Colchester Utd, turbos, Amy, racing, lactic, wind & cobwebs

No excuse for an Amy piccy needed

Well I've just concluded a good week of riding after my longest period off the bike in years.
It all started with a trip to Colchester United for a works 5 a side tournament. Now footy and cycling aren't the best of bedfellows, so I took care to take care! Though sadly I woke the next day with stiff legs. Not a brilliant way to be with a crit coming up a day later.
So there's only one thing for it, a nice easy hour on the tubos with the lovely Ms Winehouse for comapany - total babe. She did it, she eased my pains.
Tuesday, the day of the race went as good as it could at work - not always the case. I managed to get down several litres of electrolyte drink, and half a litre of caffeine enhanced energy drink on the way to the race.
The race itself was an LVRC race on the full circuit at the National Bowl. The full circuit suits me as it has several tough corners, something that suits cyclocrosser like myself. Anyhow the race was a fast but controlled affair, as is often the case when the 'old' boys are racing. I managed to finish in the main bunch, and only had one incident when a lapped rider from the 'A/B' race fell back and took my line, leaving me to chase hard to avoid being shelled out. Overall I'm pretty happy. I actually feel more worried about backing it up with another ride this week.
I took a day out the following day. And rode Thursday with Nick-No-Balance. This was meant to be an easy affair, but my legs were heavy with lactic and I struggled round the two hour ride.
The next ride was Saturday. My first ride of 2012 in the sun and in shorts! again this was meant to be steady, long but steady. Going out I felt great cruising over 23mph. Turning for the very long stint to Redbourn I found out why - headwind. I had a battle on my hands just to keep going. The wind was ferocious. Sections I'd normally blast in the 53 ring had me grovelling in my climbing gears. By Ivinghoe Beacon I was actually swearing out loud at the weather. I was also dreading the long uphill return leg, and spent the remainder of the ride making calculations on what roads to take so I could take advantage of a tailwind out of Redbourn. Of course being as brilliant as I am it worked, and I had a long 'no chain' ride all the way back.
Still it hadn't done much to alleviate the lactic issue! Therefore I decided to take steadiest option on our Sunday club ride, a nice sunny ride to Stony for coffee. We stopped off at Costa in Stony and met the medium pace group as agreed. Costa was an interesting interlude as I was getting eyed up by a middle aged woman checking out my package. Looking down I could see that the padding in my shorts had slipped, but rather than adjust  myself I left it so and gave her a wink on the way out.
Going home in the sun was a treat. Then I noticed something. 'Iain, no offense mate, I'm not saying we're going slow, but you've got a cobweb on ya back' he actually did. Piss taking ****ing spider.
So all ready for Tuesdays crit, and no pressure even with most the club on marshaling duties for the day.