St Neots Cycling Club

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Friday was my hard ride day this week, plan from now (how many times has this changed!) is a hard tempoish 40-50 mile ride and a longer ride each week. Anything extra is the bonus ball. So Friday I cracked out the usual 40 mile route at a promising 18.8 mph avge. Some brutal winds in there to be fair but I made most of the following wind pushing my fat ass along at 20 mph for the first 50 mins then struggled like a bitch for about 50 mins into a bastard wind before riding the last 10-12 mile like a boss (well, as much as a boss who rides just about 20mph on his own can). job done, 2 beers earned for the night and the first 'on plan' session for the week. Nice day for it, even managed to get a sweat on.

Saturday was an easy run day. Aim 12 miles, result 7 miles on the trails. Properly fucked and glad to bag it. 35ish for the week. Up and down with the running, 9.30 pace one minute, 6.10 the next. Oh well, maybe a couple of longer runs and some tempo this week. May even venture to the track. Not too worried about run form, I know I am only a couple of weeks away from spanking it and at the minute I am just maintaining fitness while I try to get more biking in.

So, to the title. I joined St Neots CC at the start of the year - mainly to enter TT races this summer and to help bring my speed up for the Ironman - but also just because Rich 7 Ian T said I needed to !!

It's been encouraging that they have contacted me to join in the group rides and on Sunday I headed out with 2 Cambourne based riders (Mark & Dan) along with Ian T. Mr T is the local hero after last weekend and was proper funny to watch peoples ears pick up when they knew he was along for the ride. St Neots Sports Personality of the Year 2013 ??? Met Kye in St Neots (couldn't trust him to turn up on time). Nice ride down with the lads, 10 miles at about 18.5 mph then into the group ride, setting off at a slow pace but built up nicely. Strange riding in the group, so much easier than riding on your own - not just with the obvious drafting but the time just goes so much quicker.

Interesting ride - we had 4 punctures (Gatorskins lads, saves a LOT of fucking about) - and 2 crashes. The crashes were slow speed turns where the road was a bit greasy and the guys obviously just lent in rather than turning in. Nothing major but still a pain in the arse for the guys involved (and maybe a couple of pairs of new bib shorts). Pace was a bit stop start during the hour that all 6 incidents happened. Mr T & Dan (who crashed) departed near Bourn rather than heading back to St Neots but Mark, myself & Kye all headed back to St Neots. Hitting The top of the hill in Bourn we absolutely smashed it to St Neots via Caxton -> Gransden - Abbotsley. It was a blinder hitting from 22 - 28 mph for long drags. The boys loved it and I was grinning like a right twat drafting off Kye knowing he had blown then easing past ;)

Back to St Neots and a milkshake at Neros, said goodbye to everyone and Mark and myself made the headwind and uphill ride back to Cambourne to round out a blinding 68 miles.

So, having never ridden in a group before I fucking loved it. Great bunch of lads, really welcoming, not much dick swinging just good honest riders. Will definately try and do this once a month - Mark rides there and back so that's a 70 mile ride laid on a plate for me at a decent pace. To be fair if we hadn't smashed the last few miles I would have found the ride REALLY easy, so that's encourging. Speaking to Mr t would try and match up with him for a good solid hilly 60 once a month too. That will be a seriously hard workout as he does not fuck about. Also try and match up with Ed as much as possible as we do some really good fast bits on our rides with some smash-fest hills. Kye is sold on St Neots - he's going every week now! Just needs to buy some kit, I am surprised the dopey git even has a bike !!!

Plan for next week -

Mon - swim & 8 mile run
Tue - 40 bike
Wed - 12 easy w/2 @ MP
Thur - 12 easy w/2 @ MP
Fri - 8 mile tempo & swim
Sat - REST
Sun - 2 up TT & 6 mile run

Awkward week. New dog coming Tuesday & TT on Sunday. Try to ride Tuesday am before dog comes. Not much chance to run long but need a good solid tempo run Thursday night. Will play it by ear. Chances of doing much volume are slim.

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