The best and worst of cycling

What with life proving hectic again, training has been commuting. This week just gone, I ended up cycling to work 4 days out of 5 and I have been finding that I have been tiring myself out because of it. I find I slip into the habit of battering myself at every opportunity when probably I need to take it easy, but towards the end of this week I was forced to slow down. Sheer weight of traffic made it almost impossible to attack any Strava segments so I settled for spining home instead. I had the unfortunate experience of witnessing a nasty motorbike accident on the way to work on Thursday. The rider was being attended to but looked in a bad way and it was a sobering experience. I pride myself on the fact that I am a defensive rider; I don't take stupid risks. No Strava segment is worth a trip to A & E. It just felt pretty dangerous out there. The next day, only a few hundered metres from where I had seen the accident the day before, there was another motorcyclist lying in the road after hitting a van. It genuinely shook me up. I really enjoy commuting on my bike but at some times the risk:reward balance seems rather imbalanced. :-(

The good news is that the regular cycling that I've been doing over the last few months has begun to pay off, despite it being fairly low in quality. This morning was the last tt of the season, the Consolation 25. Apparently, the handicap is closely guarded but the handicapper goes around asking, 'Have you won anything this season?' and those who answer 'no' stand a much better chance in the handicap prize. :-)Anyway, after warming up by spinning the 10 miles from Simon's house I was off at 9am. I planned to rein it in for the first part as I was unsure of what my endurance would be like, but I was hoping to keep Simon at bay for at least the first half, as he would be starting 2 minutes after me. The first few miles on the A24 went fine, catching my minute man, then it was a hard left turn onto the A29 Ockley Road. It was along here that I had detonated quite spectacularly in my first 10 this year but this time I felt much better; normal even.

It was at the end of the A29 after about 14 miles in that I didn't know the route, so after overtaking Ray (almost 80; legend) I then had to stop for 30 seconds to see which way to go. At the next roundabout Simon caught me and we joined a short section of dual carriageway. Knowing that it was the last stretch I put my head down and overtook him, only for him to come back at me. It was great fun and while I was feeling extended I was also feeling strong and thought I could take a significant lump of the 2 minutes back that he had put into me if I could work really hard. It was then that the route incorporates a couple of miles of significantly more lumpy hills and I had to work really hard to keep Simon in touch but gradually he  pulled away and by the time we hit the last few miles on the A24 again, he was some 200 metres ahead. Simon's always been stronger on hills than me but generally I have been stronger on rolling road and I managed to slowly reel him in towards the finish but the line came too quickly and he was still some 10 seconds ahead when we reached the finish. I celebrated by honking my breakfast up as Simon looked on. The perfect Sunday morning.

I am very pleased with it though. I was pretty strong over the the entire event and to bring Simon back in the last mile was a massive confidence boost. It's just a shame that the season's now over.

So, what to do next?

Not much to see here

It was another easy paddle in a laance mid-week with Jonesy, this time venturing a little further upstream to Raven's Ait and back. I had preceeded it by scaring myself witless in the Ranger when I took that out for 20 minutes while I waited for him to arrive. It was my first paddle in it in a fortnight so felt a bit more wobbly again and when I got to the end of the island cut I had an enormous wobble as I turned the boat round to come back. I managed to keep myself upright  with the largest and deepest brace stroke that I have ever done before tip-toeing my way back to the clubhouse. I spent another 10 minutes doing some stability exercices at the club (probably should have done those before I went out :-/  ) before settling for the relative safety of a laance. At some point I am going to just have to bit the bullet and take the ranger out onto the river proper and now the colder weather's approaching and the fishermen are retreating back indoors I 'll be able to stay a bit closer to the bank. I just need to man-up a bit.

Cycling has revolved around commuting and Strava has really come into its own. There a 3 segments on the way home that I take turns in attacking and I have managed to get myself into the top 10 for 2 of them. I am patheically pleased with myself about. :-) I must look like a complete loon to other road users as they see me gurning and dry-humping my bike in a bid to get every last bit of speed out of it in order to move up a place or 2 on that particular segment's list. I am yet to become a Strava ' King of the Mountain' but I intend to get one before the winter's out.

So, still riding my bike fairly consistently and paddling my kayak fairly infrequently.  But it's all good.

Back in a laance

Jonesy and I went for a paddle last night in some club laances. I felt a bit of a failure regressing back to one after trying to master the Ranger for the past couple of months but there's only so many lengths of the narrow cut that I can take. To be honest, it's not only been a bit stressful but also a bit boring. I needed a change so we hit the river for the first time in months. It felt like good old fashioned DW training and I loved it. We were only out for an hour or so and we didn't go very far, shuttling between Teddington lock and Kingston railway bridge, but it was so good to be back in a boat paddling without worrying about a capsize all the time. I did a few half-hearted interval efforts but mainly I was just trying to do the basics right. It made me remember what I enjoy about paddling. We need a project and I would love to have a go at the Liffey Descent race next year. Weirs, capsizes and Guiness; what's not to like?

My own worst enemy

So 14 weeks of no running and within 2 weeks of gently starting to do some light running my foot flares up again, however this time it was my right foot. :-/   I can't quite believe it. I cannot remember this happening before and it has got me really flummoxed and frankly a little bit worried. What the hell is going on inside there? It is partly my fault of course. Starting to run again, as well as beginning work again after a long summer break (which meant actually having to move off of the sofa and stand up for most of the day) and breaking in a new pair of work shoes. I don't know which of those would have been the trigger, probably partly all three, but it's hardly like I threw myself into full on marathon training and the fact that such a low level of activity should cause this to happen is the thing that concerns me most.  As I type this, I am watching an Army veteran who is a double leg amputee climbing a flagpole during the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games, so I probably need to stop my whinging. It'll all be fine eventually.

Speaking of the Paralympics, we went along to the Velodrome last weekend to watch some track cycling. It was immense. The racing, crowd, noise, atmosphere and not to mention the velodrome itself was mindblowing. We were fortunate enough to see 5 World records (3 set by GB) and another 3 Paralympic records. A brilliant morning of sport; loved every minute of it. While cheering on GB riders was thrilling, I couldn't help watching the riders who had major hurdles to overcome. The German sprinter with 1 leg doing a sub-11 second lap. Pedalling a bike that fast with 1 leg? I almost dropped my egg Mcmuffin in awe.

So I have been commuting on my bike. I was meant to do a 25 tt this morning but obviously my foot was not going to allow that, but hopefully I will be back into the swing of things by Tuesday with some gentle spinning to and from work. 

Onwards.