by huw williams » Fri Feb 15, 2008 9:55 am
[quote="Antloony"] Im 40 now, in another year I'd like to be racing, not still trundling along in the 18's every saturday with my belly wobbling about because I got attacked by several packets of custard creams.
Well done mate your certainly heading in the right direction - but why wait a year to start racing? You know what the first thing everybody says when they start racing in their 40's? - "I wish I'd started sooner"
You're well up to decent 4th cat standard already - and if you're not fit enough/tactically aware enough to progress immediately, each time your race you'll be gaining experience - so by the time you are ready to race 'properly' you'll have all the tools in place.
My advice would be:
The club run is not an ideal training environment for improving unless you're riding with the training group (which is as good as racing for the most part
) or any group higher than your ability.
If your not doing your own training rides, are relying on the club run as training (and having seen you ride in the hills a couple of sundays ago), I'd say you're going to need at least the 20s group. So no more 18s - get in a 20s group as a stepping stone to the training group - if there is no 20s group go in the 18s/19s but do a lot more than your share of the work on the front and try and 'mark' every move, ie stay close to the leaders on every climb/sprint. Carefull of the group protocol though, if you start getting on the front and raising the tempo too high, we VCs like nothing more than an excuse to vent our wrath on some unruly riders who are getting a bit tasty
Basically you're trying to make your ride harder without upsetting anyone else.
Next, target racing at Hillingdon as soon as you can - its a better beginner's course than Palace and there will be plenty of other ACC riders over there early this season (in just a few weeks in fact) - then when you're a bit more familiar with what's involved, switch to Palace cos its closer/harder
On the food front, at 40 years of age you'll know exactly what you should snd shouldn't be eating as part of your basic diet (but can you stick to it?
) and that'll be more than enough to cover your training needs. You only need to alter it if you do something significantly longer/faster/harder than your used to, like races or big hilly sportives, but we can talk about that seperately