To date

So far this year i’ve qualified for kona , the european middle distance champs in rimini italy for GBR in May and the long distance world championships in motala Sweden in June.

Been doing a lot of track work with the Ajax in newport velodrome. once a week. lot of work on trainer road and rides sat and sunday. Power meter is telling me i am producing less power than race season last year but average speeds for long weekend rides are higher by about a mile an hor. This time last year i had done 7 hundred mile rides . This year , to date , my longest ride has been 80 miles which i did at 17.3 miles per hour.I think my power meter must be reading slightly low.Or is that a comfortable truth? First test is the daffodil in 2 weeks.so find out then. James Shaw is on fire as is NB. training 10 times a week. between 12 qnd 16 hours . Finally signed up for training peaks and am getting to grips with that. Total TSS for a week ranges from 600 to 1000. Form seems to vary alot again. Hopefully training peaks will help me manage that.

So we’ll start from now. And fill in bits and bobs as we go. Friday picked up Tom and drove up to the velodrome got the standard reception from the Ajax. Some are ok some arent . few of the Bristol boys there too . All of whom are good. Met matt and paid him on time this time. The cat 2 racers are back so it will be a tough session. First 30 mins warm up. Refused to start too fast this week and ambled along for the first 10mins. Then straight into a scratch 10 mile race. 64 laps. The cat twos took a lap instantly . the top bristol boy had a smash and it was….bedlam. Really good fun though. Cut and thrust tax racing. Matt and the Ajax boy who ignores me when i say hello chased the 2nd cat boys down but they stayed 2 laps ahead. Matt took a big pull on the front and ,to be fair , we let him as we came into the last five laps i overtook him and he shouted at me to ‘hold your line’ As i was glued to the red line i promptly pointed at it and informed i hadnt deviated from it more than an inch. It was the ‘you prick’ comment i made at the end of it he took exception to. Touchy. Always a good idea to call the Ajax racing secretary a prick especially when he lets you join his session every week. Still it was all handbags during the race and i thanked him for pulling us up to the leaders and then fucked off. this seemed to please him no end. After the 10 miles was up 20 mins we had a cuddle. kissed and made up.

There are some parallels here between the group member who came up on the track session i organised and called the head coach at the track a ‘c@nt’ for bumping her as she wasnt getting the hang of it quickly enough so as not to impinge on the limited track time of the other 19 people. Except after all that woo haa died down i eventually got to speak to that coach a few weeks later. He said he remembered telling her to leave but she walked without saying a word. Made the whole thing up and then after she’d posted it on FB couldnt back down. Smart move. So all our written apologies to that coach were a waste as he didnt have a clue what we were apologising for. Anyway what is said in the heat of a race stays there. That may be a comfortable truth but there it is.

There is one of the Ajax who i have said point blank said hello to 4 times , in such a way that there was no way he couldve missed it and he has ignored me everytime. So there’s another ‘work in progress’

The rest of the session just got harder with taking a lap next followed by pick a buddy sprints which was funny with Tom and i selecting each other and leap frogging around the track. No one else found it amusing. Curious.

Drove home in by 1 am. long day. Work Saturday with Mongo so no training. Nice day too.