First bad race

I felt like I was doing OK in the week. There were the early starts, the gym session where I felt quite strong. My build up to this weekend's cyclo cross was not good though. I missed my Thursday night turbo which I have so far refused to believe was one of my key training sessions in cyclo cross success. I had a tough swim on Friday when I usually recover and I did nothing aerobic on Saturday which left me feeling sluggish.

Last year, the Whitley Woods cyclo cross was my last good race before I got I'll. This year it turned out to be my first bad race.

We rode out. Spent too much time getting  cold and I had only just thawed my feet out by the time we started. I made a bad move on the claggiest part of the course and completely filled my bike clearances with mud and leaves. I ran to the pits, picked up my spare bike and jumped on. Nothing happened. Turns out the chain wasn't on.

5 places later and I got going.  The philosophy was simple. I switched to red for the claggy section then back to Phoenix the rest of the lap except one where TSK was busy helping someone else.

Nothing else went badly but I didn't have the strength in the conditions to chase down someone I have beaten before. I had a dig but really settled for my place in life.

I was glad I took dry warm clothes to ride home in and glad of a scout hut to get changed in. The hills on the way home were tougher than ever and my left calf muscle started to mutiny but we made it and I even managed to clean both bikes... except I missed a bit.