RTTC National 50 - 31st - 1:54:20

As this was a 50, it was obviously time for me to head down to Bentley - for some reason, the three I have now done have all been on the same course. It is not even a course I particularly like, especially as it always seems to be coupled with a fierce wind. Sunday was no exception with the wind blowing in the same way as it had for the last 50 I had done on that course - I think it may have actually be harder this time though. This made for a miserable out leg and a pretty quick return.

On lap one, things seemed to be going okay. I had started well and seemed to keeping a good speed going in to the wind. I tried to keep things under control as much as possible as I knew that the last 15 miles would be grim. At the first turn, I could see that I had lost time to certain people in front and behind me. I tried to ignore what was going on and just continued to keep my HR where it was (165-170) and just see what happens.

As expected, the second lap was pretty horrible, what with battling with the wind and the gradual departure of power from the legs. Funnily enough, I had ridden behind a couple of chaps on my way to the start, they must have been on their last lap. At the time, I thought these guys are going slow. Low and behold, when it was my turn on those last two laps, I think I must have been doing the same speed, if not slower. Over the course of the last lap, I went through some phases where I thought I would just pack it all in as the legs felt empty. My only light at the end of the windy tunnel was that once I hit the slingshot of the last roundabout, I would be homeward bound with the wind behind me. I think that the imminent finish, coupled with the sight of a mate of mine coming on to the roundabout as I was leaving, were enough to give me the strength to push on a bit and get it over and done with.

Crossed the line with 1:54:20 and 31st which was okay I think. It has become clear to me, both here and on the 25, that if you want to ride your bike at over 40kph, you really need to be on the turbo doing intervals which have you riding at power levels which would take you above the 40kph mark. I'm certainly missing that little bit of speed and power at the top end. I have tried to console myself with the assumption that this is just a byproduct of the IM training. I would like to think that I am getting better at doing long rides at a good average speed, just not so good at going fast for shorter periods of time.