First week in December saw me retiring to Thetford Forest for the second race.....
Again heres what I wrote in my other blog;
I carried on regular training and entered again for Round 2 which was he;d at a different part of the forest. This time I did at least know roughly what to expect! The course for the second round included a bit more swooping single track and a few jumps and bombholes here and there which were a bit scary! I felt stronger for the second round as I was 4 weeks fitter! This time there were 29 entries and I managed to finish 12th.
This race was again a new experience for me. lee was ill and unable to make it so i was at Thetford on my own..... which of course is always going to be a little daunting having no friends around! i arrived stupidly early, so had plenty of time to get nervous!
The rest of December saw me doing a similar amount of riding overall, although a chunk of it was over the Christmas break! I was now getting used to the Giant XTC3, and as i was getting more and more into it I had decided to give clipped in pedals a try so a set arrived over Christmas from Ebay, and i got myself some shoes!
it took me a whole 6 miles before I did the common schoolboy error of forgetting I was clipped into the pedals and falling distinctly unglamouressly as I stopped after blasting downhill and having to stop at a gate! being clipped in certainly helps give a benefit and efficiency to the pedalling action...... i could see in part why about 90% of the racers at Thetford are clipped in...... but the downside of course is that off road you can't just dab your foot down on a tricky bit!
December saw several longer rides of over 10 miles and on the 31st set myself 2 new personal bests for the time! I covered 12 miles in an hour for the first time, which included 10 miles at a personal best of 46 minutes.
Tracked mileage for the month was 153 miles so up a little on Novembers... and again maybe 20 miles or so untracked here and there!
The 3rd MTB race of the Thetford Winter Series was not until the end of January, so I had a few weeks to continue preparation!
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