I’ve been doing plenty of hard work at home in addition to daily dog walks so on my last 2 rides I’ve felt tired. I don’t know much about the science of training in this state. If I start out already tired will training improve my stamina? I realise that I won’t be out for so long and won’t try as hard so I’m sure in general that it’s better to start riding when you’re fresh.
On my 3 laps of Healey Nab 2 days ago I tried to do a quick lap as the trail dries up. Even though I’ve ridden my Whyte JW4 bike on the 2 rides I was still 10 seconds down on my attempt 3 days previously. Strava allowed me to analyse why this was. I just wasn’t putting the effort in on the main climb. I think I would have been even slower on the Boardman due to greater tyre drag an a little extra weight but in modern mountain biking that seems to be the price of progress!
Today I rode through Duxbury Woods and down to Birkacre. I already had the King of the Mountains title on this segment which I did on the Boardman. Feeling tired I hadn’t expected anything too impressive though I knew by the first corner that I was moving. A little 2 wheel slide assured me that I couldn’t have taken it any faster. I needed to dab the brakes before corner 2 to get round and messed it up a bit. The rest didn’t go perfectly but since I wasn’t expecting much I just remembered my mistakes to correct next time.
When I got back home and looked at Strava I found that I’d broken my previous best by 3 seconds at 1 min 24 secs. Wow! I’ve impressed my self. At the top is a photo of the offending bike with it’s unique linkage suspension.
Mountainbiker 