A bad week

I was at work on Wednesday when I got a few urgent messages on my phone.  It transpired that Frank, our timekeeper and until recently, our secretary at Kingston Phoenix had been in an accident while cycling to meet some other members of the club that morning.  I won't go into specifics, but he is alive, which is a testament to his fitness and the many thousands of miles of cycling that has kept him fit and healthy all his life. He has been very seriously injured and it has shocked all of us who know him, as he has been a District timekeeper for many years and has many friends within the time trialling community. If you TT in the London South District, you know Frank. If Frank can have such an accident then anyone can, and after the recent other scares I and other friends have had, it has just reinforced the feelings of vulnerability I currently have. We have all been in shock since it happened and we can only hope and pray for Frank's recovery, which will be long.

On a much more mundane matter, my performance also took a big dip last week.  After my joint pbs over 10 miles in the previous weeks, I was looking forward to consolidating my training. I had been bulking out my trainerroad sessions with some longer commute rides home, usually about one hour.  What I didn't realise was that I was burning the candle at both ends and was over-training. The first indication was last Monday's threshold session, which I had done a few weeks before. I felt really uncomfortable and when I downloaded the session I was 10 watts down on the last time I had done it. I didn't really cotton-on at the time, but this was the first indication that I was not right. A few hours later I had a scratchy throat and raised temperature, my usual indicator that I am overreaching.

So Wednesday evening's tt came around and while I was not particularly in the mood for it, what with the news about Frank and the fact that it was miserably cold, I felt pretty strong, as I set out on the first leg. By the turn at Beare Green, I was still feeling ok, but not as strong as two week's before and as I headed for the finish it all started to unravel. The final hill at South Holmwood, which I had utterly nailed before now felt like the North face of the Eiger. There was no staying on the tt bars this time; instead I was sat up spinning furiously with burning quads. Dave, who I had beaten by 40 odd seconds before went past me and took and 15 out of me. My final time was 23:56. Last year that would have been grand but to be over a minute slower than my previous time, and almost two minutes slower than Dale, after being only 20 seconds behind him showed how far I had fallen.  I have taken the second half of the week off as I try to get back on track.

So, no more late nights, no more unnecessary commute rides, and rest. I'm still learning