Long time no blogging. Haven't blogged since nats and I raced the second round of the cyclocross series today so I thought it was about time for an up date.
I took a big break after nationals. Pretty much going straight into nothing. Which was always the plan. The plan being to have a good rest, then do some running for training for the MT Isobell challenge, the night racing world champs, the cyclocross series and any thing else that popped up. I followed this laid back plan well to begin with as I got out on a few good hill runs. Then the night racing started and that caused some problems. The first race I crashed resulting in a DNF and a battered body. I recovered for the next week where I had built up a SS to race the rest of the series on. I never test rode it before the race which was a bad mistake, seeing it was slapped together which oldish parts. As I was warming up for the race I put the gas on to test out there gear ratio I was running. The chain slipped massively sending my quad flying into the handle bars and knocking me off the bike. This hurt a lot. But I got up and prepared to do the race. But, I got caught up in another crash at the start of the race landing on the same quad and dropping my chain. Once I got the chain back on I was in last and very sore. Again resulting in a DNF. My injured quad turned out to be a hematoma. And having one of these before in my other quad I knew I was going to be out for a few weeks at least. Also with the hematoma being so close to the knee I didn't want to damage my knee by riding on it too early like I was warned about last time. So, I went back to doing nothing again and losing even more fitness. I was hoping my leg would come right for the MT Isobell challenge but I still couldn't ride on it let alone run so I flagged that away. The the next event on me plan was the first round of the cyclocross series. Again I wasn't able to do this so I had to settle for a spectator/marshal which was extremely hard. Watching everyone having fun in the mud was demoralizing! A couple of weeks after the first round I got back out on the bike for the first time. Just an easy spin on the road. My leg held up ok but I knew if I raced on it how it was I would fell the pain after. So I put off the next few night races in hope that I could race at round 2 of the cyclocorss series. This worked out to plan (finally). Today was the day of that race and right now I am felling pretty good. My leg is a little sore, but I think that is just because I have lost a lot of muscle in it and so it is taking longer to recover that my other quad.
More on the actual race ae, instead of my boring health issues. I raced my roadie at this one. Being a fast and dry course I could get away with it, and it would feel wrong riding my mtb. I started ok, keeping up with a few of the guys on mtbs for the first lap. But the stream crossings and ruff ground lost me time, places and energy. After the first lap I was pretty tired. My laps were getting slower as the race went on. The road bike was a slight disadvantage. The slicks cause me to crash and lose a few places, but he main issue was my lack of speed. seeing I had been off the bike for while I was quite slow. But I wasn't too tired at the end which proves I still have some general fitness.
Hopefully now seeing I can ride I will get some more fitness back so it isn't going to take as much to get race fit next summer. The next report won't be so far way so it wont end up as long as this one, I promise. I do want to keep who ever reads these things riveted.
