It's my B I R T H D A Y ! ! !

Friday! And my birthday, which makes it a triply brilliant Friday.

I had a really good day today. I emerged, wrapped up in wonderfully insulating synthetics, into a cold and wet morning. Traffic was unusually busy as I pulled out onto the road – this always gives me a buzz. I love riding in traffic.

The ride to the station was nice and smooth with few stops and interruptions. Through the road was wet, it wasn’t raining and with the mudguards back on the bike my feet thankfully stayed dry too as I'd forgotten to put on my booties. I had to renew my season ticket, which was awful because the queue was longer than usual for that time of the morning – but the train was late so it worked out just perfectly.

On the train I met a colleague who works at Didcot Power Station and I’d been taking the train with for the past 6 months but had no idea that we worked for the same company in much the same area!

By the time the train arrived in Swindon the few minutes had been made up and I was on time. It was raining quite steadily now, so on with my booties. I love my booties, they are so warm and cosy! I find riding in the rain quite therapeutic - I'm not sure why, but I think it has something to do with watching the ridge of water on the tyre... Anyhow, I was also in an iPod mood, so it was Mark Knopfler’s NASCAR tribute (Speedway of Nazareth) that fittingly guided me on the last few km into work.

We were having a Coffee morning in aid of McMillan Cancer Research – it was a good laugh. And there is nothing like drinking coffee for a good cause! After that my morning exploded into a level of unprecedented mayhem that calmed down around 15:45.

And so now I’m writing this after a wonderful dinner prepared by my darling wife, Tasha; trout and sweet potato mash followed by my favourite - lemon meringue.

Anyhow, enough of my birthday – and back to the subject of this blog! Last week I went over to Cyclefit for a session to have my measurements worked out. I decided to cycle to Covent Garden rather than take the tube, and I’m so glad I did. It was truly mad! I love riding in London – it is like an extreme sport in itself! Anyhow, I managed to arrive at Cyclefit in one piece (if a little sweatier than I’d intended – sorry!).

It was a very useful session – apart from giving me all the numbers I needed to spec the bike I will imminently be building for myself – the technician solved some of my niggles and identified some of the issues I have that are limiting my performance (in short, I need to stretch!).

Afterward I cycled around like a madman. Met up with a friend near Victoria Station and then rode over to meet Tasha to have a quick bite by South Ken followed by an exhilarating ride back to Paddington through Hyde Park.

With all the dimensions I finally plucked up the nerve to order all the bits of my race bike. It was oddly stressful finally putting a stake in the ground regarding the spec, now I can’t wait to build it! I’ll post all the details and pics on here when I do it, suffice to say that I decided on Dedacciai’s EM2 over carbon, and the oily bits will be Ultegra. I have some of the bits already, the rest should be here next week.

Anyhow, the two Peronis have caught up with me, and I’m feeling pretty sleepy (sad, huh?) – ‘till next time!

Getting ready for next year

In this blog I plan to capture my thoughts, the ups and downs, the bumps and the triumphs in racing.

For 2008 I intend to compete in bicycle road racing; in particular Criterium racing. I'll be starting as a lowly Cat 4, so I need to pick up points to get into the high, more competitive categories. I plan take part in the Castle Combe series and the Hillingdon races.

My target for 2008 is to get myself up to Cat 2 - but given that I'll be starting at the bottom (Cat 4), and that I am pretty rusty, I'm looking forward to the journey.

I decided to do a few events this year to judge my form and formulate my ambitions. It has gone pretty well. After discovering my race bike's frame was broken the afternoon before the Woodcote Sportive event, and the past-midnight conversion of my commute bike into something resembling a race bike, I reached my goal of setting the fastest time for the event.

After that I had a good, if crazy race at Castle Combe - but I must admit to being a bit intimidated by the finishing sprint. It was a crazy rush with the E/1/2/3/4 categories all together - I must admit that I was intimidated and I bottled out. Lesson learnt. I've done it before, just need to get used to the idea again.

My second circuit racing outing was a disaster. Raced at Hillingdon and was running very well until our break somehow got mixed up in the E/1/2 race and in the confusion I thought I was disqualified. By the time I'd worked out what was going on, the bunch had passed and it was hopeless. Another lesson learnt but also a missed opportunity. But that was the point of racing at the tail end of this year, so mission accomplished.

So preparing for next year - tomorrow I'll be heading off to Cyclefit in Covent Garden for a professional fit session. Once this is done I can get on with ordering the bits for building my race bike.

For the winter, I've decided to take part in running cross country racing. I did a 5km race last week that I won at a good pace (a personal best for the distance) - which has given me a boost. The only problem is that I ran myself very hard and didn't take care of myself afterward, so now I have a nasty cold. Another lesson learnt!

Bye for now, I'll need to work out how to make this site look like I want it to!

Yours in speed!

D