Sunday in Hell

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Sports Tag ID

I recently received my Sports tag bracelet. For me, the experience is similar to that of helmet. Initially I didn't train wearing a helmet but common sense eventually prevailed. Sports tag is the same; it makes good sense to have your emergency contact information easily accessible in case of a crash.

It has become part of my routine - I feel strange if I have left for a ride without wearing the bracelet.

Can you plan for the unexpected?

I have just returned home from Canada. Many months ago when I was booking my flights I was not relishing the thought of my last few weeks in Canada. I had a picture painted in my head of ice covered roads with snow piled high on the footpaths and sub zero temperatures.

The last couple of weeks in November were cold in Canada. I learnt some important lessons and adapted some strategies to deal with the cold. The wind chill can be especially bad in the sub zero temperatures; any exposed areas of flesh get a real battering. After a few rides in these conditions I was told to put vasoline all over the exposed areas before venturing out into the cold. Another trick I was shown was to fill your water bottles with hot water and place them in your jersey pockets to stop them freezing.

I returned to Ireland, bidding the cold weather goodbye, or so I hoped. I was not expecting what greeted me in Dublin - snow covered roads. When the temperature drops in Canada they are so accustomed to the adverse conditions that a protection mechanism is triggered. The system they have in place leaves the roads almost perfect and certainly in good enough condition to train on.



The lack of any coherent strategy to deal with the bad weather here has meant that since returning home last week I haven't managed to get out for a single spin on the road. At a time when many Irish riders, based abroad, are starting to crank up the duration of their sessions, I am facing the unenviable chore of logging base miles on the turbo trainer.

Track in Canada

It seems with the economic boom a distance memory in the Irish psyche and the recession touching everyone in a unique way the opportunity to build an indoor velodrome in Ireland has passed. The selection of London for the 2012 Olympic games brought an optimism in the Irish cycling community. The project made economic and political sense in the run up to the games. It seems that Irish athletes now face an unfortunate dichotomy; travel abroad in search of appropriate facilities or endure sub-standard facilities at home.

The Irish track commission have made the best of a bad situation and used limited funds available to great effect in re-surfacing the track in Sundrive Park, Crumlin. Unfortunately a minority of local youths seem intent on destruction, vandalism and theft. A series of regretable incidents has culminated in serious damage to the racing surface caused by a deliberate fire a couple of months ago.

I have been lucky enough over the past couple of months to be based near a velodrome in London, Ontario. The track is a lot more compact than traditional two hundred and fifty meter Olympic tracks, measuring a mere one hundred and twenty five meters. The angle of the banking on the track is also more severe than I have become accustomed too.

The compressed nature of the track serves to exaggerate and magnify any mistakes made on the track. A poor change in a team pursuit drill sees one trail meters behind team mates, while holding the black line for a pursuit is almost impossible with g-forces forcing one onto the red line at every corner.

Most of the work I have been doing on the track is skills based with intensity far from one hundred percent - this suits me fine considering it is still November and many months away from my first A-priority race of the season.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

The Edge

The beginning of the off-season draws a line under the previous years racing and gives everyone an opportunity to start from fresh. Poor winter preparation is the excuse I hear most frequently advanced for sub optimal 'in season' performance.

A solid winter is the basis upon which success can be built upon as the summer approaches. For most Irish based cyclists' their top priority race will be the eight day An Post Ras, starting at the end of May.

Base training has been described to me using the analogy of a pyramid. The wider one builds the base of the structure, ie the amount of base miles logged in the legs, the higher the potential peak. A good winter training does not guarantee success later in the season; it merely facilitates it. One must increase the specificity of the sessions as ones top priority race approaches. My template for the coming season will resemble that of last season. The early part of my season will focus on road racing while the latter part will become more track specific.

I recently completed a performance review for last season. One of the areas which I feel I can make big strides in is nutrition. My nutrition last season followed no structured plan. I ate whatever was convenient with little thought to the nutritional quality of the food I was ingesting.

This season I have starting working with the guys from The Edge Fitness (www.theedgeclontarf.com) on a new nutrition plan. The plan has at its core fresh produce. I have started eating large quantities of nutrient dense, alkalising foods. The difference it has made to my strength and overall well-being is immense. By eating wholesome foods I am hunger less often, have less cravings for sugary snacks and have increased energy.

I have realised the stress placed on the body from cycling is significant. The body seems unable to distinguish between mental stress (work concerns etc), physical stress (produced from training) and nutritional stress (produced from eating bad foods). By eating foods that require little or no work to digest I am able to remove nutritional stress from the equation. The absence of nutritional stress has the effect of speeding up my recovery as the blood required to aid recovery in my legs is not diverted to my stomach to help digest a bulky processed meal.

Reduced recovery time invariably means improved quality in the upcoming session. By focusing on small details I am hoping to make big strides for the coming season.

iBlogger

Excuse the condensed nature of this post. This is my first update from a new app I have found called iBlogger.

Training was been going well here in Toronto. The conditions at the moment are pretty much ideal for cycling; it's dry almost every day but I do have to endure single digit temperatures most days.

The key is dressing for the weather and the absence of rain makes that job a lot easier. I have had to invest in a pair of lobster style gloves and some heavy wind proof over-shoes but everything else is the same as I was wearing back home.

Multiple but breathable layers are the key for staying warm and dry in this weather.

I will try get a blog post up about how I am adapting to track racing soon.