Duckinfield 50 – 2:01:43 (Personal Best)

Raced on the first May Bank Holiday and it was hot and the roads were decidedly quiet – one of those I am not complaining about. My pre-race prep was a little non-ideal with a retirement do for my old boss in the afternoon including a full afternoon tea and Prosecco. Let’s say I suffered a bit later on…. The heat was a struggle for everyone and I frustratingly could not get the average speed to quite tick over to 25.0mph, instead hovering around the 24.8 mark for most of the race and dropping over the last few miles – I WILL break that 2 hr mark for a 50 this year!

Racing Chance Foundation 25mile 19th May – 56:58

Another warm afternoon of racing – despite feeling like a bag of spanners the legs appeared to be working well. A couple of close passes kept me focused on holding a solid line and chasing down a couple of mates up the road (I got them both). Sadly my pacing was useless and I suffered at the end.

Cheshire Triathlon 20th May – Sprint distance 1:06:29 – 17th overall

A slight admin mistake led to me entering a very fast estimated swim time – whoops! But actually I was pretty much on pace with everyone else in the pool at the same time. On the bike my legs were definitely flat! I struggled to hit any level of power that I would consider normal for a race but I maximised my aero game and only lost a few seconds to take 4th fastest bike split on the day. The run is not my forte so I struggled through and did the best I could. This is something I need to practice more for sure!

Congleton Club TT 10– 21:55

After a day off I was back to the bike for the local club TT. A course I don’t like as it seems to be continuously uphill. Having struggled to do a 23:30 on this course about 3 weeks ago I wasn’t holding out much hope. Maybe it was one of those fast nights or I had the fastest rider starting 1 minute behind – I am normally happy to be within 1:10-1:20 behind him. By the turn we reckoned he had made about 30s up on me – I dug in and tried to hit the full aero game to maximise the power.

Wheezing across the line an asthmatic donkey I aimed the bike towards the nearest side road with grass verge and collapsed in a heap. Some how I didn’t lose any more time on the return finishing 30s down on the winner with a new power PB.

[Header photo courtesy of Ellen Isherwood]