Preseli Angel
Triathlon Training Blog, Friday, May 9th, 2014Preseli Angel.
Got picked up by pepperami around 7 and headed out to newport. Pepps has got a fully kitted out shag wagon that he’s spent a fortune on. Yet somehow he’s managed to create the atmosphere of a seedy 70’s nightclub in there. Its very reminiscent of the sands discotheque deluxe. I’m half expecting Benny bond to pop out the glove box with some quirky little rebuke before he plays agadoo….again.
We stopped at a servo on the way and had a chat with the manageress as she turned out to be. It was all very pleasant. Pepps and I then discussed for a while whether we would sleep with her or not. (girls,get over it this is what boys do) Pepps was a flat no, which surprised me a bit. You would’ve thought being ginger and all he couldn’t afford to be too choosy.
Arrived at Newport without incident. Parked ,decided the ticket machine wasn’t working and went and signed on. It was quite busy.chatted to Leighton and Nathan who could quite possible be brothers . The mighty DJ is here with the just as mighty Rob ‘its time to start running’ Dye . DJ cut quite a spectacle as he paraded about the car park in just his bib tights. He bares a striking resemblance to Mr tumnas from the lion the witch and the wardrobe. Half man half goat. What are they called? Reckon if he got himself shaun once in a while he’d be flying around the pool.wonder what size his feet are? Anyway we chucked him a a banana just to be on the safe side.
Always in good humour DJ and the usual banter was flowing and just as amusing as ever. We went and got our shit together. Rob Collins was parked next to us and had finally come down from his intra venous caffeine experiment. Eyes still as wide as saucers mind. We all got into the back of pepps daddy wagon and talked bollox for a while. Got our bikes together ,got our gear on. Good to go. Pepps needs a shit. FFS. An hour later a stone lighter unabashed and not a bother on him we meander down to the start. We are the last group to go off. Maybe 20 of us in all.
As usual out of the traps at warp speed. This is beginning to piss me off . A horse lorry goes past . I jump on the back of it. 40 miles per hour all the way to fishguard thankyou very much. I waited for the heros to catch up as I took it easy up the hill. A rye grin from James and the little group reforms. A steady pace and the group is whittled down to pepps and me. Thank fuck they have gone .One of them nearly brought the pair of us off. No idea what he did but pepps had to go the outside of him I had to make room up the inside how we both missed him is a mystery.
We are going ok. Still a little fast but not to the extent of last week. Then Pepps Chain snaps.Bumder. He flaps a bit. I wait. I could go on but I like riding with James and we will still be quicker if I wait than the pair of us riding alone separately. So all the heros have passed us and we start pulling them back one by one and then dropping them again. Except one. He is glued to my wheel like we are on a tandem. The head wind is relentless . He’s not making any effort to take a turn in the front. I’m not in the mood to put up with it. To be fair what happened next was a bit out of the blue and almost, although not entirely, surprised me. It definitely caught pepps off guard and Mr pinerello deep v carbon wheels looked like a frightened rabbit. I ‘m not sure his choice of machine helped the situation. There’s me and pepps on bikes that wouldn’t cost 500 for the pair and then here’s this bellend on a 5k bike taking the piss.
I pull off the front and ask dickweed if he is going to take a pull at the front. ‘No’ was his answer. That was,of course, the wrong answer. So I said’ you have 3 choices, you take a turn on the front, fuck off or my personal favourite I’ll put u in the hedge.’ I think he was a bit surprised at strongly I had put it. I dutifully informed him I wasn’t towing him 60 miles so best he make his mind up sooner rather than later. He attacked and up the road he went. So he wasn’t hanging on, he had the minerals, so why not take a turn in front. We could’ve had a nice little 3 up breakaway going..but no. He gave me the finger as he went which did make me laugh but it was a mistake. Pepps was a bit taken aback. I said ‘he’ll go like hell now and hopefully over cook himself as there’s no way he wants me to catch him back.’
We pressed on and took it in turns moving on. On the approach to rosebush I had taken a long spell on the front and I looked behind and pepps had gone. I climbed slowly but no sign. So after 20 miles I was on my own anyway. Picked a few more off on the descent then for the next 50 miles only passed heather who was having as much fun as me.
One thing I don’t get is you catch someone . You have clearly caught them for a large chunk of time. Then they try to hang onto you . This can go on for 15 mins or me. Then eventually they fall away fucked. What do they expect to happen. That they suddenly find their legs and start developing 100 watts more power for no more effort? Don’t get it.
Caught Escobar and Tom had a quick chat. At 50 miles with most of the climbing done I was fucked. It was all flat to the finish and I should’ve been rinsing 30 plus mph like last week but I had nothing. I couldn’t get fluid into me fast enough .The finish couldn’t come quick enough the road stretched out interminably. I crawled home. Dejected, pissed off. Didn’t catch pinerello. Turned out I got 5th . 8 mins behind pinerello with his deep v carbons toss bag. I downed a litre and a half at the finish. Felt better went for a 20 min run off the bike. This went okish. But strava had other plans and I couldn’t get it too work.
The post mortem went on in the back of pepps fuck machine for a couple of hours. We were all a bit disappointed with todays performance. But pepps ,rob collins and I had a laugh taking the piss out of each other for a couple of hours before we eventually went down to look at the results.
Its a good event the angel but you do tend to spend the later stages of the race alone with big gaps between catchees.
Rob Dye went bonnet surfing at the finish when a parked car door was opened for him to park in .luckily he was mostly ok.
Monday, bank holiday. Sea swim today in tenby north.It was fecking freezin. Got two laps in from goscar to the mayors slip,harbour wall and back before my face fell off and my balls disappeared completely. I now have a pretty good idea of what a stroke feels like. I got feeling back in my facial muscles an hour or so later.
Did a half hour on the rollers in the evening recovery session. Felt shite.
Tuesday pool went ok. Got a general feeling of disillusionment this week. Too much racing again. Missed a run in the evening. Just tired and just don’t want to do it. Rest day wednesday.
Thursday . Pretty much had a week now of not sleeping and feel crap. Went out on the tt bike. Legs felt ok but all z2 stuff. 25 miles
Friday a turn around of sorts decided to do the carten. I need time on the tt bike this weekend the weather is shit both days so may as well do it in a group stick to z2 /3 and get the hours in on the tri bars. Had a n ok pool session. Entered a 3 up mid week over 30 miles with fabulous and alex. In june . Need speed work now and time is getting short . The endurance base is defo in. With 15 100 milers in this year and 3 in in this month. I’ve done very little running so need to do a bit more of that. Just stick to the plan basically. Not like last 2 weeks where I was supposed to do 2 5 hr rides in z2 and did 2 6 hour rides in z4. Made this mistake last year. Get with the program.
