Hounslow 100m TT (well, 62 miles of it)

I never learn. I never bloody learn. Three hours into the Hounslow 100 time trial on Sunday and I've gone out way too hard, again, and I'm wondering why everything hurts so much. To be fair, when I saw on my Garmin within the first 20 minutes that I was cycling at an IF of 0.86, I did realise this and did make the decision to keep on, thinking that it would be an effort that I could maintain until the end.

But of course, I couldn't. The wind was getting up steadily during the morning and it went from being a bit annoying to damn hard work. The terrible road surface finally got to me too. I was having a massive internal battle, knowing that I really wanted a good 100 mile ride under my belt as part of my Ironman preparations, but at the same time actually hating every minute of the experience. The more the wind blew, the harder my deep section front wheel was to control, particularly when orbiting the Farnham roundabout.

 Eventually, the decision was made for me when the bumps in the road actually caused my rear mech gearshifter to come out of the end of my aerobars. I was frankly delighted to have a legitamate reason to pack. I was also absolutely covered in energy drink from the continual ponding the bike took

 With 22mm tires on my race wheels, the bumps were always going to be difficult but I had coped with them well in the 12 hour last year. I think a combination of them along with the feeling of barely able to control my front wheel at times sapped all my mental strength to cope.

It wasn't a complete disaster. It was still a hard 60 miles covered with a 40 minute brick run off the bike; to date, my first brick of this training cycle. It was a little uncomfortable, but with a final IF of 0.83, it was to be expected and was at IM pace.

Sh*t seems to be getting real.