As much as I wanted to get excited about this race, I just never really got in to the right frame of mind. Having been away for a week beforehand and doing no training, I kind of felt that I had still not back in the groove before I set off on what would be a massive 2 day journey. Driving up after work meant we only arrived at the hotel at about 10 in the evening. Luckily, the race was not until later in the afternoon the next day.
On the Saturday, we got up and decided that we would ride the course. In hindsight, I am not so sure that this is a good idea. For one, 25 miles when you are not going super fast is still a ride and it took quite a while. In the end, it probably took more out of me than I wanted, even though it was good to have some knowledge of the course.
Start time eventually rolled round on another hot day...two hot races back to back, have not seen that for a while. After setting off, I had a quick look at the Garmin after about 5 minutes. My HR was reading about 178 which is simply way too high. I did not feel that I was riding at that kind of pace, so I decided to just carry on and see what happened - I was in unchartered waters now. I suppose at the back of my mind I had some idea that the end result was not going to be good, but on the day you just put your head down and hope for the best.
I got to the turn in good time and on way back things were going well. I was catching my minute man quite qucikly but then, all of a sudden, it was like someone just removed the power from the legs. I don't think I bonked, I think I had just blown up from the effort I had put in from the previous 22 miles. The HR had stayed around the 178-180 mark for the entire ride so I suppose there is only so much a heart can take before it decides it does not want to play ball any more.
The last 3 miles were torture, just trying to get some speed back but there was nothing there. I eventually hobbled across the line thinking, what a waste. Travelling all this way for that....to add insult to injury, I still had to drive all the way back.
After last year's failure to get in to the National 10, it was nice to finally get my slot for the 2010 event. I always knew it was going to be a really fast affair and that I would be nowhere near the sharp end, but still, it is good to see how you fare against the best in the land.
The day itself was roasting, a very rare treat in the UK racing calendar. For me, I actually prefer to ride in the heat and having looked at the course, I felt confident in terms of being able to do myself justice - there were no big hills and the main drag was assisted with a tailwind as well - all good news.
However, the tailwind to help you back up the wheel obviously reared its head as a bit of a headwind on the way out. On a section where I thought I was going to be knocking out over 30mph, I was struggling to do 26/27mph. Still, I was feeling pretty strong and the shortness of the ten means you can just give it a real bash. The second roundabout was a bit of a pain with a lorry not really giving me the racing line - the cheek of it - but at least I made it round and I heading back for the finish now.
The slight hill was nowhere near as bad as it looked, but the last section just off the main road was quite painful in terms of just trying to squeeze that last little bit out. In hindsight, I probably should have chosen a lower gear for the whole ride and tried to spin out a bit more, especially on the last stretch. Still, I crossed the line in 20:55 and my final position was about where I thought I would be on the day.
