27 September, 2012

The final flourish


After getting the podium I really wanted in the National Time Trial I’ve since had my head down and my legs spinning solely for the track, which was yesterday. I’m no trackie so I only entered the individual pursuit, the event which is arguably the easiest for a road rider to adapt to. It’s essentially a very unimaginative 4km time trial suitable for people who aren’t ambi-turners.

I like having specific targets at the end of the year because it means I can zero in on one thing in my mind and not feel any pressure, until the day anyway! The training for the I.P. was fairly gruelling though as it mostly involved 4 minute ‘max’ efforts, 1 minute ‘more than max’ efforts and 20 second ‘which way is the hospital?’ efforts. I’ll never forget the day I showed Coach Jon some power data for a 4 minute effort and he said; “This bit at the end… You shouldn’t be able to do that!”

The night before the event I was very kindly put up (with) by Jackie Marrs, my teammate’s mum and her boyfriend. It was very nice and I headed off for the track in the morning when they went to work. The only problem with this was I ended up arriving about seven hours early. There’s nothing quite as rock and roll as having a little nap in the car because you’ve got nothing much else to do and you’re feeling a bit squiffy after a long drive the day before. At one point I opened an eye to see Sir Chris Hoy hopping out of his convertible Jag looking very suave. Living the dream.

Snap courtesy of Rick Robson and Larry at VeloUK.

Onto the event, when I was honoured to have the very capable hands of Phil Wicinski giving me splits. He also acted as chief psychologist and motivational speaker: and he bought a riotous crew of supporters. It was so much fun having literally half of the velodrome behind me! I did a 4:35.375 in qualifying which put me in first place until the next pair of Doull and Dibben both went faster. Doh!

Still, I was in the bronze medal ride off for a second year running which isn’t too bad for a filthy roadie. After pulling my wheel over out the gate I made no mistake at the restart, getting the top three I so wanted. Thanks again to ‘Team Doug’: that is, Barry, Rael, Hayley, Carl, Anna and Phil, and to Jody Warrington who filmed it all and is going to make me famous. Check it out!

So that’s the season done and dusted for me. I’ll catch you all out on the town and remember: don’t believe any stories you may hear about me! Peace & Love.

04 September, 2012

What a plank!


Woah guys, big news: today I did the plank (of doom) for an eye-watering two minutes twenty seconds. Blood vessels were ruptured and life expectancy was shortened, but all in the name of insane levels of core strength.

I'm feeling so ABulous right now!

In other news, I did the National Time Trial on Sunday and slipped in a cheeky second place (or first loser). Alex Dowsett convincingly took me apart by 2:27, but hey, he smashed everyone else in too! High-fives and lager shandies all round (but not too many because I’ve got one more race on the 26th.

Smash City: population 1.

I’m going back to Manchester for the individual pursuit and hoping to get on the podium after two fourth places last year. I’ve freshened up a bit after a week tapering so I’m as interested as anyone to see what I can do.

At the pursuit last year.