Catch up time....

Well it's long time no post from me and my excuse is that I have nothing much worthwhile to write about. I still haven't recovered properly from this cold/cough that has plagued me for nearly a month now and that has seriously impacted upon my fitness as I found out at the Manchester Velodrome last week. In the preceding week before the 'drome I put in a few turbo sessions, nothing fancy just a few sessions to get the legs turning once more. As I might have mentioned in my last post I had hopes of being fit enough to ride the Seasons of Mists Audax on Oct 3rd but with the minimal workouts I was doing it was slim hopes.

Anyway Friday 1st October comes along and with it the NCC's contribution towards breaking the world record for the amount of watts produced over 24 hours from bicycles held at the Manchester Velodrome. The event hosted by the malt loaf people Soreen kicked off at 5pm and with the traffic at that time of day on a Friday I just managed to get there on time, fill out the questionnaire, get changed, hop on the Watt bike and we are off. I feel like I'm doing ok for the first 10 minutes or so but then the lack of cooling starts to make it's presence known and I feel like I'm about to blow a gasket, the saddle, o that slab of plastic starts to annoy and no position on that torturous thing was comfortable but despite that I'm doing ok averaging 180 watts for the first 30 minutes and then it felt like I bonked as most of my strength deserted me and it took all I had to maintain 150 watts for the last 30 minutes. It wasn't a pleasurable experience but like everyone there who undoubtedly felt the heat I plodded on determined to see it through to the end and I'm glad to say I did although the hour couldn't come soon enough for me. It was all for a good cause though with The Christie being the beneficiaries.

From left to right, Martin, Gaz, Olympian 400m runner Iwan Thomas, Andy and me.


More photos here and here

I headed home with a feeling of doom for the Sunday Audax and it's 8000+ ft of climbing so I decided to sleep on the decision to call it off or not, Saturday rolls around now and yup I'm still under the weather so give Martin who I was cadging a lift with a text that I'd decided not to risk it. Imagine what would happen if I'd took a bad turn in the middle of no-where with no support except for the lads, I'm sure they would have helped me limp home but then it's ride spoilt for everyone. So instead I pin my hopes on the normal Sunday club run, Sunday comes I look through the window see the heavy rain and promptly dived back into bed so no ride for me and what a correct decision that was, go read Ades blog who rode the Audax or Phil's blog who rode the club run...

I'm writing this five days on from that weekend and only today Friday have I dared swing a leg over a bike by commuting into work on my single speed and that went ok I'm feeling stronger although I know I'm still not 100% but I'm getting there and low and behold the suns out and it's warm so Sunday hopefully I will be back on the bike with the NCC on a flat 40+ miles club ride - fingers well and truly crossed.