Cleveland Steelman

I came last. By, oh, about two or three minutes. And behind Fat Bloke. Fat Bloke, who was doing breast stroke, with his goggles perched on top of his head, and never once even putting his face in the water. NOT that I’ve anything against Fat Bloke (or, indeed any fat blokes reading or...
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Can you tell how edgy I am about tomorrow’s race? The clue’s in how much I’ve been going on about it. Well this is probably the last post where I’ll be talking about it in the future tense, so the end is in sight! Having spent the day pacing up and down, packing & re-packing...
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In last weekend’s trial ride around the Steelman’s bike course, my cyclecomputer was acting up a little. It’s been doing this intermittently since I went for that ride in France and almost drowned in the rain - although it’s waterproof, I don’t think they reckoned on it ever getting that wet! Basically what seems...
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This caught my eye on Liz Fedofsky’s blog this evening: …. And then the frozen peas were passed around. One thing I keep learning from other athletes is how much time the care of the body takes. Sometimes I think I’m the only one that spends half her day with a ball crammed into her...
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I’ve slowly become addicted to getting a daily dose of the comic strip, Yehuda Moon and The Kickstand Cyclery. It’s the story of two guys running a bike shop - each one of them representing opposite sides of cycledom. Joe, who seems to wear Lycra & ride head-down with a helmet perched on his...
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In preparation for this weekend’s fun, I got myself a new hydration / fuel belt - an Asics Barrios Bottle Belt. In line with my principal that I never try anything out for the first time on Race Day, I took this out for a trial on my run with Shana on Tuesday morning -...
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On Saturday morning, I got up early (OK - early-ish), put the bike in the back of the car and drove down to Catterick to have a look around the Cleveland Steelman’s bike course. I’d programmed it into the satnav on my phone as an ‘itinerary’, with various waypoints setup to guide me round....
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With only just over a week to go ’till race day, I’m starting to feel the pressure. Nothing I can’t handle - what happens next Saturday is now largely decided by the training I’ve done up to now. As the man said, Alea iacta est But it’s still kinda irritating - every time I think about...
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Nothing much else to say about this ‘un - its the start of my taper for real. Workout: Type: Run Date: 06/26/2008 Total Time: 00:40:00.00 Distance: 4 miles Average Pace: 10:00/mile
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After the bike ride, I could tell that all was not well with my legs - I had some slight pain in both my vastus medialis muscles, that I’ve come to recognise from longer rides / pool session as a symptom of electrolyte problems prior to actual cramping. After putting the bike away, a quick...
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