The Clean9 program left me considerably thinner ( 40mm off each thigh - 35mm off chest ) and 9 lbs lighter. You would be forgiven for thinking that lack of food would leave you weak, but once past the 4-5 day mark its quite the opposite. You get lots of nutrients and proteins from the aloe products - all you need! You actually feel powerful.... not energetic or hyper in a Red Bull kind of way.... but powerful. On days 5 and 6 both myself and Lee my business partner ( who was also doing the program at the same time) set new personal bests out riding1
I was doing a few 10 mile rides.... not flat out as such but just trying to gradually increase pace. My 10 mile time fell to 46 minutes and in the middle of the month I did a full loop of Rutland Water ( 22 miles ) in 1 hour 53 mins which as around 25 minutes quicker than the first time I did it at the end of summer 2010. On the 19th I dropped my 10 miles time again to 44 minutes dead.
I was gearing my training towards the last weekend of the month and Round 3 of the Thetford Winter Series. The weather for this one was flipping cold! We started off in temperatures of minus 3 degrees but once underway it soon warmed up! This being my third race I was starting to feel a little more at home. we were starting and finishing at the same place as Round 1 - albeit with a different route in between! The last few hundred yards are a bit of a drag up a long hill after doing part of an uphill section called rather fittingly the 'plum buster' !
This was my first race clipped into the pedals.... which resulted in two crashes in the second lap. One was when I caught a tree stump which flicked me up, and the second was when the guy in front of me ran out of steam on an uphill section and I had no chance to unclip so fell on top of him still attached to the bike!
Being clipped into the pedals definitely helps overall with pedalling power and efficiency, but does mean that you can't just dab a foot down or even jump off if you're in trouble!
Theres a great video made by one of the teams competing which gives a good idea of what its all about.
Unfortunately with 500 riders competing I wasn't caught on camera! But its been really well put together and filmed. I really enjoyed the race and actually felt pretty strong at the end and in the last 500 yards gritted my teeth and passed 3 riders , one from my own class and the other two from the 2 hour race.
I was 12th in my class from 39 starters, so was quite pleased with that!
The total logged mileage for the month was 163, so with un tracked miles the monthly total would again have been probably just under 200 miles
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