School will be the death of me!

Its my third week back at school now and this term is rough, we have 6 weeks to do the work we usualy do in in 10, so its all a bit full on. Last week nearly destroyed me, I started a physics assingment (which was two assinment in one) a bit too late and had a few late night in an attempt to hand it in on time. This resulted on absalutly no training last week. It doesnt help that after the scott I went out too hard and wrecked myself for a few days. I still have 3 more assingments left and then tests but im a bit more organised now.

Im pretty focused on my first national round at Illinbah. I think the track is the kin fof track i can win on mainly cause of the steep switch backs on the climb which is what I love. Getting there is going to be a bit tough though (if anyone wants to give me a lift from the gold coast to Illinbah on the thursday or firday before let me know =)). I also have the Highland Fling on in two weeks which im realy looking forward too. dont know how well I will go but I did about 105km on my own on sunday arvo with a head wind on the way home which was a bit anoying. Here is a photo i got.

Unfortunantly the road doesnt go all the way to the top but it does go a fair way up, but still not a significant climb.

So my plans for now are start racing the Dirt Crits each thursday night and mabey a few road crits, get a podium at the Highland Fling and find my way to Illinbah to try and podium there aswell.

See ya round like a record.

24 hours later

Well for another year its all over. Sat morning I was tierd and not in the mood for sorting an argument about a lap system let alone racing a 24hr. Glen had the first lap but was held up a bit by the solo riders. I was now up for the second lap, riding up the long hill and a steep techy downhill, just what I like. I felt smooth but not very fast, but I got a 37min 30sec lap. This was one of the fastest laps by any of the riders heading intot this years nationals series in under 19s. This comfortable but fast pace stayed with me for another 7 laps and our junior team of 5 got 3rd in the Teams of 6 catagory. I came away from the race feeling realy good. Not too tired, not too sore and and very happy with my lap times and our 3rd place.

I am now working towards winning Open Men in the Highland Fling and winning my first national round for the season at Illinbah. But ths will be a very busy 6 weeks at school so Im going to to have to get organised to fit training in.

Before i go i would like to thank CORC for putting on a great event and supporting our team, and also my team. In particular Tim Smyth for all the work you did to get us going, but Glen Tom and Dan all did a realy good job aswell.

Babys, Physios and Lights

well, i started holidays last week and i was set to put in a big effort of training for the holidays. The holidays started of with a road crit around the Sutton driver training track. I entered B grade and i was racing Michael Baker and Brenden Johnston, two mountain bike riders of the same age as myself. it was a tough race, going up and down realy short steep pinches. Brenden Ddminated most of the race and we made a bit of a gap but i wasnt to keen to break away too early and we got caught again. I tried to catch Brendan as him and two other riders as they broke away in the finish strait but made my move too late and finished 4th. My plans to ride my legs off took a turn when last monday my brother and his partner gave birth to two boys and i am now an uncle. Me and my parents went down to Melbourne to see them for the week which was a bit of a disruption, but well worth it. I did take my roadie with me and did a bit of training at Albert park (which was heaps fun and fast) and the brunswick velodrome.

As some of you may know, the Scott 24hr is on this weekend and like last year, im on a CORC junior team. However, last years painfull experience of a 3 man junior team will not be repeated, this year im in a team of 6. I went for a ride with a few of my team mates on sunday night to talk about the race, ride the track and test our lights. it was a fun ride until darkness came over and i remember why i like riding during the day so much more. So as you may have picked up, i'm not the biggest fan of 24hr races. Why? you may ask, well while i consider myself to be a fairly good endurance rider, 24hrs is very different. the two thinsg that i dont like are: a) the lack of sleep, i need alot of sleep each night and suffer if i dont get it, and b) riding in a team, it takes me a about a lap to warm up in a race and doing one or two laps at a time doesnt realy suit me that much. but im sure i will have a good time, especialy in a team of 6.

I may not have mentioned, but i have been accepted into CORC's ACTAS junior talent development program. To sum it up, we will go to the ACTAS gym twice a week and do weighst and stuff to help develop our muscles for riding. Before we can start though, we need a muscular screening. so this morning i went to a physio who got me to bend over, strech and whole heap of other things. The results showed that my left leg is about 1cm longer than my right (all i could think about when he said this was me walking in circles trying to follow a strait line) and the im very inflexable which may be holding me back. this can be solved by streching and doing some exercises he gave me. This to me is great news, it means that if i do these exersises i will have more powerful legs. So i can realy gain something out of this program.

So anyway, i best be getting ready for work. Ill update you all after the 24hr this weekend.
Nick