Turbo Trainer Woes

Ach... I am not that awesome. a few days of shit planning, unable to ride due to School run duties I decided to have a second crack at another sufferfest. This time Fight Club.
So all set up, with a fan, bottle to hand ( see I am learning from last time.)
just after the cool bit with the shopping bike on the tow path and a funny noise starts. Which gets progressivley worse as I get stuck into the first long interval..
I have to stop to check.
My tyre pressue seems a bit low, and I give myself a wee burn when I accidently touched the mini roller.. It seems that heat build up has softened the plastic housing allowing the axle and flywheel disk to warp/move and touch the magnets, also the 'cooling fan arrangement had come incontact with the end of the housing and had done a good job of chafing a thick burr of plastic to clog up the vents, making the heat build up even worse.
Now its not great stripping down your Turbo trainer mid session, but what was I to do?
Once it had cooled enough to handle, I dismantled the shitty thing . Ignoring the oil that was radiating from the bearings, I sanded the tiny fan arrangement to look less furry, and cut out the burrs clogging the vents.
 The magnets were sanded flat and the warped metal 'friction disk' was flattened, stripped, the glazing cleaned off ( deep scores ignored) and reassembled with a  tiny pad to counteract the warp. The whole lot was re built I quickly swapped the bike to my old Roller Race training rig and without so much as a check I jumped back on to catch the last 25 minutes of  Fight club ( it was too late to restart ) a bit of noise, but not as catastrophic as before the rebuild.
Maybe its time for a new Turbo trainer ?

Malted Recovery Beverage consumption

En route to a Roller Racing gig in Brighton..

and even though its 30 miles out of the way, far to rude not to pick up some recover drink from DarkStar Breweries on the way through

Malted Recovery Beverage

I look forward to  few hard intervals sessions  that can be rewarded as such :

See also : http://www.velominati.com/cogals/

Racing Wessex CX Rnd 2 Oxonian CC Oxford

Been waiting a  long time, but finally cross season is here.
Family duties scuppered the Newbury round, but I was itching to go for round 2 Oxford.
Even though my form has been a bit dubious the last few weeks, I just wanted to get stuck in and have a good crack at it. excellent new Darkstar breweries kit to wear as well :-)

Despite the heavy rain for most of the week, the course was very dry. one boggy patch and a few dampish turns.
What a superb course. a decent straight, boggy bit> short sharp bank> a few switch backs in a playing field An awful off camber chain groaning climb. Sweep around a field> followed by an off-camber drop> along a bit to a dismount and a steep run up. 5 meters for another drop, followed by another run up.. Around the field and into some single track. Around the perimeter of a big windy field, back into the woods, right hander, fast drop off  into a corner, then onto the lower field for a few more sweeping corners to start the second lap again. Wow.. I loved it..

 Wessex CX Rnd 2 Oxonian

Getting the holeshot at Newbury had given me confidence in my starts so I sort of edged a bit forward  and looked around me , sizing up machinery and riders.
With my heart pounding, " I will start you within 30 seconds" .... "GO!!"
no fluffed clips as we all hammered off. Someone sort of dabbed a foot on that first steep bank and everything slowed . I managed to get around and with my heart rate already tettering near max, led a small grouop across the field into the woods.
of the whole circuit the woodland section was the only respite as I tracked around the logs or later on backmarkers.
As things stratified, and the localised battles commenced, I was chasing down a ReadingRC and a Beeline rider;  whilst being hunted down by a Team MK rider.
Crispin Doyle eventually lapped me, and I watched incredulously as he simply rode up the steep bank.
I was expecting teh bell, but was greeted by the Chequered flag instead. This left me a bit deflated as I was ready for one final shit or bust finish dead or die in the process. I didnt feel too bad at all, and was kind of twitching for a bit more to be honest.
Stuff I learnt this race:
What went well:

• My start was not too bad.
• Run ups were pretty good, as were remounts. ( all the drills undoubtably helped.)

Not so good.

• Wet cornering on grass is still completely rubbish.
• At 26 minutes I went through a rough patch. looking back this was the same for the Summer Series.
• I forgot a protein shake for recovery.
• Dont lose your free cup of tea voucher.

Other tidbits I learnt

• Bring safety pins. ( the old ones were rusted and were pulling wee holes in my new jersey)
• Wear your shorts ready to go. getting changed with my tackle waving around teh cold wet car park, left me cold before even starting. and its not even cold yet. 
• Sprint a bit before remounting.. overtaking the slower remounting riders.

August Stats

Hmm, August was alright..
Started off on holiday running. then finishing with one of the hardest runs that I have done for a fair few years..There was a dip when I struggled with a ' too much running knee' (over cooked it)  when we got home..With a bit of a dead spot for the last week, I think I may be overdoing it a little bit..

Anyhow:
Miles: 290
Hours: 21

WTF Strava and Garmin woes....

Lunchtime ride: a simple couple of loops around the woods; yet when it come to upload time I seem to have swiped a cheeky KOM off Chris on one segement.. Something is very wrong, as he was in front of me all the way up.. not sure what happened there:
Take a look at this:

On the left is my Garmin track ( Edge 500 with wheel sensor). the middle is my android ( which is the track that I uploaded to Strava) and on the right is Chris' gpx.

The thing is that I really enjoy riding very hard, and Strava is brilliant fun, addictive and OCD for someone like me. But if all my tracking is a load of bollocks it devalues the amount of effort expended getting the covetted KOMs up until now and will every KOM from now on be looked down on as suspect?

Take a look at that Garmin track.. Anyone care to comment!!