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Distance: 1 mile

Probably lose to 2k. I lost count after about 1500 metres to be honest but I did at least 15 or 16 more laps after that. The key point was though, that I wore my contact lenses.

WOW! No, really, WOW! What a difference that made. I’ve never, ever been able to see while swimming before. It was fantastic! I could see immediately which changes in technique made a difference. Plus, I clearly felt 500% more confident because I was way more relaxed when I had my head down. I knew where everyone in the pool was and where they were heading, no chance of anyone surprising me.

Really enjoyed that swim. I was on fire too. They had to refill the pool after a while because the wake I was leaving was washing all the water over the edge. Brilliant!

Women smiled at me and everything too.

Bike: Roly
Dstance: 23 miles

Lovely ride out with my son. I was going to do a pre-son ride but really couldn’t be arsed due to excess alcoholage the previous night and the clocks gong forwards and the need to end up getting up for about 6 to fit the rides and family visiting in all in the same day. Plus a visit to my sisters in the afternoon ment no track today. Still, this is the last three day week in Newcastle for quite some time (ever) so hopefully Sunday nights are now my own again, I’m hoping to be able to cycle to the track, do the track and then cycle back through the warmer months but we’ll see.

Sundays could be insanely cycle intensive if I start doing a big ride in the morning, then take my son out for a ride, then cycle to the track, then cycle at the track and then cycle back.

Anyway, this ride was great. My son moves nice and quick and is gaining road confidence quickly. Very, very windy though. We rode to the barn and then rode up over the big Chorley Old Road hill out of Horwich which is a nasty climb for anyone but my son seemed to cope OK, he only flagged a bit at the very top. And then we went downhill and he got to 40mph for the first time. Splendid.

In outher news I now have some trial contact lenses and have finally twigged on how to get them out easily. The method they showed me at the opticians blew goats. The way I do it now (as found on the internet), is pull my bottom lid down, look up, gently pull the lens down off my cornea with my thumb and forefinger and then pinch it. The opticians were saying I might have to press quite hard but once I was using this technique I hardly had to use any pressure at all. Obviously they forgot to write which lenses were for right and left on the boxes so at the moment I’m back to glasses until they can phone me back with the details. My son said I looked ‘ten times cooler’ without my glasses.

Next stop is somewhere that sells way cool sunglasses. I want some little black John Lennon style glasses, jet black. And some big aviators. And some big aviator mirrors. And some proper cycling glasses. A whole new set of fashion accessories has been opened up to me.

Bike: Roly
Distance:37 miles

Wow, that deficit isn’t going anywhere is it? It’s been so hard, what with working way from home and the rain and all. But I got out today for a nice long, hard road ride. Felt nicely tired when I got home. Loads of shit drivers out. The best of which was coming back along Chorley new road.

I could hear the car accelerating hard behind me, it was, it turns out, a fiesta, wellsuited I think you’ll agree to being driven fast. By the time it passed me it was being properly ragged. The instant it passed me (and bearing in mind I was doing about 30mph), she indicated left and immediately turned into a petrol station. MASSIVE handful from me. I locked the back wheel easily but the front stayed on track.

Obviously I shouted a variety of descriptive comments about her intelligence level and her genetic origins. Stupid bitch. Mad eme right cross for the rest of the ride that did.

Bike: Roly
Distance:27 miles

Nice fast and early road ride before starting work. Great fun. Nothing special happened though,just a road ride.

Distance: 1 mile

Mayhem, absolute mayhem but quite funny in a way. I got in the fast lane to find a fast woman, a fast man, a slow man and a woman walking up and down the lane. I immediately assumed she was just crossing the lane but after a couple of warm up laps it did appear she was using it as some sort of exercise. I stopped at one and andthe fast woman stopped next to me. We both stared at her for a while, poddling along, very slowly. The woman next to me told me she (the walking lady), comes on a regular basis and won’t move over for anyone. We laugh and wait a bit for the woman to get nearly back to our end and then I set off with the fast woman behind me. Obviously we both catch the walker in about a minute so I ‘accidentally’ bang into her. After all, if she’s ignoring the rules about social conventions then so am I (not to mention the rules of the pool that are clearly signed at the end of each lane).

I apologise and point out I didn’t see her because I was going quite fast with my head down, adding that this is actually the fast lane. It took one more ‘accident’ before she got the message and moved over to the empty slow lane where she caused equal, if less frantic, mayhem.

So now it’s me, the fast woman and the fast man in the lane and we’re charging up and down nicely thank you. The other two are good swimmers and have excellent lane discipline so when I do catch them they notice immediately and let me past. I get a real good rythmn going. This is great!

Then it all goes wrong again. Suddenly there are bodies everywhere. Young bodies (late teens to twenties before you get upset). 2 girls and 2 boys have jumped into the lane and have started meandering up and down very slowly. The girls in particular are virtually walking most of the time. After a couple of incidents I stop for a rest. It’s too hard to keep going with all the stopping and starting and I’ve come alarmingly close more than once to grabbing various sensitive pieces of their anatomy so decide I should get out before something we all regret happens.

Just as I’m lifting the rope to swim out, the two couples climb out and get in the whirlpool thingy. Back into the rythmn. I swim a mile and then do ten laps at absolutely balls out pace. 5 x 2 sets, blistering pace with a minutes rest after each pair. Warm down for a few laps and get out. I am aching all over, very good.

Bike: roly
Distances: 50 and 23 miles

This was almost the best cycling day ever, particularly since it was at the end of a shitty week but only almost.

Got up nice and early and shot out for a ride. It was all a bit misty so my glasses kept steaming up but apart from that, great ride. Fast and over before I knew it. I was home by 10 am. Everyone was still in bed, even the dog.

Had a shower and then my son wanted to go out for his first ever road ride. Cool. We’ve hired a roadbike from Eastlands Velo at the track and it’s ready to go. My son is really keen too. We set off in blazing sunshine, it really was quite nice. I take it easy at first but my son wants to go faster  so I let him set the pace. He is FLYING! Even up the hills he’s going some. I have to keep him in check with some of his roadcraft and take the lead when I think it’s a bit complex or dangerous but in no time at all we’re at the Barn.

My son is loving all the attention from other roadies with all the nodding and waving. He wants to go back a longer way so I take him a different route back and even drag him up a big hill which he managed no problem. 23 miles and a 15mph average. Way cool. I’m rather proud. I’ll try him on some slightly bigger hills next time, although I think it might be too early to take him over the tops to Belmont or Darwen.

edit: Oh, it was lamost the best day because I intended to go to the velodrome iun the evening. On the way there I had a thought and figured that if my sons session on saturday had been cancelled, then perhaps the sunday SQT might so I stopped and phoned them and sure enough it had been moved to 7 till 9 which meant I;d not get home till 10. Then I’d have to shower crazily and jump straight into bed to get up at 4:30. Nah. Pity really but never mind.

The title pretty much sums it up.

I could explain everything, actually maybe I will.

Here we go.

I start the week, no riding obviously.
Monday we go to the velodrome as suggested by the trainers, oh, it’s only for beginners. Pants.
Then I drive up to Newcastle on Tuesday, because my meeting request says it’s there. I drive up in the second shittest car on earth. A Renault scenic. The first being the peugeot I was left with a while back. I’ll sort out a hire car review shortly but but rest assured, it was a big pile of crap. It’s french, what do you expect?
So I drive 160 miles, find out I was passed the wrong meeting request and have to dial in. After about an hour on the phone I suddenly get told to present all of the detail, and trust me, there’s a shit load. And the high people in the meeting are not happy. Great! Then work a full day and drive 160 miles back in the shit bucket. Brilliant!
Thursday: Have to get up sharpish to drive to Blackpool, have big meeting, have to rush back home to have my contact lens fitting test. Which went terribly. I got them in fine but could I get them out? Nope. After twenty minutes sweating away we had to get an optician to pop them out. Turns out I was shown a bad technique but I’ll try again on Saturday to see.
OK, then today, which was OK, apart frmit being the third day I didn;t get to be interviewed by the people I want to work for, yet again. Get home to find another fucking bus (Vauxhall Zafira), parked outsied my house, fucking brilliant. Another bus to drive over 300 miles in. Thanks.

So tonight, after a week of not drinking or riding, I’ve had a few.

Bike:roly
Distance:27 miles

Fucking wordpress. I wrote this before and pressed publish, it said it was published and it hasn’t, nothing in the db either. That’s the second time that’s happened. So i’m not writing it all again. Needless to say it was an ace and hilly ride in very windy conditions but was cut short by my headset playing and making the steering very stiff. I think there must be some crap or otherinside the headset.

Bike: Van Tuyl
Distance: 30 miles

Track session. Very quiet, only 15 riders tonight.I guess the fast boys had all been racing or something. So that left us not so fast people. On the good news front this meant I was the fastest person there. This perception bit me though a couple of times. There were two girls there. One was amazing. When she needed to sprint she was up on the pedals and attacked properly aggressively. Very fast. I’d say as fast as me easily.The second girl played a bit of a quiet one until we did a 6 day points race. I took the lead and we did the 4 laps, 5th lap and I stood on the pedals a bit but knowing she was behind me I didn’t give it everything (although still went pretty fast).I crossed the line and the coach told me not to shoot up the banking so I checked over my shoulder and she was right there. Very impressive stuff. She must have been on my wheel all the time and then as I eased off had tried to overtake me. Nice.

I love track riding, I may have hinted to this before. I could ride there all day me.

Edit: It was clear that despite the girls being very fast and some other quickish people being there, these were not long or even medium distance riders. So many opted out of sessions that were not even half way through.  At the end of the 6 day points race I think there were about 6 of us in the line.

Bike: Roly
Distance: 44 miles

Great evening ride. Fast (18.1mph average) but not so hilly (550 metres climbing). Loads of idiots out on the road though.

That’s about it really. Oh, I’ve done 116 miles so far this week. With a decent enough MTB ride on Saturday if I get chance (which I doubt I will), I could get it up to say 150 miles for the week which would be great. Few more of those and my deficit would be history leading into summer which is what I’m trying for.