Well i am tired today and i bet you are too, even if your not feeling that way. You need to chill the funk out today and tomo before the test. It will be interesting to see the results, not that you need them really as last weekend was all the results you needed,
It would i guess be nice to see what areas you should focus on more? training when there is no racing involved is far easier but trying to balance your week with a weekend of 2 races can be hard to get right, i know i find it complicated, trying to get enough done with out dulling the senses for racing, which lets face it is the prioroity and the most benifical to your end goal, the rás.
So with this in mind i was thinking that you could make saturday a Rás type stage, from what i have heard it is mental hard for an hour and then steady ish with surges here and there for another 3 to 3.5 hours after that. So just do a regular warm up 20- 30 mins, like we did last week but a bit longer, 4 or 5 10 secs jumps, eat and drink as if you are doing a 4 hour stage, have a jacket, puncture repair stuff, food and another bottle ready in your car.
Ride the TT hard, not balls out 'i could not speak for half an hour after' hard but average in the low 160's, proceed immediately to your car, zero hanging around, get your stuff and away you go, keep her in the 135 to 145 region with 3 or 4 efforts of 4 to 5 mins in the high 150's low 160's, have plenty recovery between efforts, 20 mins or more, choose a route on ride with gps before hand, choose a lumpy route, a few 2-3 minute hills to mimic des hanlon would be great. Try to stay on your bike the entire time, eat and drink as normal. HAve a recovery drink or food ready in the car to consume immediately after. YOu would be looking to do 100km in the ride after the TT, so use that number to plan/draw your route.
This will tie in great with the des hanlon length wise and ras mumhan, also it will free up the days after, which based on what you have been doing the last while should be rest. Ride for a couple hours max on the tuesday, nothing hard and you will be fired up for your session with the lads on wednesday, no bike on thursday, 80 mins on friday, the race lucan on Saturday and Carlow Sunday. You then need to look back and see when you should have a rest week, i have a feeling it could be the week after des hanlon? Which would be good as you could start with a long group ride on the sat and sunday, or race one of those days (thats April 1st weekend) (either way, 2 long training rides, hilly or a long ride and race) rest monday, a hard session on the tuesday, hill repeats or intervals, e.g 4 by 7 mins all out, then recovery type rides on the wed and thursday, Friday the is the start of ras mumhan!
I know you like details, hope this helps
Donncha
The reply was,
"great stuff
i presume you will be dong the same
Iv got a bit of a cold but hopefully it will be ok"
To which i wrote,
"yeah i will be virtually the same, the only difference i could foresee is if i felt very tired i would skip a day and rest, i have been doing that now and again when i hear my body and its been keeping me well and more importantly ready to really go when i need. I read ina running book that 'it is better to be at the starting line 10% undertrained than 1% overtrained' and i am keeping that in mind, obviously i am looking aiming for 100% trained and rested! :)
The cold is probably due to the intense effort you have made in the last week, if it does not improve/get worse cancel the test, dose up on vit c etc. any pains below the neck, like any little thing that is out of sink, cancel the test, your body is asking you to slow down and let it recover.
I am hummming and hawing about going to new bridge on sunday, on the on e hand it would be great to race but on the other its a long frigging ways for a race, also i would have to cycle to the city, 45 miles to get a lift! something tells me i will be on the 'o so handy' ! priests leap instead, which is fine but jeez i am loving the racing at the mo'
Donncha
These some up where i am at right now and where i hope to go, it could be an amazing year !! :)
