My Fastest ClimachX
I managed to beat my Personal Best around the ClimachX Trail last night.
It was supposed to be an Ystwyth-MTB night ride at 6.30pm. As usual I was there early, but by 6:45pm nobody else had arrived so I let Anna know I was going to go around on my own and headed off for a quick circuit of the ClimachX Trail.
The first climb felt good and I was once again pushing a gear larger than normal. I got to the first bit of singletrack within 10 minutes, a couple of minutes up on my previous PB. Once onto the single track though, I was a little out of practice and hadn’t ridden ClimachX for a while so things slowed down. It was also very wet with lots of running water in places and lots of deep puddles. At least the puddles were warm though. Also, the recent heavy rain had weighed down the surrounding vegetation which was now encroaching on the trail. My arms and legs were getting ripped apart by brambles and gorse and I even came off the trail once or twice where I couldn’t see too well. By the end of the second bit of single track I was only 40 seconds up on my previous PB having lost a bit of time.
This pattern continued for most of the course. I gained time on my previous PB on the climbs, but lost is again on the descents or singletrack. By the time I got to the beginning of ‘Better Late than Never’ I was once again 2 minutes up. But this was back down to a 1 minute advantage at the beginning of the final bit of singletrack across the top. This bit of singletrack however is mainly uphill so by the end of it and the start of the final descent I was 3:33 up and looking for a PB, if only I could negotiate the final descent without loosing too much time.
The final descent was fun as always and wasn’t too bad as far as being wet or overgrown was concerned. I was still descending cautiously though, partly because I hadn’t been down here for a while, partly because I was on my own and partly because I’m a wimp, but I managed to hold onto part of my advantage finishing in a time of 54:31, 1 minute and 46 seconds faster than my previous PB which I set in May 2009.
