The last seven days have been lousy for training. The edge might have gone off my fitness a bit and I’ve been suffering from extreme tiredness as well, making it doubly hard to get out on the bike.
I was working last weekend so couldn’t get out much, or rather at all, for a long ride. Went racing on Tuesday and hung in there, feeling not too bad but with nothing left when it came to the final bunch sprint. Didn’t go training on Saturday as I was exhausted from two days away on work business which involved long days and felt I could use the rest.
Come Sunday I was up and out for training in dismal conditions. Heavy, incessant rain was pouring down as I rode down to Hampton Court for the 9am ride. Only three, including myself, braved the conditions so we headed to Richmond Park for a few laps. After a lap and a half my bike was handling like a drunk on ice and I was starting to stiffen up with damp so I headed home. In the end I was out for two hours and not much more than 46km on the road.
The handling I’ll put down to me taking out the old Giant which is now my training/wet weather bike. I think that putting the original tyres back on may have been a mistake. They are bearable in the dry but absolutely pony in the wet. Having not used them in over a year I had somehow forgotten this. Which I shall remedy shortly by swapping them for the Bontrager ones on the Trek.
It’s only about a month to the UK Etape and that reminder has made me fret that maybe I should step up proceedings with an additional session in the week. I’ve got the Highclere Sportif in a couple of weeks to target and work towards which is a good thing, but I need to get out at least one more evening of the week. I think I’ll take the singlespeed to make sure I work hard in those sessions or the Merckx to get even happier with it.