2012

This year is different. It’s going to be different. I’m determined to do well and although I can foresee a couple of months off (well not off but not training enough) in March/April for finals, I’m putting down what I think is a solid(ish) base now. I started as soon as I got back from a weeks boardin’ and boozin’ in Les Arcs about a three weeks ago.

Although I’ve always known it, this is the first time I’ve put in a real consistent effort on the road. My weakness has always been my aerobic fitness, I could blag my way through the anaerobic stuff through adrenaline and being young (I think) but once the hard effort had to last over a few minutes, I’d crumple. With this in mind, I’ve been trying to do a couple of hundred km a week. I’ve been reading up on training more and have identified over gearing as something that could benefit me. Basically it requires going at least one gear too hard at a slower cadence in order to build more leg strength. The high-end anaerobic stuff has a fairly short effort-time no matter how much you train it so it’s gotta be all about he aerobic fitness.

With this being my final year as a student and my season going well so far, I’ve targeted two early races to try and do well in. The national inter-varisty champs are being run over a lap of Ballinastoe on February 19 and I’m hoping to travel to the British inter-varsities in March/ April (date not finalized) (http://www.bucsmountainbikechamps.co.uk) Last years course looks sketchy as….. Just up my alley!!!



I did a Vo2 max test during the week which was as I expected, was a fairly sick experience. You start at 120watts and go up 30watts every 3 minutes until you fall apart. I just managed to get into 360w and then fell apart very quickly. So a lot more base miles are needed so I don’t get the red head of death so quickly! Interestingly, Bernard in the TCD Pysiology department was saying that a big night out boozing can wipe out up to the last 6 days of training! At the moment that could be 12hours of bike riding gone down a urinal! This has certainly put going drinking into perspective.

This weekend has been a writeoff bike wise. I had planned on doing a long spin on Saturday and Sunday but got held up with college work yesterday and the weather was manky today. I know, I know- harden the fuck up… The forecast tomorrow is still brutal so I’m gonna do a spinning class in the morning in college and then maybe a road spin tomorrow evening if the weather has picked up any. Tuesday is either a three hour mtb spin or 3 hours road. I’ll hold off to see what the craic with Wednesday and Thursday is and then definitely a long 3 or 4 hour spin on Friday as I’m off college.

Between a training plan from Niall Davis last year and the results from the Vo2 max test, I know what I need to do. It’s just a case of getting on with it and making it happen now!