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.
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