Tuesday 29 July 2014

A much needed recovery week and BWC race report

Last week's training was considerably lower volume than previous periods. I did however feel I needed it, hoping it would give me a short break before ramping it back up for another 2-weeks prior to the start of my taper for Challenge Vichy.

I had intended to take 2 recovery days (Mon/Thu) but it ended up being 3 as I was unable to make the Club Handicap on Friday evening due to a bit of a family crisis (nothing serious) that arose a few hours before the race.

I was however relatively fresh for the Brompton World Championships (BWC 2014) on the Sunday afternoon.

The venue for the BWC was the Goodwood Race Circuit. It consisted of a run to your bike (pictured below), an unfold and then 4 laps totalling 15.2km. I knew the competition was going to be fierce. A large number of very fit looking Italian cyclists had made the journey over to the UK to compete in this iconic race.

Keeping with tradition the race is a 'no Lycra zone' and you are encouraged to wear a shirt, tie and jacket. Most competitors also opted for shorts and brightly coloured long socks. My jacket was a little heavier and larger than I would have liked for race conditions, however I went along with it so I was on an even footing with the majority of the other riders.

I was in the 3rd wave of riders. As the horn went off I raced to my bike and within a minute had unfolded it and had made my way to the mounting position. My plan was simple, find someone a little faster than mysef and sit on their tail for as long as I can. Generally that was exactly what I did although there were times when I lost the back wheel of the fastest riders and other times when I had to switch because the pace was not fast enough. There were segments when I was not drafting and also when the wind picked up. On these occasions my speed dropped to below my target 30km per hour. Although for the most part I was riding at between 33-40km per hour.

I put in a lot of effort at the finish and sprinted across the line for a time of approx. 28mins. The provisional results showed me as 82nd out a field of 500 but I was told that there were many more riders than that and it was likely the results would be revised.

As more results were processed I dropped to 101st position, although by yesterday afternoon the officials had revised my time to 27:20 and listed me at 95th position out of a field of over 700 - not too shabby!

All in all a good fun event and a bit of intensity training, however not very ironman specific.

So this week and next needs to be back to higher volume ironman specific training and my last big efforts before my A-race in Vichy. It will probably include one long bike (5 hours on my TT bike) and my final long run (3 hours).

Then it is taper time!

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