Its early season here too

Well, So far so good. Until Good Friday (yesterday). Usually we go to Herne Hill for the track meeting, but this year it was transferred to Manchester, which is a bit of a hop from here, especially since I've been working in Wales for the last 3 weeks and was not very interested in driving half way across the country yet again.
Instead I entered a 25 mile TT on Good Friday with a 50 on Easter Sunday and our own club 10 on the Monday. This was my second 25 of the year as I did another on the same course (well, nearly the same - same route, just different start and finish points) last week. In the recent past on these courses, which are fairly sporting, I have managed anything between 1hr 6min to 1 hr 10min and expected to do something simillar this time. I dug deep and did a 1:14 which was all very well considering I've allocated this year to getting fitness back and times down. Now to Good Friday..... After riding the hardest part of the course in reasonable style I started getting sharp pains down my left leg. Every time I pushed - nothing happened so at the halfway point I sat up and pootled home nice and slowly to record a rare DNF. When I rode slowly, the pain went but as soon as I got onto the tri-bars and gave it a bit of stick, same thing happened. Its now the eve of the 50 and Mrs. Kipper and self have just done a gentle 30 miles round some local villages, just to make sure they are still there. The legs feel fine after that, so I've dropped the saddle 3mm, changed the gears and tomorrow I'll be using my Carbon Cosmic on the back and a normal hard hat on my head, dropping the disc wheel and pointy hat. Both for comfort. We'll see how it goes. Or doesn't.
What I don't get about this is that since Majorca, we've been doing more miles than in recent years including, in my case, the Dorset Coast 200 again. This ride on 10th April, I did on my Flying Gate Tourer and although my overall time was the same as 2010, rode in better style - without walking hills - than last year. I think I'll always be a flat earther but the up bits hold less terror than they used to. But its still early in the season yet.

Photo's courtesy of Mike Street. Top - Mrs Kipper riding round the course, Bottom - A bit of a gurn.