First race back

Yesterday I took the S&M to Bristol for the winter series races. I initially was going to do the warm-up and gates to get used to the bike and the new stem and wheels but it felt so good as did my shoulder so I decided to race.

During the gates in warm-up the bike was amazingly fast in face in my first 2 gates I beat people I had never beaten before by over a bike length to the first corner. This is mainly due to the Onyx hubs which worked as advertised and had instant engagement and my pedal strokes seemed more powerful as well.

In the races I got 2nd, 1st and 4th and took 3rd in the final but my legs were shot after the 2nd moto as I hadn't done a full lap for 3 month.

I also found that the 41-18 gearing was too low as I was spinning out about 3 pedals before the first jump and I was getting overtaken by one or 2 people by then. I have really liked the 42x18 gearing on the DK but unfortunately the S&M doesn't have enough chain stay clearance to put a 42 cog on the front as it only has less than 1mm clearance which is a little too close for my liking.

Last night I was looking at the charts and I can't make up my mind which gearing to go for. A couple of the really quick local racers run 39x17 and a few more run 37x16. I am leaning towards the 37x16 as I was running 36x16 which I liked but found it a little bit too spinny so 37x16 may be better.

Also more of the national riders run 37x16 and are really fast so if they are fast on it I can't have any excuses.

Here are a few photos of the bike after the race:

Apart from the gearing I am really happy with the bike and can't wait to actually ride it properly.

Yesterday's race showed that I need to get in shape quickly so I have decided that I am not going to race until the next Bristol race in January and concentrate on getting by fitness and leg strength back this month. Looking at the photo's from yesterday I need to loose a bunch of weight as well as I look like I have swallowed a beach ball. I also weighed myself last night an I am over 16 stone so I could do with loosing 3-4 stones.

I order to get back in shape I am going to do the following training:

Mondays - AM - Body weight exercises
Mondays - PM - HIIT training on the exercise bike

Tuesday - PM - Sprints

Wednesday - AM - Body weight exercises
Wednesday - PM - HIIT

Thursday - PM - Sprints

Friday AM - Body weight exercises
Friday PM - PM - HIIT training on the exercise bike

On top of this I will do my normal track based training as I always have. I am thinking of doing a more endurance based focus at least 2 times a week by doing 3 laps at a time. I also to continue to focus on Manuals and tap manuals in order to get faster.