change of plans

today was meant to be a long ride out to Rutland water with the clarion.... i drove back from Newcastle to Nottingham last night and Rachel had been off work with flu and had decided to take today off aswell to fully get over it.
I decided that rather than be out all day on the bike i would split my training into 2 parts and do a pretty intense flatter ride in the morning and some intervals in the afternoon....

Part one....

Put the road bike back together as wheels were off after the hill climb last week... attached the saddle bag..realised i had left all my pumps in Newcastle.. ready to go by 9.20am..




Route is out to Southwell.. up a nice 12% climb which is just short enough to muscle up in 52x23.. on to Thurgarton along some rolling hills... Hoveringham.. along the Trent to Lowdham.. Bingham then A52 home...

I realise that most people reading won't have a clue about the above places but some people might and i am going to be using this blog to track my training so i want to know what i did on what day.

All going well till i got back to the city centre and bike felt squirmy through corners... whilst waiting at the traffic lights pushing down on the bars the front end had give.. don't remember fitting suspension so only one thing it could be.. Flat Tyre!!!

No pump but luckily it was going down slowly... managed to nurse it all the way home praying it didn't completely deflate on one of the downhills rolling home... as anyone who has ridden road and had a front tyre deflate at speed will know that you are going down like a sack of s**t...

Good steady 37 miles.. 1 hr 46mins... 1555 calories ... max HR 188 ... Avg HR 161..

Part Two...

After this mornings puncture i took the opportunity to take my michelin race tyres off and fit my bontrager winter tyres..

Shorter road ride out... out to Papplewick and Linby which is relatively flat with a few drags... nice and quick roads through Hucknall then a set of 6 short climbs...

These short climbs are great for intervals.. all of similar length so climbs are flat out on the drops as hard as i can go then spin the downhill...

18 miles ... 54 minutes, although 3 minutes off my fastest time tonight was about effort on the climbs... 772 calories ...max HR 181 .. Avg HR 157...

a productive day...