Recap!!


Hey folks, it's been awhile since I updated this and a lot has happened in that time.  I'm not gonna ramble on to much but I'll try not to miss out the high points and mention the odd low point.

The last time I mentioned anything on the blog I was just back on the road from the track.  From memory it came as a bit of shock and there was all sorts of sore legs to deal with.  With a lot racing in my legs and a good bit of training done the Ras was soon on top of me.  I was quietly confident in my form but I wasn’t saying to much as I’ve had a pretty rough relationship with that race.  I failed to finish the race for a few reason and everything just seemed to go wrong for me around that time.  To cut a long story short I had a good Ras, I was aggressive everyday and in numerous moves but it all paid off on the 7th stage and I got my first stage win.  If memory serves me right it was a great feeling and it fired off all sorts of emotions, there was one man that was in my mind for a lot of the race and he really helped me.

With the Ras done and dusted I took the next few weeks steady, I wasn’t out hammering myself but I was still doing enough to not get out of shape.  I won the Meath GP in the middle of some hard training and my form seemed good.  The next race I had in my sights was the Irish Crit champs, I won it last year and it’s a type of race that suits my riding style.  It went as well as it could have and I won the race.  The circuit was in Mullingar and one I really enjoyed, flowing corners and a bit of wind to make things hard.  Next up was the National Championships TT and road race, everyone in Ireland will be there and it’s always important to do well.  Unfortunately though, this year it wasn’t my weekend.  The TT on the Friday night was soaking wet but that doesn’t normal bother me. For the off and even looking at my heart rate file afterwards things weren’t right.  I felt like I had a limiter on and I just couldn’t suffer like I normally do.  It took 20 minutes for my heart rate to get where I wanted it and that’s a lot of time lost.  On that Sunday the road race was next, 170k on an undulating course.  Something that should have suited me but yet again from the first attack I knew I wasn’t right.  For the whole race I was never comfortable and I really had to hammer myself just to be there.
  
With a horrible Nationals behind me my next race was straight away.  The morning after the road race I was on a plane heading for China.  The 10 day tour of Qinghai lake was the race and most of that race was spent at an altitude of over 3000 metres! Seriously high altitude and when it took affect I was doing some serious panting and gasping for breath.  My story from that race is that I crashed on the second stage at 65kph on a descent and took a lot of skin off and crashed again with one day to go which put me out of the race.  As I type this I’m still suffering from the crash and it’s eating into some quality training time.

Hopefully from this point onwards I will update my blog more often and keep ya’s posted on any news.

Talk soon,

M

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