In part one I went through the early part of the season leading up to a training change in mid-June.
The first race after altering my training plan was the hilly TT. Usually it's 21 miles but there were roadworks on the Gracious Lane bridge so it was twice around the Baileys loop.
I was really happy with this ride. I rode 2 hours to work in the morning, then it took an hour and a half to get back to Sevenoaks. So, 331W normalised after 3.5 hours. Racing on the Reilly was also a lot of fun even if it is quite a lot slower than a TT bike.
Next was another trip west to the A3.
Legs felt okay but not great, so I was very happy to do another 19 - and to know last season's weren't a fluke! I did have some power meter dropouts during this so it was 342AP/347NP.
Next was the first of three 50s in consecutive weekends.
July
You know that saying 'fail to prepare, prepare to fail'? Well, this was the embodiment of that saying. Kinda. In the first 50 of the season, the fluids were spilling out of the aero bottle attached to the bars which was annoying as I didn't know how much I was losing, but also meant sticky homemade energy drink all over my feet and front wheel.
So, I went with the 500ml aero bottle. Suffice to say, it popped out within the first mile. Bottle hit the floor, exploded. Good night Vienna.
It takes about 90 minutes to get to this course, so I was majorly pissed off at the thought of a three-hour round trip for no race. I decided to just ride it as a training ride. The course is ~6 miles each way so the plan was: 310W heading west into the wind, 290W going east with the tailwind. Why not try it and see how long I last?
My west/east sections were as follows:
316 / 285
309 / 290
303 / 270
295 / 286
The longer the race went on, the more I surprised myself with how good I felt. I obviously dropped off a bit, and this was by no means optimal, but actually I was going much better than I imagined possible.
It was a warm day but, mercifully, there was cloud cover so the UV wasn't that high. The first hour I spent licking the sweat coming off my nose - desperate times! Then I stopped sweating which felt ominous. I was genuinely shocked at the finish at what I had done. Still don't fully understand how I did that.
Next was yet another drip down to East Peckham (can't get enough of it).
Thanks to Sam Bennett for the slo mo video from which I captured this image.
I wanted to try something different for this race, so I decided to race with only Current Speed on the Garmin.
Legs felt fine, conditions weren't great, and I was a bit unlucky with traffic, but on the whole I was pretty happy with how I raced this.
I finished feeling like I had raced pretty smart and done what I could all things considered. An interesting experiment to try out, and one I would recommend to anybody that is getting too preoccupied with data during a race, but not something I can see myself doing again. Not in a race at least, maybe in training.
Next was the second of three 50s and my final race of the season on the A3. You might remember in the previous blog I opened my season with a 10 on the A3 in which I did <300W for a long 20...
One of those races where it all comes together. I genuinely loved every minute of this race. Legs felt good, and I felt in control the whole way around.
I was brave early on - pushing harder than 25TT power during the slower parts of the course, trusting that I would recover on the faster sections. There are so many ups and downs, that you're never far away from a recovery.
I made a note of all the slow/hard sections of the course. So I knew when I had to push hard, and when the recovery was coming. Obviously, you still have to be aware of the course and know that sometimes GPS is off, but it worked pretty well, never more than 0.1 miles off.
I was ecstatic to finish having effectively done my 25TT PB twice.
Next was the last trip to the A20 for another 13 minute hill climb followed by 9 minutes of 30/30s.
Sophie's carrot cake should be a TUE.
Good conditions, wind blowing in the right direction, and amazing legs. Tried to keep the power high all the way to the turn rather than focusing on just Gorse Hill. Got to the roundabout with power in the high 350s. Then it was a case of just trying to keep speed high all the way home.
I love the return leg of this TT. If I lived closer I think I would ride up and down the A20 all the time. You can push so hard - like 450-500W for 30 seconds - because there are so many breaks.
On the whole really happy with this race, but I should've pushed harder and kept the power more consistent between 7.5 miles and 9 miles. That section was a block headwind and felt quite slow. But that's being hyper critical.
I've wanted to do a 21 on that course for a long time, so nice to finally sneak one. Only Ben Tulett, his brother Dan and Neil Lauder have done 21s on that course. I'm in good company on the Strava segment!
Next was the final of the three 50s - back up to Cambourne for another shot at the F2/50.
Ridiculously hot, very sunny (high UV) and felt like crap. Really disappointed as I thought I could chip a bit of time off the ride I did with no hydration two weeks prior.
The following weekend was the Southborough club 10 on the A21.
Felt okay, power a bit down (339W normalised) but one of those super sluggish days. The telltale sign, for me, when analysing data post-race is the section above Powder Mill Lane. On a fast day, you can keep speed at, or above, 30mph. Mine dropped down to 26mph despite me doing 380W and feeling like I was holding really disciplined with my position. What can ya do?
I had no races planned between this and the 100 two weeks after, so I had a look at what was on and decided on the Southborough Ashdown TT on the Thursday before the 100.
It's a lumpy course but definitely faster to do it on the TT bike. Sophie went to visit her parents that day, so I couldn't drive there. I didn't much fancy riding the TT bike through Southborough and along that crap road through Langton Green, not to mention having to come up Groombridge Hill on the way home. I'm a millennial, what can I say...
Having entered a crit, this served as a good test for what power I could do - and how fast I could go - on my road bike.
It's a challenging but really fun course, loads of fast sections and the undulating run from Groombridge to Hartfield is class. Finished with 361W normalised for 32 minutes.
I'll leave this post there. The next blog post will be a race report for the 100.
Thanks for reading.
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