Thursday 23 April 2009

First 10TT for about 2yrs

I did my first 10 TT last night and OMG I forgot how much they can hurt. With only a few days to go to the London Marathon I thought I would deplete my carb reserves by doing the Bourne Wheelers 10 Mile Time trial. On a bike not on foot!
I had got home earlier in the day for parent's evening at my son's school and was still there at 1840hrs when the last appointment was at 1800hrs. A quick call to Paul Breeze to secure a starting number, I raced home, threw the bike in the car, changed into skinsuit and set off for the 15mile drive to the start. I arrived with number 17 on the start line and I was (last rider)number 21 off! As I pumped my tyres a friend attached my number to the race belt and I arrived on the line with 20secs to go.
I set off without a watch or HR monitor and basically just rode as hard as I could despite not having done any speed sessions. My lungs were burning! I caught number 20 fairly quickly on the hilly section but number 19 was a 16yr old lad with awesome power and potential for greater things. He finished in 23:05. I finished in 24:23 with an average speed of 24.61mph.
My legs feel OK today but my lungs are still burning a bit. Generally I was very pleased with the TT and realise that a little better prep and a warm up may make for faster times. A positive wind direction makes the Aslackby course one of the fastest Bourne Wheelers TT and I think my best on there was a long 22 a few years ago. Still early in the season!
Roll on Sunday afternoon!

2 comments:

Michael said...

Good luck for Sunday.... I saw Breezy competing at Mansfield the other day in a sprint tri it just so happened to be when an old lady with a shopping basket over took him.

Glad your back on the circuit, this could make this years interservices racing interesting!

Turbo Man said...

10s really do hurt, but I enjoy them in some strangely masochistic sort of way.

Best of luck for this weekend.