So how does that work then?

  I know a few weeks ago I said that….. 

  ….I give up trying to work out how my body works, but now I really give up giving up!

  Had a really hard week so far but kept it going yesterday and last night. Despite feeling a bit smashed when I woke up, I limbered up a bit during a brisk 90 min dog walkies then went out on the bike for a couple of hours. Had that strange ‘rolling’* feeling again and felt quite strong, turning big gears for what seemed like a very light effort. I didn’t try to go fast although I made quite good progress.

  Starving when I got back but this time I didn’t bother with the fry up, just a large lump of home-made cake! Two hours later, it was time to don the skinsuit and head up the road for the GYCC TT.

 

A surprisingly good turnout in spite of the conditions....

  Horrible course this, hilly, horrible road surface plus, worst of all, I spend most of my time cycling along various parts of it. Having said that, ‘local knowledge’ probably helps a bit.

  Getting under 24 mins on here is always a good gauge of fitness I reckon – for me at least. Despite it literally being just up the road I’ve probably only ridden it half a dozen times over the last couple of years. Slowest was when I’d just come out of ‘retirement’ and did a long 28, best was on a lovely evening last summer a couple of days after setting my ‘50’ PB, doing 23:53.

  Unseasonally cold, windy and misty but I gave it a crack…

  From the off I felt like I could race properly this time. I just rolled into the first few minutes as usual and was surprised to see the HR throttling up quite nicely.  My legs still felt quite heavy and felt I should have been a gear higher most of the way round but I felt better than I had done all week, AND this was my 3^rd TT in a row. How does that happen then? Good grief…

  Got baulked by a tipper truck on the corner at Blundeston and got held up by a car (annoyingly) obeying the speed limit down the hill through Lound but got to the finish in 23:52 – a course PB on a hard night with some slightly unhelpful traffic. If a rider of Joe Skipper’s caliber can ‘only’ do a long 22, then you’ve got to be pleased with a long 23!

  At about this level of fitness last year, I went ‘bang’ and it took a couple of months to get back to where I was. So, I’m going to have a day off today, in fact I may ease up for a week or so.

 * ‘Rolling’: I haven’t made a very good job of explaining this, but then again I’m not sure I can. As an ex-raver, ‘rolling’ used to involve waving glowsticks about and chewing the inside of your cheeks raw, but this is far more sensible.

  It feels like you squash a bit of rubber with your foot and it expands further than you’ve squashed it. You are moving your feet around but not pushing. You seem to be pedaling without using your thigh muscles, in fact it just seems to be the weight of you feet falling on the pedals that makes you accelerate.

  It’s a strange feeling, but a nice one. Last experienced properly (and I jest not) summer 1996 – it’s that remarkable I still remember it after 17 years.