BMX Race Training – First race coming up quickly.
This morning I have been organising where and when I am going to race this season and I have made the following schedule:
| Race | Date |
| Bristol Summer League RD1 | 26/05/2021 |
| Bristol Summer League RD2 | 09/06/2021 |
| National Cyclopark RD1 | 12/06/2021 |
| National Cyclopark RD2 | 13/06/2021 |
| Bristol Summer League RD3 | 16/06/2021 |
| Bristol Summer League RD4 | 23/06/2021 |
| SW Regional Bristol | 27/06/2021 |
| SW Regional Exeter | 04/07/2021 |
| Bristol Summer League RD5 | 07/07/2021 |
| Bristol Summer League RD6 | 14/07/2021 |
| National Gosport RD3 | 17/07/2021 |
| National Gosport RD4 | 18/07/2021 |
| Bristol Summer League RD7 | 21/07/2021 |
| Bristol Summer League RD8 | 28/07/2021 |
| National Cumbernauld RD5 | 07/08/2021 |
| National Cumbernauld RD6 | 08/08/2021 |
| Brits Leicester | 28/08/2021 |
I am now starting to get a bit worried as the first race of the year is only 2 1/2 weeks away!!! I am getting a little bit worried as I haven’t managed to do a full speed lap yet this year. Although the first 2 races are only club races they are the only 2 races that I have before the first and second national of the year so I need to treat them as proper races and put in 100% effort or I will be really struggling in the Nationals in June! I am going to race F1 this year so that I have to try and keep up with the really fast National riders which can only help when I race nationals in my age group and it will also force me outside of my comfort zone and make me give 100% to try and not get left behind!
To get ready for the first race I need to change up my training for the next two weeks a bit to focus on full laps otherwise I will not be ready to race on the 26th!
Starting from Monday 09/05/2021 I plan to try and get 2 x full lap sessions in a week at either Bath or Bristol BMX tracks so that I get used to putting in 100% ish effort for an entire lap again!
Next week I am working nights Thursday to Sunday so that I can fit all of my sessions in before I go on shift, but my schedule also means that the Monday session will have to be after being up all night which sucks a bit but I will have to make do! I am planning to ride Bath exclusively next week as it is closer and means that I can get my 10000 steps in before going to the track and it is easier to fit in around the night shifts. For week 2 I will most likely try and get to Bristol track on Tuesday and Thursday and then I will have to try and fit something in around work after that so it will most likely have to be at Bath but I may book off half a day to get to gates at Bristol on the Saturday.
On the other days I need to work on my jumping and getting out of my comfort zone which I will start working on today as I am going to Bath track in a few hours to run the weekly gates session so I can work on my jumping out of the gate. For today I am aiming to get used to jumping the table top and get comfortable jumping again and then if I am getting comfortable I may try and jump the 3rd jump on the 3rd straight as I am manualing it easily now and someone told me that if you can manual a jump then you can jump it so I may give that a try! This jump also really scares me as it is pretty severe so it would be good to get that under my belt so that I can start building up to bigger jumps in the coming months. I also need to work on my flat manuals and pedal wheelies on the flat so I am going to try and fit an hour or so’s practice in when I am at the track as a warm up before my track sessions. There is also a manual machine at the track too so I tam thinking that my new warm up before sessions will be:
Ride from car park to the track
10 minutes on the manual machine
10 minutes flat skills with cones
4 x pump laps
After this I should be ready to ride.
I also need to fit in 2x sprint sessions a week which I am also planning to do at the track before my jumping sessions. The sprint sessions will basically consist of 3 x 30m, 3 x 60m and 3 x 100 box sprints. This year I am only riding clip pedals to do sprints and track sessions but I will most likely use flat shoes for the warm ups with my clipless pedals to make sure that I don’t get hurt.
At the moment I am planning to follow the following schedule:
Monday = Full Laps
Tuesday = Sprints and track skills
Wednesday = Full Laps
Thursday = Sprints and track skills
Friday = Rest
Saturday = Gates at Bristol
Sunday = Gates at Bath or Rest
Depending how I feel, I can either ride at the Bath gates or not ride and use it as another rest day!