Back to base

No, I haven't been slack in posting race reports; since Thruxton I'd taken a bit of a break from racing to pull myself from furiously trying to chip at my points balance and rather search for some from.

Step one has been trying to get in some long distance miles in on the weekends. As with so many things, easier said than done; there have been storage units to clear, rooms to rearrange post builders, furniture to reassemble and all the other unplanned chores that take time. But all those excuses made, I've got out a few times and put in some quality mileage.

The easiest way of getting good training in would be combining it with my commute; it is regular and far easier to work up the discipline to make the extra time for. My trip to work has typically comprised 20 mins hard across to Fenchurch Street Station, 40 mins on the train and finally 10-15 mins gentle spin to the office. Fortuntately the train stops at a few places along the way, opening up the opportunity for trading some of the train journey for saddle time.

For my "long ride" option, I started by turning off my trip to the railway station at the work side, and heading for Upminster, roughly halfway on the usual train trip home. It is a smidge over 20km and takes roughly 40-45 mins (depending on the training objective of the ride), so only adds a net 20 mins to the journey - which is pretty tolerable. Partly because it is such a handy time cost, I can also tag it onto the beginning of my trip giving me a sum total of about an hour an half a day good training time. I had to ease into the first week of doing this, and it left me knackered, but last week I was able to hit it quite a bit harder without feeling wrecked.

I'm planning to take a bit more time off from racing Palace, but I'll be at Hog Hill Thursday. It will be interesting to see how the work I've put in has improved my form. If how I feel now is a reasonable indication, it should be a lot of fun.