Another Re-cap!



Hey folks, I thought it was about time I should fill you all in on what I’ve been up to.

The last time I blogged something I was just getting over a crash.  I did my best to wrap myself around a nice shiny metal barrier but it didn’t break me, just!  Believe it or not my back is still not 100% but thanks to the guys at SINI it’s all going the right direction.

After my week of forced R&R I decided to get into the gym for awhile.  I was still doing a fair amount of road work but I really feel the gym is a key part of my training these days.  I did some Gym work last year and I felt it helped me when it came to track racing and even just staying injury free.  While I was working away in the gym I hadn’t been paying to much attention to the racing calendar and the Irish Track Championships had snuck up on me, they were in 8 days!  With that rocket up my backside I started working on my top end power and more specific efforts.  Having so little time to the event it’s probably not going to help me but it should be a bit more comfortable doing those efforts on race day.  Whenever I could I got onto the track, there were a couple of sessions at Sundrive and with the help of Anthony Mitchell I got onto Orangefield for a few efforts behind the derny. 

Another thing I had to do was blow the dust of my track bike!  My pursuit bike hadn’t been touched since the World Championships in March and was overdue a bit of TLC.  One of the most obvious changes on the pursuit bike is the extreme change in position.  With my dodgy back and having been riding the road bike all season it felt very strange for the first few rides.  Having the least amount of prep possible thanks to playing with road furniture I was ready for the Irish track champs.

The programme for the championships was being run over 2 day so it wasn’t going to be to stressful on the body.  First up was the 4k pursuit on Saturday then the Kilo TT on Sunday morning and the Scratch race on Sunday afternoon.  Having an earlier start than usual for a Saturday morning I was up, fed, watered and on the road for 8.30am, let just say I wasn’t feeling the freshest I’ve ever been.  Once at the track the time just seemed to fly past and before I knew it I was racing within the hour.  I did get onto the track for awhile and there was a pretty heavy wind on the back straight.  After 10 minutes or so on track it was time to clear off and let the racing begin.  I set my rollers up next to the start gate and did my usual warm up and as always I was soon sitting in that start gate and ready to go.  The next 5 minutes were a shock to the system as no matter how hard you train it’s never as hard as the race itself.  I qualified fastest and was looking forward to backing it up in a couple of hour’s time.  Yet again the time flew by and I found myself warming up for another 4k of torture.  With the usual routine underway I felt pretty good and by 2k I knew I had the race in the bag but I was out for the training as well as the racing and pushed all the way to the line.  I’d won and posted the same time as in qualifying, happy out.  Once I’d cool down and received my medal I hit the road and headed home.



I'll fill you in later on how day 2 went for me,

Talk soon,

M

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