Thursday at Hog Hill

As I drove up towards Hog Hill, I could not but help notice the rather substantial increase in elevation of the road leading up to the circuit; it looked like a pig of a climb (forgive me). Once I'd got up to the clubhouse at the track, I saw the rather nasty looking climb up to the start-finish, I started to wonder what I was letting myself in for. Right then!

Hog Hill is pretty easy to get to from my office, so I'd arrived very early. This was great, and gave me a lot of time to get everything together, which included pinning the number "1" onto my jersey.

The preceding race, that from the faces of many of the competitors looked like torture, eventually came to an end and gave me a chance to do a quick recce of the full course. First off I managed to take a "wrong turn" onto the little loop that saw me back at the start finish, oops. Second time lucky, and soon I found myself at the crest of the hill with a glorious ribbon of cycling tarmac before me.

I was calm as we lined up on the start line. I was expecting to take a massive hammering over the next hour so I guess I was in a state of denial more than anything else. As we started rolling I began to feel better and better. The awful fatigue that had racked my body since Palace was receding as the effect of the endorphins grew and soon I had gone from tentatively feeling my way around to getting stuck into the bike race.

A few laps in I was feeling pretty racy and moved forward from pottering in the midfield to lurking near the front. I was definitely spurred on by the cooperation I got from my new Dulwich clubmates, but mostly I was just feeling really good. I'm told that at one point our small group at the front had put some air between us and the main group, but we were caught. Nevertheless, I was feeling very confident and was even starting to contemplate nabbing a point or two...

So you can imagine how gutting it was when my right calf decided to go into spasm after a small acceleration out of the hairpin. I slowed on the back straight and tried to massage it out. It felt much better after that and I got up the climb without hassles, but it started twitching again near the crest of the descent. I tried again to massage and stretch it down the hill, but it was in vain. I continued in this vein for the next lap and half until one last blast up the hill did me in and I was forced to stop with my calf in a horrible cramp.

My water bottle told part of the story; in all the excitement I had barely touched it, which can't have helped. So all I could do was massage my leg back to a useful state and watch the last four or so laps play out.

So bitter-sweet. I was gutted not to be able to finish, but excited to have had such a good race, especially after still feeling a bit of Tuesday's Palace outing in my legs before the race. I certainly am looking forward to my next race at The Hill.

Bonus blog inclusion: Hog Hill circuit from the saddle of the Ribble

Photo thanks to British Cycling

The circuit starts anticlockwise from opposite the clubhouse. The circuit drops off the plateau with a gentle left hander and then heads sharply into a lovely banked sharp left hander where the run back up the the crest begins. This geography gives this corner a wonderful rollercoaster feel. It can be taken pretty much as fast as you dare, with an amazing rush as you're pressed into the ground at the apex by the g-force.

The tarmac then heads over a gentle left hander over the crest of the hill and then a lovely long, gentle downhill stretch which gives you a chance to tuck in and gather your breath. Then into a gentle right hander as the circuit flattens out, another two quick right handers followed by a lovely hairpin that sometimes has you wishing that your crank arms were just 5mm shorter as the riders ahead accelerate away out of the hairpin onto the back straight. The back straight is a good opportunity to consolidate before a fast left hander and then the final run up to the hill.

At first the hill starts very as a very mild incline, but then kicks up a bit, and then a lot as it also takes in a right hander before the short run back to the start-finish line. This is easily the most characterful part of the track and it certainly can be murder when it wants to. Overall I love this circuit. It is both exciting and challenging. I'm sure it is a place you can grow into and has a lot to offer. I'll definitely be back soon.

Getting into the Palace groove

I feel really good.

Racing is funny sometimes. It usually takes you to great highs or monumental lows, but rarely does it leave you feeling quietly satisfied. Today is one of those rare occasions.

Don't get me wrong - I don't do this for quiet satisfaction. I do this for the extremes - but still, a day like to today is rewarding and is far preferable to a kick in the teeth.

Following my friend Andrew's advice, I got myself a nice spot at the front for the start - got off quickly enough and found myself lapping fairly comfortably within sight of the front of the group - spot on! All previous nervousness with the corners was replaced by an easy flow, if a bit of frustration with other riders slowing up too much. In those opening laps, this meant bursts out of the corners to stay in touch that nudged up my heart rate. This would have been OK if it were not for the rapid increase in pace, and one particular acceleration up the hill that had me hitting the red.

Within a lap I went from comfortably riding near the front to hanging on at the rear. I hung on for a few laps in this way, but the concertina effect of only being able to take the corners as fast as those ahead of me meant that the repeated accelerations were kept bumping me back into the red and I was battling to hang on. Inevitably one fast run up the hill unhooked me, leaving me in no mans' land.

Alone I was making good, smooth progress, and surprisingly not losing too much to the group, but it was hard work. Our 3/4 race had split fairly early on, and the second group was quite far down the road - waiting for them wasn't an option. Trying to get back in was. A lap later, another Dulwich rider fell off the back. I caught him and we worked together for a while until gradually a group formed with others who had suffered the same fate as us.

From there on it was a fairly easy race - the pace wasn't too hard, but it was nice and quick. But importantly it was more all important track time, and I felt like I was starting to get Palace under my skin.

Overall, it felt like a good test. The legs were good, but I know where I need to do some work. Everything felt like it was coming together.

Thursday I plan to race at Hog Hill - it sounds like it should be a lot of fun but, more importantly, good training.

Thanks for reading my blog - and watch this space for news on The Hill.

A bit more cross training

I worked fairly late this evening, so missed the race at Palace. Annoying because it really was a stunning evening. Oh well.

To console myself, I went across to to run through Battersea Park. As soon as I got there, I had this crazy idea to do some intervals. After Hillingdon I've come to realise that I need to spend a bit more time getting my body used to the idea of a sprint to the line.

I have no idea how long the sprints were, but they were all out and hard. I managed 2.75. It may not sound like much, but it sure did hurt. I'll be working out a more structured training program over the next few days and I look forward to hopefully putting something together that a) I can stick to and b) will make me faster.

Scraping my knees

Today I disappointed myself greatly. It was a 4th Cat race at Hillingdon and all I needed to do was come 6th or better to secure the remaining points required to be promoted to 4th Cat.

The race was much as I expected and generally went according to plan. The riding was "cynical", with no breakaway attempts amounting to anything and the smallish field of about 24 staying pretty much intact for the whole race. I'd intended to just take it easy and loiter near the front, out of the wind for most of the race but inevitably I got stuck into chasing down the more dangerous looking attacks. I felt great - pretty strong with good acceleration. I was feeling pretty confident for the finish.

So when it came around, one of the more aggressive racers made a move and I covered it - then, just before the back straight when I was about to come though, he sat up. As he did this I looked back - a moment of hesitation that had the group pretty much back. Suddenly I found myself on the front no-one in the group interested in coming forward.

I will readily admit that this caught me completely off guard and settling into the back straight I missed the tiny window of opportunity to do something decisive to rescue the situation. Instead I dug the hole deeper and tried to do a quick charge to the line. Inevitably this served merely as a lead out, and in the blink of an eye, four riders were by then a small gap before I counted more than six.

I was caught with my pants down, the speed differential was just too great and I didn't have a second acceleration left in me to do anything about it. Perhaps a true schoolboy mistake; definitely another notch down to experience. But I still can't help feeling great annoyance at "what might have been".

I'm sure after a good sleep and some time to reflect, I'll get over it. Oh well.

Edit (Sun 14 AM):
After sleeping on it, I realise that I missed the first four coming by because I wasn't ready for it. I wasn't in the right gear to kick and I hadn't "cocked" myself. Deer in the headlights. I won't be doing that again.

Back up and running

Last night after battling traffic for just and hour and 40, and about 5 mins off from Crystal Palace, I got a text from my friend Andrew letting me know the race has been called off. Too much rain, track too treacherous.

I must admit a twinge of relief. It had been bucketing down, and I was dreading Fishermans' in the wet. That said, it also seemed to be drying out and I was keen to race.

To make the best of the evening, as soon as I got home I pulled on my running shoes for my second attempt at running this year. It went well, and my knee felt 100%. I'll keep gradually upping my running mileage; running is great cross training for building cardio fitness and it would be great to hit the end of the year running fit for the XC season (which is only a few months off in reality).

I felt good after the run, but overall I still have this horrid all over tightness that stretching doesn't seem to be helping much. Apart from taking it relatively easy to spin the tightness out of my legs I have a plan that I'll report on once I've tried it. Let's just say it includes a certain Pineapple.

Second attack on The Palace

At about 2pm the butterflies woke up and started fluttering madly, trying to escape from my torso. Last week I became enthralled with Crystal Palace. It is such a beautiful place to be. So calm, quiet and beautiful. Perhaps it is just the racing driver in me; I feel the history of the tarmac like a warm glow. But it is brutal.

I'd done a lot of thinking and visualising the difficult corners, and I'd ridden hard over the remainder of the week in preparation. I was feeling strong and mentally prepared - and this time the nervous energy wasn't anxiety but rather excitement.

I arrived at the track about 15 minutes earlier than the previous week, but in taking my time getting everything together, I found myself running a bit late and toward the tail end of a long queue at the signing up desk. Probably because of the amazing weather, the turnout was huge, and I think we (the queue stragglers) were lucky to all get to the start line.

My darling wife had made the trip out to watch, worth at least 5km/h - but in the rush there wasn't even time for, "Hello!" Instead I barely had time to pin my number on before rolling up to the start line.

I felt so much better than the week before, and managed to hang onto the back of the group for much longer than the previous week - but starting at the rear didn't help at all, and I found myself battling to hang on until one hard run up the hill got me unstuck.

I battled for a few laps trying to find someone to work with. I still don't understand Cat 3/4 riders who are unwilling to ride together with around 2/3 of the race still to run. I eventually caught up with two Cat 1/2 riders who, at first, I just sat with to get a breather, but then worked with. One of those riders blew and dropped off, leaving the other and myself to work together well for a good few laps, me pulling up the hill, him dragging us along the flat bits.

It was a great education to ride on the wheel of a quick rider through the technical bits of the circuit. I certainly gained a lot of confidence and managed to increase my entry speed quite substantially at both the hairpin as well as Fisherman's Corner to the point where I was hardly braking for Fisherman's, and felt the rear tyre scrabble a little through the hairpin. Have I mentioned that I love this circuit?

I began to flag on the hill and let the Cat 1/2 rider go (rather than hold him up) and so found myself in no mans land again until a few of us managed to cluster back together and consolidate a good pace. Sadly we were lapped, and a lap or two later and, with the final sprint imminent, we were pulled. A bit of a bummer, but good to get a chance to watch the final sprint.

So overall, fairly uneventful ride, but crucially a few more rungs scaled on Crystal Palace's steep learning curve.

Sticking with the pack next week? I certainly intend to.