velvet trail

nice easy run round the velvet trail with mad dog tess.the sand has now become firm after all the rain of late and offers an ideal surface to train on. i have a great loop round here which i sometimes use as a long tempo effort . each lap takes about 10 mins and inc 4 big sandhills and many smaller ones. fantastic training for my favorite hilly races later in the year.
i have always liked running on hills and when i first got into cycle racing we use to go on the club run out over the trough of bowland and into yorkshire. i found my self staying with the leading group on the long climbs and it felt fantastic to be hanging on to the likes of bill bradley ex milk race winner,behind riders were dropping back,from a group of 20 we were down to just 4.as we crested the hill i felt like a tour de france hero !
sadly i made the mistake of getting into heavy weight training thinking more power would make me even better,i went from 10 1/2 stone up to over 12. i had the body of a track sprinter but i could no longer climb my beloved climbs at a fast rate.i was doomed to being a time trialist for the rest of my cycling career. i went on to win the odd club time trial and have p.b.s of 22.18 for ten miles and 57 mins on a sporting course for 25 miles.
now i just do core training with light dumb bells and have got my weight down to just over 11 stone.
= 40 mins