Old hunting ground.

I returned to Richmond Park yesterday, my old hunting ground. And rather dissappointingly I felt slow. Now I wasn't actually going for a 3-lap record but doing sprint intervals, but between intervals the speed just didn't seem anywhere the same as last year say.
May be it is because of the max efforts, may be it was windy, may be it's the new surface, who knows but it has left me deflated. Sure I over took people and no one passed me, but it's hard to judge how hard others are trying.
The turbo sessions the last couple of days have been hard work too. I've found it really hard to get my heart rate up, my legs suffering long before I've hit the desired zone. And now I've got a bit of cold/flu, it isn't on my chest so I'm planning to do the scheduled 3hr ride tonight anyway, even though I'm at a mate's birthday this afternoon.