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