Phil, where you at?

A brief text volley between myself and Mr P Sheehan on Saturday night had us down for 8.30am meet at the R.P. Er...well despite our good intentions it was a plan that didn't quite materialise: the Sunday morning Match of the day re run, some last minute kit changing, back tyre pumping, left glove searching etc - you choose they all featured on the 'sorry I'm late' excuse list. Shit! now where did that hour go? Anyways by the time I hit Central London number 1 cycle-training spot the little hand was almost on number ten.

Soon enough I’d hitched a ride on the back of a brisk moving two man train. Ever the talkative one I asked if ‘we’ were taking turns and was met with a cheery smile by the rider at front. There was a bit of confusion re elbow flicking and what side to peel off on but before you could say "small ring only please!" we were up from 18/19mph to a slightly more exciting 23mph on the flattish sections. There’s always peeps up for a threshold party at Regents Park on a Sunday morning and we were soon joined by three other riders. After a couple of laps there was still no sign of Phil. From no where though Jason Pidd appeared and three people were immediately blown out the back just after he took a turn. 53/17...YEAH baby!! Not one for LSD heads in February I guess ;-)

After nearly an hour Jason finally caught sight of Phil up ahead and pressed hard on the pedals. I was caught out by his jump but skittled around a couple of riders to get his wheel. The man we’d been looking for was his usual blingy self - resplendent in Finchley RT gear and of course matching red Beanie hat. The pace dropped to around 17mph for half a lap and three way discussion ensued where we managed to 'power-point' - kids, bikes, breakaways, sprinting, partners, turbo trainers and cocky Elite & 1st cats riders.

Now if you hangout on the right 'cycling forums you get a feel for what power output 200-300 watts feels like. I’ve never had a power meter but I said to Phil I bet I can guess what power output you're riding at now. 'Go ahead' he said, I guessed 230watts and I was spot on. Cool! My ninety minutes were officially up a few attacks later so I left Phil, J, Chris (Mosquito Bikes) and some others to keep riding.

Following the disappointment of Arsenal’s draw with Spurs I needed to vent. Stuck indoors with fresh legs it meant a late afternoon session with Kylie (Kurt Kinetic trainer). The question was which type of session? Well a 2 x 20 of course! Steph understood that I needed to be alone with Kylie and went to do some laps around Regents (apparently sat on some blokes wheel the whole time, outrageous :-0) while I got down to the dirty business of riding fast and going absolutely no where. I haven’t worn a heart rate monitor for a good few months, cheers Steph) but the stats were quite encouraging after just three weeks of training. Average heart rate for the session 161bpm. That’s 87% of my max – not bad!