With another weekend coming to an end this meant another training week finished and a race. This week I finished my two week power/speed block before resting up next week before cadence (more on that one later on). This week involved a roller session, hill reps, an hour of power (a long effort with sprints every two minutes) and a sprint session. Also Saturday was Trevor’s Birthday ride.
I picked up my completed race bike on Thursday and there is a picture on here for anyone who hasn’t seen it at races or on Facebook.
Friday: Rest day ended up with me having to take a trip to the doctors due to a lump on the back of my head. It turned out to be a lymph node. These are a tinny bean-shaped gland, located in many different areas of the body. The main locations are the neck, under the arms, and in the groin. The body has over 300 filtering selected white blood cells and foreign elements. These are indicators of when you are going to be ill I was told. The Doctor then went on to say that there is a possibility that I may be ill within the next 5 days. With the first of the national series coming up next weekend you can understand my frustration. I continued to do everything in my power over the weekend to keep well by taking in more protein than normal, keeping extra warm and getting lots of rest and sleep.
Saturday was Trevor’s birthday ride as I mentioned above which was around the Bolney area and surrounding districts. Representing the team on this ride was myself, Jack Oliver-Blaney, Brock and some bloke called Drew. The route was about 50 miles and was a good ride although we didn’t intend for it to be as hard as it was. It was a good ride and also was followed by some brilliant cake! Also it was good to see some people who I haven’t seen from camp that were there riding.
Saturday Night was spent at the Duncumb-Rogers house. After a good dinner we watched Take me out. I didn’t understand what was going on but Brock being easily amused was having a brilliant time! We managed to get a good load of sleep in turning the lights out early.
Sunday: Race Day. Will Kemp stepped out of this event due to continuous illness so representing us was Tom Laker, Drew, Brock, Tom Redwood (making his road racing debut) and myself. I woke up feeling so good and the Lymph Node had disappeared which was good. I felt full of energy before the race which was good I was just hoping my legs would be working after the previous days ride. The race started off pretty good and it took most of us a lap or so to get into it. Tom Laker managed to be in his trade mark position on the second lap... on the floor after somebody went down in front of him leaving him nowhere to go and Taylor pulling off a pretty heroic skid whilst I was shouting in my head ‘’NOT THE BIKEEEE’’. Who said its safer at the front and less likely to crash aye? That just left me Drew and Brock in the bunch as Tom Redwood was out the back by this stage. Dulwich had 11 riders representing them today sending them on meaningless attacks however their blocking was working. I was putting in some pretty big turns on the front as was Drew as we were trying for Brock with the win. The last lap the bunch was all together which made it relatively sketchy. My legs were pretty dead by this period but I was still pushing on hard trying to get a good position. 3 people managed to get away however without too many people noticing. The finishing road which the sprint was on didn’t go to well with some oncoming traffic getting in the way of my positioning on the outside of the bunch so I was out of the sprint. Brock got blocked in on the inside which left Drew. He then went on to finish 4th overall and win the bunch sprint. Me and Brock rolled in comfortably with the pack please with the teams efforts.
Looking back onto this time last year I would never have been able to perform nowhere near as well as I did today so it’s a big improvement. My bike and I felt fantastic throughout the race. This race has put me on a good set up for the First of the Nationals next weekend. On the menu this week is a lot of rest, a lot of pasta, and a lot of sleep before the 4 man strong junior team travels to Wales on Saturday morning.
I’d like to say thanks to the people helping us on the side of the road today and the race organisers.
No comments:
Post a Comment