A week of riding in words.

I have now completed two races. These first ones were close together, which left me no time for training. With the next race being four weeks away that gave me five weeks to try some proper training, including trying to get back to where I was riding three times a week before fracturing my elbow back in early spring. The plan is simple - do one ride as hard as possible for an hour and twenty minutes, another lower paced two and half hour to three hour ride midweek, then something new to me, interval training instead of my short Sunday ride to try and build power. Starting last Tuesday the full pace ride went well barring a puncture then the long ride on Friday got skipped due to other commitments (great start I know!) then Sunday and interval training. I did not expect this to be this hard, the idea was to do a 10 minute warm up followed by 4 mins full tilt  4 mins of recovery, then the same for 3 mins, 2 mins, two 1 mins, four 30 secs, two 1mins, , 2mins, 3mins, 4mins and finally a 10 min warm down, just reading that has made me tired. I only managed to make it to the second set of 1 mins and I was done, my legs were wasted, my hart rate hardly recovered and I felt terrible, limping home slowly feeling sorry for myself but determined to do better next week. I'm toying with the idea of going to the gym to do this on an exercise bike until I feel more comfortable out doing it on the bike. I just didn't have the concentration to be doing something that took that much out of me on the open roads and on technical off road tracks safely. Back on to this week and the Tuesday ride went well barring yet another puncture, it would appear the Nobby Nics do have a weakness. I've had more punctures since switching to these than I ever did running the Fire xc pros but it's a price I'm willing to pay for such an awesome, light, well rounded tyre. Tomorrow will see me do my long ride and I'm looking forward to venturing out a little further than I have done for a while. After not thinking I'm going to take racing seriously, I'm now fully buzzing with the idea of a Thetford winter series then possibly an XC race bike for next summer. Shhh don't tell Stacey.