We’ve had a period of good weather, but, still managed to have a race cancelled due to rain last Saturday. It can be dangerous with spray from cars making it more difficult to see cyclists.
The previous week, I won a 25 mile TT organised by Middlesex RC on the old Aldermarston Course in a time of 53.54. It was my fastest time since 2005.
Yesterday, I came first in a race organised by the Veteran Time Trials Association. The evergreen John Woodburn was joking that I was choosing ‘fish and chipper races’. I’d not heard this expression before, but apparantely means choosing races which are easy to win. In this particular race, 90% of riders were Vets. Anyway, the good thing about time trials is that you are mainly racing yourself. I was pleased with a time of 21.38 on a usually fairly slow H10/10 course near Fifield.
The main problem was getting lost on the warm up. I went down a few roads, and before I knew it I had no idea where I was. I had to ask a passing Postman where Birdhills Golf club was. He could point me in right direction and I made the start after a vigorous warm up.
Weekly 10 mile time trials can be viewed as a good way to train. Graeme Obree’s training philosophy was always to train in exactly the same way as you race. For example, in training for the world hour record, his training was to just ride as fast as he could for an hour. – no intervals just replicating the race. It’s a philosophy that certainly did him no harm.
The other philosophy is that doing intervals enables you to train at an intensity greater than in a race. This enables you to stretch your capacity giving you more power. I like to do a mixture of regular racing and also one or two interval sessions a week. Today, I will do 3 or 4 five minute intervals up the A40 climb.
Personally, I just like the variety of doing intervals, if you just race time trials all the time, it gets a bit repetitive.
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