A solid start

I'm a happy chappy because I'm running regularly again. I've used the Marathon Talk podcast's Jantastic Spring motivation challenge to give me a bit of focus but the main thing compared to previous years is I have reduced the number of weekly runs. For the past two years I have tried, and failed, to do 5 runs per week during Jantastic. This has ended up with me breaking down spectacularly well before April. This time, it's 3 runs per week. Quite simply a couple of easy 30-40 minute runs and one longer one at the weekend. Last weekend I did 8 miles including some fartlek for the middle 4 miles. It was lots of fun  and the fastest I have run for a very very long time. Yesterday Simon and I went to Richmond Park and got 11 slow miles in; the longest I have run since the London Marathon back in April. I need to just keep on doing what I can with 3 runs per week and enjoying it.

It's hardly been cycling weather recently so my cycling has been sporadic, usually involving a quick session on the turbo and commuting bits and pieces. I'm still tinkering with my position on the Argon. I raised the set by 2mm last week and it made a massive difference, opening up my hip angle so that I felt that I was able to breathe much more easily. It doesn't take a genius to work out that being able to get oxygen down into my lungs will significantly help my power output.

As usual swimming is the thing that seems to get hit but I'm not stressing too much about it. In a few months when the lakes open again then I'll start to try to get wet more regularly. At the moment a hard one hour session a week at Kingfisher will do with the odd second swim when I can. It's all good.

2013

So it's the end of the year. Time to look back at what could have been, nearly was and what was  actually achieved. I have just logged onto my Training Peaks account to find out some numbers for this year.

 I have cycled over 2500 miles this year not including turbo sessions. I have spent 165 hours on a bike. This totalled 70% of my training time.  Baring in mind that I didn't really get onto a bike properly until around May I'm quite pleased with the bike numbers and I've enjoyed the training and tting that I have done. I knocked almost a minute off my 10 mile tt time this year so I must be doing something right. Next year I will be working hard to get my tt times down. In particular I would like to go under the hour for a 25 tt. That's quite a big target but I should get there or thereabouts. I am very confident of new pbs in all tt distances with me being on board a new set of wheels and with a very solid base of bike miles now in my legs. I won a few club events which was nice, but ultimately I have really enjoyed my time on the bike this year. It's been a real highlight of all the things that I have done.

I have run for 385 miles which has taken me 47 hours. This was 20% of my training time
The year started well with a comeback pb over a half marathon (1:27:50) but after that running has been very frustrating. Yes, I got round the London Marathon but it wasn't very pretty and I am still nowhere near achieving a sub 3 hour time. The vast majority of my running has been zone 2 steady running, which is ok, but I enjoy the faster stuff a lot more and my body responds well to it; well, the aerobic part of me. To be honest, I'm just not sure my muscles, tendons and ligaments have got it in it to cope with the training required to do this and gradually I am starting to see that this is a bit unrealistic at the moment. I think that I can cope with 3 gentle plods per week and at the moment that is going to have to suffice. That said, to do a much quicker Ironman race than my current best effort does not actually require a fast run off the bike, I just need to be able to run off the bike, slowly, and I'll get a pb.  My running fitness is going to have to be earned on the bike.

I swum 27,000 metres which took me 13.5 hours. This was 5.5% of my training time
I need to swim more.

In total I have averaged 4.5 hours exercise per week.
This doesn't sound very much and lower than I thought but there was quite a lot of inactivity between late February and April when my back injury flared up as I ramped up the mileage towards the London Marathon. This only works out at about 35 minutes per day, but it's been enough to see me keep my weight under control and stay relatively fit and healthy. I'll take that. The percentages I have quoted above are in the right ball park but skewed by the fact the first 3 months were run heavy and the last 6 months have been bike heavy. If I can get that more balanced throughtout the year then that will be a really good start.

Have I enjoyed it? Thankfully, yes. Despite not doing enough racing I have really enjoyed most of my training. It would be nice if I could start a training schedule and stick with it before injury strikes.

I am targeting going long again next year. It maybe that I have to be realistic and enter a half or two rather than the full IM distance. There are a couple of races that are grabbing my attention but at the moment nothing is entered. The Anglian or Cotswold 226 long course races looks like fun. To be honest, I'm still dreaming about Enbrunman but that looks like it's still on the back burner and will have to wait another year.


These were my targets for the year that I wrote at the beginning of 2013.

1. Marathon PB. Currently 3.18. Realistically, sub 3.10 should be doable, sub 3 on a stellar day, sub 3.15 for a London marathon 'good for age' time as a minimum.

Nope, not even close. But did run another marathon which is never a bad thing.

 2. Olympic tri; sub 2.20. Qualifying for the World's is very unlikely but sub 2.20 may well be within my grasp if I can....

Nope, not close to this one either. I didn't actually do a triathlon this year. My early season injuries just didn't give me the confidence or hope to try.

 3. PB my 10 and 25 mile tt times. Ideally 23.30 for a 10. I'll probably need to invest in some aero help to achieve that, but you can never own enough bikes.

Well, one out of three isn't too bad.  ;-) 

So, targets for 2014.

Go long again. No time to aim for, Just get to the start line. At the moment that will be enough.
Sub 1hr for 25m time trial.

Thanks for reading. Have a great new year.

Not quite going to plan

Following a solid month of cycling and commuting I have spent the whole of this week resting. I just ended up finding myself being really tired and no amount of sleep was helping to relieve how I was feeling. I knew that trying to train through it all would have been counter-productive so I decided to kick back and relax as we head into Christmas. I started to get back into it this morning with a very relaxed 30 minute run and tomorrow I will have another bimble around Surrey on the bike.

So next season. Well, it's all changed already. I was hoping to enter Embrunman for 2014 but it's not happening now. Unfortunately the date just doesn't fit with some other things that we have planned as a family so my European IM debut will have to wait for another season. As a result I've decided to not use Coach Cox for my training plans anymore. His plans were great but as I only had the one goal in mind, the ascent of the Col D' Izoard and then to run a marathon afterwards I decided to call time. It's a big shame but there's a few other things for me to focus on.

Firstly, the Thunder Run. A group of us are going to enter this 24 hour running event as a team of 8. I heard about it via the Marathon Talk podcast and it just seemed like a really good fun event. Hopefully we will all run the equivalent of around 30km over the day and night while camping in the Derbyshire Dales. What's not to like? In order to help get the ball rolling I am going to be taking part in Jantastic again this year, but I am reining it in a bit. Instead of 5 runs per week which has seen me crocking myself for the past two years I will be capping it at 3 in order that I can get to the start line uninjured.

Secondly, I have become the TT Secretary of the Kingston Phoenix which will mean I am responsible for organising our evening 10s and promoting time trialling within the club. With that in mind there is a group of us looking at doing the National 24hr TT in June which should be quite a laugh and is the focus I need at the moment. So, some new things and some disappointments, but hey, it's only a hobby.

Argon 18 E-80

So rather than my usual whinging and whining I thought I would try to put together a useful post about my thoughts on the Argon 18 E-80, my reasons for purchasing it and my first thoughts on riding it.

Why buy a specific time trial bike?

Well, this was a bit of a no-brainer. I have owned a road bike for the last 7 years, first my entry level Trek 1000s which was then replaced by my Van Nicholas Euros. In that time I have done everything on this bike and it's great for most things, but particularly what it's been designed for, that being all day comfortable riding. I always think of this bike as the equivalent of a GT car; long legged comfort for all day cruising but ultimately it's not designed for aero-efficiency. It has fat tubes, cables sticking out everywhere and a very relaxed seat tube angle which makes it great for hill climbing but it's all but impossible to get into the most optimally powerful and aerodynamic position. I was able to put on clip-on tri bars to improve my body position but ultimately my hips were still a long way back, I was very stretched out and my clip-ons had to be quite wide apart owing to the design of my drop bars which meant my elbows were acting as parachutes in the airflow. Most definitely, sub-optimal.

 This is where a tt bike comes in and with my increased involvement in time trial riding with the Kingston Phoenix I knew that I basically had a considerable handicap over the other riders who were on full time trial rigs when I was riding the 10, 25 and 50 mile tts. It seemed to me that a tt bike would be a worthwhile investment. Not free speed, but definitely extra speed.

So I have ended up buying an Argon 18 E-80. How did I come to that choice?

I guess I was looking for the 'most bang for my buck'. I was always going to have a fairly limited budget by tt bike standards, absolutely no more than £1300, but around that price point there are an awful lot of tt bikes to choose from, mostly frames with fairly basic wheels and running gear, so I was looking at the best frame that would fit me and allow the potential to upgrade over the years as funds become available. The usual advice is to ensure that you get a bike that fits. I am lucky in that I am 'Mr Average' and my anthropometrics are not particularly unusual. I'm slightly long in the leg but no excessively so and at 5' 10" tall, most medium frames would fit somehow. The one other useful piece of advice I got was to pick a bike that would allow the most amount of adjustability so that the bike position could be tinkered with as much as possible.

So, aero benefits, budget, fit and adjustability. The last thing I wanted was a certain degree of exclusiveness. I wanted a bike that was at least a little bit unusual; a bit of a head turner. You can imagine then that that pretty much ruled out every Trek, Giant, Scott bike. I ended up narrowing it down to three bikes.

Nice, but not nice enough.

Planet X Stealth. There's no doubt that this bike cannot be considered unusual or exclusive. Every TT start sheet and triathlon transition area is littered with them. They are amazing value and Planet X have become a leader at selling road and TT bikes where it does not seem possible for them to be able to sell them at the price that they do. A couple of months ago they were doing their Stealth, complete with a set of Planet X deep section wheels for £1100. I very, very nearly signed up on the dotted line. There were two reasons that I didn't. Firstly, the carbon frame. I would be absolutely paranoid about dinging, dropping, scratching or otherwise ruining it. I am quite haphazard and accident prone and I like to ride my bikes in all weathers and I don't want to be prissy about ruining it through my clumsiness. The main reason was though, that it just didn't excite me looking at it. Yes, it would be a great tt bike but I wouldn't feel great on it. So, that was the Stealth out of the running.

Yummy

Cube Aerium Race. I looked at this bike for a long time too. Aluminium framed, so tougher if dropped. The paint scheme looked fabulous and the build quality and components looked great but the thing that put doubts in my mind was the geometry of the frame. The seat post angle was 76 degrees and while this is not unusual for some tt frames, many others were 78 and I wanted to be able to achieve a more aggressive fit. I saw this almost as a fast aero road bike rather than an all out time trial frame.

Lush bike. Stupidly long extensions. Lawn needs raking.

Argon E-80. I had seen a few Argon frames at various tts, usually the carbon framed 112 or 114 and they were stunning bikes but well out of my budget, but when I did a bit of research I found out about their bottom of the range aluminium framed model, the E-80. Firstly the geometry was right, being the same as the 112 and having a reversible seat post  that could give either a 78 or 76 degree seat tube angle.

2 way seat post gives 76 or 78 degrees. A nice touch.

This would give me the adjustability I need to get a really good position on the bike. The other  factor that sold me on this frame was the small aero touches that had been designed in; the hidden front and rear brakes and the internal cable routing. Small things that actually probably make little difference aerodynamically on their own but add to the package and make it look faster and sets the frame apart from the other two I was considering.

Except for one area, the frame is beautifully made with welds that have been ground flat and aero tubing throughout and a fully aero-tubed seat post. You would be hard pressed to recognise it as an aluminium frame and it could easily be mistaken for a carbon one. It just looks like it's really been thought about and the design of the frame has not been skimped on.  The tubing of the seat stays and forks have a very flat profile which with the predominantly black paintwork looks quite 'skunk works stealthy'. I like. :-)   The bit that's not so good? The welding around the bottom bracket which looks like it's been done by an out of control chimpanzee with a welding fetish. The bb is where most of the stresses in the frame get concentrated so the welding has to be integrally perfect and with so many tubes congregating at one point it's pretty hard to smooth the welds out there, but still, it's the one eye sore on an otherwise beautifully made frame.




The hidden front brake.  A nice touch. The rear brake sits under the bb too.

Having said all that, most of the deals on a build with this frame were still too expensive (around £1500-1600), but then a few months ago it started to come down in price, first to £1299 and then all of a sudden TriUK brought it down to £999 and therefore I'd be able to purchase it on the cycle to work scheme and achieve a tax saving too. A double win. The reason for the price reduction was the fact that they still had stock of the 2012 frames and the 2014 frame was about to hit the shelves. Exactly the same frame but with a slightly different paint scheme. My order for one of the final 2012 frames went in the following day. It just goes to show that it pays to be patient and wait for winter and see what the sales bring.


The TriUK build featured fairly basic running gear. Shimano 105 crankset, front and rear mechs with dura ace shifters and fulcrum 7 wheels. I have the fulcrum 5 wheels on my Euros and while basic they are absolutely bombproof and have coped with the worst conditions that the roads of Surrey have dished out over the years. While not particularly aero they would be a great set of training wheels for the rest of the winter. The bars and seat are standard components at this price and the bars in particular could be something else to upgrade in the future with its round tubing to a set of wing base bars would look really nice on here.

The bike arrived fully assembled and I have to say very well made. I checked it over and all was good with the build. I should also point out that with Tri UK being based in Yeovil I was not able to get down for a fitting but they were very helpful and helped sort out an appropriate stem and crank lengths. Pretty good service I thought. There's plenty of stack height left so I am able to tinker around with the spacers and bar height before getting it cut to length. The same with the bar extensions which are stupidly long and will need cutting down so that I can shift gear without having to move my arms.

First Ride

So I have had my first couple of rides this week as up until now it's been bolted to the turbo. I spent the first 10 minutes on the bull horns, spinning gently and it felt very comfortable and stable. The most noticeable thing, coming from a road bike, was that my nose was almost directly over the front axle, a long way further forward that on the Euros, but even so it felt very stable. I have it set up at the steeper of the two seat tube angles but again, while it felt very different it didn't feel weird and was very comfortable. Once I got onto a more open piece of road I got down onto the bar extensions and this is when things really began to perk up. My knees are much further up behind my elbows and my back is a lot flatter than I could ever achieve on the Euros and it feels a lot more compact. The only time that this becomes a problem is when I am stopped and my knees are very close to the bars; I just have to be careful I don't clunk them as I move off.

I didn't push it particularly hard but when up to speed I was able to push quite comfortably and it felt like it was cutting through the air with a lot less effort. The factor I am going to have to adjust to is the gearing. The bike comes with a standard double gearing which is quite different from the compact gearing I am used to with slightly wider ratios. It will require a bit of getting used to in order to keep in the sweet spot but once the bars are cut down and I can shift while remaining aero I am sure it won't be too much of a problem.

I have ridden on it for a couple of hours now and I'm glad to say that I have not had any reactions from my back or joints(blimey, I sound old) and there's still a lot of adjustability left in order for me to find my best position.

So in short, I am really pleased with it and I feel that I have bought the right bike for me with plenty of scope for improvement. I am really excited about next season.

War on the roads?

A bit of a better week, despite having lots on at home and at work I have managed to get into double figures for hours trained this week, the first time that's happened since the end of the TT season. Lots of commuting still, trying to vary what I do and trying to ensure that I don't batter myself too much every time as it just ends up wiping me out.

Commuting has not been much fun this week though. I try not to get drawn into the 'them and us' arguments between cyclists and drivers as I am 'one of us' and I am also 'one of them' but there seems to be a lot of hostility out there at the moment. I would have thought that the recent high profile deaths of commuters in London would have awakened both drivers and cyclists to the dangers but it seems not. I try to take real care when I am cycling; I'm a bit anal about stopping at reds, signalling, thanking those that see me and wait or move out the way for me. I genuinely feel I do what I can to be as safe as possible and also to show respect for other road users. Unfortunately that didn't stop me almost being t-boned at a roundabout and shouted at by a complete turd. I'm still not quite sure what it was that I did wrong and I doubt he does either, except for the fact I could filter through the stationary traffic and he couldn't. I did see it from the other side a couple of days later. I was driving down a very quiet  dark road when up ahead was a cyclist who was really well lit up; fluro vest, 2 lights, the works. I gave them plenty of space as I went round them to pass, for them to suddenly and without warning come right across the front of my bonnet. They didn't look or  signal at all. I found myself doing a full emergency stop with my heart rate through the roof while the cyclist merrily went into a side alley. I have also lost count of the numbers of cyclists I have seen cycling in the dark with dark clothing on and no lights at all. These people must really have a death wish.

I am wondering if with the cycling boom that we seem to be in at the moment that there is a massive influx of cyclists on our road who are not very aware of how to ride safely and this combined with intolerant drivers is making for a toxic mix. I think it would be very hard to legislate for this and the idea of a cyclists' tax I find rather absurd, but I don't think a high profile campaign to get newer cyclists thinking about road safety would go amiss.

It's a shame because usually I really enjoy commuting. It cannot help but give you a self satisfied smile at burning fat not fuel; training without having to put aside specific time; greatly reducing our household bills. It's all a win, win, win situation except for the potential to have an accident where I will always come off worse.

My Argon has stayed resolutely bolted to the turbo. I keep meaning to take it for a spin on the road but it's just been easier to get on the Van Nic instead. I did take the front wheel of the Argon for a ride when I discovered a puncture on my front wheel just as I was leaving for work (my 4th puncture in a week!) This week I will break my duck on it and report back. Promise.

And now for something completely different

I have spent the last two Fridays mountain biking in the afternoon with some kids from school. I was volunteered for this as I apparently know how to ride a bike. Unfortunately these two afternoons have proved that I am not quite as good as I or my colleagues at work believe me to be. Lots of mud, deep ruts and loose gravel make for a bumpy and twitchy ride which is very different from a head down blast up a dual carriageway.  The rides have been led by a chap called Barry, who is an amazing rider.  He is basically a pair of quad muscles with lungs attached in a Lycra package.  I can hang on to him just, when going uphill but I don't stand a chance when descending.

We've looped around Epsom Downs and made our way up and down the hills of Headley with some steep climbs and narrow descents which had me hanging onto the bars for dear life at times.  Despite all this it was a hell of a lot of fun and another few hours on a bike. I guess it all counts.

I'm back running again. Two runs this week of 20 and 30 minutes sticking to soft ground to take as much stress off my Achilles as possible. A third and final run tomorrow and then a final road ride on Sunday.

Hibernating

In the last couple of weeks I have been in tickover, just bumbling along doing bits and pieces while the season lies dormant. I had hoped that I would get my run legs back and enter a 10 km or half marathon race but my Achilles is still stubbornly refusing to play ball. Fine one day; knackered the next.  My run shoes are completely shot to bits so I guess a new pair of shoes would be a good start as well as all the boring stretches and exercises that I need to do.

Cycling has been lots of commuting and a long ride at the weekend. I should have been getting on the turbo but having to muck about changing wheels when I need the Van Nic for riding to work the next day kept putting the kybosh on that, until last Friday anyway when a shiny new Argon 18 e-80 landed on my doorstep. :-). So far I have only 'ridden' it on the turbo and started to sort out my position which is significantly different to the Van Nic even when it has tri bars attached. Stack height, reach, seat post height all need to be tinkered and tampered with until I have a position which is both aerodynamic and comfortable. I'm sure that my antique body is going to require a fair bit of time to adapt. But I'm really looking forward to seeing what I can do on it next year.

Another tumble

On Thursday morning I spun over to Simon's house to get in a couple of steady hours on the bike but I just wasn't feeling the bike love and I guess the dire weather I was cycling into was giving me the heebeegeebees. I just knew it was going to go wrong; and it did. As we went through Leatherhead one way system I completely got a tight right hand turn wrong, taking the wrong line and going slightly too fast on the damp road. I clipped the curb and found myself on my back dumped on the pavement taking a hearty whack on the bonce and a nice line of gravel rash all down my left hand side. I felt pretty shaky but Simon went and got his car and gave me a lift home where I was able to lick my wounds. Thankfully no lasting damage done and the Van Nic was ok except for a few scrapes on the qr skewers.

We tried again on Sunday and got in a solid 3 hours with a climb of Whitedown and Boxhill at the end in much better conditions and no major reaction from the crash. I'm definitely not feeling as powerful on the bike as in recent months. It all just seems like quite hard work again when only 6 weeks ago or so it all felt so good and easy.

Some really good news is that I got three runs in last week. My Achilles is still letting me know it's there but I feel pretty good when running. Not fast but plodding comfortably, which I will take for the time being.

A gentlemen's TT

This week has been a bit of a washout. After returning from my long ride last Sunday I started to feel quite ropey and by the evening I felt so tired that I literally couldn't keep my eyes open at the dinner table so I ended up being in bed by 6 o' clock, thinking that would sort me out. It didn't. I ended up taking two days off work lying on the sofa watching rubbish daytime tv and sleeping. No head cold or sore throat but lots and lots or tiredness and my body fighting something off.

Needless to say nothing happened until yesterday when Simon and I were entered into the Redmond Cycling club's 2 up 'Gentlemen's time trial'. Another quirky event where one of the riders (me) has to be a veteran over 40 and they are towed around by the other rider. It meant that for 15 miles all I had to do was keep in Simon's slipstream and enjoy the ride, as much as I could with all the water being thrown up at me from his back wheel. Still, I had by far the better ride while Simon turned himself inside out while all I had to do was dab the brakes now and again to ensure I didn't clatter into him. I had elected not to use my tri bars on the Van Nic as I didn't think I would need them for drafting behind Simon and it was only after the event that I realised that this was probably my last tt on it. An Argon with my name on it is currently being built. :-)

I still don't feel right. I have just been to do an hour's swim and managed 40 ponderous minutes before calling it quits. The very gentle 20 minute run went much better with my Achilles not self destructing. I'm still doing my exercises and stretching on it and it feels quite strong, but then 20 minutes is hardly a marathon. I really want to get back running soon.

Watching an Ironman

A pretty standard week except for one notable exception. Two swims! Yes, I said TWO swims! Two slow and achy swims, but two swims nonetheless. The first was at Kingfisher Tri, with me using flippers for the first time in a long time and trying to perfect a drill called the 'broken arrow'. Apparently it helps with a high elbow in the recovery phase of the stroke. By the end of the session I had just about got it but the first half an hour saw me completely cocking it up with lots of over rotation and trying to breathe in while my face was underwater. The second swim was a Coach Cox set with 2x500 and 4x250 as the main set. The 500s were ok but I rapidly went downhill during the 250s mainly due to both feet cramping up. I could barely get out the pool at the end and cramped up again as I made my way to the shower. I don't think there can be a sight as unattractive sight in the world as a middle age man in budgie smugglers hobbling round the outside of a pool while almost every muscle in his legs refuses to work.

Last night I was watching the Ironman World Championships from Kona. I watched the swim and most of the bike before going to bed dreaming of trip to the Big Island, only to wake up eight hours later with it tipping down in greyand overcast Surrey. Simon and I had another steady three hour ride a la last week, taking it easy and having a chin wag. The only real effort was on the second half of Boxhill when a whipper snapper went past us. Anyway I got my head down and pushed on with him hanging onto my back wheel. I beat him to the top. He had a beard so I couldn't let him get ahead.

Sunday ride

A gorgeous morning today taking in the lanes around Newdigate, Betchworth and Dorking, finishing with a spin up Whitedown.

Idling over

Long time no blog. Sorry. Training has had to take a necessary back seat over the last month. I won't bore you with why but I have had the kind of month where I wish that I had the talent and time to be a pro athlete instead of my actual day job, which most of the time I love but has given me a fair few headaches.

The main casualty has been swimming which had started to click recently but as I can only get along to the pool in the evenings I just have not been able to get the sessions ticked off. Of the three disciplines this is the one that requires most planning and organisation to get to and the slightest spanner in the works tends to end up with me missing my session.

Running. I am actually running again which is a good thing. Only 40 minutes at the moment and it's only a controlled shuffle but it is a start. Once again, I seem to be getting back to running Again just as the race that I was going to work up to comes into view. The Bournemouth Marathon is next week and I withdrew a couple of weeks ago when walking downstairs was proving achy. I think I would like to work up to running a couple of half marathons over the winter which should give me a good balance of stamina and speed and get down to sub 1:25.

Cycling has been in tickover with quite a bit of commuting to and from work forming the bulk of my work. I have been getting back into Strava and enjoyed hitting some of the segments hard and the work that I have put in over the last six months has seen me achieve some top 10 positions in some quite big segments. It's a nice vindication of the work that I have put in and while it doesn't count for anything it's nice to see a little gold cup next to my name.

I have been paddling taking some kids on their BCU 1 star award and as a result I have paddled a tor for the first time. I even stayed upright and yesterday we took some tubs out and did some weir
shoots. A big wobble on the last drop but I just about kept it the right way up. It's the Liffey Descent today so maybe I need to give that a go in a year or two. ;-)
So things are in bit of transition at the moment as I head towards the off season.

Bonk and Honk

So it was the Hilly 12 yesterday, a quirky time trial that takes in a climb over Boxhill and tot Hill at the back with a few fast and bumpy descents. Neither Simon or Stuart were able to do this so I knew I was in with a chance of a club win and I was sent off as the scratch rider in the handicap as a result. I used it as a training session by spinning over to the start for 50 minutes or so. The day before had been Little Wheezy's eighth birthday so I had spent all day on Saturday eating rubbish and I tried to compensate by having a bowl of cereal and some High5 energy drink as I made my way over. Despite the poor preparation I felt good and confident of a fast ride. From the start it's a fast, narrow and bumpy descent down Lodgebottom Road which has a high grin factor and I enjoyed overtaking a load of cyclists as I barrelled down the hill. It was a double left turn to begin the climb up the zig zag of Boxhill and straight away I didn't feel right, not having the power in my legs that I had felt the week before when training with Simon. I got into a rhythm, again overtaking quite a few people up the climb, although no one in the tt. I always hate the bit from the cafe at the top with its false flat before the descent down Headley so I worked hard across there knowing the descent was only a couple of minutes away, as my legs started to feel more and more weak. The descent was fast and fun and I hoped it would allow me to recover for the final climb up Mill Way. I had ridden it just 45 minutes before, spinning up easily but this was completely different. I was now well and truly into bonk territory with my legs completely spent and I felt truly awful over the last mile. Another unique part of this event is that the very end climb called Tot Hill is timed independently to find the club hill climb champion. As I hit the bottom I gave it everything I had but that was not very much to be honest. I wobbled over the line and felt my stomach begin to revolt and I ended up dumping my bike in the middle of the road while I puked into the bushes. I can confirm that High5 tastes EXACTlY the same coming back up as it does going down. The upshot of all this? Well, I won the Hilly 12 (beaten by most of the Kingston Wheelers but they're a different breed) and won the Phoenix hill climb by 2 seconds. And I've learnt that scotch eggs, mini Cornish pasties and pickled onions should never be used for race prep fuelling.