy the weather i got a strava KOM on one (strava) cat 4 climb and 8th overall on another. Obviously Strava counts for nothing in the real world but it makes me all the more conviniced it was being mentally wrecked that got to me on Sunday which is encouraging. Just need to make sure I come into my next race relaxed!

Anyoneracing the Malverns classic? I’m tempted thoughwould probably just race the open in the morning and spend the rest of the day checking everything else out than race sport in the arvo and miss out on the fun

Well good luck to Kryton tomorrow (presuming he’s doing Wantage) its not rained yet but there’s been some lightening.

I’m riding there and back so gently does it for me. HT with mudguards or FS to be decided tomorrow morning.

Anyoneracing the Malverns classic?

Down to race Vets, I suspect I might regret it….

I’m still in two minds, as theres a welsh series race the same w/e, but I’m assuming the fields will be much bigger at the Malverns which will make it more fun. So far only 10 entered in sport/expert but 30+ in open so think it will be a better race, even though its a lap shorter.

Course if I was really going for it could race open at the Malverns on the Sat then race the welsh series on the way home on Sunday. That would actually be really tempting but the chances of getting that past my wife would be minimal!

Good luck all doing the Scott Marathon – thunderstorms on chalk will make it interesting!

Well Wantage was interesting. Course directions  vandalised so many detours. It really would be sensible for the organisers to give a GPX file – can’t understand why they don’t.

Big day for me 22 miles ride there and back plus the event. Might have seen Kryton with kid?

Thanks adsh I didn’t see you, but no kids, just me.  How did you get on?

And FINALLY!  My form has come.  Managed to interpret all the signs correctly to finish the 80k in 3:31.   I felt so strong today, that when the “10k to go sign” appeared I had so much left I just switched to XCO mode and hit the last 10 at pace.  If I’d have known i could have gone harder a bit earlier, never mind.

My coach and I have found a taper/pacing strategy which is working for me, we’ll try again next time to prove the point.

Still managed to fall victim to the ruts twice, and had a lie down in some stinging nettles.  Legs are tingling!

Ah nice one Kryton 👍🏻👍🏻 That’s a better sort of post to read 😎😎

Quick report from the regional champs on Sunday.

http://paddyatkinson.wordpress.com/2018/05/29/becoming-the-mtb-champion-of-the-flattest-part-of-the-uk/

TL;DR: Came second, but first eastern rider so regional champion. Wrist hurty.

Wow, congrats Padkinson!

Awesome work Paddy & Kryton.

I’m racing tonight in a local Midweek Madness series.  No BC points or anything and you enter either the Enthusiast or Racer category.  It’s a great little series with a massive number of entries.  It’s what first got me into racing years back but haven’t done any for the last few years!  Great to be able to race against those normally in Vets / U23 / Elites etc etc.  Should be great fun and I’m going to judge my success against the number of Skidz per lap!  Definitely some good training if nothing else before I start tapering for the next nationals again.

Well I got my second DNF in 5 years of racing on Wednesday night!  Also the first time I’ve punctured in a race.  A bit gutted as I was having so much fun on a brilliant little course in the woods.  Twisty with some roots and a even a few jumps thrown in.

Got a brilliant start for a change.  Managed to lead the race for most of the first climb until the local big hitter Elite racer came sailing past never to be seen again.  I settled into a good pace with the guy that finished 3rd and was planning on pulling away at the next opportunity but I punctured about 35 mins in.  It’s a great little series in the North West and often has 100+ riders turn up.  Highly recommended

Bit of a brief one as I’m in Austria and on dodgy local wi-fi.

Raced the WEMBO Euro 24hr champs solo in Slovakia on Saturday into Sunday, went rather well, 30 laps, 279km, 7000m + to get me 3rd place and European Bronze medal 😁

Flipping Heck!! Well done mate, that is phenomenal!!

I, now feel even lazier than I already was having skipped racing on sunday because it was sunny and I wanted to go to the beach and drink beer

Cheers ferrals, don’t feel lazy it’s each to their own. I’m crap at XCO 🤣

Well done Steve!  A fantastic achievement you should be very proud.

After overdoing it at the weekend ending the week with nearly 13hrs training, I’ve just failed my numbers on a serious of sprints a few days before I line up at my first national.  Coach & TSS says I’ll be OK, lets hope so.

Gridded at the back, should be fun hopefully fighting few a through people, I just want 1 national point 🙂

Awesome Steve top stuff!

I’m tapering this week.  I wish every week was a taper week!  Pheonix Bike Park this weekend.  The course looks very different to anything else I think I’ve raced on.  Whilst I think it should suit me, that depends how many jumps there are.  I can’t jump for toffee.

that’s an amazing result ! where’s the podium pics ?

Phoenix Bike Park this weekend

Me too – Saturday though, which day are you there?

I’m tapering too although I overdid it last the weekend – just did a short ride with some starting sprints in and my legs feel like jelly, oh dear.   Nothing now kept for a Z1 hour on Friday.

Hi r8jimbob88, where was the race in the North West?

I’m going to be up in the North West for a few weeks in the summer, wouldn’t mind taking part in an “enthusiast” race.

I can’t post anything on my phone for some reason, check out some pics on Instagram @steve_b77

If someone can put one here feel free