Yesterday was the first race of the season for me. It was the Southborough and District Wheelers‘ open 10 mile time trial on a course (the Q10/33) near Tenterden.
I’ve only been training since the start of the year so it felt a bit early to be going flat out. However, the good weather we’ve been having has meant that it’s been possible to get out on the bike consistently. I’ve built up to an average of about 100 miles a week. I’ll probably tick over at this level – I’m trying to be a bit less obsessive about the biking this year (it’s going to be a busy year for all sorts of reasons).
I’ve started logging my rides on Strava. This has added a bit of edge to regular rides. Some of the drags are Strava segments and every time I climb them I’m measuring my time against my PB. I’m not convinced that the distance measured is constant (the Garmin GPS optimises the data points) but it does seem to have improved my hill efforts.
Anyways… As it was the first race for a while I got properly anxious in the week leading up to the event. The day before the race I developed a Herbert Lom type tic in my left eye. If I met you at the race, I wasn’t winking – honest.
I arrived at the HQ three hours before my start time. This was a little obsessive – no one else was there, not even the organiser. It did give me time to ride the course first. It’s a great country lane course with a swooping descent in the first half and a rough-surfaced climb through a woods on the way back.
The weather was so good that I wore a skinsuit. I hadn’t wanted to do this – overweight and fluffy-legged – but longs would have been oppressive in these temperatures.
The race itself was okay. The stated aim was to beat 30 minutes (‘evens’) and the real aim was to beat 28 minutes. At the finish I recorded 28:22. That seems a fair reflection of my current form.The race was won by team mate Peter Tadros (In-Gear Quickvit Trainsharp) with a 20:53.
All being well I’ll race again in about a month and then pick up a few club events before trying to be more consistent through June and July. We’ll see!
Lance Woodman 