Robs convinced me to go for the half distance Beaver triathlon in May -  2km swim, 80km bike and 12mile run!

Better up my training!

My friend Rob, who is in training for Ironman Niece, came down to stay last weekend and we made the most of the good weather on the bikes.

Saturday – Road Biking around the lanes of the Surrey Hills, 50miles taking in Cobham, Shere, Peaslake, Leith Hill, Colhabour, Dorking, Box Hill, Epsom.

Sunday – Swinley Forrest MTB, got completely lost but eventually found the trails.

After reading posts about Hillingdon’s Imperial Series on the Wheelers Website, I fancied giving the circuit a go. Armed with my new Racing license for 2010 I entered the Cat4 race and on the day had great support from Liz and Dan. They had to put up with me being quite stressed out, faffing about, getting my kit ready just before the race. Once I got on the track, I knew I didn’t have enough layers on so I grabbed a second base layer and proceeded to the start line where I met other Kingston Wheelers. It’s always reasuring in the race to know they are there and good for a chat to help each other on.

Soon after the start, I could tell it felt very different to the previous circuit racing I did last year, in the Surrey League. People were far more packed together and jostling for postition needed to be handled with care. It was quite a fast pace and it never ceases to amaze me being pulled along at 30+mph in the peloton without any effort being used.

After 40mins  we were signaled 3-laps remaining, so I started to work my position in the pack so I could be over to the right of the peloton. On the final long straight I got out of the slipstream and made a charge up the hill to the line. All was going well and I was about to challenge the top 6 when someone veered in-front of me causing me to break. When I got back on the gas, my legs had very little left to give and I finished 12th.

OK – Hillingdon can’t compete in terms of locations of the Surrey league country lanes, but the racing and track were great. I’ll be going back there for sure.

I thought I’d better stop training by magazine and internet snippets and invest in a good book. After going through the reviews on Amazon I decided to go for “The Cyclist’s Training Bible” by Joe Friel.

It’s very thorough and is taking me a long time to get past each chapter but the information seems very important to understand if I am going to advance.

I think it will take me a good couple of weeks to read and fully understand so I can then produce the right training rota.