After riding the Ryton TT course for, erm… “fun”, everyone seemed to think it be a good idea for me to take part in the Vagabonds Club 10. My original plan was to stick to losing weight and getting stronger, and race in my first time trial next year at this time. Not being one for running before walking, I thought this would be the better plan. However, as everyone has pointed out, how do I know how much I’m improved if I don’t lay down a baseline now.
The course, which one person referred to as a “nice easy course”, starts in Ponteland, out to Kirkley Hall, through Ogle, down to the A696 and back to Ponteland. So tonight, in my infinite wisdom, I took the opportunity tonight to ride the course. Now, believe me when I say it was wet. I started the ride with my amber lenses on but by Kirkley Hall I had to remove them because unfortunately the particular brand of glasses I bought didn’t come with built in windscreen wipers.
Once again I went out far too hard, and by Kirkley Hall my legs had filled up with lactic acid. I took the opportunity to spin my legs a little easier until the slight inclines. By the time I was at Ogle I was shattered, and the road down to the A696 I felt like I was running at 50% of capacity.
Once onto the A696 I started pushing bigger gears, knowing I could make up some time on the downhills and flats, but even then I struggled to maintain any real power output. I know I have more power, but I just couldn’t lay it down.
I crossed the finish line bang on 34 minutes, 2 minutes quicker than my best outdoor 10 miles. I’ve been told that race day always makes you go faster, and that aerobars are good for a couple of minutes, so realistically there’s probably some time to shave off.
I’ll be going out again on Thursday with Steve from the Vags, who is also going to be racing in the Club 10.
I’ll keep you all posted…