Those of you that follow this blog or any of my guest blogs will most likely know my attitude to training. In a nutshell, I don’t do it as I made the decision to focus on riding for pleasure alone rather than committing to schedule of improvement that might take away some of the enjoyment. I also struggle to commit to one kind of cycling and really try hard to succeed in it because I’m having too much fun riding whatever the hell I want, whenever I want to and jumping from bicycle to bicycle. If you told me I couldn’t ride my mountain bike because I needed to do a bunch of intervals on my road bike, I’d tell you to bog off.
BUT the Red Hook Crit is coming to London, and I’d like to race in it. Founded in Brooklyn, the Red Hook Crit is the world’s premier closed circuit track bike race and having followed it for years, been delighted when they added a women’s class and watched from the sidelines in Milan, now I want to race. Gulp.
My motives for doing so are pretty varied but in essence boil down to this – if you’ve got the chance to be a part of something awesome rather than just watch, shouldn’t you just go for it? What better way to really experience an exciting event than to do it from the inside? And plus, I’ve always encouraged women to take a challenge, try something new, get involved in racing etc etc, so even though just writing about the race is giving my butterflies, I need to take this bold and scary step because I want to know whether I can do it. How else can a person know whether it’s for them or not?
Seeing as the race is next month and I have done no absolutely no training whatsoever, I know I’ll not be up front with the fast female racers who regularly compete in these events (and in Elite road races every weekend!) and that’s totally fine by me. But I’d like to be able to ride and race hard, not get lapped immediately or have to pull out wheezing, so I’ve decided to see how fit I can get in a month.
To assist me, James from High Rise Coaching has kindly offered to write me a plan that should help whip me into better shape. He tells me that a month is “not a long period of time, but enough to make a few noticeable gains.” We’ll see! I’ve my first consultation with him this evening, after which I’ll report back and I’ll be posting updates here throughout the month and on my Instagram account, so if you feel like giving me some encouragement when my willpower is slipping, that would be greatly appreciated!
EEK!