Monday 1st August - Still feeling mighty fine!! After an epic July which I still haven't rounded up August seems to be continuing in the same vein. Nothing too strenuous today however any sort of running I do basically kills me. I ran 2.6km to Middleton Leisure Centre, did a 50mins weight session and ran uphill 2.6km back. Progressing very well with the resistance work and I do believe it is this that is helping my cycling the most although it could have something to do with the fact im under 11 stone again. Managed to leg press 195kg x 10 ( not the best of form) then just did some smaller 60kg x30 reps with perfect form. Did a little upper body work to try and get my arms used to swimming without actually swimming. Tried to go on the abdominal machine but I'm still aching there from 3 weeks ago. Couldn't press 15kg :( Have done 60 in the past.
Tuesday 2nd August - Woohoo TT time. Birch 8mile TT from The Gardeners Arms run by ABC Centreville. Haven't done one in a couple of months! It was warm, very humid and the wind was swirly, 8-9mph. The air actually felt quite bad but the course has been re tarmac'd since the last time I did it and the course organiser, who is very experienced at 67 said it should give us a couple of free seconds. Pantani was there already after I had done my warmup of 8miles. I signed on 4th, he was 2nd, there were 5 altogether. Remember it is a very undulating double circuit with a very steep bit ( for a TT course of about 5- 6 % for a couple of hundred yards). I brought the TT bike down using the new 60mm clinchers instead of the 88mm prolites due to the wind and the hilly nature as the prolites weigh 2.5kgs! compared to 1.6kgs for the 60mm.
GO GO GO I zoomed off and into the tuck position within seconds. The first turning put us into a bad cross wind then the fastest part was a head wind then a slight cross/ tail on the hardest uphill part. My heart rate was close to max within the minute but knew I could hold it for the entire course. I had the split time shouted at me....10.02, very good going that! Could I keep it up? It did feel like I was slowing but kept my composure, slowed the cadence down without losing too much speed and got my breath back, repeat a few times. After all the mad training this past month I should have been shattered? but actually felt very good indeed. I really was at my limit most of the course. My heart rate never touches 170 in training. yet I averaged 174 max 179.
Crossed the finish line thinking I had done 19.22 but that was the time of day LOL. Official time was....................20.02!!!!!!! Thats 24 MPH
Split for 2nd lap was 10mins dead. Great pacing.
I beat my previous personal best by nearly 1 minute! ( PB 20.59 22.88mph) Wow what a ride. Garmin had the time at 19.59 and I stopped the clock a few seconds after the finishing line! I think i'd been done! Not to worry. I did an official 10 miler a few days before my PB time which was 23.40ish so hopefully that bodes well for my next official 10miler, whenever that will be. There was a racer guy, quite young in full kit ( Base2Race? somet like that, I wonder if that was the same kit that guy on Blackstone Edge was wearing on Sunday?) hmmm) with a very expensive Felt TT bike and zipp 808's Tubs he splitted 9.33 then blew up lol and retired.
20 miles completed today. Back to the commute tomorrow but the weather isn't looking too promising for the rest of the week.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment