Wednesday 7 December 2011

Spring 2011 Race Seeding

The last PPA seeding for 2011 has been released and it is time to do some review.
Do you ever feel when reviewing a race or season that it is difficult to not get all consumed with the negatives? It normally takes a considerable amount of my effort and self discipline to remind myself to take the learnings from the not so good and to focus more on the positives.  



I started the race season, September 2011 in Group H, and 13 weeks later (D in figure) I have progressed to Group F. That is very good. One of my goals is to achieve an E seeding before Sept 2012 so that I qualify to race in Vet Category of the League. By the looks of things I will achieve that early in 2012.
When comparing highlight A with highlight B there is significant improvement in the Ride index column. To me this signifies the benefits of  consistent logged cycling (2 years now), a strong base period through winter (10-12hrs riding per week), and a well structured programme (thanks to Mike at Bikemaxpower ).

I am  was however dissapointed by the Big Red C, the worst ride index in the grouping, for the race that was to be the climax of the season. What went wrong?
  • Not a good regular sleep pattern in the week before
  • Work stress (could perhaps have smoothed work load better by completing ealrier committed deadlines)
  • Going out to hard at the start of the race (not the first time to learn this lesson)
At least I got a Cool race pic :-)




Next race, The Olympic (no not that one), in 4 weeks time in Cape Town, also has a steep climp at the start, so I need to apply this learning big time.

2 comments:

  1. Great you have a PPA Seeding System, like the UK and the US. We don't have one in Australia, hence, grading can be a bit of a joke, really.
    Good luck for 2012!!

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  2. Thanks AMR.
    PPA operates in Western Province, and CGA operates in Gauteng Province, both are affiliated to Cycling South Africa (CSA), resulting in an efficient national seeding system. This provides me with a good performance baseline for SMART goal setting.

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