This weekend was the Anfield 100, the first target of my year. My goal: get under 4:14:33, to improve my qualifying time for the ECCA 100 in 3 weeks. Then I got a cold and my Achilles tendons started playing up. Feeling demotivated, I didn't force myself to bed in the nights before and did my usual night owl tricks instead. The result of all this?
The bad: I failed. I got 4:21:47, which put me at 31st [EDIT: 29th on the revised results] when I wanted to be top 20, and leaves me very tentative for the ECCA*. I'd realistically hoped for 4:10 but never consistently got power or heart rate to where I wanted them. I did manage to do fairly well to about 85 miles, then blew and loads of people came past me.
The good: When I did the Anfield last year I quit at 50 miles, completely blown. 2016 was awful for me so this is the biggest sign so far that I'm doing better than I was. I beat Jilko by four minutes (though she described her own ride as 'shite') and was about where Jasmijn would have been had she not gone off-route; I was just ahead of them both in the 2015 national 12, so hopefully I'm getting back to where I was.
The uglyother: Adam Duggleby won with 3:31. I now know how much slower I am over 100 miles than a paralympic gold medallist: 50 minutes! The women's event was won by Becky Lewis in 4:12 - her other results are fairly similar to mine, [EDIT Not including her second place at the national hillclimb!] suggesting I had the mediocre ride I suspected. Oh well.
*What is it with the ECCA?! In 2013 I got in with 4:46 whereas last year it closed on 4:09. I guess this is after the organiser rejigged the course to remove the laney sections and make it a lot faster? Anyway, if i don't get in, other life dates mean that I'll struggle to do a reasonably fast event for this year's BBAR: I might have to chance my luck on the BDCA at the end of August, with backups of travelling to either the Keswick or South Wales courses if I don't get in. I don't really want to do either of those, so fingers crossed.