>Sunday was a great day – warm and relatively still. I rode the Hillingdon CC 25m TT on the Marlow course and recorded a time of 1:3:42. This is 3 minutes faster than my previous time this season and my fastest since 1981. It’s a fast course with a 2 mile ‘ski-jump start’ (a fast downhill that you don’t have to climb to finish) and I used the disc wheel for the first time. Together these might explain a 3 minute improvement, but I don’t care. It’s a good time (for me) and it’s on the books. That said, I was only 53rd of the 66 finishers.
Monday, by contrast, was a miserable day – rain, rain and more rain. The roads were awash and I used a grippier, heavier front wheel to try and reduce the risk of falling. The weather, tiredness from the day before and the lack of a decent warm up (it was raining!) meant a disappointing time of 26:56 for the VTTA 10m TT, but it’s a minute better than my season’s best (tho’ yesterday’s ride is the equivalent of two and a half 25:19 ‘tens’). It’s my fastest ‘ten’ since 1984.
I think the Sunday ride benefited from my reduced training load – my heart rate was faster and my recovery over climbs was good. On Monday my HR was depressed by 8-10 beats. I need to be more conscientious about building recovery into my plans.
No more fast rides for a while I think. I only have a 25m TT on the slower Amersham Road course next week.
In other news, we saw the Martin McDonagh written and directed film In Bruges last night and this afternoon we went for a walk on Hampstead Heath. The weather, in contrast to the morning, was dry and hot.
Lance Woodman 