Ill

I have been ill since Tuesday. It meant that I couldn't race in Bristol last night as I couldn't breath and had a temperature. I decided that I will rest until Saturday morning. I went to work on my old GT cruiser today but it was a real struggle to breath and my legs were burning as a result of this.

I have a race on Sunday so I am going to rest until Saturday.

I found out today that at the moment I am 5th in the South West and 30th in the UK in my age group at the moment so not bad for my first year.

I have bought some more kit as my knee/shin pads keep slipping down. I also bought some elbow pads and some more shorts. Hopefully they will be here by tomorrow.

I am going to practice gates against a wall tomorrow night clipped in to practice before gates Saturday as I still have not done a gate clipped in! 😭

Getting used to clips

Went to Bristol this morning to train and get used to the clipless peddles. I am really getting used to them now.

I managed to level my best time even though I could hardly breath due to man flu.

I managed 5 full laps and then I practiced doing the 4th and 5th straights as they were the areas I had the least flow.

I got better on the 4th straight but didn't have the lungs to do the 5th well.

Decided to rest instead of getting worse.

Clipped in

As my shoulder was hurting I decided to try putting my clipless pedals on my bmx and go to the track.

I rode for about an hour before I couldn't stand the pain in my shoulder any more.

I really liked riding clipped in as it felt really good and I could go much faster.

I think I am going to keep using the peddles for now and see how it goes on Wednesday night at Bristol and then I will decide about clipping in for  the race on Sunday or not.

Good week

Had a good week training week this week. I have been focusing on manuals again and I am getting much more fluid and faster. The extra speed caused me to crash as I had to jump the last jump on the 3rd straight as I was going too fast to stay on the ground! On a positive note I made the jump but cased the landing and lost my peddles and got dragged into the last berm and hit the deck. Luckily I got away with gravel rash on my right leg and right elbow a d that was it. Typically i fell when I wasn't using my knee/shin pads if I had them on I would have been fine. I do have to buy some elbow pads next month tho as I always seem to get my elbow.

Unfortunately I have managed to hurt my right shoulder somehow today so I had to cut my training short as a result. It feels like a muscle strain somewhere in my shoulder and may well be from not warming up properly before starting to try and manual bigger doubles.

Race day

Had a good days racing today. Didn't come last in any of my motos and made the semi final and b final so made my first goal for the year early.

My son had a good day too. He did his first ever un-assisted gate start today in one of his motos and also finished 4th in his final.

My new freewheel is excellent I got the profile freewheel which is as good as advertised. I was flying out of the gate and down the first straight. Then after that it all went down hill.

Laps

Went to the track with my son who has 3 days off of school for teacher training. We did full laps and the times are below.

Dylan

L1 = 56.67
L2 = 54.70
L3 = 56.43
L4 = 56.99
L5 = 59.98

Me

L1 = 37.52
L2 = 39.11
L3 = 39.90
L4 = 36.47
L5 = 38.46

The track was really slow as it had been raining for the last 2 days without stopping.

I got the photos from the regional the other weekend they are pretty good.

Easy day

Went to the track this morning but it was really windy on the second straight so I concentrated on the first straight and peddling down the back of the jumps.

I am going as fast as I can now without jumping the second jump which is way too big for me to Jump at the moment.

Tomorrow I will try and practice the second straight as well.

Good day's training

Got up early and went to the Bristol track and did some 90% laps. Managed to go 1 second faster than last week even though it was raining and the track was wet and sticky.

I took this to mean that the new gearing was better so I went to Crucial and bought a new profile elite 18 tooth freewheel as the Shimano one I have been using to test is a bit crappy. My old 17 tooth freewheel engaged really quickly but the 18 tooth one is really slow to engage and it feels like the chain is loose even though it isn't. Also the Shimano freewheel is silent which is really strange.

The profile elite is supposed to be the best freewheel that you can get and it has 140 points of engagement that makes it instantly engage. Apparently it is the equivalent to a cassette hub and much lighter. It also makes a really loud noise like a cassette hub.

After Bristol I went back to the Bath track and practiced the last 2 straights. I think that I have it pretty much dialled. Tomorrow I will practice on the first half of the track to try and get that dialled too.

Race Day

Had a good day racing yesterday. Did realy bed in the motos and gated really badly.

In the C final I rode well and took 2nd place. I also managed to jump the first jump really cleanly and was able to peddle the whole track without my legs giving out so the training is starting to pay off.

I am taking a rest day today and then I am getting back to it tomorrow. I have 2 weeks until the race at Bath so I am going to practice here and do flat out laps every other day with technique training the rest of the time.

I am going to change my freewheel today from a 17 tooth to an 18 tooth to see if it makes a difference. I talked to a lot of racers yesterday and the majority are running either a 41x18 or a 42x18 so I am going to try out the 41x18 for a week or so.

I really need to focus on my manualing and jumping as on the Bath track you have to hold the manuals longer than you do at Bristol so I need to really focus on this.

Practice and Gates done.

Got up at 6 this morning and went to the Bristol track and got an hour of training in early.

I didn't have time to practice jumping this morning and only had time to do 2 x 50% warmup laps followed by 5 x 90% full track laps with 10 minutes rest in between.

I managed to get to the last straight before my legs turned to mush this morning which is better than before so I am improving slowly.

I had my phone in my pocket and timed the laps with Strava. My lap times were as follows:

My lap times were as follows:

0:39
0:41
0:39
0:39
0:37

As you can see I was pretty consistent and according to Strava I have the 5th best time on the track although I am 10 seconds behind the first place person!

Also of the top five times I was 3 miles an hour faster than any of the other athletes with a top speed of 22.2mph so not bad.

At 10:30 I went to the track in bath and did an hour and a half of gate practice.

The 41x17 gearing is working better as I kept up with a National racer this morning who was clipped in. He also helped me with keeping peddling until the jump by scratching a line just before the first jump to peddle to before stopping peddling which helped loads.

Tomorrow in the race I am going to try and imagine the line on the track and see if this stops me getting over taken by the first jump.

I am now going to relax and eat a load of carbs ready for the race tomorrow.

Revised training

Just been looking for ways to get fitter for Bmx racing and I have just stumbled onto an article which stresses the importance of doing full laps.

The article states that you should be doing 5 full laps at 90% of full speed with 10 minutes recovery.

I am going to try this tomorrow morning after doing a warm-up of 2 laps at 50% and then 5 first straights practising jumping the first jump.

Hopefully this will help me to get around the whole track on Sunday.

I got my bike back from crucial Bmx this afternoon and it looks great with the new 41 tooth chain ring and a black chain.

I will take a couple of photos tomorrow morning when I get to the track.

First race night done

Did my first race night at Bristol Wednesday Night and got beaten badly.

I was first out if the gate every time but by the first turn I was in last place.

Talking to the guys you have to jump the first jump to keep the speed so yesterday morning I practised the first jump and I can now jump the gap onto the flat. I need to now learn to jump onto the down ramp which is about 6 feet of where I am currently landing.

For my practice for the rest of the week I am going to practice jumping the first 2 jumps tomorrow and then practice the last half of the track.

I am not overly confident for the races on Sunday but I was racing against some of the top guys in the region on Wednesday night so I am hoping to do better than second to last where I finished in my last regional race.

I have had the morning off this morning as my bike is being serviced I am also getting a new chain and a 41 tooth chain ring to try and help with my top end speed and try and stop people over taking me before the first jump as I am just spinning the pedals by half way down the start ramp!

I bought a new chain so that it will be quick and easy to go back to the 40 tooth chain ring without having to move the back wheel.

I am going to pick up my bike later this afternoon so I will take it to the local track tonight to see how the new gearing works out.

I will go to Bristol again tomorrow morning early to test as well.