Motorpacing - training report

Present:

Valkyries:
Rach
Verity
Anna
Angie
Ange

Mentors:
Brad & Simon

Awesome fun this morning, motorpacing at an undisclosed location. I'd never tried motorpacing before so i wasn't sure what to expect but it actually felt really safe.

We got some great practice at taking good lines through corners following the bike and picked up some nice speeds. It was so much fun that I was still buzzing once i got to work.

Yay for bikes.

Slight downside was getting a flat tyre on the way back towards work, fortunately Brad was my knight in shining lycra and came back to rescue me. Thanks Brad, if you hadn't i'd have been there for 40 minutes since I am so bad at changing tyres.

Motorpacing

This morning we were lucky to have Simon Niemeyer motorpace with us. We stuck to the SFP crit track and began by each of us having a turn of following Simon for a couple of laps. I found it a really great experience, you quickly learnt where your weaknesses on the track were, for me the gap between us widened around corners.

Climbing Reps - Variation

This morning was an awesome and really fun training session.

Maja showed some great gains on her hill fitness, Anna and Verity were attacking each other on Redhill then sprinting it out in the end, and I put in six efforts - most of which I was pretty proud of including one real attack that managed to surprise our brilliant mentor Brad.

New skills tried today were sprinting up a hill whilst holding the drop bars - thought it would be really shaky but actually wasnt too bad.

For me, after I had such a lame week last week - with bad weather in the first few days and then total lack of motivation the rest of the week (although our Coach did remind me I did pretty well in the ITT on sunday so not all bad), but it felt good to be training properly and with the group again today.

Post training coffee at Double Shot in Deakin was a nice catch up and we all agreed that having people to ride with makes it so much better - the dual effect of friendly company and the competitiveness of thinking "she's doing training, i'd better go too so she doesnt out pace me" are pretty beneficial!!!

There has also been a bit of Secret Janing* although we might have to rename it Secret Veritying, I did extra hill reps on Mon and Tues to make up for last week (which is why Coach is currently threatening to confiscate my bicycle unless I promise to rest on Friday) so I thought I was leading on secret hills, til Verity revealed she was doing secret BLACK MOUNTAIN reps yesterday!!!!

Super hard woman award goes to Verity attacking hills and sprinting with needles in her legs?!?!? Jens Voigt isn't even that hard.

Thanks Brad for writing a training report on Facebook for me to plagiarise.


Note:
Secret Janing*

*The not very secret practice of doing extra hill reps because you are hardcore. Usually involves inviting people along and telling everyone about it afterwards. May result in climbing hills like Lisa Keeling, who is an expert at Secret Windtraining.

My first time up Ainslie

Firstly before I start - apologies for the delay in this write-up, it has been a mad week/weekend and secondly congratulations to all the Valkyries who braved the cold on Sunday and posted some great times (and speeds!) at the ITT!!!

Ok, on with the blogging...

The beginning of last week was pretty terrible for training, both bike running and so I must admit to not being overly devastated that the planned Mt Ainslie CR's on Tuesday were cancelled late on Monday night as armageddon approached. Wednesday morning I felt similar relief, though I did manage to get out for a cold, (but fortunately sheltered from the wind) run around the lake on Wednesday night. I will be a very happy woman with not-so-sore hips as of 4 July when my half marathon running madness is over and I can concentrate on the bike.

Thursday morning was much nicer and as I had packed my bike in the car on Wednesday night, I had no excuses not to get up, get dressed (how cold was it going to be tearing down the hill? - assuming I could get up it in the first place..) and get out the door.

Driving to cycling in the wee hours of any given morning I always find myself peering at other motorists, checking to see if they too have their bike in or on the back of the car and are rugged up in their winter gear as we all make our way to our different meeting places. It's kind of a solidarity thing, as if we are all in on some big fantastic secret, why else would be be up 2 hours before sunrise in the freezing cold of another Canberra winter?

But I digress..

Arriving at the base of Mt Ainslie I was not thinking about the task ahead, I have always said 'I can't climb hills' 'I'm too big to ride up hills' and other such things and I didn't want to psych myself out. So I was just thinking about getting all my kit on, and going over to the others who were gathered in the dark.

And then we were off, Rob was riding with me and I was just concentrating on keeping a nice steady pace as the road started to wend it's way up, already Anna and Brad were about 50m in front and working their way up the road nicely. But I didn't let that worry me, I had never done this before, and I didn't even know how far we had to go, or really what the road was like. Today was not a day to worry about cadence or my speed and I had left my Garmin in the car anyway besides I knew my heart rate was up - I could feel it pounding in my chest.

I was about halfway up when I started apologising to Rob who was still patiently riding next to me, "I don't think I can do this", "I'm sorry for being so slow'", "I'm sorry for apologising so much" I said, as my legs just felt like lead, and what was worse, (I think) was that I had no real idea of how far I had to go, or what was ahead, or if it was easier or harder. I think it flattened out for a little bit and I was able to keep going, still apologising profusely for being so slow and despite my insistence that he take off and ride with the others, Rob still rode beside me. He kindly pointed out that plenty of Vikings don't make it to the top on their first time... I think I may have apologised for that too.

Then we hit the uber-steep bit just before the end, but I didn't know it was the end at that stage and about half-way up here was where it ended for me. I said to Rob that he should go on, and that I just couldn't keep riding. I unclipped and started walking up the rest of the way. As I neared the bend at the top (was it??) of the uber steep bit I noticed a yellow 50kmph sign tucked away in the scrub. I kept walking, and when I got around the bend I saw up ahead, a 40kmph sign, and then the road flattened out. I had almost made it, had I just gotten past the 50kmph sign and around the corner, I would have seen the end - damn! I kept walking to the top, meeting the others who had finished their recovery and were just starting their way down. I hopped back on my bike and followed them down the hill.

Time for round two.

This time I kept up with Anna and when I again reached the uber-steep part, I was going so slowly that when I stood up out of the saddle for a couple of seconds, my rear wheel slipped with the force of my pedalling - whoops - I really was going slow, but I was still going. I started negotiating with myself - 'if you just make it to the 50kmph sign, that's further than last time' and I passed the sign. 'okay, you're not dead yet - just make it to the 40kmph sign and you're there' and I passed the sign and I was there. I was so happy and proud and grateful to the guys who knew that I could make it, even when I didn't.

So I want to say thank you to Anna and the V-Mobile guys who were so patient with me and for not slapping me on the back of the helmet for all the apologising I was doing. I learnt a valuable lesson for future new rides, particularly hill climbs - I need to have either driven or walked them, or (if in a race) ridden them, so I know the milestones, and I can count them down. If I do this, I know I can make it without giving up on myself, even when my legs are screaming at me to stop. I was on such a high for the rest of Thursday, I never thought I could ride my bike up Mt Ainslie, after all, I'm way too heavy and I can't climb hills - or so I thought.

And so this coming Wednesday at 05:30am as I make my way to the base of Red Hill, and I see other cyclists heading into town, and all the motorists with their bikes on their cars at that crazy hour, I know why we are all there, because the feeling when you climb that hill for the first, or fifth or fiftieth time, is just so worth it.

ITT Race Report

Individual Time Trial results (30km distance)
Women's Elite:
1. Rachel Green 1.01.15
2. Anna Peterson 1.05.34
3. Verity Linehan 1.12.32

Today's race was out along the false flat in what started out as very cold and extremely foggy conditions. The race start was actually delayed by a bit just to get a bit of the fog to lift as the visibility was extremely low.

Verity gets the 'hardwoman' award for riding out to the race start from Mt Stromlo, Anna and I on the other hand, were feeling a bit soft upon hearing of the -3 (or depending on which weather app you use, -6) temperatures.

Although there were initially some plans for a team time trial approach, the exodus of all the other women from the Elite category leaving only us three, convinced us to use the ITT as a practice for the ACT championships next weekend so we decided to all do it solo.

We started in order of registration, Anna, Verity and then me. Possibly the ride out and then the big chill waiting for the start of the race had tired Verity out a little and I passed her on the first hill. Anna took a fair bit longer to catch and I worked fairly hard up the unforgiving false flat (so named because it is just enough of a climb to be soul destroying).

I caught her somewhere around after the spot where the juniors were turning around and i was pretty pleased to hear her say 'Go Rach!' - unfortunately i didnt have a single bit of energy for speaking so i couldn't say anything at all..

My next hurdle was the hotdog turn which i knew was coming soon was the hotdog turn (around a witches hat in the middle of the road, a basic U-turn). I am really bad at these - and have gotten significantly worse since i fell over sideways recently while turning a corner at slow speed. That feeling of the bike tipping over sideways has really stuck with me :(

But I slowed right down, FORCED myself to look around the corner to where i wanted to go, and miraculously - made the corner.

And boy was that a 'turning point' the last section to the turn had actually been downhill but the headwind we were pedalling into had made it feel like a climbing repeat!!!

Once turned, even though it was uphill, I was flying. I wasn't more than 150m past the run when I passed Anna so I knew she wasn't far back. Determined to open the gap up a bit more, I tried to really put some pace on at every opportunity, and maximise my speed by staying in the drops, since I'm yet to try using any proper TT rig (for the uninitiated the key difference are TT bars which put your body into a more aerodynamic body position, shaving seconds off your time).

I kept pushing all the way back until I realised with horror that I had to do another Hotdog turn - but this time in front of a whole group of guys :(

It got pretty wobbly, but fortunately I stayed upright and began pushing back up the hill. On the final lap out I tried to keep the pace up as much as possible, never quite sure how far back Anna was. The last hotdog turn, as I flew back up the hill I was releived to find I had opened up the gap quite a bit, and all that was left was to hang on to the lead.

It was really helpful to have other Viking teammates like Brad Drew, Paddy Quiggan and Chris Drew out on the course, every time I saw them it gave me a bit of a boost and when they passed me I used them as a goal to just try and keep them in sight in order to hang on to the pace.

The final stretch I went for a sprint and clocked just over 51km/hour heading for the finish line.

Felt pretty proud to get a result after what has been a really tough week where I wasn't able to train properly.

A pink finish to the Riverina

After an unexpected result at today’s fifth and final handicap race of the Riverina tour, I was asked to write my very first race report. I don’t quite know where to begin. At the start maybe, which was an obscenely early one. 5.10 AM to be exact, when Lisa picked me and the Willier up to meet our Valkyrie and V-Mobile team mates. Four of us girls then loaded ourselves and our bikes into Steve’s van and after a well-deserved (and much-needed) coffee break we headed for Uranquinty, a sleepy town 10 k's from Wagga.

We arrived at Uranquinty’s only pub and public rest area with plenty of time for essential race preparations. First challenge: what to wear? Will it stay foggy? Will it warm up? How many layers are you wearing? Fortunately most of us had packed half our cycling wardrobe and after some careful deliberation we emerged comfortably dressed and ready to tackle the race.

Most of us had never done a handicap race before and it was only my second attempt at one. Recognising this, Rachel had written some helpful strategies for each of us. I was a bit concerned about the enormous faith she seemed to have in Lisa and me, writing: “You two have a strong chance of going for first female across the line (includes a prize)”. Yeah, right! Fortunately, she’d followed up with some helpful advice. “Stay together in the Limit bunch until faster bunches come through. When you hear them coming, accelerate before they get there and position yourself to jump on. Remember, once you jump on Scratch, you can just gatekeep.”

For the first half of the race, we did just that. We started off fabulously together with Rach, Verity, Franscesca, Anna, Linda and Cherrie. But after about fifteen minutes, the bunch started to break up and suddenly Lisa and I found ourselves riding with a handful of blokes. The pace was reasonably fast, but I soon found my rhythm and so did Lisa, who I had to ask a few times to slow down so she wouldn’t drop the guys ;)

About half way into the race, we got caught by the next bunch. This upped the speed, but we hung on. Unfortunately, I lost Lisa a bit further down the track. I later found out that the guy riding in front of her had snapped his chain and lost his rear derailleur, resulting in a gap too big for her to close. The rest of the race I contemplated gatekeeping, but the pace felt comfortable and I figured that, with eight of us left, we might just stay ahead of Scratch if we all pulled out weight. We did work as a team and wishful thinking started to turn into reality. As we got closer to the finish, one of the guys started counting down, saying we had just 4 k’s to go, then 3, then 2… then scratch was on our tails…

We’d progressively been picking up speed and I could see the finish in the distance. Then I remembered Rach’s advice: “The boys will most likely offer to lead you out at the end of the race, so when they do, be ready, jump on their wheel and then sprint around them at the last moments.” She wasn’t far off: two guys took the lead and I was right behind them. With 50 metres to go, I overtook number two and sprinted as hard as I could, almost lifting my front wheel from the bitumen, before a third rider overtook me just before I crossed the line.

Less than a minute later, Lisa finished and we proceeded to ‘claim’ our first ever handicap victories: first unplaced female for Lisa and third place overall for me. How exciting! An hour or so later at the pub came our biggest surprise – the points I’d earned that day were apparently enough to win the Tour de Riverina Female Champion 2011 as well, which came with a pretty pink sash.

Today’s race was great fun and a reminder that even if you’re not a strong rider in some areas (hills in my case), you can still find a race to suit your strengths (flat, foggy roads). But most of all it was great to share the experience with a team of motivated Valkyries and V-Mobile Vikings. Can’t wait for Riverina 2012!

Racing with the Vets

Watching those trees bend in the wind as I’m driving to Look Out Hill for another Saturday Vets race makes me groan. I really hate windy races! So as the nerves mounted I just reminded myself that everyone else in the race has the same wind to contend with and I’ll have to be strategic about where I sit in the bunch……

I’ve been racing with the Vets now for about 18months. It’s a fantastic club that really makes all newcomers feel welcome and has a great summer and winter road racing program that provides variety and good competition. The other advantage is that it has lots of different grades so that you can find which level best suits you and work up from there. It has been my intention to work up from F grade, but I’ve not yet had the confidence to make the leap. Firstly because I still feel fairly new to racing in comparison to many of the other experienced Vets, and secondly because I’ve slowly learnt the strengths and weakness of some of the regular F graders and that gives me the confidence to go back week after week to keep on having a go at racing hoping that I will get better over time.

Well this weekend’s race was 42kms and was a good one for spectators as we passed the start/finish point several times as we made our way between Point Hut and Tharwa three times (A-D grades had a longer course). I was pleased to have both my sisters there to support me. Of course Pat would also have liked to be racing, but she is recovering from her fall last week and it’ll be a while before she can ride in a bunch again.

I rode a pretty conservative race as I was keen to be with the lead bunch at the finish and it was clear from the beginning that there was a strong bloke (whom I hadn’t raced with before) that was capable of making a break and I wanted to have the legs to go with it when it happened. He made a few attempts, the first one being on the steep down hill after the start/finish point at the beginning of the second lap. I spotted it early and got on his wheel. I had to make such an effort to keep up with him (as going down hill fast is not one of my strengths) that I couldn’t help out in the break, so eventually the majority of the group closed the gap. I think with the next couple of attempts for a breakaway there was seven out of the 13 of us left. The steady rise from Point Hut to Tidbinbilla Rd threatened to blow a few more off, but by this time the strong bloke’s legs gave out and another very experienced rider made a break for it. I closed it, but at the same time led the rest of the seven to his wheel. Just as I was recovering from my effort to close the gap, I could hear three or four from the back of the group ramp it up for the final 500 metres up to the finish. I took a deep breath, looked for a gap to jump out and caught a good wheel of a lady whom I knew would keep a good pace to the finish. I tried to come around her but she was too strong so I thought I was in for second place, but low and behold who should be on my side but ‘Liz’ – our fellow Valkyrie. She pipped me on the line for a well deserved second place.

All in all a very satisfying Saturday afternoon’s work!

Club TT Champs

5 merry Valkyries took part in the Club Time Trial Champs this afternoon. And I, for one, can honestly say that I'm now well and truly shattered.

Let's set the scene: the race started at 1pm. It was about 10 degrees, although the apparent temperature was 2.2, with a fresh and fierce NW wind blowing at around 35-45kph and blackened sky (wish we'd taken some photos!). Great conditions for my (and most, if not all, of the other girls) first time trial. Brrr!

We took off in 30 seconds intervals from Casuarina Sands. It was a "held" start (where the organisers hold your bike until your time is up and then you roll away). I know a few of us were a bit nervous about this having never done it before (I was really wishing I'd attended the skills session where this was practiced!). It was a little strange when I initially took my 2nd foot off to clip in, but I trusted the nice man who was holding my bike when he said that if he let me fall he'd make sure I fell on him so my landing was well cushioned. Or something... It was actually quite good doing the "held" start as, according to my Garmin, the incline coming out of Casuarina Sands to Cotter Road is up around 20%!

From Casuarina Sands we turned left onto Cotter Road and went straight uphill. Strangely the uphill sections were the pleasurable parts of the ride! After climbing up from the Cotter we proceeded past the Mt Stromlo turn-off to Uriarra Road where we turned left. It was all good until the sweeping bend to the left before the turn-off to SFP at which time we went straight into the most massive headwind. Ouch! I was grinding those gears in a way that Simon would have been proud if it had been a hill climbing session. But it wasn't. It was a TT. :-(

Things improved a bit going down towards Uriarra Xing, thank goodness. And it was nice seeing the familiar face of Paddy, our honorary Valkyrie, riding in the opposite direction giving us all a cheer as he went by. Next time you race with us Paddy!

It was after we climbed out of Uriarra Xing that things got really tough. It was a brutal headwind the whole way along the false flat towards Uriarra Homestead. I was going slower along there than I'd been climbing out of the Cotter! I was watching the odometer pretty solidly during this stage, trying to break the distances up to make them feel more achievable, as it was really tough going.

Turning up onto Mt McDonald for the final couple of kms was welcome relief. The wind was finally behind us again and we were all travelling faster up Mt McDonald than we had been going on the false flat! Phew! The only problem I had at this stage was figuring out the finish. I'd relied on the published 31km to get me through that false flat pain, but come 32km I was still going. When was the suffering going to end?! Finally at 32.5km it was over. It was such a relief, but also a bit anti-climactic, as there was no one other than the race organisers at the finish (everyone rolled back down to Casuarina Sands rather than waiting at the finish). Finishing was a bit of a double-edged sword. Suddenly we all started to realise how cold it actually was out there. Rach asked what the "stuff was floating through the air that looked like floating rain". We decided it couldn't actually be snow as it was still technically a little too warm, but it really wouldn't have been far off. My teeth were chattering and my whole body was shaking on the descent down Mt McDonald back to Casuarina Sands. I think I actually got quite a good ab-workout today from clenching my gut while shivering so hard!

And us Valkyries dominated! There were I think 9 women racing, of which 5 of us were Valkyries (go team!). And we posted some v impressive results:
* WB - LisaK 2nd; and
* WC - Rach 1st, Anna 2nd, Cheska 3rd, LindaR 4th.

And of course half of this is because of Rach's enthusiasm and encouragement which got not just me out (which believe me is no mean feat!), but another 3 of the Valkyries too. So cheers Rach - not only club TT champ, but great ambassador to boot. :-)

And now to back-up for the Wagga handicap tomorrow...

Skillez group TTT practice

Thursday morning was team time trial practice for the Valkyrie ‘skillez’ group (as dubbed by Simon). It was a good turn out – the three fabulous helpers (as mentioned in the previous post), Eleanora, Linda H, Cherrie, Leonie and me.

After meeting at the ANU we rode off to OPH as a bunch to practice our team time trial skills, but at an intersection in Civic, one of the girls got stuck at a set of red lights with two of the V-Mobile boys. I was keen to stop and wait for them, and mentioned that to Cherrie, who signalled that to the rest of the bunch. But Milto, thinking it was just the boys we’d left behind, called out to just keep riding and that they would catch up. I wasn’t sure about this, but just went with it, and we kept riding to OPH. Eventually we all met up at OPH, but I learnt a critical lesson about being in a bunch from this experience. Being assertive and confident in your calls when you’re in a bunch is really important. If you are unsure about a decision that someone else has made – speak up! What I should have done is spoken out and made it clear that we were going to pull into the carpark and wait for them. I think for a bunch to be safe and comfortable, all its members need to be confident enough to speak up.

Once at OPH we did some drills set out by Simon. We rode twice round the circuit as a bunch, getting used to riding together and doing some one-handed drills. Then we pulled back in, split into two groups and did some TTT practice. We focused on: spacing to the wheel in front, being smooth (with use of brakes and general bike control) and pulling off the front clearly (calling out and using the elbow to signal). In the later laps we practiced using the drops.

Overall, it was a good session – it gave us the opportunity to reinforce important skills and get comfortable riding together as a bunch.

My First Blog

Okay, so I've been a bit slow on the blogging. Sorry Rach, been a bit busy organising the Vollies for the DBR Tour... ;)

We had a good turn out this morning, enough to split into two groups once we got to Old Parliament House to start our drills. We had wonderful support and guidance from Chris K, Andrew Thaller and Michael Milton.

I was happy that I improved my sklls at jumping on the end of the train this morning, although there is still some work to be done. I also felt more comfortable and capable this morning, not running out of puff until the last lap.

I'm looking forward to Wagga on Sunday. I'm just going to treat it like a training ride so I don't get too nervous about it all. If nothing else it will be a social event so should be great.

Planning on a ride Tuesday morning with Linda H and Megan so let us know if you would like to join us for a slow, social ride around the city.

Red Hill Repeats (why oh why?)

So the morning started well, I got out of bed easily (strange, but it is getting easier), it was a pretty warm morning and it was still – especially compared to the gale on Stromlo on Tuesday morning!!

Having completed 3 repeats of Stromlo on Tuesday, staying in the saddle the whole time and being chuffed I made it once let alone three times I was pretty confident this morning would be just as manageable… I was also convinced that since it was a lot shorter than Stromlo it was most likely going to be easier which is why we were down to do 6 repeats and not 3……. hmmmm.

Only three of us rolled up the hill at 6am, incidentally just as Tony Abbott was finishing his last repeat, and the other Valkyries arrived a little later. My recovering quads noticed straight away that the hill pinched up very quickly and before I new it I was dropping gears to try keep my cadence right… until I couldn’t drop them any further! Hats off to you girls that managed a harder gear! I welcomed the ‘flat section’ at the turn off half way up the mountain – didn’t feel all that flat to me! And before I knew it the hill pinched up again. I had some time out of the saddle during the last straight before the top, not sure how much it helped though! I was stoked to get there– and the view was well and truly worth it – its been a long time since I’d been up red hill at night. Brad took us around a little loop at the top of Red Hill as a bit of a recovery before we rolled back down the mountain. I’m looking forward to joining the v-mobile boys for their descending skills session on Saturday morning because it was a quick and tight descent, and sure enough, there were pedestrians and bikes everywhere.

My second lap was an effort. Had to stop on the flat at the turn off this time – surprising what a little rest does – but unfortunately was out of the saddle for the most of the ride up to the top and had to recruit every muscle and bit of heart I had… It was hard!! We passed Rach and Cheska on the way down – both in fine form I must say – and I’m sure there were other Valkyries but I called it a day there. Not sure I went home with one rep left… maybe a half… but either way, I’m stoked with my effort - sure I have a bit to go but am certain it wont be nearly as hard next time; and fingers crossed, next time I’ll be punching out three.

Time trialling on a windy Saturday morning

A belated report.

Saturday was day eight of my life as a member of the Valkyries squad
and it was time for my first time trial effort. And what a great time to
do it - I'm as unfit as I've ever been so I can only improve.

I got to Stromlo Forest Park in plenty of time to do a few warm up
laps around the crit track. I expected there would be other Valkyries
doing the same thing but instead I was all alone. At 9.25 I rode up to the
gate expecting to see someone there but still I was alone. I have to
admit it was about this time that I started to doubt myself. Had I
gone to the right place? Did I get the time right? Then I spotted
Simon. He was as perplexed as me at the lack of starters and we just
agreed to carry on when Francesca and Anna turned up. Yay, some company!

Simon took us down to the track to do some drills. The first was one
legged pedalling. I had heard of this before but I hadn't realised how
difficult it would be. Not just the coordination element but the pain
factor - my thigh started to burn almost instantly! The second drill
was fast pedalling. We put the bike in the lowest gear and tried to
pedal without bouncing - without much success. More practice is
definitely needed.

And then it was time for the time trial. Francesca and Anna went off
first and after some nerves over Simon holding the bike for my start,
I was off too. Up until this point, my only experience of time trials
was watching Fabian Cancellara cruising along some lovely cobbled
streets or similar at about 60 kms an hour. Mine was not like that.
I struggled badly on all of those hills. Luckily the saturday morning riders where
very friendly as they overtook me. Waiting at the six km mark was a
cheering Anna and Francesca - thanks guys. We were met by Simon half
way along the ride back to the gate. And he was kind enough to give me a
little push up the hills so I could keep up with the other girls. I
could have used the help during the trial :)

We made it back to the gate and then came the bad news. We had to do
it all again! My legs were very tired and not surprisingly my time
was slower the second time around. We were even slower on the way
back riding into a horrible headwind. It was about then that I was
thankful I hadn't ridden from home and I was very happy to put the
bike in the car and head home for a nice warm shower.

Thanks again to Simon for the session and thank you to Anna and
Francesca who were happy to keep at a pace I could handle.