A quick phone call on friday afternoon confirmed the worst- " Hello Ian, are you out on the CR?" enquires the Shadow, Yep , provided its not raining, ruins me locks- dontcha know.
Well how about doing some interval sessions, then recovering, then going again- no prob I says.
Spent all night running round with a large stick doing raindance type thingys.
A restless night tossing and the day dawned grey, gloomy and damp- just like montys pants ( I know he doesn't read the forum and I have had a pint of Belgiums finest!)
We had just the right amount of riders, 8 and a what a fine group they were as well, Shadow, Connor, Nigel( capt. cadence)Big Jon H, Brian R, Phil with mudguards( ) Paul B and little old moi.
With this size of group its quite easy to communicate and the Shadow called out the various disciplines we were supposed to carry out. Mucho out of the saddle stuff ensued as we duly sprinted for hill crests and sometimes it seemed just for the fun of it.
When the shout came break-a -ways were encouraged and much effort was put thru the pedals and in my case some good high HR were achieved, reminiscent of my lighter, thinner days .
Jon "haystacks" H was a vision in white! , he is prob the smoothest rider in ACC displaying power and superb pedalling technique as he shot past my vain attempts at glory.
Riding like this is great fun as we did do recovery bits along the way- I know Phil enjoyed the workout- you could tell by the grin at the cafe.
The sprint was fierecly(sp) contested( cripes and blimey I sound like STU, only 30 yrs older-a ft taller and (censored) heavier) but Brian took it from the shadow with me about a bike behind ( well i had just done a mammoth turn at 450w for 6 mins@LT@190bpm)
A black coffee for me please Renata- no sugar- and a...FCEK off piece of walnut sponge please.
The ride home was great, just after the road works I heard a shout from the shadow "sprint" -into auto mode I creaked outa the saddle and gave it some- Cadence king nigel came along and we gave it some- for some reason I found my legs working well (?) and shot off the front, ahh what the hell interval out- interval home. Head down @rse out giving it max. I managed to stay out all the way home- the others probably gave up when they saw my awesome display of controlled power and aggression on the bike.
I had a great day and many thanks to the Shadow for suggesting a different approach to the CR.
Note to self
Write up reports when you are sober.