On Saturday I went to the Manchester Wheelers’ 125th anniversary dinner and prize presentation. I was there to collect club standard certificates for 2nd class on 10 miles for time of 24:18, 2nd class on 25 miles for time of 1:02:52 and 3rd class on 50 miles for time of 2:10:00. I took the prize certificates to the office and will post pictures tomorrow.
P.S. I know the times are rubbish, but I never ventured outside the “J” courses. I hear that J2/9 and J4/16 are one of the slowest courses.

The weather turned rather cold in Manchester. And by cold I mean freezing cold by UK standards, -1 °C. Still, the car had its weekly outing to Tesco on Sunday and probably wouldn’t start anyway, so I was on my bike.

By the time I got to the office, I had lost feeling in my ears and fingers. Breaking and changing gears became more and more difficult. I guess I’m going to have to buy thicker gloves and something for the ears.

I’m starting to think about a new set of wheels for the next season. I will definitely need new wheelset for my time trial bike. So, the new wheels will take tubs rather than clinchers; the front wheel will have 108mm aero rims and the back wheel will be solid and will have Ant+ power meter. I’m thinking about Zipp 1080 front wheel and Zipp 900 disc back wheel.

I’d better start saving now, because these beauties don’t come cheap, but they should improve my times by a few more minutes! You never know, I might win another £50.

The racing season is over, the nights are drawing in and it isn’t raining as much as it did in the summer. It’s time to do a lot of base training. This means hundreds and thousands of kilometres over the next few months. The aim of the base training is to become much more efficient at fat metabolism; in other words, to be able to give as much power as possible using fat as the energy source. I will be doing low-intensity rides and measuring how much my power output increases.
The ultimate aim of this is to be able to use as much fat as possible during a race. At any moment, I have enough energy in fat for at least 20,000 km of easy riding. During a race to sustain the needed power output, the body uses sugar as main type of energy source. The problem is that even if I fully load my glucose stores (liver and muscles), it will only last for about 30 km. So, if I become more efficient at using fat, I will be able to give full power at 40 km time trial.

I’ve completed the Spud Riley. I think pain and suffering best describes the ride. At times, it felt as if the sole reason for the ride is to cause misery to the riders.
It wasn’t just the climbs, it was the rain, wind and mist. Oh yes, and mud. But we persisted and raised over £100,000 for Christie appeal — a cancer charity in the North West.

It is that time of the year again: time to do an epic race ride, the Spud Riley. And so I shall be setting off at 8 o’clock on Sunday morning on a 167 km ride with 3000 m of climbs. Luckily, there will be two feed stops, but I’ve stocked up on energy gels (TORQ forest fruits is the best tasting one) to keep me going in between the stops. I will post the ride report on Monday morning!

For more interested readers, here’s the route: