NT5 Milton Keynes spoiler

I so wish I had blogged about the cyclo cross world cup before British Cycling made me angry at the National Trophy. It was a brilliant day yesterday and today I am filled with frustration. When people support you and will you on then you have to disappoint them because of some official with a clip board and a one off decision by someone so removed from British Cycling.

Sad.

I have learned one thing today. B C can't be trusted. There's no point entering the trophy series. I think I'll stick to entering one by one and take my money back when they change the rules. If you can run 6 under-16s races I don't understand why you can't run 2 women's races.

I am really looking forward to the triathlon season now. I can race everyone in the same event.

Bitter Sweet Symphony

I left site today and went fell running in my lunch break. I ran Whin Rigg above Wastwater with the screes below me then I ran back along the road.  I forgot how outstanding the scenery is, how much I love running and climbing hills and how much it hurts coming downhill.

I loved every moment and was so lucky to have clear tops and warm weather this time of year.

I nearly chickened out of my route and was glad I didn't. I could see the river from the tops and estimated an 8 miler but it was 10 and I didn't mind. I will enjoy the recovery.

Chaffinches in a tree on the road beat their wings like a fleet of tiny bobbing hovercraft and I realised I have rarely been on the Wasdale road with so few cars. Today is likely to screw me over for Milton Keynes National Trophy but I don't truly care.

Accompanied

It's no secret that my boss and I have had our differences but we are getting on ok now.  We are away for a meeting today.  We both drove here separately as we go our separate ways after.

As usual I have my bike in case I feel like it and my fell running kit. I have my bike rollers incase I have to rush to turbo on Thursday or in case the room and hotel are suitable for training.

For some reason,  when I arrive,  I decide to bring the turbo inside. I decide that no one will ask me about it if I just walk right in. It's only when I have checked in and squirrelled my turbo away that I realise I have not brought the bag to sneak my bike in. I will have to parade through the hotel with it before any of my colleagues arrive.  I don't want to have to explain to my boss why I have my bike,  never mind what I plan to do with it.

Unfortunately as I head back downstairs I find he has arrived and is expecting to meet me in the bar.  I can see my plan to do something tonight fading fast.

Perhaps a run but I only have 30 minutes before dinner so I lay out my stuff and go to retrieve my kit bag.  They are all at the bar and I resign myself to my destiny. Steak, red wine and not a bad dinner conversation with two others present.

I finally get to my room too bloated for any  training of any kind. I can't sleep because of the buzz of the power station out the window and it's too stuffy with the windows shut.  I fall asleep briefly only to be woken by a sick feeling.  Partly the steak,  partly the fear of having to explain myself in the morning trying to smuggle the turbo back into the car.  It's really playing on my mind. I also have no settlers tablets.  It's been a long time since I have gorged myself whilst out on a meal.

After some sizeable time spent on the loo and some next to it adjusting the size of my stomach... not actually sick but close, I decide there's nothing like fresh air.

I do briefly consider going for a ride now but decide a walk in the car park will suffice,  during which I can return my rollers to the car and never have to explain to anyone why they were in my room.

Thankfully I am right.  I write this (hopefully) cleared of my sick feeling and without guilt. Whether I wake tomorrow for my bike ride or not the secrets of what I get up to while I am away remains between us.

All I have to do now is hope the military police next door haven't cottoned on to the woman wandering around in the hotel car park carrying strange objects and wearing pyjamas.

It is an exciting life I lead.

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.

Can Do Better but not a Write-off

A walk into town. A solid productive day of bike cleaning, maintenance and DIY with a side salad of shopping, drinking tea and looking after TSK when he got in from eccy audax.

I think I might finally be getting well again.

Yesterday was the most exciting training day of the week so far.

We have a kitten issue at the moment.  Andrew and I usually wake up at 6 to 6:30 am and make our way down to breakfast.  I often lie in until gone 7 as I still haven't recovered from whatever I was doing the day before.  Lately, our kitten has decided that against all odds, she would like to get up for breakfast at 5:30am and attempts to burrow under the bedroom door at said time.

As the week has progressed, it has been feeling more and more intrusive to my sleep pattern, despite the last two years of ironman training where I regularly got out of bed at 5am to go swimming for an hour on my way to work.  In retrospect, the greatest indicator of my illness this spring is that somewhere along the way, I lost that ability to be up and about early in the morning.

Yesterday though, when the kitten alarm went off at 5am, I let Andrew deal with it initially and then just got up anyway since I was pretty damn hungry.  Despite my intentions to eat something then go back to bed, I went on to make coffee, pack my swim kit and get out the door.

After substantial levels of hunting for various bits of office and swim equipment, I still didn't make it out until 9am, making a 10am arrival at the office innevitable but I did buckle straight down to work and keep going at full speed ahead right up until hometime at 6pm.  What's more I even had the energy for a swim.

It was a relaxed swim including rests - some of which left me quite cool - but it was a mile swim (actually a little bit more) and a 50 m length swim so I should have been exhausted.  I used every ounce of energy in my body and stood in the shower shivering, trying to reheat before getting out to fetch my shampoo to have a proper wash.

Refuelled by protein shake I had a pretty stable and strong ride home up the hill where I wandered around the house chatting excitedly to TSK before eating my dinner.  Small measures but when the cat alarm went off this morning at 4:30 (today it was TSK going out audaxing) my body got me up again for food and rather than being exhausted.

That makes for exciting times.  So excited I might just go back to bed.

so tiredd

I am so tired that I cannot see. No trainings, just really busy working