The weekend started early with a 9:30am open water swim at Watermead Country Park near Loughborough. Luckily, I stayed with a friend in Lutterworth overnight so the drive was easy. The water was surprisingly warm-in patches. I'm fourth from the left with my Swimsmooth cap on. The leech on my right ankle when I got out was a bit off putting...
Just time for a shower and coffee at the Hotel, then to the indoor track to be coached by Ian and Tanni Grey Thompson!! Awesome session, working on position in the race chair, gloves, pushing technique and flexibility. Increased my top speed out on the track straight away with a better pushing technique. I'm looking forward to improving with time.
Kevin Currel gave a Nutrition seminar centred around competing in Beijing and then dinner rounded off Saturday.
The good weather lasted until mid morning on Sunday. We set off-tandems, recumbents and bikes-to a marked four mile route for race pace practice. After a quick recce of the course, which included a horrible short steep hill, but a fast downhill section, we were timed over two separate laps. It was a bit like the loneliness of the long distance runner for me as everyone sped away on the first lap. Getting in the right gear for the hill without dropping my cadence was difficult but I have now moved the gear shifter so I can continue to pedal. My coach, Steve Casson, joined me on the second lap for a 'technical' ride. I could just see his knees in my rear view mirror. It was fortunate that he stayed with me as I tipped the bike over cornering too fast, just before the finish. A horrible metallic scraping noise on the tarmac resulted in a shredded footrest, some missing paint, a scraped hand crank and rear tyre. Not a scratch on me.
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