My time for the 2.6 mile course is now down to 12mins 20 seconds, which is a good improvement from about 13 mins. I'm riding more efficiently and really suffering on the ascent / recovering on the descent. The course is kind of split in to an uphill / downhill circuit. The ground was frozen today which probably helped a bit, plus I was chased by a dog which scared me into descending faster than I would usually dare!
I've noticed that training alone is really quite miserable - it's painful, freezing cold and there isn't much of a reward for all the effort - at least on the road there is speed. There's no satisfying pump or huge weight to look at like there is in the gym either. Hopefully race day will be different and other riders will spur me / try to kill me, which might take my mind off the searing lung/testicle pain for the hour.
Also I've not been training legs in the gym (which I miss greatly) as I do interval or actual bike work almost every other day. My legs feel weaker and worst of all I don't dump many calories in the gym - as a result (it's nearly Xmas too), I'm actually fatter than when I started!!