This year again I joined a few mates from work for the off-road London to Brighton ride. The ride is mostly flat with a couple of gentle hills and I've even managed to convince Alex to join us. We all had a really good time and the good weather definitely helped. It took us 10 hours in total with about 6.5 hours riding time and a few stops. Hopefully we can do that again next year.
The next day was the Run to the Beat half marathon in Greenwich. I did some pacemaking for this race last year and as a result had a free entry into the "elite" field. Unfortunately my performance was nothing but elite. I felt OK at the beginning but after 4 miles my legs completely sized up. Eventually I ended up somewhere around top 50 in 1:27, some 25 minutes behind the Kenyan winners. I was a good training day though.
The week after Chris and I did a mini-Ballbuster brick session on Saturday and on Sunday I joined some of my teammates for the annual Ride of the Falling Leaves. We were lucky with the weather with clear skies and little wind as it usually rains during this ride. I missed the 4-hour gold standard time on both of my previous attempts so I was hoping that finally I might be able to finish in under 4 hours. Things were going well, we were keeping a good pace and my legs felt good. Unfortunately when the hills started our group got split up and we were in danger of missing the 4 hour mark again. Jim and I decided to press on and eventually made it back in 3:54 after some strong riding. Another good training day.
It's 4 weeks to Ironman Florida now and I'm getting a little anxious that I've not really done enough training to race it properly. Whatever happens I just want to go and have fun. It's been a long year.
It's 4 weeks to Ironman Florida now and I'm getting a little anxious that I've not really done enough training to race it properly. Whatever happens I just want to go and have fun. It's been a long year.
