Hilly 12

I needed last week's rest week. I was pooped. During the week I commuted on the bike every day but took it very easy. The long route home from work that I had enjoyed so much when training for the Forestman seemed particularly difficult and I weaved and wheezed my way up Boxhill before descending back home. My long run was cut back to 67 minutes and most of it was laborious, my muscles and joints not enjoying being forced to run so early on a Saturday morning.

On Sunday I did my last time trial of the season. It was an unusual one in that it involved hills rather than the usual blast up and down a dual carriageway. The roads were quite greasy so the first couple of miles that involved a descent down to the bottom of Boxhill were a bit tentative and throw in game birds in the middle of the road and D of E walkers with their heads buried in maps and not where they were going it made for a couple of heart stopping moments. As I climbed Boxhill I got into a pretty good rhythm and started to reel in the 4 competitors ahead of me and by the time I had gone over the top there was only one other rider in front of me on the road. I followed her down the next descent, not wanting to overtake on such a tricky bit of road before pushing on up the last climb. At the top at the finish the usual dry heaves came up (muesli taste; nice) before a slow few hundred metres back to the car park. Being a new course to me it was always going to be a pb, but it was a bit gutting being beaten into second place by 1 second. Next year.

In other news....
Ad and I are trying to get a boat sorted and we have not had much luck, having an offer on a decent looking boat accepted and then turned down. Grrrr.... Ad's Bonkers busy at work at the moment so we have not been out in the last couple of weeks but I had a really nice paddle with Dad on Sunday night, his first paddle in a K2. I always said I would never get back into a Discovery; I was lying. ;-) It was a bit windy but we took it steady and had no major wobbles. All good.