So, after a great week of training camp in Spain, where I finally got in some miles, I’m back home and seem to be getting somewhat near to something vaguely resembling fitness!Spain was just great. A great resort with lots of great food. Fantastic views, and nothing to do all day but ride, eat, sleep and drink beer.
I really really needed this trip to spain. After day 3 I felt myeslef finally push through that barriers, and from then on I just seemed to feel better and better.
Race gone wrong.
On the way home from Spain we stopped off just over the border into France and did a little 1 day stage race.
I thought the morning TT had gone well (despite showing up to the start ramp with 30second to go, with my oversocks and other crap in my hands; I shuved my oversock and shit into my skinsuit, did it up and was gone for a few minutes of pain) but it didn’t got as well as I had thought. I was 28th in the morning TT, and wanted to be top 20 at least.
The afternoon road race was a bit of a shitter! It was actually a circuit race, or 20k loops. There was a massive hill after 7k of downhill. The field split on the first climb, and I was struggled but made it into the first half. That was positive but I had had to work pretty hard to make it into a group I would normally have walked into. Over the course of the next 20 or so km, I kept getting dropped up every climb, sitting in the team cars for ages and jumping back into the field. Until I finally bit the bullet, realized I was too whipped from training camp and was out and ready to go home after only 40k of racing! Oh well…
From the moment I got home however, I’ve been feeling stronger and stronger, finally getting in some solid training. Of course how this translates to racing is yet to be seem. I haven’t started including intervals into my training yet, and I’m about to enter my first big block of racing, which I’m a little nervous about.
In Prep for the main aims of my season at the end of May and early June, I’m going to be loading up the races. Hopefully this will get me into shape after the long and crappy US winter! My main worry is going to be 2 back to back 1 day stage races. That’s 4 races in 2 days! Not to mention the travel in between and the early starts and late finishes. For about 3 weeks I’m going to be hitting at least 3 races a week, sometimes more. It’s SOO gonna suck, but it should be fun, and I’ll either be ready for the real stage races in the Pyrenees, or I won’t.
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