XC Racer Blog Post
Wrong type of snow
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterBY: JAMES HAMPSHIRE
Published: 12th December, 2010
As everyone else on the team is resisting the British habit of talking about the weather, I'm going to stick my head above the parapet and admit the snow and ice is my fault.
There was a time when 'training' started in the new year, nowadays every man and his dog planning to do a 100km road sportive next summer have been banging out the miles since the start of November. If you're a Tour de France contender fair enough - if you're a middle aged man in lycra, then it's maybe a little OTT... Anyhow's the chance to use a powermeter was offered to me (training by heartrate is sooo last century) and despite my old school ways (I'm more of a Graham Obree than a Chris Boardman) I was weirdly up for being enslaved to chasing numbers and planning rides that avoid roundabouts, traffic lights, T-junctions or any other opportunity to freewheel.
Obviously, somebody up above wasn't too happy about that, consigning my road bike to being a clothes line (hanging space is at a premium when you're using wool socks, 2 pairs of oversocks and overshoes to keep your feet warm). The first snowfall saw me frantically scrabbling around to build up an Mtb, followed by me scrabbling around in the powder leaving first tracks. Frustratingly, the compacted snow on my local trails has now turned to ice and with nobody making studded 29er tyres I'm now forced to ride on the road with my Mtb - a painful torture that is only tempered by the satisfaction of overtaking queues of slow moving traffic on the commute to work!
With the sub zero temperatures set to continue I'm going to try and make the most of some (rare for me) winter off-road riding and the powermeter will have to wait, because there is no way you'll catch me doing base miles on a turbo-trainer!
Blogger Info:
JAMES HAMPSHIRE
Midlands XC coordinator and black collar racer.
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