Form is a funny thing

It's a funny word.  I suppose it means that you turn up to a race and feel absolutely on it.  For me, this doesn't happen very often as I've usually done far too much riding the preceding week (or weeks if it's in the school holidays) to feel anywhere near fresh.  Most bizarrely, form comes when you least expect it.  I can try to taper the week before a race and feel dreadful, likewise I can go and ride 8hrs the day before and feel amazing.  Here are some tales of form...

This season, I've been doing some more euro marathons; I've not blogged about the last two yet.

Back in April Ben and I headed out to Spilimbergo for the Tiliment MTB marathon.  85km around the foothills of the Dolomites.  After making far too much use of the free drinks in the lounge at Gatwick leading to a bit of a hangover on the Saturday, and letting the toll ticket blow out of the hire car window on the way to the apartment (oops), we arrived and did some pre-riding.  The couse was an odd mix of relatively lumpy, Surrey Hills style hills and trails for the first and last 25km (but way longer and even more awesome) with a massive 1200m vertical ascent mountain in the middle.  At the start, the commissaires advised everyone it was snowing at the top of this mountain.  Standing there in a short sleeve jersey and with no way of taking or accessing a long sleeve I decided a fair bit of MTFU would be needed...  They weren't wrong - after about 50mins of ascending it was -3 and snowing heavily at the top.  I was so cold I got cramp in my forearms and one leg and had to stop and have a Marshall hug me in his massive coat!!  Crazy.  The surface was also the slipperiest thing I've ever seen.  Teflon would have had more traction.  The rain the previous afternoon had turned the cobbles into an ice rink.  Keeping the speed down without locking a wheel was almost impossible and so some creative line choices were needed to keep the bike upright and pointing the right way.  In terms of form, I felt pretty drained at this race and not just because I'd been enjoying the free champagne on the plane.  Lots of racing the previous weeks was catching up with me.  I finished 51st overall but would only say I was at 80% - I just couldn't push ok like I usually can.

Onto Roc Ardennes in Houffalize, Belgium, the following week and it was a similar story - absolutely freezing, heavy rain the day before and a really, really muddy course which was massively hard work.  I grovelled round, again in 51st and still not feeling great despite a week of rest.  This was certainly a forgettable race as no part of the 80km was fun... Although I was pleased to be riding the slippery, quagmire-covered, fire roads a lot more confidently that I would have done a year ago.

Next up was the Dalby round of the national XC series.  A course I absolutely love, we've not been here since the hail and gales of 2012 which sort of wrecked parts of the track... Eeek... But after a massive amount of work by Nutcracker the course was once again ready to race.  As usual, I really enjoyed the trails even though we didn't go over the drops at Worry Gill and Medusas :( I wasn't feeling 100% though and had a fair bit of soreness in my legs - the climb out of Medusas really hurt and I could tell I wasn't fresh.  Form still not quite there... I was happy with 21st though and also with the fact my fastest and slowest lap were only about 25secs apart.

But now this weekend...  Charlie's Dorset Gravel Dash 100 mile notarace based out of Swanage.  This week I've not really eaten properly as work has been busy and I've been having a beer each evening.  The weekend before I went and rode 8hrs round the Surrey Hills.  The day before I went and rode 6hrs, again round the Hills then went to the pub with Charlie, Sam and co and had more beers than I have for a while...  And yet I felt amazing.  Now some of this was probably down to the fact it was sunny and warm rather than snowing, but not all of it.  Form really is a funny old thing.  I felt I could really push on on the climbs and kept attacking the trails until the end.  I nearly had to ring the broom wagon of eternal shame as, having got a flat, I couldn't get the tubeless valve out of my rear wheel as it had been in there so long the lockring had seized onto the valve stem.  After about 15mins and a tip from Crispin (who had caught me up by this point) I managed to snap it off and carry on.  I must say I rode pretty hard to catch back up again, having no idea how long it would take me to close the gap.  Getting KOMs on Strava in the middle of a 100 mile notarace made me pretty happy :).  I caught and passed Crispin after about 55 miles on the descent off Bulbarrow Hill - he was on a cross bike and so having to take it a bit easier on the rocky trails.  Still surprised by how good I was feeling, and having no idea how ft behind anyone else was I kept the hammer down and ended up about 20mins ahead by the end.  For anyone who's not ridden round Dorset before this route is a superb way of getting a feel for the place - the views, particularly at the start and end, are amazing and the trails are pretty cool too.  But just don't mention the hill forts.  No-one likes the hill forts.

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