Park riding

I managed to make the Dynamo park ride again on Saturday for the third time this year! When it works it works really well and results in a good workout. This ride in the second group out didn’t work quite as well – we were fast enough, but not very smooth, we didn’t give a few riders anywhere near enough room (despite lots of shouting within the group) and there were some of the usual “do we overtake or not?” moments with cars. All things that need to be addressed on the road (which we did) – I always think the emphasis should be on ‘smooth’ over erratic pacing but faster overall progress round the park. Having said that, it’s difficult to maintain the smooth through-and-off over rolling terrain when you have 8 riders of slightly varying abilities, but that’s where the effort should be focused on the park ride – we were getting there towards the end, and I was as guilty as anyone else of varying the pace!

There was much talk of racing after the park ride, typically from the 3rd Cat riders as the racing schedule, particularly in the Surrey League, seems to have lumped a quantity of 3rds-only road races towards the end of the season. It’s been a particularly fallow summer for 3rds road races, with the emphasis on the calendar seemingly being spring and autumn. I’ve entered a few road races and may have another go at the Hoggenberg as well. I’m still not off the ground with my plan to score some points and realistically just want to go for a top 10 finish in one race, or at least spend time in a breakaway. With that in mind I opted for a turbo session on the Sunday instead of a road ride. Ouch! Overdid it slightly on the hardest of the 3 minute intervals and had to back off – that never normally happens. I think a combination of slightly tired legs, a mild hangover and extremely humid weather resulted in my HR suddenly spiking and the lungs requesting that I back off, now please, as in immediately, before melting into a pool of salty water. Thank you very much.

We ended the weekend spending a fun evening with the kids watching Jack Black in School of Rock. They thought it was fantastic that a teacher could come in and refuse to teach the class anything other than rock. I think they’ll be disappointed when they get back to school in September!