With a sigh and a wince it was out the back again for me as I re-acquainted myself with Saturday morning training sessions in Richmond Park with London Dynamo, the club of which I am a member.
I joined the supposedly “steady” last group who had overtaken the group in front within two laps at which point I came a little unstuck and came off the back. So I sat up and waited for the next group round to hitch my wheel to, which I did and happily made it to the end of the third lap before coming unstuck again and gently making my way round the remainder of lap four.
There’s only really two rises in Richmond Park (going round anti-clockwise) of any note and I almost always struggle with them after a couple of laps. It’s not that they are particularly hard or that I’m gasping and panting for air when I get to them. It’s simply that weird sensation that when I need to put the extra power down it’s just not there.
Perhaps it’s a cumulative effect of lactic acid building up or maybe I’m just not very good at hills in my current state. I’m currently weighing about 75kg which I need to shift about 5 of over the winter to be at a half-decent weight for climbing properly and to improve my power/weight ratio which is the real key to it all. If I can shift the weight and maintain the same power I’ll get considerably more bang for my buck.