Race No.15 National Round 8 3Rock
Laps 4
Time 1:30min
HR avg/. 195 bpm Max HR/. 206 bpm
I've finallly got my mojo back in terms of speed and confidence after a short spate of less than optimal results. The Last National Round of the season in my local trail network of 3rock. It was an amazing race course filled with great technical speedy single trails, and three gruelling fireroad sections. I took the start easy and aimed to finsh in 3rd position, to Peter Buggle and Joe McCall. I managed to finish just a couple few seconds of 3rd place happy with my performance but dissatisfied having not finishing in 3rd as planned. However this is a good thing, and now I'm even more motivated for the National Championships on Sunday 18th July.
The race itself flew by, and being shorter than usual, the legs felt like they could have done one more consistent lap or possibly even a quicker one. Having assesed the situation, I decided to take the start easy and use James's McClusky's draft for most of the race, before attacking on the last lap. Things moslty worked out, but a crash on the last descent to the finsh line kept me from 3rd spot.
On the Main gruelling climb up to the top of the mountain, I managed to avg up the thing @ 202 bpm consistantly every lap. This felt good, this was good suffering, not brutal suffering.
I'm now chilling the legs in preparation for the race in Djouce Co.Wicklow and possibly a road race this sunday coming to keep the HR's from going below 200..
P.s. I managed to keep my 3rd overall in the national league.
Thanks to John Clarke@ ThinkBike and TREK for the great support.