BMX Track Training – Road Trip to Bristol
I woke up at 5:30 again this morning but, instead of going for a walk I packed the car and headed to Bristol BMX track in Patchway. The weather was actually really nice and sunny and there was very little wind either. The track was a little soggy from all the rain that we have had this month so far but it was really rideable.
I did a few pump laps to warm up and then got down to trying to get the first straight dialled as I have been struggling with it the past few weeks during gates.
After about 10 straights I raised the bars as high as they would go as yesterday I had left a spacer on top of the stem to see if that would be a good height and I felt that the bars were still a little low so I put them higher! After raising the bars I felt way better on the bike and after a few slower speed straights pumping around the rest of the track I hit the straight flat out and was able to get a couple of pedals in after the speed bump and was able to manual the second jump cleanly!! I had only managed to do this once all last month so I was really happy with that. I could also notice the extra speed from the 37×16 gearing too so I will be sticking with this bike for now.
I kept on doing first straights with pump back rest and kept at it for about 3 hours and I hanged to do the whole first straight cleanly about 5 times out of maybe 40-50 trys so there is still a lot of work to go but it is getting better slowly. I was also really amazed at how little I was out of breath after the maximal efforts as well and I would never have said before the session that I would be doing 40 full speed efforts this morning.
Really happy how the session went and super pumped that it wasn’t windy or raining for once!!
I have decided that for this week I will do flat out first straights followed by race speed pumping for the rest of the track to build up to trying flat out laps next week once my body is more used to the effort.
The last time I trained like this I got noticeably faster as I was carrying my speed much better over the jumps especially when I started to pedal out of the berms too. Once I am doing this easily adding pedalling out of the berms takes very little extra effort and to be honest is probably easier as you carry more speed into the straights making it easier to keep speed. Carrying speed is something that I have always struggled with as I am invariably carrying an injury and I am out of shape so I am hoping that this season I can actually be race fit at the start of the season for once. I’m pretty sure that I am going to be a long way from National fit but still I am going to be way fitter that the last couple of National races where I was carrying injuries still!
I am starting to feel comfortable on the FTB so I am not sure if I race it for the season and then get a new Yess Type X for next season OR if I get a Yess now and sell the FTB and then next season convert the Yess to disc brake as I am getting annoyed with having to mess with the v brake all the time at the moment! I really want a Yess but, I am thinking that it makes more sense for me to stay on the FTB and race it until the end of the season and then sell it and put the money towards a new disk break Yess for next season and then stick with the Yess for now. Waiting until next year also means that I can try and pay off my debt this year and start next year debt free and have money set aside to pay for the bike without having to put it on the credit card!
When I was at the track I was all ready to get a Yess frame at the weekend when I get paid but now I am thinking that I would be better to stay on the ftb for the year as it is a nice bike and is not a whole lot slower than the Yess as far as I can see. Also as the season is a short one I think it is better to do like everyone else does and race a bike all season and then build a new bike after the brits and sell the old one to put the money towards the new one! As this season is only 3 months or so I don’t see the point of buying a bike now if I am planning to buy a new one in September anyway! This way I will also have time to get used to the bike which is something that I do not usually do as I keep swapping and changing bikes all the time. This way I will ride one bike the whole season and also have time to save to buy the new bike in September/ October time.
I am currently deciding if next year I get a new Curtis built up with 10mm dropouts, disc brake and space for a 37t chain ring or go with a Yess? As you can see my head is all over the place at the moment so I am going to take some time and think about it a bit more! Although if I want another Curtis I will have to get the order in soon as it take a while for the frames to be built as he always has a long list of bikes waiting to be built.