>A Bentley course weekend

>A ’10’ yesterday and a ’25’ today on the H10/8 and H25/8 (Bentley courses) respectively. One good ride and one indifferent.

Saturday 20th June – Farnborough and Camberley CC 10m TT

A fine day and an easy week’s training (too lazy to go out on Friday – my CTL is dropping away though – need to be careful). I had my journey to the event planned out (allowing a decent contingency) and set of hopefully… Straight into a traffic jam on the A40. By the time I’d tacked my way through Hayes and West Drayton to the M4 I was seriously behind schedule.

I got to the HQ with about 30 minutes to start time. Picked up my number, pumped up the tyres, changed and headed for the start. Normally I like at least 30 minutes warm up for a ’10’ but this time I was lucky to get 10 minutes.

With the adrenalin flowing I hit the start harder than normal and tried to keep it going. My heart rate figures are the highest I’ve scored this season. The final result? 23:48 – my second fastest time ever and a PB for the current and last three seasons. I knew a 23 was due, I just wished I could have been calmer about the whole thing.

Race stats: 10 miles in 23:48 (25.21mph). 26th out of 68 finishers. Slowest mile (2): 2:40 (22.50mph). Fastest mile (10): 2:02 (29.51mph). Top speed: 34.8mph. First 5 miles: 12:13, next 5 miles: 11:35. Max heart rate: 173bpm, average HR: 167bpm. Winner: William Girvan (North Hants RC) 20:51.

Sunday 21st June – Farnham RC 25m TT

This morning, of course, I was there too early. I sat in the car for a while – it was very cool for the warm up. When the event started I thought I was going all right, but my time (1:3:15) was disappointing after yesterday. It was cooler and the breeze was probably stronger, but I need to be moving on from having a 1:3:** as my default time.

Race stats: 25 miles in 1:3:15 (23.72mph). 59th out of 90 finishers. Slowest mile (2): 2:55 (20.57mph). Fastest mile (23): 2:06 (28.57mph). Top speed: 32.6mph. First 12.5 miles: 31:27 next 12.5 miles: 31:48. Max heart rate: 164bpm, average HR: 155bpm. Winner: Jerone Walters (Sigma Sport) 52:03.

The picture is from last week’s ’50’ (I was faster then TWICE in a row for goodness sakes!).