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Finally closing the season

Yesterday was my last event of the 08/09 racing season! The Twickenham Club Hill Climb champs. I finished off with a win which I was really happy with, when taking into account the bad last few months ( knee problem). I beat National 24 hr time trial champion and ex-GB rower John Warnock, and Scot Jim Cusick into 2nd and 3rd place. The climb took place on my Crimp Hill, a whole 3 minutes from my house.
I was a little surprised to do almost the same time as last year. Looking back to 2008, I was training 15 hours a week almost all on the bike, so my form should have been good. This year I have been doing almost zero riding because my knee, and doing gym workouts 3 times a week, including one the day before. This suggests that I was over-training last year. This winter I am going to stick with my 3 gym sessions until February- then go down to 2 through march, and then 1 throughout the rest of the season. I am also going to make sure I keep my weight over 70kg, as being too light seems to penalize you if riding in Britain. I think I power meter may be a good investment too, to make sure I build up gradually.
I have finally come to the root of my knee problem! Sometimes physios complicate the problem far too much and I always do! The problem I was having was a tightness under my patella that would spread to my hip. It was a very tight left hip flexor that requires a massive amount of release work and stretching. Its a relief to finally know what it is!

As soon as this was diagnosed I got a call from Ian Whitehead, asking if I wanted to do the Gent Amateur Six! I was severely tempted, but used my better judgement. I had not got a partner (at least not one I knew), I had not trained on the bike properly for about a month, and I was recovering from a knee injury. Never the less, it was very tempting. Me and Pete D are going to aim for it next year, when he hasn't fractured his elbow.

I'm off for a team meeting in Edinburgh with Endura this week. I know which bikes we are riding, and its pretty exciting. Lots of Carbon

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