Wannabe Roadie

Looks like the crew’s training methods have spread to South Africa…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/mar/22/tim-don-triathlon-london-olympics-2012

Like Tim Don, I spent my weekend pretending to be a roadie (aka road cyclist) racing in two EV Spring Series races. A rolling 55 km race on Saturday followed by “a climber’s delight” 45 km race which included a solid climb each of the 7 laps.

Some video…

I’m the one hanging on to the back of the group.

So needless to say it is a humbling experience going from a fairly strong cyclist in the triathlon world to fighting to stick with the C group of roadies. But that’s the point.

It was tough at times, looking at those around me, knowing I had better overall fitness but not the experience (and thus efficiency) on the bike. So what kept me going? I kept imagining I was in a triathlon. How could that help? Well I knew if I could just stick with the pack there was no one there who could stick with me in a 10 km run. Unfortunately none of them were willing to go run afterward.

If nothing else though, the races are great workouts. Saturday’s race averaged over 37 km/h on a course with lots of tight turns and nearly 35 km/h on Sunday even with all the climbing. And there’s nothing like pushing yourself to race two days in a row.

Now it’s just about moving myself up into the middle of the pack and start battling for the front. From there I should be getting to the top of the triathlete world.

So another week of Spring Break means plenty more time on the bike to get myself up there. We’ll see if I can top the 320 km of riding last week.

Be Sociable, Share!

•