Race Row: Agustus 2011

Rabu, 31 Agustus 2011

Time Trial Write Up!

Well where do I start?

My time trial didn't really go as well as I planned! Unfortunately, having trained Sunday, Skated Monday (and injuring my lower back in the process) and then racing Tuesday, I really didn't have a whole lot to give for this one!

My colleague Greg, kind of summed it up and said that to do well, I would need to treat it like a race (as the others do) rather than part of my training!

I started the race pretty much dead, my lower back and hamstrings were letting me know that they were weak and were not going to give me much back in terms of physical effort! but still, I powered on as best I could! The first lap was ok, but unlike last week though, I didn't have anyone in sight to hunt down - which made things a little hard from a motivational perspective.

When I passed the finish line, I knew that my body was pretty battered and having timed myself during the race, I knew that I was way off my potential time. Excuses aside though, my time trial preparation needs to be improved and like Greg said, I need to start seeing them as races rather than training! However having nearly cycled a sub 30 minute race whilst being injured is a positive, in that fit I could have got a time of around 28 minutes - and anyway! its all experience that will go towards becoming fitter and stronger!

For next season, I'll give road racing a bash! As due to my skating background I feel that pack racing will come more naturally to me! until then, theres a 150km race around Essex at the end of September! might give that a go!

Time Trial Results Table

Posn	Name	Time	Club

1st	J Fitchew	24.57	Ford CC
2nd	C Harrison	24.59	Ford CC
3rd	M Fisher	25.37	Ford CC
4th	B Flack	26.13	Ford CC
5th	G Deacon	27.25	Come & Try It
6th	J Johal	27.39	Ford CC
7th	C Beech	28.20	Ford CC
8th	G Bores	28.23	Ford CC
9th	P Tibbitts	28.44	Ford CC
10th	C Doe	29.15	Ford CC
11th	I Bartram	29.25	East Essex Triathion Club
12th	T Whalley	29.50	Ford CC
13th	K Brown	30.04	Ford CC
14th	C Guest	30.06	Ford CC
15th	D Unsworth	30.34	Ford CC
16th	J Morrison	30.35	Come & Try It
17th	S Jellis	31.25	Ford CC
18th	J Brown	36.17	Ford CC
19th	G Etheridge	DNF	Come & Try It

Jon

Selasa, 30 Agustus 2011

Happy Days!

Well how about that!

My back, the absolute bane of my life throughout the latter stages of my skating before I stopped, has healed incredibly!

I woke this morning with a slight soreness, but after coming into work and showering it appears my back is now fine! lots of movement and no pain! :)

I'm so pleased its unreal, considering when my back used to go, I would not be able to do anything for about a week, sometimes two afterwards!

Bring on the TIME TRIAL!!!

Jon

Senin, 29 Agustus 2011

An old problem rears its ugly head!

Well here, today's training had a few ups and downs so I'll start with the good!

My acceleration: This aspect of my training felt especially good tonight, I felt I reached a top speed quickly and efficiently!

My Speed: I was told I looked faster, now without times to go against there isn't any hard evidence to support that I was going faster. Still, its a nice compliment and I will focus on that as I now describe the bad!

Equipment: My wheels are ok for the indoor track, however once reaching a top speed on the corner they still don't give me the grip to put anything past 85% of my max sprint, also I still feel I need to fine tune my frame alignment - my left boot still feels uncomfortable in the corners. Will tweak the frame for next Monday, and pray that when I find the funds, the new indoor Bont Velocity "Grip" wheels give me the desired hold on an indoor track!

My Back: Well this was a slight problem, my lower back itself was what forced me to stop last time I skated, and tonight it came back a bit. However it is nowhere near as bad as it was, and it was completely my fault. Yesterdays weights session incorporated dead lifts, which as any good gym goer knows, targets your lower back! although a good exercise, I have now realised that it is not suitable the day before any skating (or activity where I'm bent over for long periods of time!)

Hopefully I'll be fine tomorrow and the cycling time trial tomorrow evening will go well!

Jon

Minggu, 28 Agustus 2011

Weights and Writing!

Well as I said, today featured weights - an important element of any athletes training!

With regards to weight training, during the season I won't be doing too many sessions - one, maybe two a week tops. The reason being I don't want to "bulk" up too quickly or too much! my racing weight will probably be around 12 and half stone and of that weight, it will need to be lean, functional muscle (muscle built around performing a various exercise, similar muscle movements etc...) rather than just muscle gained from endless bicep curls! I, as like all other skaters must remember to keep the training functional!

With that said, my session focused on core and upper body, working every one of those muscles with various exercises (leaving my legs to other days!)
Off season, I'll probably focus most of my training on building my leg muscle - stripping the fat and creating explosive power! :)

I also managed to write an article for the South Woodham Focus, highlighting the some reasons as too why the town would benefit from a purpose built track, something which would really help the sport, the club and my training! will post a link to the PDF when (if!) it gets published! :)
I'm looking forward to indoor training tomorrow, the rink at Maldon has really allowed me to enjoy indoor skating, something that I didn't particularly enjoy in the past! Its excellent for technique and cornering, and hopefully will help me to add to my solitary Junior Men's 1500m British title - to date my ONLY indoor victory, in the coming seasons!
Jon

Location Location Location!

Training location that is!

The Woodham boss Alan Moore, just rang me to check out Basildon Sporting Village's indoor hall and outdoor netball courts for club training. Hopefully the price is fair and the surface is skatable!

This is the major problem with Skating in the UK, in that there aren't many suitable places to ply our trade, fingers crossed the Project Community Skatepark can get us a purpose built track in Woodham!

Training today will consist of mainly core and upper body stuff! fun fun fun! :)

Jon

Sabtu, 27 Agustus 2011

Rest and reflect!

Well rest day has come (and my legs LOVE that fact!)

Yesterdays slideboard sesh was good, kept it simple and concentrated on technique. My session went basically like this:

3 Minutes skating, 12 X lateral leg splits with 15kg shoulder press (looks like a star jump but on the board!) and then 12 X 1 leg 15kg skating squats each leg.

3 sets of this and you're good to go!

My progression will be more minutes sliding, and more reps/higher weight on the other exercises: this session will probably feature quite high over the winter!

One thing that has caught my attention with my training, is that I need to work on my top end speed and acceleration: definitely something I'm going to look at in the coming weeks!

...Now off too see the Inbetweeners movie! apparently its pretty good! :)

Jon

Jumat, 26 Agustus 2011

One Lap Around China Circuit with Nick Heinfeld 2011

One Lap Around China Circuit with Nick Heinfeld 2011 http://idrivewaytoofast.tumblr.com/ http://idrivetoofast.blogspot.com/

MotoGP Le Mans On-Bike 2008

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Rolex Series at Road America In Car 2011

Rolex Series at Road America In Car 2011 http://idrivewaytoofast.tumblr.com/ http://idrivetoofast.blogspot.com/

...and the training is working!

Well here is the data from my WattBike testing, for those who are unfamiliar with the WattBike, it is a British Cycling approved stationary bike, which feels so close to the real thing its scary! the bike is able to record a host of various elements (as seen on the table) and is able to link up with other WattBike to stage races!

The 3 WattBikes in the college Sports Lab!

WattBike 1 Hour Test Results
Date	Distance	Watts Peak	Watts Av	RPM (Av)	RPM (Peak)	HR (Av)	Speed (Av)
21/3/2011	34,780m	518	170	95	145	147	34.8 km/h
30/3/2011	35,052m	598	174	96	140	145	35.1 km/h
1/4/2011	35,422m	456	178	98	133	150	35.4 km/h
8/4/2011	36,172m	447	189	98	130	149	36.23 km/h
15/4/2011	36,660m	448	198	102	133	151	37 km/h
5/8/2011	38,693m	652	229	97	128	154	39 km/h
26/8/2011	39,571m	549	241	98	130	162	39.6 km/h

As you can see from the table, the "key" areas to look at are my distance covered and average speed - which together means that I am going further, because my average speed is higher. My average RPM is encouraging (the amount I pedal in 1 minute) and my heart is working harder each time! all in all! I am happy with the results, and it means that the training is working!

I will try and do this test every two weeks or so, as it does take it out of you!

So! bring on the slideboard tonight! and then a weekend of rest for my legs, with some core and upper body stuff on Sunday! :)

Jon

Kamis, 25 Agustus 2011

Supercharged C6 Z06 vs Modded Porsche 911 Turbo + More

To work and back!

Today's training was pretty much my usual "cycle 12 miles in, cycle 12 miles out" with a little plyometric stuff thrown in for good measure!

Even though my legs hurt to walk (as i've been punishing them all week!) my cycles in are getting easier, so as of next week, i'll have to throw in some random sprints to up the intensity!

Well, with that said - on to dinner! mmmm!

Tomorrows training is my Wattbike 1 hour sesh in the morning - basically I try to go as far as I can in the hour! and some slideboard work in the evening! fantastic! :)

Jon

Rabu, 24 Agustus 2011

Just a little sliding and cycling!

Fairly easy day today, Greg and I ran some practice WattBike races! we did a 5 and 1k (legs still burning from yesterday at this point!) but was good for keeping the legs going!

I also did a light slideboard sesh, going for more pyramid work! (2 mins - 3 mins - 4 mins - 3 mins - 2 mins) I plan to repeat this Friday evening with the addition of a slideboard weights workout!

Well time to get some sleep, I'm up at 6 to cycling in to work! do a plyometric sesh, cycle home after work and then go for a light run... gonna enjoy eating tomorrow!

Jon

Roll Racing 9 - World's Fastest TBSS, 454LSX C6Z06, 2009 GT500, C5Z06s, CTSV and more

Well here are the results of last nights Time Trial race! Not too bad i'd say! (Especially as it was my first one, plus I raced Sunday!)

Posn	Name	Time	Club

1st	C. Harrison	31.07	Ford CC
2nd	J. Fitchew	31.15	Ford CC
3rd	M. Fisher	31.40	Ford CC
4th	J. Johal	33.56	Ford CC
5th	G. Deacon	34.03	Come & Try It
6th	C. Beech	34.18	Ford CC
7th	R. Cook	34.30	Ford CC
8th	I. Bartram	35.51	East Essex Triathion Club
9th	C. Guest	36.35	Ford CC
10th	M. Shean	36.41	Ford CC
11th	D. Unsworth	36.45	Ford CC
12th	J. Morrison	36.46	Come & Try It
13th	K. Brown	36.54	Ford CC
14th	T. Whalley	37.38	Ford CC
15th	E. Jackson	39.59	Ford CC
16th	J. Carvill	42.02	Ford CC

I'm entering a 10 mile time trial next week! Should do a lot better! (Hopefully!) :)

Jon

Selasa, 23 Agustus 2011

My cycling time trial debut!!

Ok, well it wasn't quite "Tour de France" but I finally took a crack at a cycling time trial! and, well it was actually pretty fun!

The time trial was 13 miles, two laps of a 6.5 circuit in Hanningfield, Essex and lucky old me got to go off 2nd in a staggered "1 minute interval between each racer" start! basically for those who don't know, each cyclist goes off with a minute between each other... if you catch the one in front, you're basically a minute quicker than them and vica versa if the one behind catches you!

So there I went, I didn't have a clue what pace to start off at so I tried to keep my speed between 18-21 mph on the straights and 12-15 mph on the hills. This worked quite well, as I caught the number 1 cyclist after about 3 miles (although to be fair he seemed to be a beginner like me!) needless to say I was then the one to catch! which actually is quite daunting in a way because you have no one to chase and can only be caught!

I finished the first lap without being caught which I was quite happy with, in a time of roughly 18 minutes, after about half a mile into lap two however, racer no 3 started to hunt me down! He did catch me after 2 miles into the second lap and I then made it my mission to stick on his back wheel for as long as I could!

Whilst chasing I did feel my calf strain a little, which was probably the effects of Sundays skating in London and yesterdays training session indoors, but luckily I was able to keep low and stay right behind racer 3, which gave me a fair bit of rest for my aching legs on the downhill parts!

So here we are, myself and racer 3 reeling in the miles on our own, until roughly 2 miles to go, when racer 7 (yeah racer 7, meaning he caught everyone in front of him!) sped past in his expensive time trial bike and time trial helmet. I did think about chasing, but decided I wanted to save myself to make sure I definitely beat racer 3, who I was still clinging on to! and that's what I did, with about 400m to go, I smashed out whatever was left in my legs and managed to finish about 15 seconds in front of racer 3.

Overall it was really fun, with a rough unofficial time of 37 minutes (pretty good considering I do 12 miles to work in 38) and will definitely be doing more time trials in the future!

Jon

Senin, 22 Agustus 2011

Kinda sore... but feeling better!

Well, its almost time for myself to get some sleep!

Not much to reflect on today! a light 20 minute cycle this morning to keep the legs moving and then a fairly decent indoor skating session! Rob and I tried some pyramid style efforts, 1 on, 1 off up to 5 laps then down again!

I do feel a lot more comfortable indoors now, my cornering feels more powerfull and I feel quick out the bends - fingers crossed regular sessions at the rink should encourage some good racing at the Indoor Champs in March!

Well time for some rest - I'm racing my first bike race tomorrow! a 13 mile time trial! hopefully the weather stays dry! :)

Jon

RWB 930 Turbo @ Idlers Track Day

RWB 930 Turbo @ Idlers Track Day from Luke Huxham on Vimeo.

RAUH-Welt BEGRIFF

RAUH-Welt BEGRIFF from Luke Huxham on Vimeo.

Minggu, 21 Agustus 2011

Tatem Race: My Thoughts!

Well, I've just got back from London after what was a semi successful day, although not in terms of race results - but what I learnt during the races!

Before I start, Congrats must go to the Woodham girls, Maya destroyed her Cat with 3 wins, and Louise raced extremely well tactically in her final race to clinch an overall victory for her! both my stand out performances of the day!

Right... onto my racing!

As soon as I got to the track, I knew I had to try and find some way around my inability to warm up my legs properly, and it seems even an hour on skates beforehand isn't good enough!

Basically in my 500m heat, 500m losers final and the 3000m, my legs felt heavy, stiff and quite frankly incapable of ANY speed, as evident by my results. I'd be lying if I said it didn't put me down, because it did - all the training I've done recently only to turn up to a race with legs feeling like two lead poles! and ooooo! what was next? a 10k points? fantastic.

Well actually it kind of was, about 5 laps into the 10k my legs suddenly felt a lot better, almost as if the stiffness just got flushed away - it would seem that the high intensity of the previous races was what they needed to finally loosen up! and I actually didn't race too badly finishing the distance and then going on to win the "fun" mixed relay at the end of the event.

So, the first learning point: Work on warm up!

Linking onto the fact my legs took so long to warm up, it lead me to think about my rest days before the race. Usually I have been training 6 days a week, with Saturday as my designated rest day, however this week (leading up to the race) I decided to taper the training down, reducing the amount/intensity right up to the competition day. This, going by today's performance, I feel was the wrong decision for me, as I suspect my legs became too relaxed contributing to how stiff and "useless" my legs felt. I mean how could I feel physically better on Monday, where I cycled 19 miles in the morning and then skated with the club in the evening, than I did today after several days of resting? it seems that inactivity of my muscles is a major no no, and I need to maintain what my body is used to doing, when leading up to an event.

Learning point 2: Stick to the one day rest! (try at Birmingham!)

The last aspect of my racing performance that became apparent, was my wheel choice. My team mate Robert, hit the nail on the head when he asked "don't you find those too soft?" Well yes I did, however since returning to the sport, those wheels are all I have... skating is a hard sport, however poor equipment choices doesn't help the situation. I think Santa is going to have to get his elves to conjure up some wheels for next season!

3rd learning point: Buy more wheels! (because, well unfortunately Elves don't exist...)

Well those are my thoughts on my performance, overall it wasn't bad, but wasn't great! the important thing for any skater is to recognise where they need to improve - so I'll work on my learning points and keep skating, cycling and working out, to get stronger and fitter!

Jon

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F1 Turkey 2011 In-Car Vol 1

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Sabtu, 20 Agustus 2011

F1 Malaysia Practice In-Car 2011

WRC Britian GP In Car 2010 Pt 2

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One Lap Around Sliverstone with Mark Webber 2011

First Post!

Well I suppose I better kick this thing off!

The goal of this blog is to document my thoughts on my training/racing experiences, as I attempt to restart my Inline Speed Skating career after what was a lengthy absence, due to a re-occuring lower back injury and my degree studies (both of which are over with now!).

Today is Saturday, a rest day for me and the day before only my third race since rejoining the sport! goals for today are simple: REST. I've spent the week tapering down my training, easing of the gas if you like, I've done some cycling, skating and slideboard work gradually reducing the amount I've trained to now, my rest day, in which I shall do nothing! (well apart from clean the car and my skates...) combine that with lots of quality eating and I should be good to go! :)

Goals for tomorrow? well, since my aim is to become dominant (or at least competitive!) in the sprint division, I want to have a good race in the 500m - the other distances, those I'll treat as training! as I say to the Woodham lot, time on skates is everything and I won't want to waste any when I've got a track to skate on! :)

Jon