The partys over

Its the end of may, and that only means one thing, I start training again now. Ive had a rest from real training for about a month and been enjoying my 18ness a bit. As ive probably already mentioned, Im now training to peak in September for some marathons the and the Scott24hr. My plan is to focus on endruance util mid July when ill be doing 200km rides on the weekends, at the same time Ill also work on my climbing which has never been the same since I started training for last summers national series. After this month and a half period, I will start working more on strength and thresholds. At this time I will also start doing longer XC rides on various terrain so that I really feel comfortable on my bike and can come into these races in the very best condition, ready to handle it all. My main gaol out of this is to get to a point where I have the endurance and knowledge to race a marathon with out hitting the wall midway through, and to build up my speed on easier sections where I usualy get dropped. I think with this amount of effort going into these races, I will really be at a level where I can start racing with bakc end of the elite guys.

Since I last posted nothing much has really happened, I got 15th in a club XC race in Senior men which I was pretty happy with considering the size and quality of the feild. Tha also means my forks are finaly fixed and going great. I think ive finaly got my roadie going well, gears are working the bakc wheel has been true for a record amount of time and pretty stiff and its generaly feeling good.

So thats all for now, Ill probably bust out some big rides next weekend and let you know how that goes. Catchya Gangstas!

Not so good

...was the Canberra Tour, not that it was really a tour for me, more a classic. Stage one went from stromlo to Uriara Crossing up to Condor Creek and back and then all that again. I decided to just race for the KOM points and not worry about GC. so we were off and it wasn't too bad, but pretty uncomfortable riding at the back of the bunch. After smashing myself to catchup with the leaders coming out of the Uriara Crossing, I moved up a bit towoards the front. We turned around at Condor Creek and then the second KOM points were about 1km away. There was a break away of about 3 or 4 riders out the front, but I thought it was worth getting 1 point so half way up the hill I made an acceleration and opened up a good 50m gap pretty fast and cruised down the other side waiting to be caught again. Me and pete did a few turns to try and catch the break away again, but as we came up the 3 sisters, I just couldnt handle the pase and got droped back a fair bit. I battled on and eventualy got caught by a group behind me and we caught the leaders at the end of the lap. However, coming out of Uriara Crossing again, I got held back again at the back of the bunch and couldnt catch up this time. I strugled along the flase flat for a bit, but Id had it and turned back. I dont know what was going on, I was just tired and my legs just felt terrible. I felt like I had already done 100km the day before and hadnt streched or somthing. It was a very dissapointing weekend not to have finished my first big road race.

Im getting my forks fixed at the moment, Ive given up on the warrenty as its probably going to cost as much sending them over as is to get them fixed here. But it will mean I can race the next Club XC race at my fav...MAJURA!!!!! So Ill see you all then.