I’ve finally put pen to paper and posted off my first race entry of the season. As usual, it seems far too early to be contemplating such things; February really shouldn’t be for racing. However, it’s good to get a few race efforts in the legs before the serious stuff begins in March. It could be argued that March is also far too early to be considering racing, but the glut of hilly time trials in the first 8 weeks of the season make it a productive period for me.
At the moment I’m anxious on account of a distinct lack of training. The snow has scuppered any longer road rides, or any road rides at all, for that matter. It’s been lethal, very much in the metaphorical sense. Ice is the enemy and i have no truck with crazed people insisting that somehow riding in these conditions makes them a hardened übercyclist and all other bike riders are therefore lesser, fairweather kooks. Most hardened cyclists have been holed up in garages and hallways, grappling with some form of indoor trainer-torture with its attendant sweat puddles and overwhelming anomie, safe in the knowledge that they are safe and their season is safe.
The combination of snow and new commitments has meant the rollers have been in heavy rotation. I’ve almost been enjoying them. Using them in combination with outdoors riding, when it’s possible, makes for a varied training diet. The downside of the rollers are that it’s hard to ride for anything over an hour and bit; the lack of variation starts to hurt the brain, disco playlist or no disco playlist.
