So Sunday came around and after a quick swim on Saturday, that was meaning I wasn't in the pool for long, not that I was swimming quick, we all know that's never gonna happen, I wanted to swim longer but with 4 people to a lane and one bloke doing tumble-turns its hard to make any progress.
Got up at stupid o'clock, breakfast, dis-assemble the bikes load them into the car, get Jordy up, felt bad getting him up so early (he doesn't do mornings), dropped him round at my mum & dads, back home to pick up Jo.
Arrived at start, loads of cars already there, registered and started to re-assemble the bikes.
Muffin-Top came came over and introduced herself, we would be riding some of the way with MT, meet up with Cona who was also making an appearance but we wouldn't be riding with him, he is far to fast for us to even think about that, think his average on the day was something around 23mph, which I can only dream about.
Then saw ironHolgs (top bloke and a best selling author) with his mate Andy H. We managed to set off round about 8:15 but took a while to get into it.
We found ourselves in a nice little group of me, Mrs SA, Muffin-Top, ironHolgs and Andy H which gave me a chance to catch up with Holgs and chat about his training for Ironman Lanza and how he gets only 5 weeks rest between Lanza and Outlaw.
We made it to 35 miles at which point there is a feed station, so stop, refresh the bottles and take on more food, then stopped quarter of mile up the road for a <cough> erm, comfort break. I think that it was this stop and start again when Jo started to find the going getting harder and she seemed to be labouring up the hills, which is no surprise as the amount of training she has missed with her bad back, this is where Muffin-Top pulled away and we didn't see her again for the rest of the day, apart the note she left on our windscreen when we got back. Through Macclesfield and I asked if Jo wanted to bail and go home as we had done over 50 miles " No way" was the sharp reply, well done Mrs.
Into Bollington and I knew this is where the climbing was going to kick in and I wasn't wrong, a couple of kickers through Bollington then a little pig of hill on the way out, through to Pott Shigley when we started a 2 and a half mile climb which just seemed to keep going and keep getting steeper, but I dug in and eventually got to the sumit, some more little kickers and then onto the main A6 towards Stockport. The event organisers are obviously evil as we then turned off the main road and back towards Pott Shigley for more hills, till eventually we turned back towards Poynton and the finish, we rolled in with a time of 6:13 which given a few stops and Jo's lack of training, is I think a damn fine performance.
Dis-assemble the bikes again and load into the car, grab food at the end, pie, food of the gods, set of home.
Quick change, pickup Jordy get to swimming pool, somehow we had agreed to take part in the local swimathon for the Seals, who are a swimming club that Jordy goes to on a Friday night. We didn't expect to be able to do much swimming after the days biking but we manged between the whole team to get 106 lengths, which is brilliant as the previous best was 54.
Then off to the pub for tea and you tell we had all had a long day as we where almost falling asleep while eating.
Yesterday (Thursday) saw the first commute to work on the bike.
Have a 20 mile run planned on Sunday as the continuing training for Manchester Marathon really takes hold.
Really please with where my training is at the moment, if I can keep this up and remain injury free, I am hoping for a great year.
Onwards and upwards as always
SA
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