its strange, the race session is the time of year when a riders weekly volume is at its lowest yet the build up fatigue, tiredness and exhaustion can be at its highest. Racing takes its toll on your body no matter how good or experienced you are as a rider. we do all the leg work in the winter months and in pre season training, riding hundreds of hours every month in order to develop our endurance, power and speed as well as our resilience to fatigue. Yet even with all of this work and riding in our legs, racing can still destroy a body which was at its peaks only a few weeks earlier.
A race period should really last no more that 2 months at a maximum and in my opinion this should only be if you have 1 race period throughout the year. If you have 2 peaks in the year then these should last no more that 2-3 weeks. The thing with racing is, as stated in my “Racing is Training” post a few weeks ago, the demands which are actually placed on the body are just so hard to replicate in training. However, the other thing that comes in to play is the mental side of things. Racing as just as mentally exhausting as it is physically and this can have huge effects on the way you feel. Emotions and feelings run very high when we have a number pinned to our backs and this can be extremely draining. Finally, lets not forget that we cyclists are a competitive bunch and typically we will always dig deeper and go harder when we are in a race situation as opposed to just training. So when you end up racing 3-4 times a week for 2-3 months and you consider all that of that, no wonder you end up feeling absolutely wrecked and this is kind of how i am feeling at the moment.
i have been racing every weekend and in the week for the past number of weeks, i have loved every second of it and had some great results and even better performances but in the last 2 or 3 races i have notices that my legs don't posses that same punch that they did a few weeks ago and its taking me longer to get over the races that I'm doing. I feel the time has come to schedule a mid season break to allow my body to recover but before that can happen, its time for some more races!!!!
Last night i went a rode the first round of the Stourport Circuit series which consists of 4 mid week cat 1/2 races put on by different local clubs. Having finally made the decision that i did want to race, i knew that i was feeling tired and still had a wee bit of a cold so decided that i would race by how i felt and do what i could do. Which a pretty turn out of pretty handy riders i knew that it wouldn't be slow so i decided to place my self in the draft for the first few laps to see what the pace was like. initially it didn't feel to bad and then about 15 minutes in the main move started to form, a break of 4 began to ride away and i was in the perfect position to jump on to the back of it but i didn't. I didn't because i felt it was to early, i didn't know really how i was feeling and i was playing it cautiously. Bad Move. Is have just went for it but i hesitated and that was it, the 4 rode hard and increased there gap and before long they were a quarter of a lap ahead.
We had some strong riders in out group including 2 of the Qoros boys but once again it was only me and a few other doing any work so the chase never really happened and there lead just increased. Adrian Bird for Worcester CC was racing and riding strong, we both adopted the same idea of wearing the other guys down before trying something. Adrian attacked with about 15 minutes before the 5 lap count and i went with him. He rode a lap on the front and then i did my turn, coming out of the far hair pin i accelerated, looked behind and saw i had gapped Adrian who still had a small gap over the bunch. Rather than try to figure out what had happened i just got my head down and went for it. So began my 15 minutes of Fame and Pain.
I pulled out about 20 seconds on the bunch and closed ever so slightly on the leading group, i drove hard on every straight and every corner but the course just really wears you down. Its so hard to be out on your own as there is just no recovery, you power one straight, hit the corners fast, power out of them, in to the next corner and back on the gas. Its really demanding stuff. I never managed to make the gap any bigger but it wasn't getting smaller either and soon the laps boards were out and i was beginning to think that i might be able to hold on for 5th. As it was they started attacking each other back in the bunch which de=rove the pace up and with 2 laps to go i had been caught but they had also dropped a few riders so i joined the group which was now4 big as well. With 1 lap to go the first 4 crossed the line with the winner coming from that group. Half a lap later we came in to the last corner and i was positioned on the back and although i was dead due to my earlier exploits i was hoping i could sling shot round and still get 5th. As the sprint opened up and was in the slipstream but my legs refused to go and i finished in the position where is started sprinting which was 8th.
A tough and tiring race but again one where my performance didn't reflect the result. I'm pleased that i raced and pleased that i made the efforts that i did, now though i thinks it time for a rest before i hit the big races of the season.
Dan
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