Fitness Journey | #2: First Para Race!

The blog starts with my first track session at Lee Valley and finishes with my first paracycling races (crit and TT)...

The track session was interesting… I’m not the most balanced rider, and it probably took a bit too much time to get moving, but that’s all part of the journey. Once I got going I thought I did quite well for a track rookie. And while, due to scheduling, I don’t plan to be on the track for a while, I’m very much looking forward to the next session. 

The following week was meant to be the Paracycling Development programme, but it didn’t take place, so I joined my local club ride. 1hour 17 mins to the cafe going into the headwind and only 4 of us meant that it was brutal… I did 235w NP for the duration, confirming my previous thoughts that my FTP was 250w rather than 240w. While the watts were close to FTP, didn’t really feel like an hour max, so perhaps I could be looking at even higher FTP soon (most likely in the first race of the year). In the end, I suffered on the way home and even going basically as slow as I could, I managed the 3 hour bike ride was 212w NP (0.85 IF). 

With a week to go before the first race of the year, I did a recon ride of the TT. While I was meant to do three laps (around 1hour45mins for around 50km), I stopped early when I realised I was reaching the max TSS I wanted to do. The recon was worth it, though, because I realised the false flat climb wasn’t a “climb”, with the downhill into a headwind being much harder. There are a few interesting junctions, which were worthwhile, as well as realising that the climbs can be done in the big ring. 

While in the process of the recon ride, I did break my best 5min power since restarting cycling with an average 288w, but the big thing was the 333w NP I did. Something I’ll hope to get close to twice during the TT - but I probably won’t. 

The first race(s)! 

The British Paracycling National Series tends to have Criterium and TT on back-to-back days. The Crit race was held at the Harvey Hadden Sports Complex in Nottingham. The course consisted of 2 hairpins with two small drags that, after 30 minutes, felt like alpine climbs. There was also crosswind or headwind for the majority of the race (the tailwind section was in a place where you were slowing down for a hairpin. 

The pre-race plan was to sit in with the group presuming it wouldn’t split too much, but by the end of the first lap there were only 5 people in the front group.

That said, I got dropped before the first corner. The course with the wind meant that you needed to be able to punch hard and that’s my weakness (max sprint is 900w on a good day). So, I rode solo or with Sajjad for the first 25 minutes. Having beaten by 5min power record (339w NP up from 334w NP) while not going “all out”. I then smashed my 20min power record (284w NP up from around 260w NP). 

All in all, it was a great day out on the bike, and that’s probably an underestimate. I knew that my FTP would increase, but I thought it was going max out at ~260w, not the ~270w range that it now is. The estimate is based on 284w NP times 0.95 while accounting that the methodology isn’t perfect and that I didn’t do the pacing consistently due to racing. In the future, I might care more about the number being precise, but at the moment, it is about having fun and using it as a general idea of what kind of ride I can do each day.

And then here are some photos of me during the race (photos by AndyRogersPhotography.co.uk).

The TT was interesting… first off there was a last minute course change due to road works, which probably suited me tbh. The change of course meant that instead of having rolling 10-20 second efforts on the end of the downhill, there was around a 1minute climb instead. 

My Friday plan was 270w on the false flat, 200w on the downhill and all out on the climbs. Instead I ignored that tactics when I found 250w on the downhill was do-able. The problem was that anything above 250w was almost impossible. 

I split the race into six sections over the two laps: False Flat uphill, downhill and climbs. The first section I found was good, I averaged 272w (274w NP) for the first false flat uphill (9mins 22secs) - which was perfectly on pacing strategy.

The strategy was, then, thrown out the window when I did 248w (251w NP) on the downhill for 8mins36secs. Before the climbs which took me 9mins49secs with an average of 258w (274w NP). The first lap, therefore, took me 27mins47seconds. It was hard, especially on the uphill, where I decided to smartly go into the little ring for the major climb of the loop and spin-to-win instead.

First Lap photo taken by AndyRogersPhotography.co.uk

The second lap was when I had to settle for my pacing; having gone into the red during the climbs and on fatigued legs, I averaged 242w (244w NP) on the false flat, which took me 10mins15secs to complete. The downhill continued the theme of lower power when I averaged 227w (230w NP), taking me 8mins25seconds before the climbing section, where I averaged 257w (270w NP), taking me just under 10mins to finish (9mins57secs). While the timings are estimates, they give a feel of my pacing strategy and how I slowed down in the second lap power-wise. 

Photo up the climb on the 2nd lap, taken by AndyRogersPhotography.co.uk

That said that meant the overall race was a 55min56secs effort (the start was a mess and I’ve discounted it from my pacing) was 250w average and 260w NP which aligned with my initial pacing plan. That was before I was going to discount fatigue which meant that I was more realistically targeting around 230w average and 240w NP. 

In terms of TTs, I’m not concerned about the results. I don’t have the set up to compete and while having a power meter that means I can compare numbers after and see where I compare to other people. 

Photo taken at the finish line, I went all out. Taken by AndyRogersPhotography.co.uk

The next couple of weeks are exciting as well. I have the British Paracycling Development day on the 5th May followed by Paracycling Nat Crit Series Round 2 in Bath on the 11th May. Will next post around 12th.

To wrap up, I’m delighted to finish the first training block with a massively increased FTP (around +40w) and weight loss of 3.8kg. Meaning that I have gone from 2.7w/kg to 3.3w/kg in the space of a couple of months!

FTP: ~270w. Weight: 81.3kg.

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