When I was 26, I would jokingly refer to my bike as the CWM (Cross Wind Missile). I'm not 26 anymore...

About Me

My name is Dean Russell and I raced road bikes and some track endurance in the 1990s. I stopped racing in 1999 when I was 26. After almost thirteen years of being a lazy slug I decided to put my sorry backside onto a bike seat and have another crack at racing. This blog chronicles my journey from being completely unfit and overweight to becoming one of the oldest Elite A grade riders in Queensland...and then slipping nicely back into Masters racing.

Sunday, 21 April 2013

Race Report: Ipswich Open - 20 & 21 April 2013

Individual Time Trial @ Purga - 20 km

This was a frustrating ride. I thought I was doing okay as I had quite easily caught my minute man and could see I was on track to catch my two minute man. The course was quite hilly so I chose to ride slightly easier than normal on the flat sections so I could bomb it up the hills. I don't think this was an effective strategy because with 5 km to go I wasn't hammered and knew I had left too much fuel in the tank. I did belt it home but in the end I knew I hadn't done enough. I finished so quickly I'm actually Strava KOM for a segment someone set up that was the last 2.4 km off the course. I finished 8th in Elite B with a time of 28 min 52 sec, and I am very disappointed.

Silver lining on cloud moment: I did the 5th fastest ride by a master across all the divisions and was the 2nd fastest in the MMAS (40 - 44) category. This augers well for masters time trial titles later in the year.


Road Race @ Mount Marrow - 68 km

68 km sounds short but it was a very hard 8 km course that we did eight times. There were forty-five starters in Elite B and by the last lap there were only about twenty-five of us left. I really struggled on the steeper hills today. There is no hiding that fact. I was in trouble by lap six and most frustratingly I got popped with about 5 km to go on the very last lap. Nothing worked for me today. I tried climbing in the seat, out of the seat, grinding, spinning, whatever, nothing would work for me. This was another extremely disappointing ride.



Silver lining on cloud moment: Hmm. Tough one. I guess I have identified a gap in my fitness and possibly an issue with my taper. This was the shortest week on the bike I have had since November last year and this crapola weekend is the result! Bring on the hard miles I say!

Hmm...what now. My standard response of 'have a whinge' - 'regather myself' - 'train my arse off' - 'get smarter' will probably do. I have some big fish to fry next weekend so I'm looking forward to moving on from this 'blip' in my progress. 

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