Gorrick Saddle Skedaddle Spring XC Series

Well, after my hasty class-change in the Autumn Classic, I really did enjoy my first taste of XC racing.

The realisation that actually, it's just a load of other human beings on bikes was quite empowering (not all lycra clad superhero's!)

The vomit-inducing frustration as you realise you physically can't turn the pedals any faster as someone edges away from you is annoying and inspiring in equal measure

I'm going to stick with the "Male Fun" cat. and I reckon a 5% performance boost will see me in the top ten. So something achievable yet still pretty tough.

I plan on entering all 5 of the Spring Series (Spring Series Races) but that is slightly baby Freddie dependant (he's due three days after the March 03rd race )

I'm going to use this thread as a kind of motivational blog to keep me inspired and remind me that I've actually got something to aim for.

So please join in this thread to poke fun at me; tell me how well your training is going for whatever your aiming for; tell me you too have entered and to tell me how you're going to hand me an XL can of whoop-ass

I don't envisage having time or motivation to ride between now and about xmas, which gives me about 5 weeks to train although I'll try and do 20-40miles a week on the turbo to keep my eye in.

Go for it. I might even turn up at one these one day. Like I keep promising myself. I've done one in the vets class or something and got my arse handed to me. Usually an extra lap than the fun category.

Shit, if you're going to make top 10 in fun then i'm proper fucked. I'm just inside the 40% mark.

Well, I'm not definitely saying I can make top ten! Just, a 5% improvement on my last time would have seen me in the top ten. Whether that's achievable in reality is another matter

Besides, when you've been caning the road bike for two months you're going to be flying!!

Originally Posted by Crosshair

Besides, when you've been caning the road bike for two months you're going to be flying!!

The majority of my riding will still be gym based mate. Yesterday was 50 mins spinning. Today i was hoping to put in 30 miles on the road bike, but it's raining and i was going to pick up my car from Ford... but don't want to get it covered in crap. So today will be a day off.

There does seem to be a correlation though between the guys who are fit and riding on the road... the fast fellas seem to put in lots of time on the bike (as you'd expect) and more often than not, a good chunk of that seems to be road based.

There's a fella on STW called Njee, he runs in 'Elite' with Gorrick. According to his HRM i've seen figures of 189bpm.... AVERAGE !!!!! I can't even PEAK at 189 lol. He does a fair bit of commuting of 20 miles e/w per day. Most of the other fast lads who post on the forums seem to do plenty of road stuff too.

I will of course try my balls off...

Originally Posted by Weeksy

The majority of my riding will still be gym based mate. Yesterday was 50 mins spinning. Today i was hoping to put in 30 miles on the road bike, but it's raining and i was going to pick up my car from Ford... but don't want to get it covered in crap. So today will be a day off.

There does seem to be a correlation though between the guys who are fit and riding on the road... the fast fellas seem to put in lots of time on the bike (as you'd expect) and more often than not, a good chunk of that seems to be road based.

There's a fella on STW called Njee, he runs in 'Elite' with Gorrick. According to his HRM i've seen figures of 189bpm.... AVERAGE !!!!! I can't even PEAK at 189 lol. He does a fair bit of commuting of 20 miles e/w per day. Most of the other fast lads who post on the forums seem to do plenty of road stuff too.

I will of course try my balls off...

I think it's the fact that the only way to make road riding enjoyable is by pushing youself harder- faster up that climb, faster average speed on that TT, fastest 20 mile loop etc.
When I was training for the Beast, it was Ipod on, speedo reset and off to do battle with myself.
Now Crust has met Lewis, he'll agree that Lewis looks perfect XC material, not a gram of excess fat, fairly tall and not too weedy but he can't get bike fit because he hasn't got the killer instinct to a)push himself hard enough in training and b) push through the 'WTF am I bothering to kill myself in this race for no reason for!' moment.

High intensity intervals etc have to be the key to getting race fit but I find it's hard in the dining room on the turbo to push hard enough for long enough to really get the benefits. I'll have to get the wife to pull up her chair and shout at me (although I'd been feeding dusty wheat to pheasants all day the last time she saw me in there and the sight of me in just my pants with black sweat pouring off my arms, face, chest and legs was enough to put her off for life )

However, actually doing the race illustrated to me in no uncertain times that no train, no gain

Originally Posted by Crosshair

However, actually doing the race illustrated to me in no uncertain times that no train, no gain

Yes indeed... it was quite an eye-opener when i was thinking i was pretty fit then sitting in the last few places of Open.

Originally Posted by Crosshair

I'm going to stick with the "Male Fun" cat.

So please join in this thread to poke fun at me; .

You're doing it yourself

Originally Posted by Crosshair

However, actually doing the race illustrated to me in no uncertain times that no train, no gain

No grain no gain, by the sound of it