May 5th

So in the last 2 weeks and a bit i have been mostly living on the bike, initially on the mountain bike as i raced th second round of the NPS xc series and came 9th in elites or S1 as they are calling it now. I raced conservatively early on in the race and pushed it on later, i could have gone out hard but the nature aof the course was such that i reckoned a steady approach was best, nice to riding fairly well.

I was fairly tired after but when will and gordon rocked up in the camper i knew the next few days would be savage and tiredness was not an option! Off we went to Dublin, for beer, dancing and clamping! annoying but funny too, then a 3 and a half hour burst with Gordon on the Cooley mountains, amazingly dry and dusty, then after droping and picking up will from the train station?! we headed for Belfast and more beer and dancing, then back down to the cooleys for 4 hours of more superb biking and then to galway for some R and R , the up to MOnaghan with the family and a few days chilling and drinking beer and eating way to much chocolate, twas easter like! I did weigh myself up there and compared to when i did it on Jan 2nd i was 11 pounds lighter! Which is super.

I got in a couple raod spins, including a 3 hour jaunt up the north, to see some bowling and avoid the potholes of the republic. Also did a 14 min run, wow! to check the leg and it seemed ok, ish. Then it was back to Cork and some chilling in what was amazing weather, has been the whole last 2 weeks of April. The on sat last i did the inagural Monster Mac multi sport race in Millstreet.

I came 5th, passing 2 guys near the very end, i started a bit slow in the run or carefully as i was worried about the leg, i hammered th bike passing loads of people , did ok o the moutain run and flew the last bike, i was overall very happy with the race, 3hrs 25 was my time, these races are hard but satisfying (afterwards!)

Was fairly tired the next day, legs a bit stiff and sore, but nothing crazy, the following day i did 2hr 10 steady , spinning it out on a lumpy course, the the next day 2 hr 20 again steady with a couple of pushes and the day after that i did 3 hrs on a hilly course with 25 mins all out, i was tired after this, but wanted to finish the block of training strong, now its 3 days of rest and as i sit here i am twitchy all ready! but rest is what i need, after 4 quality rides and 2 runs in the last 5 days! I am really trying to not over do it this year but you still have to push it on at times too.