>Today was really hot. Two weeks ago I almost froze riding the Charlotteville ’50’ on these roads, today I cooked.
The event was the Farnham RC organised Ron Wickerson Memorial Trophy on the H10/8 Bentley course. I rode a season’s best 23:56 here last Saturday and, after an easy training week, was hoping to improve.
The wind was light, but tail out, head back – not the ideal combination for this course, but not a disaster. I did get to the turn a lot quicker than last week and dug in for the return. The problem was the two short hills. On each of them my heart rate hit about 98% and I was struggling to recover. With two miles to go I seemed to blow up and had to push hard to get home in 24:19. Last Saturday I did those 2 miles in 4:03, today it was 4:47.
Why did I blow up? I think it was the heat – my throat was as dry as a dry throat and it was difficult to get the breathing back under control. My normal HR profile for a ’10’ is a rising line for 1-2 miles and then pretty steady. Today the line rose all the way to the finish board.
I’ve got another ’10’ tomorrow morning (a 4am alarm clock). I’m hoping that I can rehydrate and refuel in time. At least it should be cooler!
Race stats: Time: 24:19 (24.67mph). First 5 miles: 11:36, second 5 miles: 12:43. Top speed: 34.5mph. Slowest mile (6): 2:43 (22.09mph), fastest mile (3): 2:13 (27.07mph). Average HR: 167bpm, maximum HR: 174bpm. ?th of ? finishers. Ave. cadence: 78rpm. Winner: Ben Instone (Scientific-coaching.com) 20:08
Lance Woodman 
>Good ride lance, I Punctured at Welwyn today then borrowed a wheel. I think you have convinced me to take my raceback hydration with me for my 25 TT tomorrow, better to hydrate than boil…….Andy.