Last Week

After racing the European 24hr, followed by the Midland Champs the following week I decided to have a fairly restful week. Most of my riding was merely for commuting purposes, just trying to keep my legs moving. I'm always surprised at just how long it takes to get over a 24hr, I feel absolutely fine but just seem to have no power for the next six weeks or so, as anyone who overtook on any of the hills at Birchall will confirm.
On Thursday 12th, four days after the 24hr, I did the local 10 mile time trial, and only just got under 25 minutes, finishing 9th. A week later I was back in the 23 minutes, but still only 4th, still got some way to go yet. I had another restful day on Friday, followed by a short, sharp session on Saturday and then on Sunday set out to do 100 miles on the road bike.
The wind and my lack of power made this rather interesting. With a 30mph head-wind everyone else seemed quite happy cruising along at 18-19mph but I was really struggling and finding it hard to keep up. The route back was somewhat easier, we were riding along at nearly 40mph without really having to put any effort in at all. I had the final 25 miles to do on my own to get to the 100, up to about 90 I was going fine as it was a side wind and I still had some Bikefood left in my bottles. Unfortunately turning back into the headwind coincided exactly with running out of drink and I was finding it hard to manage even 8mph, less than running speed, not that I was in any fit state to run by this stage. 100 miles on a road bike shouldn't really be that difficult, but I think I need more rest before I do it again! I eventually limped home 6 hours and 4 minutes after I had set off.
I followed this with a fairly relaxed Monday, just commuting again, keeping the legs spinning.
The next race is the Nationals at Wasing, so I've while to go yet and then I will be racing at Mayhem as part of a team, with Andrew C, Corby and Clara, I couldn't manage another solo 24hr just yet!

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