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Yours truly doing some work at the from of the bunch during the recent Supercycling event.
Time 2:20:17 for 92km – Ave 39.1km/h.
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I frankly do not know how to thank Andy for his support over the past 2 years of sponsorship. It has enabled me to compete at a very different level with the best equipment and all I had to worry about is training and riding races!! I think this also follows his business ethic “don’t worry we will take care of it and have it ready on time” or “for you we will do it”. Once again thank you for a great 2004 and I am again looking forward to a great 2005 cycling association with OMC and Andy.
Firstly an apology for the delay in a new article!! Guilty!! But training and racing hard and yes a 3 week break over December. Which possibly is a key point of discussion.
To rest or not to rest, well here is what I did and possibly there are only a few things that I would change in the program.
After the 94.7 I continued to ride up until I went away mid December 2004, the intensity of this training was at about 70% of max heart rate and the focus was on long slow distance rides.
I then went on holiday for the first time in years without a bike of any form. With the knowledge that the Hyper to Hyper was on the 16 January 2005 I must say I was a bit worried. On holiday I did a few runs of about 30 min each and that was about the most of my training. Got back from holiday on the 7th of January 2005 and felt guilty so training started on the 8th with some light roller work followed by a 100km club ride, I felt great, yes the pace was fast but not hectic.
For the rest of the week I did some intervals to 85% of max and the rest was
light roller work. Race day I was worried, sitting at the start listening to
every one talking about the thousands of km done over December vs my few 30
min runs!!
The start of the Hyper to Hyper was also the fist race in our new
team and I felt I had to do well. The start is uphill and fast and then faster
to the finish some 1003 km away, the average speed was 47km/h and we completed
the race in 2hours 17 min for 103 km and I felt good but not sharp, but then
for the first race in a long season its ok.
So what would I do differently
next year, I would just ride the Hyper to Hyper and give myself a week or
so to get a bit more base mileage in, or come back from holiday a week earlier.
The point I am trying to make is it is a long season an you must set your goals,
mine for this first part of the season are SA Champs I early March 2005.
So I have had a build up of 5 races in 7 weeks with 1 more between now and
SA Champs. My training weeks are varying form 6 to 12 hours per week and
due to the racing on almost every weekend the midweek intensity is low
with lots of rest.
In my next article I wish to talk about racing in a team vs individual
as cycling is a TEAM sport, yes some may agree or disagree. Safe riding
until next time,
Cheers John
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