The truth!

joker77

Race - Club League - Brittas

Warm up / Race / Warm down

44Kms
1:18 hr

Did 2 laps then packed it in. Left leg was getting a bit stiff, wanted to save something for Saturday at Roundwood

joker77

Race - Roundwood GP

Warm up / Race / Warm down

81Kms
2:30 hr

Didn't feel comfortable at all today. Just after the start of the 5th lap I slipped the chain, again took to long to get it back on and get going, no chance of catching back on.

There was a bad crash at the end, hope the Usher guy is ok

joker77

Training

Cycle in - 18kms, 40mins

Cycle home - 18kms, 40mins

joker77

Race - Club League - 10 Mile TT

Warm up / Race / Warm down

37Kms
1:13 hr

Will put up TT time later

Time: 26:24 - lots of room for improvement

joker77

Training

Cycle in - 20kms, 45mins

Cycle home - 20kms, 45mins

joker77

Race - Club League - Sally Gap

Warm up / Race / Warm down

52Kms
1:33 hr

joker77

Training

Last night

Cycle

14 Kms
0:47 hr

Cycle in - 17kms, 40mins

Cycle home - 17kms, 40mins

joker77

Training

Cycle

17Kms
0:34 hr

Tonight

Training

Cycle

28Kms
0:56 hr

Injured. Same thing I had before training for the Wicklow 200 2 years ago, except in the left leg this time.

Thought maybe a bit of rest and it would be ok, but it's not. Going to a physio to see what can be done.

Feeling a little down with the bad luck the last few months. Season not going to plan at all, after the good start.

joker77

Went to the physio today. Have a problem with my left calf and hamstring. Tightness in both, with pain where they cross over behind the knee. Need to stretch them, particularly the hamstring, a lot over the next week.

Physio reckons I'll be back racing mid August. Not great news, but if I am back then, and injury free, that's not the end of the world.

joker77

Training

Yesterday

Cycle in - 17kms, 40mins

Cycle home - 17kms, 40mins

joker77

Felt great to be back on the bike yesterday!!

Feeling good - the physio said on Monday that it had improved a lot - will continue to build up slowly for the next week and get plenty of stretching in, but looking forward to getting back to racing in two weeks time - have targetted the league race on the 2nd August as a return

joker77

Training

Cycle

35 Kms
1:07 hr

Saturday morning spin - felt great again to be back on the bike. Fitness needs work.

joker77

Training

Last Night

Exercises - 1 hour core / weights - pull

joker77

Training

Cycle

42 Kms
1:20 hr

joker77

Training

Cycle in - 17kms, 40mins

Cycle home - 17kms, 40mins

Exercises - 1 hour core / weights - push

joker77

Legs feeling good after the last few days of effort. Feeling strong again. No pain in the knee, will have to keep focussed on stretching the calves and hamstrings.

Have nearly fully decided to do a race in Drogheda on Sunday as a return. I'm feeling good, and there's not many left in the season. Will make a final call on it at the weekend, but I reckon I'll be doing it. Excited!

joker77

Training

Yesterday

Turbo Trainer - 40 minutes

joker77

Training

Cycle in - 50ms, 1:42 hrs

Cycle home - 17kms, 40mins

joker77

Measurements - 2012-07-29

Stomach: 80cms

Body weight: 71.3Kgs

joker77

Race - Brendan Campbell Memorial - A4 - 7th

Race

50Kms
1:21 hr

8 laps of a circuit, first race in a while. Legs felt a little heavy, but overall ok. Just outside the placings, didn't position well for the sprint - maybe slightly bottled it.

joker77

Training

Cycle in - 17kms, 40mins

Cycle home - 17kms, 40mins

Exercises - 1 hour core / weights - push

joker77

Training

Cycle in - 17kms, 40mins

Cycle home - 36Kms, 1:18hrs

Exercises - 1 hour core / weights - pull

joker77

Training

Exercises - 1 hour core / weights - push

joker77

Training

Cycle in - 17kms, 40mins

Race - Club League - Brittas SS/S - DNF - Sally Gap

80Kms
3:00 hr

joker77

Training

Cycle in - 17kms, 40mins

Cycle home - 17kms, 40mins

Exercises - 1 hour core / weights - pull

joker77

Measurements - 2012-08-06

Stomach: 78.5cms

Body weight: 69.1Kgs

joker77

Training

Cycle - 39kms, 1:35hr - Cruagh

Exercises - 1 hour core / weights - push

joker77

Training

Cycle - 16kms, 0:35hr - TT Position

Exercises - 1 hour core / weights - pull

joker77

Race - Club League - Blackbull DMS

Spin out / Race / Spin Home

119Kms
3:44 hr

joker77

Training

Cycle - 53kms, 1:48hr - Saturday spin

joker77

Training

Cycle - 36kms, 1:18hr - Flat - HR 60-65%

joker77

Training

Exercises - 1 hour core / weights - push

joker77

Race - Club League - Team Time Trial

Warm up / Race / Abandon / Warm down

35Kms
1:17 hr

Lost the bike computer about 3/4 the way through, had to go back and get it. As soon as I stopped major cramp in the stomach, trapped wind, ate too much for lunch again. Need to stop doing that - need to make sure I have my own food with every time next year for the league.

joker77

Training

Cycle in - 17kms, 40mins

Cycle home - 17kms, 40mins

Exercises - 1 hour core / weights - pull

joker77

Training

Cycle - 89kms, 3:19hr - Saturday morning hills

joker77

Training

Cycle - 26kms, 0:57hr - Active recovery

joker77

Training

Cycle in - 17kms, 40mins

Cycle home - 17kms, 40mins

Cycle - 38kms, 1:19hr - Hill bursts, with recovery

joker77

Training

Cycle in - 17kms, 40mins

Cycle home - 17kms, 40mins

Exercises - 1 hour core / weights - push

joker77

Training

Turbo session - 1 hr

20 mins 70%
10 mins 80-90%
5 mins easy
10 mins 80-90%
Sprint
15 mins 60-70%

joker77

Training

Exercises - 1 hour core / weights - pull

joker77

Training

Cycle in - 17kms, 40mins

Cycle home - 17kms, 40mins

joker77

Training

Cycle - 31kms, 1:00hr - bit of TT (hailstone showers)

joker77

Training

Cycle - 55kms, 2:03hr - Ballinascorney, Sally Gap, Glencree

joker77

Training

Cycle in - 17kms, 40mins

Cycle home - 17kms, 40mins

joker77

Training

Cycle - 30kms, 1:01

joker77

Race - Charleville 2 Day

Saturday - Stage 1

Road Stage - 77kms, 2:07

Sunday - Stage 2 and 3

TT - 6.43kms - 9.39

Road Stage - 73kms, 2:09 (including warmdown)

Overall GC - 14th, at 48"

Day 1:

Race was very slow for first 20, the next 40 included a few drags and that split the field down from 70+ to maybe 25. Not severe climbs at all, but enough to 'force a selection'. Phillipe and myself were staying around the front, Jamie was dropped unfortunately.

The last 20 the pace went up a lot in parts, but no real attacks, the usual. Was tough in parts, but not too savage.

6kms to go then it slowed down, everyone waiting for the sprint. Decided at that moment not to just wait, to pick the right corner to attack, didn't want it to come down to a bunch sprint and roll over outside the points. We'd recce'd the finish and so I knew there were some bends about 2kms out, then a long stretch of 1.5kms to the line. About 3.5kms we hit a T-junction and were turning right, I thought now or never, so I put the foot down. I didn't look back, just drilled it to get away and then steadied up to TT pace, although the heart rate was 95%+. Managed to get a good gap up over that initial kilometre, and coming out of the bends I didn't see them behind for a long time, thought I had them. By that stage though, I was burping up vomit, but still drilling it. Sadly that long stretch of 1.5kms was too much, once they could see me I was doomed. Got caught with around 400 to go, maybe less. But hey - had to give it a try, at least it felt like I was in a race! Phillipe was around 8th in the sprint, we'll both be on the same GC time I think in the top bunch.

Day 2:

It started early with the TT, I was up at 7 to get some breakfast - my start time was 10.43 (it went from race number starting with No. 1 at 8am), stage 2 then was at 12.15 so I knew I had to get up early to get a good breakfast in as there wasn't going to be time after the time trial to eat and digest. I'd organised the loan of a TT helmet (I'd also gotten the option of a full TT bike, but it was an hour and a half drive away and I wasn't up to going getting it on Saturday night, would have taken too much time out of much needed recovery). The loan of the helmet was coming from Pat O'Brien - one of the club's A2 riders, very good - rode the Ras this year, and finished 4th on yesterday's stage in the A2/A3 race taking the highest Orwell place, so was riding for the GC. He was off before me and did a time of 9.40 he said (later turning out to be 9.37 by the Commisaire's watch), said there was a bit of a headwind.

So off I went down to the course - legs felt good on the warm-up, had the aero bars on, TT helmet, shoe covers - and was feeling good about it after opening the legs and airways up. Started probably a little too quick, suffered in the middle section for it - and went full tilt at the end. Kept the heart rate up at well over 90% for the most part, maxing out sprinting for the line, and came in at 9.39 - was happy enough to have gotten around the same time as Pat. Felt probably if I'd eased the start a bit and had a bit more for the middle section, I could have shaved off a good few seconds. When I got back though and later found out the winner had done it in 8.57 I was a little disappointed - that was my GC ambitions gone. I was down in 16th or 17th I think starting stage 3 - with the leader 46 seconds ahead. It would have taken either a long solo effort, or a strong breakaway with no guys above me on GC to win the thing. The TT is a huge deciding factor on the 2 or 3 day stage races, it's something I'll definitely have to work on over the winter.

A bit of rest then, and onto stage 3 this afternoon. This was reported to have some hills, and with the TT and the previous day's stage in the legs, it was looking like it could be attritional. It started out grand, first few kms just rolling along, pace going up here and there as a couple of guys pinged off the front in kamikaze early break attempts (not a chance of staying away from a bunch like that at this level on your own, you wouldn't be in A4 very long if you had that talent!). There were 2 hills coming up, but I wasn't quite sure when as there were 2 or 3 different versions of the route floating around beforehand, and I didn't go double check at the sign on - but reckoned it wouldn't matter too much - when the hill starts you kind of know it's there... ha. So on the first one up we went and I thought it was a bit too sedate for my liking, not putting enough people under pressure. I'd worked my way up to the front fairly easily, just riding tempo, so when I hit the front I just kept riding, maybe up'd the pace a bit, and opened a gap pretty quickly. I was surprised that the bunch didn't jump, maybe people were tired, maybe they knew I'd come back, maybe it was to do with how the fight for the yellow was going on - anyway - I rode most of the climb on my own until I eased a bit and rejoined the front. The yellow jersey was doing the work - he was probably doing a bit too much. There was still 35kms to go, and another hill - and we'd been warned there were a couple of dodgy corners on the descent so I made sure I was up at the front couple of riders going down - the last thing you want is to be in a bunch with a corner and through no fault of your own some guy ploughing into you or the guys in front misjudging. Got down the descent ok, put the foot down a bit and there were a few more bodies around than I would have liked - really thought that the climb would have split things a bit more but probably the pace wasn't fast enough to really do damage. Kind of annoying as that was the time to split the race, but the yellow had no interest in doing it, the guy's around him on GC probably didn't either as they could wait till later to attack, and the rest - I dunno, there were a few guys in yesterday's break that disappeared today so maybe they just didn't have the legs on the day.

At the start of the second climb I felt like I might be in trouble, went from maybe 3rd down to 10th very quickly, got out of the saddle and got the legs going, sat back down and found the rhythm - by that stage everyone else was going backwards on their limit and I was able to get up behind the two guys in front that were pushing it. As we crested that one they then sat up - as if that was it - the hard work was done, I went round them and said that now is the time to attack, and pushed on down the far side hoping to take a small group with me to get a break going, again though just didn't happen, people got a chance to catch back on, and it all came together. One of the two lads came up to me afterwards and agreed that was the time, but the two of them were spent.

It was still 15-20kms to go to the finish, would probably have needed a large enough group to stay away from there - 6 or more guys all working together, didn't happen. There was some half-hearted attacking for a while, then it just settled down a bit. A young guy from Killarney was trying to attack a few times, he tried twice and was pulled back - on his third attempt he got clear and got a few seconds gap. Then - the stage winner from yesterday - a guy from Kanturk, who finished 3rd on the TT and was only 7 seconds behind the yellow jersey attacked to join him. That was maybe 7kms to go - I thought it was a bit too far out, and the group would really up the pace (as A4 always does), to bring it back.The yellow jersey was up the front for the last few kms desperately trying to drag them back, a couple of guys helping here and there. With hindsight, I should have tried to ping off myself and join the 2 leaders, but hey - hindsight is 20/20. I didn't, instead thinking they'd get caught and I'd take my chance today with the sprint, wrong move. They ended up staying away - the Kanturk guy gifting the stage to the young guy from Killarney, and taking the yellow jersey for himself. The bunch sprint then and I came home 7th or 8th for the stage (waiting on results). The usual....

Probably should have done this, could have done that, but hey - overall happy enough that I know I can be competitive in these types of races, if I can get the TT sorted out...

joker77

Training

Cycle in - 17kms, 40mins

Cycle home - 17kms, 40mins

joker77

Training

Astro football - 1 hour, 3 against 4

joker77

Training

Exercises - 0.5 hour core / weights - pull

joker77

Training

Cycle - 30kms, 1:09