Weekend off for good behaviour
They say that rest is as important to good performance as putting in the "hard yards" or whatever you fancy calling it. If you train regularly then sometimes I think it's good to reward yourself with a bit of time off.
So I didn't get on the bike this weekend, nor did I do any bike maintenance or cleaning. Instead, on Saturday, I went for a long walk around the shops of Chiswick to pick up my new contact lenses, try some sunglasses and have an ice cream. A case of having the fish when you usually have the steak. Then on Sunday I went and did some music stuff with my mate Adam.
Why am I telling you this? Because I didn't miss the bike routine that much and now I'm itching to get back on and go - tomorrow is second race of the Hillingdon Tuesday night series and I'm feeling fresh and up for it. I've got my series number (46) and I'm going to try and do as many as I can as part of my season of racing and training for the sportives.
Unfortunately my shift patterns look likely to limit how many I can do but I'm going to be seeing who I can persuade to swap shifts with me so I can go every week. Last week was another DNF and another part of the learning curve - stop panicking and hanging out in the wind was the lesson.
But I'm not going to forego my customary optimism that I could still win this week's race. Yeah, I know, perhaps I should try and finish one first.
