Fitness ??????

[southern andy]

For the first time in Twenty years i took my son to a BMX track today for practice. We arrived at Gosport earlyish to a full force 8 blowing in off the sea.
This made things harder than what they should have been, well that's my excuse anyway. Considering i do a lot of Mountain biking in the New Forest, this was hard. I reckon i could sprint for about half a track before my lungs were ready to burst. I remembered how to wheelie through a set of doubles, sling shot off of a berm and collapse. I seem to learn the collapsing bit  quite easily.  Didn't really do too much jumping cause the cross wind was so strong.
One good thing came out of it, i never fell off.

Have i made a mistake in starting to race again,it wont be until April though. Also what kind of things can a 38yr old do to improve fitness and to actually have the stamina to race for about two minutes rather than 45 seconds.

Surely some of you guys have had to cope with this.

[spesh]

ive ridden gosport and the jumps are freekin massive!
i was f#cked within 10 mins also!

[priv]

keep at it,the lungs will soon get used to it



priv

[southern andy]

ive ridden gosport and the jumps are freekin massive!
i was f#cked within 10 mins also!

With that wind blowing in off the sea, no way i was jumping any of them. At least you lasted 10mins, i lasted about 4, my son just blew lap after lap, I'm quicker than him though .

[gudge]

I was thinking about how fit i must of been bitd to race, and i reckon that the main reason for this was....... wait for it....Back Hops!. if you could do over 50 backhops your core strength must of been huge. So come on lets see your back hop photo's and numbers. You know you can still do it!

[Peter J]

Getting back on my bike after 21 years (when I pick it up from bulwell next Sunday). Had a go round Chessy track last weekend on a borrowed cruiser.........Andy big respect if you lasted four mins, I made it to the first berm and nearly ended up with brown trouser syndrome...

That’s a bloody big first turn. after half an hour of rolling round I had to stop...first reason the pain in my chest was starting to worry me a bit, but it was the blurred vision and pain in the right arm that made me think twice about going round any more.

I've rode MTB for the last couple of years but, I still got knacked trying to "race" on a BMX. I would say it’s not the fitness that needs to grow it’s the fear of pain that needs to shrink.

Big respect to anyone who gets on a bike and races.......

Still going to get my cruiser next weekend thou..........what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.....and only time will tell !!!!!

[southern andy]

Jesus, i'm hurting today, i must of really pumped my old arms  on that last straight at Gosport, there's a big set of whoops there, about ten in a row i think cause my sholders dont want to move today.
Also the front of my shins are killing aswell, last time i had pain like this is when i tried to play football again. This BMXing must really use some of those muscles i didn't know i had. Getting old or what.

Off to Bournemouth next week, god help me.

[Flying_fox]

Nothing prepares you for BMX racing apart from BMX racing I think.

My first proper race back after nearly a year out injured was at Peterborough a few weeks ago. I chucked up twice, got blotchy vision the lot. The next week was Dagenham, I didn't throw up once, just felt a little giddy after the last moto. I'm just racing every chance I get now, otherwise I'll turn up at the first national at Burnham and get destroyed.

You think doing laps is knackering, you should try draging yourself out of the foam pit at Corby skatepark, now that nearly killed me yesterday....

[Gary72]

My first outing round a track was 2 years ago, thought I was 13 again after 2 laps felt sick, legs like jelly. Still suffer now if I have a break. More of a binge rider because of the short days only get to ride on race days.
Just take your time and ease yourself in and remember to enjoy it. I know what you mean about the kids, mine was like the ever ready bunny when he raced(prefers skateparks now)

[oldskoolsux]

Come to the Herne bay track, If you can manage more than two laps of that flat out within an hour then your fit 

[southern andy]

Come to the Herne bay track, If you can manage more than two laps of that flat out within an hour then your fit 

Would love to mate but there is a small problem with my fitness at the moment. 

[spillers#1]

All you need to do is ride as often as possible  getting your riding skills and technique and smoothness back helps you a lot as well

[losidan]

get a fixed wheel road bike and out on the roads on that....that'll put some hairs on your chest

[Zippy]

Just ride as often as possible, the more you ride the fitter you get.

Failing that just go out on your bike. 

[Twinkle]

Come to the Herne bay track, If you can manage more than two laps of that flat out within an hour then your fit 

We are only an hour away from that track and still not got there... BMX is keeping a very busy diary at the minute 

[MOORO]

Dont go to the track and try & do full laps to start with , they will kill you and your be on your way home early.... play around on 1 straight at a time and totally recover before you pedal again, enjoy yourself,  this will gradually get your smoothness, as smoothness improves you don't have to pedal as much to make up your speed, its exponential.
You may see guys effortlessly flying round but they will have put in hours of practice, thats part of the fun the learning curve is steep and long.