by Jess
Sat Feb 26, 2011 1:34 pm
Just musing over my fairly mediocre performance round Bishopwood today.
Ignoring the fact that my knee hurt (& I think my brain used that as an excuse), I experienced pretty much the same issues as I did at Croft.
Aside from not being fast enough (let's leave that to one side for a moment) most of my issues are on the corners.
Firstly - technique: Obviously practice makes perfect, but I find myself having to think about it so much that I end up ignoring intuition & taking the wrong line. So any tips on how/where I can improve this then the better. (I used to ride a motorbike so I should be better than I am!)
Secondly (and actually this is more the problem)is power. I can't seem to effectively push out of the corners well, so I lose time then have to sprint longer to catch up & then I don't get any recovery time when I'm back with the group (this is exactly how I got dropped at croft.).
So, some advice please - how can I be more powerful in this respect? Should I practice sprints/interval training? Weights? (eek!)
Being female , I naturally will have less power than most guys - (though I've got to say I think I use this mentally as an excuse far too often). But I am sure that there must be things I can do to build this (without getting scary thighs). But can a really good technique ever overcome a lack of power?
Obviously I need both, but I think at the moment I am never going to be competitive riding as I do .
I need a plan! All advice welcome - thanks
Ignoring the fact that my knee hurt (& I think my brain used that as an excuse), I experienced pretty much the same issues as I did at Croft.
Aside from not being fast enough (let's leave that to one side for a moment) most of my issues are on the corners.
Firstly - technique: Obviously practice makes perfect, but I find myself having to think about it so much that I end up ignoring intuition & taking the wrong line. So any tips on how/where I can improve this then the better. (I used to ride a motorbike so I should be better than I am!)
Secondly (and actually this is more the problem)is power. I can't seem to effectively push out of the corners well, so I lose time then have to sprint longer to catch up & then I don't get any recovery time when I'm back with the group (this is exactly how I got dropped at croft.).
So, some advice please - how can I be more powerful in this respect? Should I practice sprints/interval training? Weights? (eek!)
Being female , I naturally will have less power than most guys - (though I've got to say I think I use this mentally as an excuse far too often). But I am sure that there must be things I can do to build this (without getting scary thighs). But can a really good technique ever overcome a lack of power?
Obviously I need both, but I think at the moment I am never going to be competitive riding as I do .
I need a plan! All advice welcome - thanks