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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It just feels right…..

Image
Well, I never actually thought this day would come. All through my cycling career I’ve seen teammates old and new “retire.”   Something that I initially thought could be the worst thing ever to happen to me. As I sit here here now typing this it just feels right. Don’t get me wrong though, this decision I have not taken lightly. Something has just happened to me over the last 1-2 years and I can’t really pin point it. Okay, I’ve had a few crashes that have left metal inside me but I came back from them. I mean, I won a European medal 6 months after breaking my hip! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that its a mental thing. However, its not that simple. I really miss racing, even now when I’ve barely stopped. It just feels like a natural end though. For the last year I’ve been racing and under performing across the board. Frustration has been setting in all year and I’m sick of just turning up to bike races. I set my own bar by winning 7 medals in a row. Worl...
Read more
Just to be clear! I felt the need to say something because I feel like the “hard done by” theme is being put out there when it comes to myself. I am really happy! All the stuff you have been reading is true, not a word of a lie but people are jumping on the - lack of, shoulda, woulda coulda stuff. I loved racing bikes. When I got shit at racing bikes, I stopped! I still love the thought of racing but getting paid for it was becoming hard to do. I do feel that things need to change to help young athletes become champions. It’s not cycling that is the problem, it’s not the sports council’s problem, it’s not the sponsors fault, it’s ours! All these organizations meet demand to a degree, there are exceptions though! The sports that get the help in Ireland are the highest supported sports when it comes to bums on seats. There was a Class 1 UCI race held in Ireland last year. It was a track race, I was in it and it was held at Sundrive Velodrome. It was ran perfectly, ever...
Read more

Back at it.....

Image
I’m back on my travels and thought I’d check in with whoever is reading this. I warn ya though, what you are about to read could be slightly, maybe, possibly a little bit on the negative side! Hopefully I’m over what has been a pretty crap few weeks. I can’t tell you the frustration I’ve had but that’s life. I’ve gone through loads of phases ranging from chilled out/that’s life mentally to angry and flapping about in a panic. Now that I’m able to get going again I just hope things go my way. As I type this I’m 9 days post-op and I’m surprised how quick things have come on since the surgery.  The surgery itself left me in a heap for the first two days. Once the anesthetic and drugs involved with surgery cleared out of my systems I was back at it pretty quickly. There was major progress on Thursday when I was able to back squat in the Gym. Thanks to Chris and Lisa in SINI for the good direction on that one. My view from the squat rack at the Sports Institute of Nort...
Read more