Chronic Fatigue, Whiplash (not the good kind), Sausage Roll Power and Cyclocross (YP5 - Huddersfield)

So, I am back… Much like the Terminator, although less Austrian and marginally less "Hollywood"....

In the last couple of weeks or so since my last blog I have finished a strength block, had an “easy” week and started on my speed block (that’s leg speed not the drug), so what does all this mean?  The end of the strength block came as some what of a relief, my legs were in tatters, every time I rode the bike they felt empty, my HR was not able to get higher than about 160BPM and my power was suppressed, I’m not going to lie it was quite de-motivating. 

One thing I have though in Rob and York Cycleworks is a coach who is almost always available to consult, he has acknowledged that the efforts are likely to have this effect and that essentially I have build chronic fatigue into the muscles, which was in essence, exactly what we wanted to do, breaking down the muscles to allow growth and strength / power to be built.

Its good to have that on tap, it means that I can ask the questions about why I feel a certain way and what it is that I need to do to feel better, which in most cases was an adjustment to the plan, or a moved session here and there.

After a 2 weeks of easier sessions (thanks in part to the plan and work commitments), racing at the 5^th round of the cyclocross Yorkshire Points Series went better than I had hoped, but more on that in a little bit.

I have now moved on to taking the strength and building that into leg speed, this will help to ensure that the transfer of power is as efficient as possible and that at higher cadences of a race situation I am able to maintain the power output for as long as possible.  Its another type of effort that I have never really had in a plan, but it basically consists of high cadence efforts at a given power output.

Soon enough I expect that a number of these sessions will need to be turbo based as we head in the depths of winter although I remain hopeful that we will have a nice mild winter that allows me to ride through most of it, as I found that trying to fit the turbo sessions on around the little one is not easy, once I get home all I want to do is chill out and be dad, not getting on the bike in the garage for an hour to slowly sweat myself to death, it remains to be seen how this works out if we have a severe winter.

One unexpected thing was caused by starting to ride a motorbike to work again, the first day I seemed to get whiplash type injury, I imagine from the buffeting and the fact that my neck is not sued to it, that made me feel quite sick for a few days and I skipped a training session as the thought of getting on the turbo didn't appeal when my neck was that sore, still it eased day by day and I was comfortable enough to race.

Back to Cyclocross, the 5^th round was in Huddersfield, which was a very unseasonable 18+degrees, this winter cyclocross is not as bad as people make out in terms of the mud, cold and rain…  There is still time though.

After a couple of easy weeks there was a chance that I could go well, although with the concerns about where I was in terms of fitness I had no expectations, and was just there to enjoy the effort and use it as training.

For the first time I was gridded, this was my goal for the cyclocross season so I am pleased with that, basically what it means is that I, along with a number of others, get to start towards the front of the back, this is to avoid new riders getting involved at the start and also to make sure that those that are competing in the overall series are given a fair starting point.

Photo By Clare Crabtree

I was filled with Sausage Roll and ready to (any sausage roll manufactures fancy sponsoring me I am open to offers), the whistle went and we were off, it was a relatively short gallop to the first corner, and for the first time I actually made up places, going into the first corner somewhere around the top 15 which I was pleased with, this gave me a chance of a reasonable result.

There was some “interesting” things going on in the first lap, which is one reason why I am always very carful at the start, firstly some numpty on a mountain bike barrelling up the inside of 3 riders into a right hander shouting “on your right” as if they could get out of the way, needless to say 4 into one was never going to work and they all ended up in a heap, cue much cursing and probably broken bikes, but it have me 4 places so I was not complaining.

I got caught up in a few spots and lost some places, and going into a major bottle neck behind some bushes it was all ahead stop, with everyone forming a gentleman’s agreement to hold position until it opened up again… well, I say everyone…. There was one lad from Otley Cycling Club that insisted on trying to barge past everyone, needless to say there was insufficient space and some shouting but he ended up colliding with fellow York Cycleworks rider Craig Gath, not the first time the two would come together.

Its one of the things that clubs and riders need to be mindful of, I now have a view of Otley cycling club that is less than positive, “Rob” or “Robin” did not seem like the sort of person that you would want representing your team or club,  yes its competitive but there are times when you just have to sit back and accept that you are going to be held up a bit, he was not willing to do that and when challenged was mouthing off and being generally unpleasant, its not a pleasant attribute, but thankfully one that is not seem very often in the sport.

Tony Mills - Photo by Clare Crabtree

We continued with the race and I yo-yoed with a few of the guys around me, I felt better than I expected and on the fast power sections was easily able to pull past and make a gap only to be caught on the up hill bits, or where you had to get off and run (I really hate running!).

The majority of the race continued like this until a lap or some from the end when a small mistake meant that I ended up with my wheels in a rut and me rolling off my bike, this cost me about 5-6 places as I also dropped my chain and had to put it back on, the bike was okay so I ploughed on.

It was about this time in the race that going through a section of switch backs I heard the horrible noise of bikes coming together, I looked back to see what was going on and I saw Craig Gath and the lad from Otley CC had collided bringing them both down, without even seeing the accident my instant reaction was the Otley rider was in the wrong based on how he had been riding earlier, had he not been so aggressive earlier I would not have made such an assumption, and that’s why it often pays to be a bit conservative, this is not the world champs!!

Craig finished after getting some medical attention, although I was not able to find him after to see how he was, so I am hoping that he is okay and any injuries recover quickly.

Also in the race was Tony Mills and Andy Johnson, until I decided to have a lie down I kept Tony in sight, and was hoping that I could make some inroads into his advantage over me, although it seemed pretty static for the whole race and he seemed in a good tussle with about 5 riders, finally finishing 25th Overall and 10th in his age group .  Andy had a mixed day, setting off too quickly and suffering the consequences meant that later in the race he was de-hydrated, after coming off and making a number of basic errors he decided to withdraw, something that is never an easy decision to make, but sometimes it pays to be safe, as another fall could mean a significant injury or worse… a damaged bike!!  So for all of us its on to the next race!

So, I finished around 11th in my age group and top 30 overall which I am pleased with.

I always neglect to mention the other York Cycleworks riders that take part in the “old boys” race, with Wayne “The Silver Fox” Nicholson, Mark McKie and Simon Wright all taking to the grass, a great turn out from the York Cycleworks riders and some great results with Wayne picking up 6th overall and 2nd in his age group.

What next, well its 2 weeks until the next Yorkshire Points race which is in Sheffield, so its back to the training sessions and commutes.