01/08/19
Got up at 5 and went to Bournemouth BMX for some pre-national training.
Went well for about an hour and then I hurt my back so had to cut the session short after only riding the first straight properly.
After a really painfull drive home I spent the rest of the day icing and resting my back!
Got a text to say that my S&M Steel Panther Frame had arrived while on the way to Bournemouth so I went into Crucial on the way home. Also picked up my We The People which had been in to get the brake sorted.
In the evening I had to go to Bath track to setup and run gates.
Also dropped off the Yess Type X frame that I had just had re-painted to have stickers put on it.
02/08/19
Rested today apart from popping into Crucial to Drop off my Dialled MX24R and the Steel Panther Frame to be built up with the parts from the Dialled.
Back still really sore even with ice on it most of the day.
03/08/19
Got up early and went for a ride on the road bike as the back was too sore to ride BMX still. I did a 53 minute loop where I rode 11.03 miles and climbed 828ft:
Surprisingly the ride didn’t hurt too bad when I was riding but was really sore when I got off the bike. A long hot shower sorted it out as did icing it afterwards.
Felt much better for actually doing something instead of lying in bed feeling sorry for myself.
04/08/19
Had to work today so didn’t do anything. The back was still a little sore so I took some ibuprofen to get me through the shift.
Forgot to do a weigh in too!
05/08/19
Had to go to work in the morning then had a lazy day today and Iced my back some more as it was still a little sore. Also did some chores around the house and did some washing.
Decided to go for a ride at 7pm which I did. I took a new route which added a bit to the route and got it up to almost an hour. I rode for 12.05 miles in 58.15 minutes and climbed 869 ft:
Back felt much better tonight once I had had a shower it was pretty much a dull ache.
06/08/19
Woke up when I woke up today and went for another ride on the new loop. Took me a lot longer today taking it just over the hour! I was pretty lazy today and was in lower gears most of the time.
Rode for 12.04 miles in 1.05.03 hours and climbed 871 ft:
Back felt fine I was just really lazy this morning. I guess it was due to training so close together. I also had to stop a lot more for cars and horses today which probably didn’t help and the wind definitely didn’t help!
Got the message that the S&M was ready to pick up so I will get it in the morning.
07/08/19
Had another lye in today as I was planning to do gates this evening in Bournemouth so no need to get up early.
Got up about 9 and got to Crucial for 10:30. The S&M looks amazing so can’t wait to ride it tonight.
Really happy how it turned out:
Gates went pretty well and no back pain at all until around the 8th gate so couldn’t have gone much better really.
08/08/19
Rested today as have the National rounds 11 & 12 at the weekend.
09/08/19
Rested today as have the National rounds 11 & 12 at the weekend.
10/08/19
Got up at 5am and dropped my son off at my Parents caravan and then drove over to Bournemouth BMX track for round 11 of the National Series only to find that it was cancelled due to high winds.
To be honest it was the right call as the wind had been getting steadily worse on the drive down and was still getting worse on the drive back to Weymouth.
It was so bad that I left my bike at the caravan as the car was getting blown about too much with it on the roof.
Chilled at the Van for a while and then found out the registration was open today so I went back to the track and registered then drove home.
11/08/19
Race day :-).
Got up at a bit later today and left the house for just after 6am and dropped my son off at the caravan and picked up the bike and headed over to the track.
Popped into the Crucial tent and picked up my new Leatt knee and shin pads that they had brought down for me and went to find my friends gazebo as they had said that I could leave my stuff there.
Got literally 1 practice lap and 2 gates before it was time to start racing. Had gate 6 in the first moto and got out pretty well and was in 5th place going around the first berm then got the second straight all wrong and nearly crashed and dropped back to 7th where I finished the race.
The second moto I was in gate 1 and got boxed out and then almost crashed on the first jump as the guy in front had to brake so I have to swerve around him to not crash into him. Managed to not crash and stay on the rest of the lap but finished last.
The third moto I had gate 3 and got boxed in out of the gate and wasn’t able to make any places back up.
All in all a bad day but I managed to race 3 full speed laps without getting any pain, new injuries or crashing so not all bad! I also know now that I need to shift a lot of weight and gain a bunch more muscle and speed over the winter to be able to compete next year.
I also need to spend more time in practice working on the other straights as well as the first straight to be able to keep up with all the quick guys.
12/08/19
Woke up really sore today so decided to take a rest day and start riding the road bike again tomorrow.
Have decided to stick to my steel frame bikes from now on so the GT is being broken down and either sold or hung on the wall (my preferred option) and the Curtis built up again.
I am going to try and get the 10mm to 20mm profile adapters to work on the Curtis frame later today to see I the 10mm profile elite wheel set I have at the moment will work or not. Fingers crossed it will as I don’t rally want to keep the Stealth wheel set that I have on the curtis at the moment as the bearings seize up too easily and the profiles seem to roll much better than the Stealth’s.
If the adapters do not work then I have a 20 mm profile elite up to build up that should work.
I want to get on the Curtis again ASAP to get used to it again. This will mean that the S&M can be used along with the Curtis as they have the same dimensions so should fell pretty similar. I may have the S&M with flat pedals and the Curtis with clips to that I use the S&M for practice and the Curtis for gates and racing.
I now plan to stick with the same 2 bikes for the foreseeable future and get really used to them.
I now am not sure what to do with the Yess, GT and Dialled frames as I will not be using them now. I think that the Dialled will be built up with the rest of the bits that I have in the Garage as my ride to work bike and I will keep the GT and Yess frames on the wall as I really like them and don’t really want to sell them but don’t want to sell them either.
I think that I may build up the Yess as an Xmas surprise for my son with expert wheels on it but I will have to see nearer the time. For now it will be stored with the GT Frames ready for my new flat sale to go through.
13/08/19
The soreness from yesterday turned out to be due to illness not due to the racing at the weekend. Spent all day in bead with a fever and drifting in and out of sleep. Had to call in sick at work as not able to stand let alone drive or work.
14/08/19
Still really ill but slightly better than yesterday but still not well enough to go back to work.
15/08/19
Still ill but decided to go into work tonight which was a good idea as I felt much better once I pushed through feeling really bad and carried on. Managed a whole night shift in the end. And was almost feeling human again by the end of the shift.
16/08/19
Feeling much better. Did a weigh in and I lost over 3 KG’s in 3 days while i was sick so I am going to take it steady getting back to exercise. I currently weigh 99.6 KGs so in double figures again for the first time in ages so not all bad.
Unfortunately the majority of the weight that I lost is water so is going to go back on again really quickly over the next few days but I am going to try and keep it of as much as possible.
I bought a bunch of coconut water to help with the re-hydration and have drunk a couple of litres already along with a couple of pints of water.
17/08/19
I was planning to go out on the road bike today but I think I will hold off until tomorrow as I am still feeling weak and a bit dizzy. I am much more hydrated today than I was yesterday but unfortunately that means that I have gone above 100KGs again. Only my 0.1 kgs but still back over.
18/08/19
Got up early this morning and I have put almost a kg back on in water weight and I am now 101.01KGs. Was just about to leave for the skatepark and it started raining so we aborted the mission and went back to bed!!
Decided not to waste the morning so got up and stripped down the GT Speed Series and put all the bits on the Dialled frame that I am going to take to the USA with me next month.
Pretty happy how it has turned out to be honest. I am loving the Yess forks on the chrome frame so I think that I may fit them to the S&M, and the Curtis when I build it up again for next season too. It will upset the purests but who cares 🙂
I am going to ride it with flats from now on as it is now winter for me and winter training is for flats 🙂
27/08/19
Starting to feel better so we got up early (5:30am) and went to Midsomer Norton Skate Park for a session.
Had a load of fun and learnt to air out of the big hip and also go over the rock in the bowl 🙂
It was the first time riding the We the People since it had had the new LHD wheel and new brake and cables fitted. The bike felt amazing today and much better than the old wheel with the free coaster. I am going to sell the old wheel and invest the money into buying the same wheel but with a freecoaster for later on when I want to do more backwards stuff.
I was going to go for a ride on the road bike in the evening but decided not to as my ankle was a bit sore after riding in the morning.
28/08/19
Got up at 7 and did a weigh in and I am still just under 100kgs at 99.9kgs. A good starting point for this faze of the training cycle.
I went for a ride on the road bike. I decided to stay close to home today so did 2 and a half laps of the local loop. I rode 12.03 miles in 58 minutes and 51 seconds with 678ft of elivation change.
Ankle was sore all the way around but other than that I felt good.