XC Racer Blog Post

Making use of the winter

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BY: Niall Frost

Published: 28th January, 2012


It's been a while since my last blog because I like nothing better than keeping my head down in winter time and enjoying long cold rides that our winter usually offers.  I really don't like winter racing, usually because I'm short of form (no different to summer!) and since I ride a singlespeed in winter I use this as my excuse for why not to get involved.

Last weekend I had a really good 3 days in cumbria to consolidate all the miles into a block of 3 straight days on the bike.  Friday saw a 7am start for 2.7km in the pool with tumble turns and everything.  As it's been nearly 15years since I did any real swimming, so it was a proper challenge to my muscle memory.  Although I apparently suffer from the common cyclist's affliction of sinking legs, something which a wetsuit or injection of any sort of swimming technique may cure..

The road over to slaidburn

Following the early morning dip, the best thing about swimming early, 2nd breakfast was consumed.  We then set off on a route through the Forest of Bowland, whose roads are frequently used in the Tour of Britain, the above picture perhaps demonstrates why.  Quiet, stunning and with a nice climbing gradient they are the perfect escape from the motoring public.

Climbing through barbondale

Saturday dawned and after I'd diligently cleaned all the bikes (ahem - gt85 everything in sight) we once again set off for some winter miles.  Through Barbondale, over the Coal road to Garsdale Head before freezing rain and a group over-imagination for impending doom, we turned round and headed back.  3hrs bagged was good but the freezing weather made it feel much longer.  In order to keep the quota of multi-sporting I devised a 10km fell route through Barbon House grounds and out over Barbon fell, returning past the Andy Goldsworth "sheepfold" sculptures.

Turns out the route was actually 14km and we returned to the car just before dark, I've never been great with distances but the location and sunset were simply stunning so I'm pretty sure I got away with it.  Fell running has become a bit of a theme for me over this winter and I've really taken the sport to heart (not just because races generally cost £2 to enter).  Over the christmas period I conquered Ingleborough in about 1hr 10m in extremely blustery conditions and it was absolutely amazing.  The sense of freedom from descending at speed over rough ground has to be experience to be believed.  I even managed to sneak into the top 25% at Wansfell race on the 27th December which for my 3rd ever race is one of my proudest results of the 2011 season.  

For those interested in finding out more see http://www.fellrunner.org.uk/ and I can highly recommend this book.  Full of northern hard men and feats of stunning achievement.

Our final training day saw coffee discussion about climbing Buttertubs, that most famous of Dales' passes.  Despite extreme wind, the summit was bagged, even though one rider punished himself on a 11-19 cassette which must have been fearsome on the 25% sections.  All I can say is that if you go riding with anyone from Velo Club Cumbria, be afraid, be very afraid.  Wensleydale Cheesery provided the cafe stop with a full range of cheese based cake products!

Now it's about recovery and getting back out on the mountain bike to search for those skills since lost in the winter miles and seek more singletrack like this..

Singletrack above gunnerside ghyll

Am really looking forward to the 2012 season now.  I can't really hide it now, I shall be partaking in an olympic distance triathlon in May (1500m river swim, 42km bike and 10km run) which should really test my all round ability.  It's not going to distract from the cycling, but will add to the training I'm already doing and hopefully provide some balance to the bike concentrated fitness.

See you at a race soon.

Niall




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Niall Frost

Niall Frost is a XCRacer.com team rider

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