Not a great day really. I'd set off in time to allow 45mins warmup, but with road closures, road works and winnebago problems I got 15mins. I even took my road shoes so I could get a good half hour in on the lanes to work on my gait. My left knee started within seconds of the gun going and I knew it was pain or pull out, I chose pain. The climb wasn't too bad because the recruitment in VMO balanced out the cramping in VL, but as soon as I hit the plateau it was like having tacks hammered into my kneecap.

My shortcuts at the top of the hill paid off handsomely and I dusted two people who were a long way in front of me at the trig, but I couldn't get into that flow state. All I could think about was my knee pain, and my head wasn't clear enough to descend properly; that said I caught the first lady and put enough time into her to stay in front. I got a bit ill tempered with a guy with a camera who'd chosen to crouch on the course rather than off it. This is a good example of the sort of negativity that poisons you when you try and race with an injury, it represents the gap between where you are and where you want to be and the stress of dealing with it.

Because I hadn't trained properly for over 3wks my lungs had filled with crap and had not been getting cleared regularly. I've spent the last 24h coughing relentlessly and my chest really hurts now. This race is now, in its new form, a total lungbuster with the loss of the tarn loop, which previously brought some respite and a totally different skillset into the mix. The start now goes over a bike rack so I started fast to get clear and paid for it a bit.

I'll be surprised if I make it to the Litton Xmas cracker, I'm going to have to see someone about my problems and the recovery might be months in the making.