Le Grand Tour

Well, not quite the grand tour, but the tour of wessex has come and gone. I used this event last year to test my fitness and put some icing on my proverbial fitness cake. Having done all 3 days last time around and ending up bed ridden for 5 weeks, I decided to opt for the 2 day version this time around.

Having got down early evening and set up camp with a few fellow serpies, it was off to bed for a rather unsettled night. What is it about camping that is so exciting and you can't sleep for the whole night unless you are drunk!? Anyway, I awoke to rather grey and windy weather. On with the bike gear and off we go. By the time we got to the start line, the sun had come out and it looked for all intensive purposes as if it was going to be a rather nice day. This it was, and I flew around. That was until the nasty headwind in the last 20km or so, but never the less I got home and felt great.

Day 2 was a different kettle of fish however. Wrapping up in all my winter gear, I was equipped for whatever the weather could throw at me. Heck, I could probably have quite safely gone up everest with all the warm weather stuff I had on. About an hour into the ride, the sun decided to come out, and well, that rather did for me. I just couldn't drink enough and ended up feeling terrible to say the least. The last 20 miles home was a real suffer-fest, and the bike saddle was like an implement of torture! Still, job done, and off home for an early night.

Spent the monday doing a 2h30 run to really finish my legs off, and it seems to have worked. I am currently flopped in a chair with that rather nasty but pleasant feeling of all that lactic acid washing around my legs. Think today will have to be a rest day, but hoping to be back out tomorrow. 3.5 weeks to the IM Germany taper now, just got to keep on pushing to the end. I am to be honest mentally and physically exhausted. I don't think that there is much more I could have done this year on my quest for the illusive sub 10 finish. We'll see what happens.

For those who are interested, a link to my tour of wessex data is here.

Mike