Provisional Nat 12 results
Congratulations Teethgrinder on 22nd place with 241.2 miles!
Looked like a tough day so over evens is a good day out. Saw Jonah on the start list but can't see him on there - DNS/DNF ?
Cheers
(I actually came 23rd, provisionally
)
I was hoping to just beat my PB of 244, which I did in 1995, before I started using tri bars, but that'll do. It's a 7 mile improvement on what I think I did on the Newbury 12 hour 2 weeks ago. Which event was slowest is debatable. Newbury was pretty windy and the road surface was grim and it rained a bit. I thought the National was better but my head was never really in it. I think that was more down to the stress of just getting to the start with replacement bus services, race HQ being 9 miles from the start and having to plan everything around that. I reckon with better planning I'd have just about got my PB by a tiny bit. But my purpose for riding is for training and I think that I've improved since the Newbury 12. Hoppo and his fiance were about 9 miles down, where I was 7 miles up. I felt a great deal less knackered at the finish too, which is just as well because I had another 20 miles to do to get back to the hotel. I didn't find the weather especially bad on either event, but I guess that last year probably has had an effect on me. It has lowered my MHR by about 10BPM, possibly a bit more. According to Hoppo, temperature on the Newbury got down to 15C and it got down to 11C on the National.
I also won the drug test lottery and was tested for doping. I told them there's no need to test me, I'm definitely a dope.
Hoppo and his fiance both reckon that this was tougher and they were both down on their Newbury 12hr distances. I think he could be right, but bear in mind that Hoppo has ridden a 24 hour in between. I rode my first (hardriders) 100 in between. I blew up in the last 20 miles and got very light headed at the end, which I actually quite enjoyed, so I finished at the back of the field. But, I learned a bit from that and I think it helped me on the National 12 hour.
Reassuring to be not far behind Lynn Biddulph. We're usually more or less similar on the Mersey 24. Lynn is usually faster than me for the first 12 hours and then it's a matter of how well our nights go as to which one of us does the most miles. I think it's very reassuring that I'm very close to her after only about 6-7 weeks of training. I'm not sure I'll be at my best for the 24 hour, but it's a good sign that I won't do a terrible ride and it's all part of training for another go at the Year Record. What I'm doing now is the base training, which is to be finished off with a Month Record attempt. Then if all goes well, the high intensity training to get ready for another go at The Year.
Lactate threshold test tomorrow to see how much (or if) I have improved since I started training with Emily Cox.
