Feeling the love again

I guess it has a lot to do with the improved weather, but cycling has become a joy again after spending the last couple of months or so feeling that I was getting nowhere. Saturday was a little frustrating. After my unexpected pb the Wednesday bafore I was entered for the SCCU 10 time trial, which was to be my first ever 10 not on the G10/42 course. The G10/57 is meant to be a much faster course and it was a beautiful morning with very little wind. It looked like my first sub 24 was well and truly on. I had picked up my number, got my tt bike prepped and swung a leg over it to spin the 10 minutes to the start, only to be told the event was cancelled after the first few riders had started as some unexpected roadworks popped up. Although it was a 30 mile round trip, I was much more annoyed about not starting and getting a time. Safety first and all that, but frustrating all the same.

I helped marshal a road race in the afternoon, which was a new and interesting experience. I thought that I would just be pointing the peleton down a road, but no. At one point I was standing in the middle of the road, hiding behind a large red flag as a car drove at me a 40 mph. Thankfully, he stopped. :-)  The bike outriders were grumpy and so was the commissarie, who may have forgotten that I had given up almost my whole Saturday to help out (unpaid). I don't expect eternal gratitude but the odd 'please' and 'thank you' wouldn't have gone amiss.  Think I'll stick to tting. A much more friendly bunch.

I saw this picture on Facebook the other day.

How not to ride up Boxhill.

Only yesterday I was cycling up and over Boxhill on my commute home when a lovely little canard microlight flew directly overhead. I was completely transfixed for a few seconds and very nearly did exactly the same as this fella. At least there was no one around to see.

A bit chuffed

It was the second evening tt last night and I got a pb! 24:04, which is a 3 second improvement on last year, addmitedly on a full tt outfit unlike last year, so there should still be a lot more to come. I really want to see 23:xx before the season is out.

An update

I have been ticking along with my training, enjoying a few different sessions but not really pulling up any trees. I’ve had lots of other things going on so it’s been a case of just do what I can, when I can. I suppose the really nice thing has been my first evening 10 of the season aboard the Argon in full tt trim (although I have managed to lose my tt helmet, doh). The deep section Planet x wheels felt great and I really noticed three things. Any form of cross wind makes for a dicey situation when running the 80mm deep front wheel. Tubs roll beautifully and the ride through the aluminium frame felt a lot smoother. And lastly, they are very slippy through the air, which I noticed most on the couple of rises on the G10/42 course with the bike carrying a lot more speed through the down hills, requiring less effort when stamping on the pedals climbing up the other side. I achieved a 25:02, and while I gave it a good go and that's almost a minute down on my best time last season, that’s a time I am really please with in light of my current fitness and I am confident that I will be going sub 24 before too long.

I have had a few Sunday rides with Simon and we cycled out to the G10/42 course again and 2-upped it, trying to drop each other off our wheels. He was too strong for me at the end but it was a proper hurtbox session which I need plenty more of, sandwiched into a solid 50 mile ride. I am trying something new on the turbo by mixing up my standard long interval sessions and including some much higher intensity sets with maximum efforts over short 30seconds-2 minutes intervals with a longer recovery. I just fancy trying something new and seeing what effect that it might have and whether more lactate threshold work will benefit my 10 / 25 / 50 tting.

The other bit of news I have is that I will be doing the sprint version of the Alpe d’ Huez race. This is down to logistics of getting there in time; having enough time to register and set up camp. The sprint race is on the Thursday so gives us a lot more time to get to the Alps and enjoy the experience. It’s all relative in terms of it being a sprint as I still have to drag my lardy carcass up Alpe ‘d Huez, but I will have a couple more days to recover from the Thunder run too. I have entered the Grafman Half Ironman, and while my cycling and running are steadily improving, swimming, once again, has gone awol.  Time to go to the pool.