Wind

This weekend I was supposed to be doing the Coast to Coast. But unfortunately my training buddy had to go to Luxembourg for the week. So Tall Robbie and I did the Great North Bike Ride instead. I was really impressed that he was allowed out to play for this, as it was...
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I’m not talking about the kind of bonking that was discussed between bridesmaids under a table in Four Weddings & a Funeral (”Well, it’s kinda like table tennis, only with slightly smaller balls.”) No. I mean the sort that you generally only get when you do some serious endurance sport stuff, and just run out...
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So for my Important Presentation this morning, I had to go in looking like I meant business - suit, tie, shiny shoes. You know the drill. It was also kinda important to ride there, as I knew this was the sort of thing that would go down well with the audience. This wasn’t a...
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OK, so I’m now six weeks out from my first half Iron-man race. It’s time to get all those little doubts and niggles about things like bike setup sorted out. My big worry is what handlebar setup to go for on this 58-mile, relatively flat course, and I hope YOU can give me some...
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I did a ride this morning to test the new TT-style setup on my road bike. For the race season, I’ve replaced the handlebars with a Profile Airwing and mounted a pair of Profile T2+ aerobars on these. I’ve replaced the integrated Tiagra shifters & brake levers with Crane Creek brakes, and Shimano Dura...
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The weather forecast was right for today - frequent snow, sleet & hail showers, with agood strong northerly wind to drive it all in you face. The trouble was that the plan had an 80 minute run session for me today. So I could Bunk off, claiming that the schedule had been put together when the...
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The weather forecast for tomorrow is for snow. We won’t get much here (the sea keeps us nice and ‘warm’, but that’s a strictly relative term), and although I don’t mind riding on snowy roads, you do have to take things carefully. So any training session would end up being more about spending time...
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The official results for the 2008 race are out. There were 1522 runners to cross the finish line, so probably a few more to cross the start line. That means you could probably take off a little from each of these times to get start line to finish line times My time...
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Tomorrow is the North Tyneside 10k - from North Shields to the Lighthouse. It’ll be the fourth year for this race, and I’ve done ‘em all so far. It’s a great event that goes right past my front door, so I get ‘home team’ advantage, with a huge crowd to cheer me on. And I...
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After this morning’s “run” I had to put in another effort this evening. Otherwise I’d have effectively bunked off ANOTHER session, and now that I’m a grown-up (I recently came of age - 38), I can’t just do that. As it says on my blog’s title now - no more excuses. The trouble is that...
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