O-Cup 2013, Round 1: Woodnewton -- Let the suffering begin

Finally it was time to see just where I was at in terms of my fitness acquired gradually over the winter and in a big last minute hurry throughout April. With all the road cycling I did home from work in April I never got much of a chance to get out on the mountain bike. Indeed, that's quite an understatement as the first time I threw my leg over my mountain bike in 2013 and the first time since the Tour de King late last September, was the practice run at the course for this race on Friday night.

I remembered the course from last year and baring a short section it was virtually the same which, with my Garmin data from the year before, I could see just where I stood one year on. Unlike last year this race in Woodnewton was the first of the series and I was happy enough with that. The course itself was relatively flat with no serious climbing which is never a bad way to be broken into the season.



I went out with my age old tactic of taking it easy at the start and riding my way into the race. I did a minimal warm-up content to allow the first lap to be the warmup and then to push on and finish the race strong. I always have these grand ideas of pacing myself through I rarely ever am able to follow through on it once the race begins. Somewhere deep in my subconscious I realise I am in a race and therefore start to race. I was a little better this time and tried to blind myself to those around me, allowing the man in front to ride ahead if he was going a little too quick for my liking, and as a result I did feel stronger than I feared I would be going into the second lap. Indeed, I felt my third lap was quicker still, and so was a little surprised to see in the end that it was almost a minute slower than the lap before. Was I running out of steam or with nobody close behind me and nobody in view ahead to catch did I back off a little? I don't think so because I crossed the line and needed to sit down right away.

I couldn't compare either the second or the third lap to the first as the starting location was in a different location (see the map below) and the later two laps included a slower section to link up with the rest of the course by comparison to the first lap. Still, my second lap was an expectant 1 minute,  34  seconds slower than the first which was better than the year before when I lost 2 minutes, 7 seconds. My second lap was 33 seconds quicker than the third this year by comparison to it being one minute faster the year before. If anything that showed me that this year I was able to sustain my pace better lap over lap.

Of course, with an added technical section this year the average speed was slightly slower and that too distorts the comparison.

So what of results? Well I was pleasantly surprised to see that I finished 9th of 17 in my race. Last year I was 14th of 15. Unlike last years races the 30-34 Master Sport category started with the 35-39 group and in a combination of the two groups I came in 26th of 44. Pleasing enough for the first race and something to build on.

I've missed this challenge, not to mention fun (once the body recovers a little, that is) over the winter. It's good to have it back again and I am already looking forward to the next race in late May where I will hopefully have a little more training under my belt and able to push myself that little bit harder.

Race data: