Polka Dot Challenge Outcome

Hi

Will post more details probably tomorrow but am home safe and sound after the event.

So, how did it go? In a way it went well, good time (official finish time 6.11 but actual time slightly lower due to the manual method of timing used at the event) and got round safe and sound, probably finished in the top 10% but that remains to be seen when the results are posted in the next little while. Oh yes, managed to get up Winnats Pass somehow and also managed to hit over 80kph during the descent from Axe Edge, exciting!

Thanks are due to the mate I rode with, Dave Youlton, who went very strongly on the day and did a great deal of sterling work, left to my own devices today my finishing time would certainly have been a different story! The weather, as I expected, did not match the fair forecast and it was raining very heavily for much of the event which made for a miserable ride for the participants. It was also cold, I didn't expect to be able to see my exhaled breath on the first day of June but that was the way it was.

On the fitness/form from I was disappointed in a way and yet not at all surprised. I have been deliberately working hard over the last months and started the event having done a mini-taper without really resting up for the event and reducing my training. Unfortunately there was considerable residual fatigue in my legs and generally and I was unable to generate the power I know I am normally capable of because of this. The picture was a classical one really, legs feeling leaden and HR not rising to it's usual levels when on climbs, a generally tired and unrecovered picture.

Anyway, all that's OK. this was not a high priority event for me, I wanted to see how I was going and it served it's purpose well. I need now to change what I'm doing, I am pretty sure at the moment I am working with too high a CTL and I need to lose some of that and put in place a complete recovery plan which I shall do, this should allow me to reap the benefits of the work I have put in so far. The bottom line is that I know (from how I've felt when properly recovered) that I am fundamentally fitter then today's ride reflects and I need to switch things around to bring on a peak of form if I can and I think I know how to do this over the next month. Better to have a day like today now than when the Galibier and it's friends have to be dealt with!

Well done to all who took part, why did I see so many riders riding in the opposite direction to me when the really heavy rain set in? ;-) Probably a wise move!

Onward and upwards!