Thursday 25 July 2013

In the words of Nenah Cherry.....

7 seconds away.

It was another evening 10 last night and once again, as I set out on the ride over to the start on the other side of Dorking, my heart was not really in it. A strong evening wind was going to make slow times likely, but just like last time as I pedalled over the temperature dropped slightly and so did the strength of the wind And my mojo picked up. There's nothing quite like pining a number on your back to make you increase your work rate. I was hoping to take a few more seconds off my current pb set 2 weeks ago and I set out harder than last time, intending to commit much earlier to a faster pace. At the turn around I was working hard but still felt in control except for the copious amounts of snot and mucus pouring out of my head. I had a few guys to chase in front and used them to focus on, over the last couple of miles.

It turns out it must have been a pretty fast night as I recorded a time of of 24:07, a pb of over 40 seconds!kaboooom. It seems that the hard work I have been putting in on the bike over the last 3 months is really starting to pay off and a sub 24 time is now well within my reach, although there is only 1 club 10 left to do it. I might have to enter a few more and try to find a faster course.

A fly in the ointment has been I have pulled my lower right calf. An easy 45 minute run on Tuesday became a 15 minute achy shuffle and a  15 minute walk. No major damage done but once again I have neglected my strength, core and stretching work and this is the result. Hopefully I can do a very gentle run tomorrow and another swim tonight. Onwards.

Friday 19 July 2013

School's out

I have spent the last week sitting on the sofa, drinking coffee, watching Le Tour, doing a bit of diy and doing a bit of training. And the sun has been shining while all that's been going on, so at the moment it's all pretty good.

Monday was a scheduled rest day but I had already arranged to go for a ride with Lee as he was doing one of his last long rides before IMUK and he fancied seeing the Surrey lanes and climbing Boxhill. Coach Cox was ok with that, so Monday was a lumpy 91 miles in 6 hours. Lee had the disadvantage of having done his last long 3 hour run the day before, so the heat and the hills began to take their toll on him towards the end, but he looked really strong for most of the day and I'm sure that he'll have a great time in three weeks. I have to say that I felt pretty good too even though I had done the Kingston to Worthing time trial the day before, a 45 mile point to point race and apprently the only one on its kind left. It's pretty much a blat down the A24 which is an honest, rolling course. I was last man off and had a good ride and worked my way through most of the field in front of me. The only fly in the ointment was losing my bearings in the last 2 miles.
On Worthing Pier
I thought that I had gone off when in fact I had not and another club member, Jake went past as I was stopped checking my position. My delay cost me second place overall and I was once again, just over 2 minutes behind Simon although I was pleased to be one of three riders to duck under 2 hours. Overall, very pleased. We ended up having a picnic on the beach with the kids who had come down too and went onto the pier to play the penny arcades. Lots of fun.

Running's still hard and achy. Russell has got me doing some longer intervals at the moment and a weekly long run. I don't know if the heat's having more effect than I had realised but it's just not fluid yet and feels quite laboured.  Swimming is still a bit of comedy splashing about and trying to remember to count the correct number of lengths which I am finding quite hard to do at the moment. One of the problems of a mamil I guess. :-/ Tomorrow I am attempting a couple of laps of Heron lake with Simon before he heads off to do the Alpe d' Huez Triathlon next week. If I can do a lap without being dragged out by the safety boat then I'll be doing well.

Thursday 11 July 2013

Another pb

Another Kingston Phoenix 10 mile tt last night and my third tt pb within a month. I guess that I must be doing something right. 24:49,  so still quite a way from the sub 24 that I want, but I am getting there. The G10/42 course is quite rolling with a couple of the climbs at the end being the points where I have blown-up badly. Last night I felt a lot stronger on the climbs and I was able to maintain the tt position rather than having to get out of the saddle. I did have a problem early-on when I dropped the chain onto the small chainring and couldn't shift back and I had to brake for a car on the last roundabout, so there still might be some free time to take off yet. A pb's always a good thing, whatever.

By chance, a guest rider from another club turned up on an Argon 18 E-80 so I was able to look at it close-up and he even let me have a short spin on it. It was lush. I want one. I want one now.

Sunday 7 July 2013

A great day for British sport

Because I set a personal best time for a 25 mile time trial at the Bec 25. 1:04:45. Very pleased with that, beating last season's time by 2 minutes. Oh, and apparently some Scottish bloke won a tennis match.

Saturday 6 July 2013

Not often I am number 1

I received an e-mail earlier this week from the organiser of the SCCU 50mile time trial that I took part in a couple of weeks' ago and it turns out that I won the handicap! My prize? A whole £20. I am quite chuffed and I can put this towards my tt bike; it should buy about one eighth of a seat stay. I think this does actually qualify me as a professional athlete. ;-)  Unfortunately the only reason I won it was because when I last did this event I went over 3 miles off course, therefore I was always going to get a significant pb. Oh well, a win's a win.

My first week following Coach Cox's training plan has gone well, except for the swimming, which was laughable. Russell has scheduled me to do one swim session per week for the next month to get me back into it. Arrogantly, I have always thought that because swimming is so technique driven and my technique is pretty good, that I could jus pick it up again, no problem. I was truly rubbish. What technique I have has seeped out of my body over the last 18 months. The set that Russell wrote for me was quite gentle with only 1500m of swimming and with long rest intervals but I felt like I was swimming in soup. My 100m times I can barely think of without breaking into a cold sweat at how far I have fallen. At least there can only be improvement from now on. The only other error on my part was that I had organised a ride with some friends from work on Tuesday when the schedule stated I should be doing turbo intervals, so Tuesday became my longer ride, doing 44 hilly miles while my 'interval' session will be the Bec 25 mile tt tomorrow.

Talking of tts, I am starting the process of getting myself a tt bike. Planet-x had a great offer on their Stealth bike with Sram groupset, but the only problem was it was going to be pretty difficult to get to actually sit on one. I cannot spend a fortune on one and it will be really important that I get a good fit, so I am going to get a bike fit over the summer and then see what frames might suit me (long legs, short body, average height, therefore I seem to fall exactly between most manufcturers small and medium sized frames. Small if I want full on tt mode over short distances, medium if I want something more comfortable. Decisions decisions) The Planet-x does offer great value but if I am honest I would like something a bit rarer and at the moment, one of these is very tempting;

An Argon 18 E80. It's an aluminium frame, with internal cabling, hidden brakes and very aero. There are some good deals on complete bikes and framesets at the moment with a Shimano 105 groupset (I like Shimano) and with a set of Planet-x wheels like this one pictured, I think I would have a pretty fast bike to tt on (if it fits of course). Anyway, I 'll get the fit done and then take it from there.