Jim Sampson and Richard Guymer will again be organising Hull Thursday’s legendary ‘Winter Training’ sessions beginning Saturday, January 3 2015.

 

The first of the FREE sessions starts at 2.00pm at Brantingham. I’ve ridden them in the past and either used my ride out from Walkington as a useful warm-up, or if the weather’s bad driven and parked in the Triton pub car park in Brantingham (I went in and bought a Coke though!).

 

 

The sessions are always well-attended at the start of the 8 or so weeks, with 60 riders turning up on the first mild Saturday a couple of years ago.

 

Saturday 3 January, 2pm – Brantingham
Saturday 10 January, 2pm – Brantingham
Saturday 17 January, 2pm – Brantingham
Saturday 24 January, 2pm – Brantingham

 

Saturday 31 January, 2pm – Sproatley
Saturday 7 February, 2pm – Sproatley
Saturday 14 February, 2pm – Sproatley
Saturday 21 February, 2pm – Sproatley
Saturday 28 February, 2pm – Sproatley

 

The Sproatley sessions are run around anti-clockwise laps of the Sproatley Time Trial course.

 

The idea is to give some early season race training for the boys and girls starting their seasons in early March. For the rest of us, it’s good to start the season with a bit of intent, and to blow away the Christmas cobwebs. All manner of riders turn up, from event winners in the East Yorkshire Road Race League, to well… me! Undertrained, overweight, but looking for something to spark a bit of determination to get fit for another season just enjoying riding the bike.

 

The idea is to choose a group (8 or so riders in number) whose riders’ abilities ‘might’ match yours – the later the group sets off from the start line (minute intervals) , the less confident the riders are about their abilities! If you opt to go with a group who, it turns out, are fitter than you, hang on until you want to die, then drop off the back, ride at your own pace to recover a bit, then try to latch onto the next group who fly by. The type of riding is ‘through-and-off’ or if you come from the United States of USA, ‘bit-and-bit’. Look it up on YouTube if you’ve never heard of it. There’s usually someone in the group who can orchestrate proceedings a bit if you’ve never done it before.

 

If you want to ride on your own you can, but the idea is to work with a group, hone your bunch riding skills, and push yourself a bit harder than you might do trundling round on your own. The idea is not to join a group of riders who are worse than you for ability and fitness, and try to burn them off your wheel like a sad Jens Voigt wannabee. If you feel good, keep the same pace but do longer turns, not faster ones. There’s nothing worse than finishing your turn at the front with the lactic acid biting into the muscles, only to have to close a gap created by someone sprinting through 3mph faster than you. The session lasts about an hour, and covers 7-9 or so laps of a 2-mile marshalled circuit.

 

The sessions change venue after a few weeks, and the details will be entered into the Calendar as soon as I can.

 

Come and have a go – I get nervous for days beforehand, but get an equivalent buzz for days after if I’ve ridden well (I did do once)!

 

I ride my winter bike fitted in winter guise with lights and mudguards – I do not see the point in turning up on a carbon fibre superbike with deep section aero wheels at my level. Dress well in layers – it gets cold this time of year – and take them off before the ride starts. I shove my gear into a plastic bag and leave it in the car parked at the start. Someone will help you out if you’ve ridden over.

 

Don’t be put off if you have a hard time, or don’t feel fit. Nobody feels fit this time of year (except Guymer, Thomas, Morgan, Cleminshaw, Walker, Wilson, Shackleton, Fielding-Smith, Dalton, Trotter, Posnett… etc) but don’t let that put you off. The more you do, the better you get, and remember, you can always do a few rides in the week in between to continue the adjustment. You will get better, but it won’t get easier.

 

This is just my point of view for those thinking of giving it a go. Have a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

Chris
Website Editor