Took the cruiser to Crucial to get the gearing changed and then met up with a friend to test out my back at Arnos pump track. My back felt ok and the dialled 20″ seems to be perfect for pump tracks which is what I bought it for.
05/05/18
Back was sore this morning after riding yesterday and it was even worse after the 3 1/2 hour drive to Cornwall track. I did a few half hearted laps and a couple of gates and then called it a day after my front tyre blew up while my bike was parked up. Looks like the tube split along the seam again so not buying any more vee tubes as this is the third or 4th one that has done this. Went to the hotel and chilled as my back hurt and I have tonselitus too!
06/05/18
Woke up in the night with a fever and sore throat and then had to wake up early to go and race. Did a few warmup laps and then rested in the shade as I was feeling really bad. I almost didn’t race but decided to and it turned out to be a good decision and I had 5th, 3rd, 3rd in my Motos and then took 4th in my semi to make my first ever regional A final. Pretty much pumped the final as I had already tied up 2nd in my age group and didn’t think there was much point in hurting myself any more as we have Bath regional at the weekend and I want to be a bit more healthy by then.
07/05/18
Really hurting this morning so going to have a rest day to try and recover so that I can train harder tomorrow at the Bath track. I need to get some full laps in as I haven’t done any at this track for ages so need to put the whole track together so that I don’t get it wrong at the weekend.
08/05/18
Really hurting still but decided to ride and I am glad that I did. Did 5 pump laps to warm up and then did full speed first straights and tabletops on the second straight. Got the first straight pretty smooth and was manualing the second double easily for the first time in ages. Did 10 of these and then 10 3rd and 4th straights and I was done.
I went to Sainsbury’s on the way home and bought some radox to try and get rid of the aches and pains in my body.
09/05/18
Had a good day at the track working on my first straights and then 3rd and 4th straights. Feeling much better for the radox bath.
10/05/18
Took the day off today to rest up.
11/05/18
Had a really good session with my friend Matt working on lines for the racing on sunday. We worked on all of the straights for a good few hours.
Really tired now.
12/05/18
Woke up really sore but had to do the Ryan Stack training this morning which was really good and as always Ryan gave me some excellent little pointers to get some extra speed.
Didn’t do the gates session after the training as I was so sore and wanted to rest for racing.
13/05/18
Race day was great. Got up later as the race was at Bath track so I was only 10 minutes from home.
Did a couple of warmup laps then a couple of gates and my gates were feeling really bad so wasn’t really very confident as 90% of the top guys were racing so the racing was going to be hard.
First moto I shot out of the gate and was away and clear in second place all the way round so I was really chuffed. Second moto was a bit harder and I got cut up going into the second jump so I had to brake and I took 4th which was still really good. 3rd moto I got out of the gate well and took 3rd so happy with the results.
My semi gate and first straight were really good and I was surprised to be in 4th place into the berm only to be boxed in and come out of the gate in 7th!!! so I pumped the rest of the lap to save some energy.
The final went pretty well, I was 3rd going into the first berm and managed to prevent getting boxed out and was able to make a clear gap and stay in 3rd so pretty happy.
Happy my gates were getting quicker but still lacking after the second or 3rd peddle. Need to get back to doing sprints to get my first straights dialled again.
14/05/18 – 17/05/18
Rested for a few days to get ready to race at the weekend. Also pulled something in my shoulder reaching to get something out of a wardrobe!!
18/05/18
Went to the track to train with my friend Matt but my shoulder was still sore so I stopped after an hour and a half. I was mostly jumping the first jump at Bath which I managed to do cleanly once in the hour I was trying it!!
19/05/18
Went to Burnham on Sea track to practice for the regional as they have totally re done the second and third straights. My shoulder was pretty sore so I didn’t do too much so that I didn’t aggravate it.
I did 5 gates and hit the gate every time which wasn’t a good sign.
20/05/18
Racing went better than expected as there were a lot of fast riders again this weekend. I did OK and had some really hard moto’s. I got 6th, 5th and 3rd in my motos and made the Semi’s. I got boxed in in my semi out of the gate so I took it easy to save some energy for the final. The final went better than expected I got 3rd and was in second for a bit. After the final finished I felt my wrist was hurting where I cased the second jump at high speed. To be honest I thought that I was going to come off but managed to keep on the bike and ride out of it so could have been much worse.
21/05/18
Woke up at 5:30 for some reason so I went to Bristol and got a dawn session in. Couldn’t do too much as my wrist was hurting still but managed to get the manual on the first jump smoother.
Went home and then met up with my friend Jamie at 11 am at Bath track to play. I took my 20″ as I didn’t want to over do it. Stayed at the track until about 2pm and was basically just jumping the tabletop.
22/05/18
Took a rest day today as I was really tired from the weekend. Basically stayed in bed watching netflix until it was time to work.
23/05/18
My Pilates class was cancelled today so I got up and went to Bristol track to meet my friend Jamie. Did a few pump laps and then worked on the first straight and concentrated on manualing the first cleanly for about 10 tries and then I consented on trying to manual the second jump which I hadn’t done before. I managed to do it once in the 10 tries I gave it. We then worked on the 3rd straight which I have always had issues with and to my surprise I was really fast on it and carrying loads of speed. Go figure. So all in all a productive morning.
25/05/18
Had the day off as I had some stuff to do and didn’t have time to ride. I did have time to build up the GT SpeedSeries frame with all the bits from the shed to try it out to see if I like it or not.
cof
26/05/18
Went up the track with the GT for a test on flats I didn’t ride too much as I had to help sort out the container but I liked the GT but not as much as the Dialled so I am going to keep the Dialled and I have just put the GT up for sale.
I also put the forks from the GT back on the dialled so that I could ride it tomorrow.
27/05/18
I had arranged to ride at Bristol track at 11am with my friend Jamie this morning but at 10:30 we had torrential rain so we decided not to ride. At about 2pm for a message from my friend Matt to say that he would be at Bath track at 3pm so I met up with him.
Had a really good session. I got the first straight smooth and fast and also worked on the second straight which I have got really dialled now too. We then played on the table top.
We were having so much fun that we got locked in the car park and had to take the gate off of the hinges to get the cars out!
28/05/18
Had a chilled morning and then met up with some friends at 3pm at Bath track for a chilled session. Did a few full speed first and second straights and still have them sussed so happy with that. In fact I was over manualing some of the jumps today which I have never done before. We then moved to the 3rd straight where I was cleanly manualing the first jump for the first time ever. We then played on the tabletop again for a while.
29/05/18
When to Bath again today but it was a bit windy so I did a couple of pump laps to warm up and then I did a full speed lap but wasn’t really feeling it so I decided to work on first and second straights instead.
30/05/18
Got paid today so I went to Cruical and picked up my Curtis which is looking amazing. Going to wait a bit longer to ride it as we are going to get some photos for the Curtis web site before I ride it.
This afternoon I went to Bristol for the summer series and it highlighted my need for berm line selection as I got beaten out of the berm every race. It was annoying but highlighted my need to get the third berm dialled in as well as staying low in the last berm.
My legs are burning from the effort tonight so it was definitely a great workout and I have a lot to work on before the next regional.
It also highlighted the fact that I need to go back to doing at least one session a week of full laps as my laps were really disjointed and lacked flow and consistency too.
