Finally starting to feel good again.
I've been on a bit of a downer since Wales. Taken me quite a while to get back into a training swing and to get motivated again. it has been a long summer with allot of racing and training. Think the body is just starting to give up.
Had a nice 40 min run today, nothing hard just a steady pace but felt good pretty much the whole time. Had a good sessions yesterday up in Howth on the CX bike, bit more techinical riding and working on the setup a bit more. Think its dialed, may need to tweek the seat height a bit.
2 more weeks then the season is over. Just need to hold out a little more! CX season starts in October and i will use some of the races as target sessions. Rich is talking about taking it handy bar one or two mini events up to the nationals. i'm up for that! It'll be nice to get back into the gym and pool for the winter and wind the road miles back for a month.
Oh college starts for deffo on the 30th.
Tuesday, September 16
Monday, September 15
Random training week
No idea why but the last week i have just been feeling off.
We had friends over from Russia for a week and i was drinking a little more than normal so i'm just going to blame this :) Just haven't felt _on_ all week its been odd.
Had some fun with the Russians. Felt odd being a tourist in Ireland but was kinda fun!
Had the house to myself all week as my Dad is away in Lanza (baxtard) so have been slobbing about and generally just tranining and faffing. Its good but i think im looking forward to getting back to college!
Got some stuff to do today then a nice 2 hr spin on the bike. Heading up to carlingford this weekend to race in a Marathon event. Not an actual race persay, no actual points on offer so it should be good!
http://www.irishxcmtb.com/default.htm#da_cooley_thriller
We had friends over from Russia for a week and i was drinking a little more than normal so i'm just going to blame this :) Just haven't felt _on_ all week its been odd.
Had some fun with the Russians. Felt odd being a tourist in Ireland but was kinda fun!
Had the house to myself all week as my Dad is away in Lanza (baxtard) so have been slobbing about and generally just tranining and faffing. Its good but i think im looking forward to getting back to college!
Got some stuff to do today then a nice 2 hr spin on the bike. Heading up to carlingford this weekend to race in a Marathon event. Not an actual race persay, no actual points on offer so it should be good!
http://www.irishxcmtb.com/default.htm#da_cooley_thriller
Tuesday, September 2
Trans Wales MTB Challange 2008
What can i say that has not been said in many other blogs about the world.
Its tough as nails
It tried to break me
It failed
Day 0:
Ferry and drive via Scorchies in North Wales, pretty univentfull, but as became a theme for the week. It pissed it down when we got to Bullith Wells and the start venue for the race. Pitched up, wandered about and registered. Went to the race briefing and pasta party, which had shit food and worried about the fact that this may be what we were going to eat for a week :/ Early to bed and slept quite well, which was surprising.
Day 1: 73km link stage , 8km night special stage
First of the long days, didnt quite know what it was going to be like so just trundled along for most of the day! Hit a few trail centres and did allot of road and firebreak climbing. Little were we to know that this would be the mainstay of the week. Lots of up for some short quick downs. 5 mins out the gate and it started to rain. Spirits we still high but 7 hrs late when we arrived abck and it was still raining was starting to take the piss.
Night special stage was fantastic. Loud music, packed start finish area and the promise of a 3.5km climb to 4.5km decent got the racing nerves pumping. Was still not sure how hard i could go at night so just took my time. half way down the decent i started to open up and hammer the trail as hard as i could. Great race!
Day 2: 68km link and 10km special stage
Hell. very wet hell. It lashed all day, some exposed climbing and some exposed traverses had us getting raped by the weather. If it were not for the trails i would have gone mad. We made the mistake of rolling out late and hence the trails were cut up by the time we got to them. Never again. The campsite was simply a dive. 30 degree slope and it still managed to flood even at the top! If i had a get out of special stage offer when i rolled in i would have taken it.
Special stage it turned out was class! 10km XC trail and fast as hell. Decided that i would go out as hard as possible as tmrw we only had a link stage so opened up for the whole trail and put 4.5mins into Waggers and caught at least 5 people ahead of me. All at 20second gaps. Felt good. Oh it stopped raining for my run! It pissed for the rest of the evening though....
Day 3: 70km link stage
Lovely day...trail wise. Some fantasic climbing, some great descents and some moorland crossings. First propper river crossings and i no longer care about getting wet :) Felt good all day, strong and hungry for more. Day had to be shortend cause of weather and some trail that was apparetly quite tough to ride.... long story short we missed out on 5km of trail. Not happy, but so be it. Waggers developed a serious case of the squirts today. Pretty much spent the entire evening on the potty and he knew this ment no riding the day after. Solo for me!
Its tough as nails
It tried to break me
It failed
Day 0:Ferry and drive via Scorchies in North Wales, pretty univentfull, but as became a theme for the week. It pissed it down when we got to Bullith Wells and the start venue for the race. Pitched up, wandered about and registered. Went to the race briefing and pasta party, which had shit food and worried about the fact that this may be what we were going to eat for a week :/ Early to bed and slept quite well, which was surprising.
Day 1: 73km link stage , 8km night special stage
First of the long days, didnt quite know what it was going to be like so just trundled along for most of the day! Hit a few trail centres and did allot of road and firebreak climbing. Little were we to know that this would be the mainstay of the week. Lots of up for some short quick downs. 5 mins out the gate and it started to rain. Spirits we still high but 7 hrs late when we arrived abck and it was still raining was starting to take the piss.
Night special stage was fantastic. Loud music, packed start finish area and the promise of a 3.5km climb to 4.5km decent got the racing nerves pumping. Was still not sure how hard i could go at night so just took my time. half way down the decent i started to open up and hammer the trail as hard as i could. Great race!
Day 2: 68km link and 10km special stage
Hell. very wet hell. It lashed all day, some exposed climbing and some exposed traverses had us getting raped by the weather. If it were not for the trails i would have gone mad. We made the mistake of rolling out late and hence the trails were cut up by the time we got to them. Never again. The campsite was simply a dive. 30 degree slope and it still managed to flood even at the top! If i had a get out of special stage offer when i rolled in i would have taken it.Special stage it turned out was class! 10km XC trail and fast as hell. Decided that i would go out as hard as possible as tmrw we only had a link stage so opened up for the whole trail and put 4.5mins into Waggers and caught at least 5 people ahead of me. All at 20second gaps. Felt good. Oh it stopped raining for my run! It pissed for the rest of the evening though....
Day 3: 70km link stage
Lovely day...trail wise. Some fantasic climbing, some great descents and some moorland crossings. First propper river crossings and i no longer care about getting wet :) Felt good all day, strong and hungry for more. Day had to be shortend cause of weather and some trail that was apparetly quite tough to ride.... long story short we missed out on 5km of trail. Not happy, but so be it. Waggers developed a serious case of the squirts today. Pretty much spent the entire evening on the potty and he knew this ment no riding the day after. Solo for me!
August
This month i have managed to do no posting what ever. No idea why cause...i've not been working!
Yes the joys of end of contract and just being able to flake out and train hit for a whole month, and have now moved into September as well. However the month of August did have its high points, with some racing and some good training!
Posts to follow on the good bits....well namely the Trans Wales.
Training has been going well and Rich has given me some good sessions. Weight has been steadily been dropping off and im down to a nice lean 78kg before i went away to Wales.
Lots of running sessions and the introduction of hill running into my training again has split up the boring road miles and im actually starting to feel a difference when i get out to run. Allot of time this month was taper work as i was getting ready for the week of pain. But it was good to get one or two longer run sessions in , 1:15mins, to see how my endurance was coming on.
Bring it on!
Yes the joys of end of contract and just being able to flake out and train hit for a whole month, and have now moved into September as well. However the month of August did have its high points, with some racing and some good training!
Posts to follow on the good bits....well namely the Trans Wales.
Training has been going well and Rich has given me some good sessions. Weight has been steadily been dropping off and im down to a nice lean 78kg before i went away to Wales.
Lots of running sessions and the introduction of hill running into my training again has split up the boring road miles and im actually starting to feel a difference when i get out to run. Allot of time this month was taper work as i was getting ready for the week of pain. But it was good to get one or two longer run sessions in , 1:15mins, to see how my endurance was coming on.
Bring it on!
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