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| 2005 Criterium on my 80's Roberts | |
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This year was my tenth one of racing, I decided to take a broader look back over the last decade see how it progressed
This
was the first year that I did not write anything in my diary with
regard to targets for the year. 2013 had been a momentous year ending
with becoming World Champion. Coaches always say 'Have a target or an
objective to build up to' but with the caveat that its "realistic" and
"achievable" I've always tried to do this but after such a year. Just
what is realistic any more, could I even rest on my Laurels? I pretty
much immediately decided to carry on and defend my title and train and
race with pretty much the same training and racing plan but my targets
evolved over the year
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| Dad's Specialized Epic TT style |
In August I had covered 100,000 miles in those ten
years, before that I was doing about 4000 miles per year trying to shed
weight I'd put on over my 30s, in 2005 I made a conscious decision to
race if my weight got down below 14st (I'd been up near 18st!) I did
just over 8000 miles that first year and raced on my old steel Roberts
that Alan had been using and gave me to dip my toe in the water. I then
moved on to my dads old carbon Specialized 'Allez' which was nearly 15
years old but seemed to take the pounding and did sterling service as a
TT bike (with homemade aero's on upturned bars) on which I completed my
first 12 hour ride and my first BBAR campaign. It also stood in as a
race bike when the Roberts succumbed to age, fatigue and my pounding
weight breaking at the bottom bracket and a training bike when my
Roberts winter bike went the same way of its racing sibling. It finally
retired a couple of seasons ago when replaced with Titanium frame the
result of winning the Planet X 'Old School' TT series in 2010
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| 2006 Riding the final Eastway on the Sigma |
My mileage increased year on year eight then nine thousand miles, a big
jump up to 13,000 miles for three years as I sought to conquer the BBAR
top twelve which I did in 2009 (11th) but I almost went as fast in 2011
(less than 0.07 mph) for 16th when I went over 280 miles in the twelve
hour but could not find the consistency at the shorter distances, I
think I was just too tired from all the travelling and racing from March
through to the end of the season. My mileage had dropped a couple of
thousand miles a year in that time as I got more into doing my track
racing having surprised myself winning a European title at the first
time of asking in 2009. For the last three seasons my mileage has been
around the 7-8000 which is about eight hours a week on the bike total!
Riding to work, touring, training and racing
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| 2009 European Champion on my trusty Roberts |
There's
nearly 14,000 miles of racing in that total, five years it was over
2000 and the most 2378 miles in 2007 when I managed seven '100's in the
season honing my pacing but It paid off as I won the first of my two CTT
National age standard medals. In those ten years I have only won the
one 'Open' event, the North Middlesex & Hert's '100' which was over a
quarter of a century after my first open win in the 1982 Hertfordshire
Whs. '30' (Hertfordshire seems to be good for me maybe I should move
there!) I lost an open win by a single second and I missed a bronze in
the European Track by less than1/25 of a second! The Breckland 12 was
stopped while I was leading, the next year in the same event I did the
fifth furthest 12 hour distance for a veteran ever but did not win the
vets prize on the day (in fact I was third!)
My first
year I started racing in June and rode 27 events much as I've done
these past three seasons with just over thirty. In the middle years that
was anywhere between 45-55 and most long distance with 3-8 '50's and
'100's where this year only three '50's and a solitary '100' (but in an
effort to break the 30mph barrier 21 10s!)
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| 2010 50 miles on Parlee |
All in all I had a decent season, I was never going
to match my results on the track but 4th in the Points race and 9th in
the Scratch race makes me easily the most consistent in my age group (in
the World!) over the past three seasons. I came within an ace of
improving my '100' time only beaten by bad luck but over the years I
have been lucky with mechanical issues probably the worst breaking
bearings in wheels during the 12 Hr. (twice!) .This year I did break the
club '50' record for the ninth time and joined the 30mph club at ten
miles making me the 83rd fastest in the country Oooh! Next years
National '10' is on my local evening '10' course at Wolvey so as its
very slow maybe I can put local knowledge to good use and climb up the
standings a bit.
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| 2011 Breckland 12 Hr 283 miles |
In
accordance with my decision to start racing later in the season, my
yearly mileage balances out a bit more, the first six months are about
the same as the second, up until 2010 I was doing the greater part of my
riding in the early part of the year building up the miles in my legs.
In 2007 I almost did 8000 miles in the first six months and three times I
did over 1500 miles a month, the next year I balanced it out a bit
better doing over 1200 miles from January. I calculate that to be
sixteen to eighteen hours a week, well over two hours a day and when I
look at my diary I can see I was not missing many days (three to six a
month) compare that to today where I miss three or four a week!.
November has been my resting month, mileage has gone down to as little
at seventy miles total! But as I have got older I have learned no matter
how much I need a complete rest to keep riding, a month (two weeks
even) can see me put on a 7-10 pounds and that is hard to shift or at
least you have to shift it before you can start training. So these days I
just carry on banging out 3-500 miles for six months of the year which
affords me the conditioning to start training.
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| 2012 Fixed TT setup |
So
what should be my target for 2015? I would still like to win a British
Masters track title (three at Silver and Bronze) despite winning a
European and World title, I still think I can get a medal in the
Pursuit, my times are decidedly average despite being one of the fastest
starters but with the opening of the Derby velodrome this year maybe
now is my opportunity to nail that. And while I'm about that then
forming a team to attack the World Masters Team Pursuit event might be
fun as well
I creep ever closer to Roger Hammonds club
record at ten miles, its now less than a second a mile (or less than
0.23mph faster) away and I would dearly love to update some of those
club team records at '10' '25' and '50' with some help, so if anybody
feels the inclination to ride a fast event on a fast day then let me
know. I'm still not old enough to get up there at National level with
the VTTA, I have gradually increased my placing in the National Vets BAR
every year to be a firm fixture in the top ten but I'm still about
twenty years off winning pace while people like 83 year old Ron Hallam
can do a short 25 minute '10' and Rob Pears only a year younger can get
inside 50 minutes for '25'
o7ò
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