Today is the first day for 8 days I have gone out to do anything longer then 3h00 since cracking my knee on my MTB as I went over the handlebars. It just so happened I set of at 7:30am and snapped my rear gear cable after 15mins. So I kept riding till it was 9:00am and I could go to a shop and buy a new one. So I spent 1h15 riding around Dartmoore on 39/12. It is actually quite a big gear!! I could feel my knee starting to give me a bit of a niggle after 2h00 or so but thought nothing of it. You know I thought I will just go harder so as the pain in my muscles takes over my attention. (stupid fool I am) Any way caried on as you do and got to 3h15 and my knee is really starting to give me pain. I stop at a friends house and take a double dose of ibuprofen and carry on. finished my ride 6h10 with heaps of climbs. Am I stupid or hard or both??? Some time I wonder! After shower iced knee and resting and don't feel too bad now painkillers have stopped working. We will see. If i have to take 6months off with knee trouble I will know it was the wrong decision!

Sore head.

Yesterday (Sunday), I did my second MTB race at Huntingdon. Now it is all a bit new to me but when it's £20 to enter and the win does not even give your race entry back something is a little wrong in my opinion! It all went well apart from getting stung by a wasp right between the eyes on the penultimate lap to add to my injuries. Now I have a sore head to go with my sore elbows, knees and hip!!

Some photo's from the Brighton Big Dog MTB enduro.

London City training

Here are some of the places I have been out training recently. Inner city landmarks are the theme.

Eat eat eat!!!

Today is Tuesday, I have been eating like crazy since the MTB Enduro on saturday. I was trying to think why , then I realized, on the day of the race I had breakfast, then started the race and then had a small sandwich on the way home with only a couple of musely bars inbetween. Considering it was quite possibly a 7000 calory day that means there was some serious calory deficit to make up. Well I have been making up big time! Breakfast, elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, pudding! Ahh the benefits of being an edurance athlete.

Its the morning after my first proper MTB race in Brighton called the Brighton Big Dog and it was an enduro 6h00 event. Sounds like fun, well I seriously questioned that after 25mins when the pain in my back grew unbearibly as I tried to keep up with the teams doing a relay. I did the solo category and 6h00 on your own with soo much single track gets very tiring, especially for a roady like me! After 1h30 I settled into a rythm and time seamed to pass fairly quick. The Colnago Ibex was fantastic and reliable. I was very pleased not to fall off as it is easy to do especially when you are tired, a few close calls was all but your not racing unless you get those. Kept repeating to my self, 'you make up more time not loosing time,' just incase I got carried away and tried to ride beyond my self.

Good days work though, met lots a very friendly people and it was nice to arrive at such a relaxed atmosphere at the event. I think that is when you have people doing a fun ride at the same event as the seriouse racing it helps keep the atmosphere light, some alcohol and music at the finish and everyone is happy. Also when the corse is in the woods and not on public roads apart from up setting a few dog walkers, you can afford to be more relaxed as you are not sharing the space with so many other people trying to go on their summer holidays and getting stressed about being held up.

Thank you to Magnus Backstedt and the team for all the support and the race number. Would have a been a much more dificult without them.

Bull

Today was a good training day. I did 3h45 on the MTB. I was wearing my new red kit for the first time and as I crested a sharp rise on Dartmoor a huge bull came into view facing me. Baring in mind I am on the moor and there is no fences or hedges. I made a sharp U turn and headed back down the track. Managed to avoid him after that but definitely got the adrenalin spike out there on my own ha ha. Getting used to the MTB after my crash yesterday.

First Post

First post on the new blog. I just set this up to give a bit of an insight into my life/job and progress.
I hope you enjoy.