Racing starts for me on the 23rd February in Rhyl and I really can't wait to get going, and get an idea of where I'm up to. Am I ready? Well, probably not as ready as I could be if I'm totally honest, but ready to give it a go.
My trip to the Costa Blanca at the beginning of January was absolutely AMAZING! I loved it, despite the fact that I was utterly exhausted by the end. 6 days in Spain, 6 days out riding. Total of about 250miles and a massive approx 40,000ft of climbing! I don't think I've ridden up so many hills ever!
But the hills out there are not like ours, they go on forever - bad, but are never super steep - good!
(That's a bit of a sweeping generalisation!)
The first day after arriving from the airport was a gentle introduction - day 2 was anything but! 70miles and almost 4000 metres of climbing, I was ruined. But no rest for the wicked and I rode somewhere everyday. By the last couple of days the motivation was tough to summon up in the morning but once my kit was on, the decision was made and I only had to suffer through the first half hour of riding. It felt like I had bandages tied round my thighs until I'd warmed up - a strange sensation!
But it was hard to complain when the sun was shining, we were being looked after by the guys at Cycling Holidays Spain (Nozad and Russ) and all I had to worry about was turning the pedals and staying upright on the incredible descents - I knew there was a benefit for cycling up all those hills!
Since arriving back from Spain, things haven't quite gone to plan. Firstly the weather has been pretty unhelpful with quite a lot of snow and rain, and then Andy managed to bring back some highly effective germs from Switzerland. Said germs decided that filling half my lungs with gunk was the way forward, it's taken a couple of weeks and a weeks worth of antibiotics to get it shifted to a point where riding became sensible again. So a bit of a hole in the pre-season training - I guess the way to look at it is that it's better now than in the middle of the season.
Back to nearly full lung capacity, training has begun again, and has taken the form of several entertaining outings with the Biketreks ladies and boys. We had a training day up near Lancaster which also involved a photoshoot with Spin Cycle Magazine (online, North West cycling mag - really classy publication www.spincyclemag.com) which should go live in the next day or two.
Good to meet some more of the team members.
Track riding also continues, I managed to get my full accreditation sorted the night before I flew out to Spain, so I've been to a few of the training sessions and loving it, quite psyched for trying some racing next winter......
