World Champs Night Racing Series Race 1

Last night was my first mountain bike race since breaking my ribs in February. Unlike previous years where I have taken this event seriously (3^rd place overall 2009, 2^nd place overall 2012), my approach last night was just to see where my fitness was at after the last 12 weeks off the bike (and most of the summer due to kayaking commitments) but at least having the last 5 weeks getting some running training most days.

As it turns out my fitness seemed pretty good with my breathing and heart rate well under control. However, my actual power output was low… very low in fact, with me struggling to stay in contact with the first group despite feeling like I wasn’t working hard, I just couldn’t push the pedals any harder. I was soon dropped from the back of the first group part way round the first lap and settled into the middle of the next group for the rest of the race.

I guess I shouldn’t have had any expectations of a good result after so long off the bike and some people may consider 12^th open men (43^rd overall out of 163 competitors) a great result, even without considering the circumstances these past few months, but I’m competitive and still view it as a substandard result for me.

I planned on doing the whole series but may re-evaluate that plan and just focus on getting some quality training done over the next few weeks then go back and see if the training is working.

Comments

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