The beginners/cat 4 race coaching at Curborough race circuit Staffordshire, set up by Lichfield CC, Elisa McDonagh and Huw Williams.
Huw got us to ride either on the hoods or drops, which I only tend to ride on the drops down hills as my 1975 Alan, well braking is a manual strength test at times compared to modern bikes, which I love and the bike bars are slightly to far for me from what I have been told, but I love the pezzani on the side and the original Coppi bar tape, so the handle bars are staying. So being on the drops I could feel discomfort on the front pubic area and was thinking time to invest in some better cycling shorts- more in another post, shortly. The coaching was really useful for me, I recommend it even if you do not want to race as if you come to cycling older and not learned how to ride close to others or in a peloton, it is a must to gain that confidence and no crashing here. I found it very humbling as I thought I could keep up pace for longer, still a fair bit of fitness to gain, only been riding on my 1975 Alan since I bought it in October 2014 and only just recently upped my mileage and things are starting to get more out on the hillier areas. The techniques that were taught after the warm up of gradually increasing pace and spinning, oh I can spin at a high cadence. Though I am training myself to do that through the harder gears so when it comes to climbing hills I don’t drop to the bottom gear straight away, I love riding my vintage bike and if I can get to the point on flying past those up hills with more gears than moi that would be awesome. Yes it’s easier on the body to spin at a higher cadence up hills, but there are those who used to climb up mountains and hills with just 3 gears, some still do. We were made to ride in a group close together getting us to put a hand on the next rider’s shoulder and cycle at same speed was good, keeping our line and going round corners in a line, I kept ending up on the outside, which meant going a bit faster to hold the line. Then it came to going round corners faster and getting confident at it and seeing a line, now cornering round to the left I found easier than the right it may have something to do with my 123 cheat pattern and stress makes me implode in on myself, as I tend to hide and get away from things emotionally as it is a trait I learned as a little girl to keep myself safe and I am still unlocking that emotional pattern. Emotions have a strong effect on how the body performs and what 123 pattern is run. So going round to the right, I got it, yay, oh no bollocks, I messed it up, ok that was better, nope I fucked it up that time, which was from over thinking it and not relaxing and breathing. We then went on to puncture drills of soft pedalling and moving up through the peloton with enough time left to do a mini crit race, with the 2 young lasses leading the first 2 laps, well by the first lap I was out the back, however Elisa got those of us out the back to work together, to help each other out and then last lap a sprint to the finish line. It was a very well organised and great day, I am not sure I will part take in any crits just yet as I prefer being out on the roads and my fitness and average needs to increase a lot, in my opinion, so more getting out on my bike then, especially more so doing hilly routes than the flat ones. Strava is my friend at letting me see how I progress and must admit love it when I get a QOM, though it would be nice when I can get nearer the lads up hills, well some women even as that is a weak point and well if I am going to do Eroica then hill work is a must. Leave a Reply. |
Em
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17/3/2015
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