Monday
The plan is to have a rest day which is what I did. I'm still feeling a bit sick so not sure whether I'll be doing any training tomorrow. I took Dylan to see Town play Dagenham & Redbridge, Christ on a bike what a shite game of football with Town just about hanging on for the win. Was a good job I got some discounted tickets as someone gave me a voucher whilst I was queuing for tickets. Only £14, would have been gutted to have paid full price.
Tuesday
Plan is to do an hour of 1 minute on in my biggest gear & 1 minute recovery. I was still feeling sick so decided to go against the plan & not do any riding. Sorry Tony. Thought it best to get rid of my lurgy before doing any more hard training. The good thing about this sick thing is that my appetite has completely gone & I've lost a couple of pounds so not all bad news.
Not like I was siiting around on my arse all day as I still had to go to work & walk round Edgerton for a few hours.
Wednesday & Thursday
Rest days were planned & that's what I did apart from work. Started to feel better appetite coming back.
Friday
Plan was to do a hilly ride of between 150-160km as a dry run for Etape. Decided against this & did Tuesday's session instead.
Worried about this one to be honest doing 1 minute intervals is usually pretty hard but in my biggest gear it was going to be tougher. Also it was going to be hard to find a flattish road to ride on for the duration as most roads round here are very hilly, also there needs to be minimum traffic lights & junctions so I'm not stopping & starting.
I rode from Lockwood to the bottom of Holme Moss & back then did a bit along the road from Honley to Brockholes & back. That kinda worked but I had to stop a couple of times for lights & when I got balked by cars. The session went OK as it's not very intensity it's more like doing weights.
Not sure whether this is accurate but I'm guessing it's more anaerobic than aerobic, summat like that. Should do me some good & give me some more "grunt"
Saturday
Plan says rest day & who am I to argue. Work then Go Ride then sleep.
Sunday
Road Race on the plan, race as normal.
Over to Warter in the Yorkshire wolds for a hilly 50 miler with 2nd, 3rd & 4th Cats. Really nice day & what a nice area if anyone ever gets chance to go up there for a bit of leisure cycling then I'd thoroughly reccomend it, for racing however it's bloody hard work.
Never done this circuit before & didn't get chance to go round before the race so the first lap was a case of paying attention & seeing what was what. The lap was 10 miles round & not a flat piece of road to be seen, the finishing hill was pretty steep although not too bad, little ring. The rest of the course was up & down & the wind was strong which made it tough in the cross wind sections of which there were lots. Nearly came a cropper on a tricky right & sharp left bend as I hadn't clocked how sharp the left turn was, just about got away with it though.
Anyhow first lap was OK, going up the climb to start the 2nd lap I felt fine while other riders were popping all over the place. The bunch had split & I was in the group behind, feeling good I helped out with the chase & we got back on. At this point I would have appreciated a bit of a rest & to suck wheels in the bunch but somone else had other ideas & the pace picked up & I was grovelling in the right hand gutter killing myself to hold the wheel. Legs gave up & that was my race pretty much over, Richard Binks of HVW got dropped about the same time so I got together with him & a rider from Lancashire RC & we rode round till 1 lap to go then watched the finish.
Taking positives from this race I was happy to stick it out with the bunch when plenty of decent riders were getting shelled out, just wish I'd have done less work getting back to the main bunch then I might not have got dropped.
Never done this circuit before & didn't get chance to go round before the race so the first lap was a case of paying attention & seeing what was what. The lap was 10 miles round & not a flat piece of road to be seen, the finishing hill was pretty steep although not too bad, little ring. The rest of the course was up & down & the wind was strong which made it tough in the cross wind sections of which there were lots. Nearly came a cropper on a tricky right & sharp left bend as I hadn't clocked how sharp the left turn was, just about got away with it though.
Anyhow first lap was OK, going up the climb to start the 2nd lap I felt fine while other riders were popping all over the place. The bunch had split & I was in the group behind, feeling good I helped out with the chase & we got back on. At this point I would have appreciated a bit of a rest & to suck wheels in the bunch but somone else had other ideas & the pace picked up & I was grovelling in the right hand gutter killing myself to hold the wheel. Legs gave up & that was my race pretty much over, Richard Binks of HVW got dropped about the same time so I got together with him & a rider from Lancashire RC & we rode round till 1 lap to go then watched the finish.
Taking positives from this race I was happy to stick it out with the bunch when plenty of decent riders were getting shelled out, just wish I'd have done less work getting back to the main bunch then I might not have got dropped.
Results on the Wilson Wheels website here, well done to Dave Shackleton on a well organised road race at his first attempt.
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