Well I must say that I have been much more positive about my riding of late, even though I have been dropped more in the last six weeks than before (but that comes from putting myself in a tougher ride/grade etc etc - all in the name of self improvement. I think the biggest difference of late is my mental attitude (as her eyes get a bit teary in all this self-discovery/examination blah blah)....anyway I raced last night in B grade at LCCC and I was pretty happy about my ride. In a nutshell I got dropped twice AGAIN and lapped just once I think...nearly twice ...not sure about that as B grade got smashed and from 11 starters the winners came from a group of three. B grade sat about 50 metres behind A grade for a while and then three of the B graders passed A grade...it got messy.....so back to my own goals and positives.
Lap one was neutral - YAY and then I hung on for the next ten minutes and it was fast and I struggled a bit in the top bend, thanks to a side wind and then a false flat/uphill bit and surges at the end of all of that...then I was a the back of the bunch - about three riders had already been dropped (I think they were the C graders that had been promoted) and I tried to get a better wheel, worked hard and got a good wheel and then my legs ran out of puff and I was dropped....I rode strong for about 10 minutes and the bunch stayed about the same distance away, then they must have had a fast lap and made about 50 metres up (I had a measuring line each lap of where I was in relation to the bunch), and so I waited and let them catch me....two reasons, one - I was never going to catch them, and two have a rest before the storm. The bunch caught me and so we were 22 minutes in now and I hung on for about 7 more minutes, again my favorite bend got me again. I continued to ride well and finished the race in about 7th.
Positives - Rode better than last time, cornered better and basically put the power on when I needed to better etc.
- My mental attitude once I was dropped was to keep going hard and I probably should have done that to the end.
- The question is - Should I race C grade instead. But the three C graders that got promoted all got dropped before me - and two pulled out all together as they said the difference between B and C is huge.
I think for that racing training - finding my racing legs, the B grade bunch offers that mega high intensity that I need. Never wear my HRM during race - it is a bad psychological thing to see your heart rate high - just feeling your legs running out of steam is enough for me.
Negatives - Need to get fitter.
AND TODAY - I rode with the fast bunch, pace was down a tad, hung on, it wasnt too hard and that is good considering that my legs were a bit trashed from last nights race.
My training programme this week is a bit of a dogs breakfast with shift changes and the opportuinity to race...but if I have a day off the bike tommorrow - 2 hour ride on Sat and long ride Sunday, then it won't be too bad....
MUST RING BOB
1 comment:
Good report and good job on improving.
That is a hard question as to race B or C. My take is that it sounds like B racing for you is a very hard training session. C racing may allow you to learn how to win a race.
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