Knee & the Imperial Winter Series

So, this blog hasn't been very active at all lately.

Since the Royal Parks my knee has been buggered and I've been largely out of action. The physio reckons it is an over use injury - basically 2 half marathons with little training is a bad thing.

This year has been very disappointing for me - I'd had high hopes but many things - both under my control and beyond - have conspired to make it highly unsuccessful. Bother.

So the knee is getting better, but it still aches and I'm not even going to try to run on it yet. So I've taken to some winter cycling and have decided to enter the Imperial Winter Series at Hillingdon. The first race was this past weekend. I arrived about 35mins before the start only to find a ridiculously long queue! I got to the start with a minute or so to spare, and I estimate that there must have been at least 80 riders in the 4th cat race! Most were novices which was to prove a bit of a problem.

At the start I was in good shape and enjoyed my time at the front. After 25mins or so (it was a 35mins + 5 lap race) I started to lose concentration and ended up somewhere in the middle of the group. This is where it all went pear shaped. I got caught up in a fall and went straight over someone's bike. Fortunately I was able to vault off my bike and do a running landing on grass. My bike also took the landing well, and apart from skew bars and a loose headset, I was still in action.

The slightly wonky bike and shock of the crash got to me a bit and started to make me feel really nervous in the group. My plan was to get some air, and then get stuck in again. Then another crash which I narrowly missed going down in, followed by another which forced me to a complete stop. By this stage it was a lap and a half to go, so I had no chance whatsoever. So it was a slow walk to the finish.

I'm going to give it a whirl again this Saturday - the forecast looks gloomy, so I hope it will keep away a large part of the novice field. I'd really like to get a placing so I can start to gather some points together! That said, my form isn't great, and my knee is still sensitive, so I'll have to just make sure I get myself in the right place at the right time.

Looking forward.