Stan Ogden

Out with the Early-Birds this morning - 5 out - a good turnout.

We did the Langbar climb followed by a ride out to Cavendish and back. It's quite tough doing the big climb first thing, as there is no chance to get warmed up. Still, I felt really good on the climb, even leaving Bob a little behind. I hadn't actually clipped in one of my cleats to the pedal as I was having problems with a torn overshoe!

However, we all rode well, as we were back home within an hour. I then had some time to kill before my train so I went up with El Cid and then carried on the steep climb to the top of the tarmac near Silver Wells. I amazingly found it quite easy, getting nowhere near my lactate threshold as I normally do on that very steep climb.

I bombed down without a stop to admire the view, and then did another loop round Wells Rd and Queens Rd again, at pace, and without getting out of breath.

So after having quite a tough week following Saturday's epic ride, I was amazed to see me riding so well.


I was trying to figure out if I'd done something differently in preparation, and was reminded of an old (from the 70s) episode of Coronation Street. Stan Ogden, a classic anti-hero of British Soap has a dream in which he sees a horse winning a race. The next day the horse wins, but he doesn't back it. The rest of the episode shows how his missus, Hilda, and best mate Eddie Yates try to re-create the conditions of the day before hoping he will have a similar dream and forecast another winner. He has to do the same things in the same order, the same food and so on.

So, as to me re-creating my form from this morning, it is interesting that I ate quite differently last night and this morning from I normally do. For reference, and for my own fading memory, I had:
- tea of filled pasta with pesto and a tomato salad at about 7pm
- chopped banana with single cream (slightly on the turn)
- at about 10pm I had the munchies and had 3 weetabix with full-fat milk
- this morning, there was no bread for my normal toast, so I had a giant bowl of Weetos with milk, and two cups of coffee

Is this a winning formula? I will try again one day, but not for tomorrow.

I don't think Stan ever had the dream again, or at least they couldn't interpret the dream he was having, and kept picking the wrong horse. So for me, was it the banana, the weetabix or the weetos which did the trick?