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.