Whoa, what a past few days! I just completed a good little training camp with the team Saturday and Sunday. It went pretty well until I got horribly horribly sick hours after I got home. I got kicked in the face in the worst way possible. Suddenly I felt like I was going to get sick, then the next 2 days I spent either hugging or sitting on the toilet. If I wasnt in the bathroom I was lieing in bed shaking with cold. It was terrible.
I thought I had food poisoning but no one on the team seemed to have it other than myself, and we ate the same food all weekend. Yikes it was terrible. I feel better this morning and managed to eat a bowl of oatmeal(first food since 1pm on Sunday) and that went down ok, the coffee on the other hand is fighting to show itself though.
Well. Other than that the training camp went ok. It was a weekend of mis-translations thats for sure. On Friday I got a call from my team director telling me we were going to camp in AN HOUR. "Holy Shit" I thought. and I rushed to pack my bags before he arrived to head to the hotel. Turns out it was a mis-comunicatioon and he was dropping another rider off at the house in an hour.
So, we go to camp the next day at 11, get checked in, have lunch and suit up. The new team kits that were suppose to be in Friday were late, which is the case with every other clothing order in the history of mankind.
So, we got ready and I asked how long the ride would be. My impression I got from The DS was 70km which I thought was a bit light but didnt really think much about it. 40 km into the ride we approached the area of Suisse-Normandy, which you can imagine is full of small mountains. So, I was thinking this ride was 70km, so I rode hard up it and to my surprise came out in the font group of about 4 guys in the 5km climb. It was then as the ride carried on that I realized that this ride was much more than 70km. Having only brought enough food and water for 70km I was fighting a huge bonk brought on by the effort of the climb, and I travelled back to the team car to beg for food.
The thing about Normandy that ive learned is that the rides always seem to start out easy. It isnt until 50km that everyone basically attacks and attacks the ride becomes hard. If its not hard enough then you work on paceline, which is slightly easier but you still go like 50km/h.
So I basically rode myself into the ground to finish the ride, but all in all it was a good 120km.
The next day we awoke early to slap out another ride. As the trends are going now in Europe it was cold(about 2-5degrees) and rainy. The pace was ok at first, but then again it went up and attacks and climbs took their toll on me. I rode until the 90km point in the paceline but then just didnt have any power left(not to mention I was harbouring a horrible virus which I didnt know about) and dropped off.
So, I rode back to the hotel. Problem was I got lost along the way. Now, my french is good enough to ask where something is or where a hotel is or even a town is. The thing about France is that in 5km/sq there is about 60 small towns. So, everyone I asked had never heard of this town we were staying in, even though it was like 8km away. YIKES>.
Anyway, I managed to find the hotel and made my way in just before lunch with a total ride of about 135-140km, about an hour more than I anticipated. I was feeling ok, just really frustrated as you can imagine.
Well Im feeling better today and I might jaunt down to the boulangerie to get a coissont. I think I can afford it consdering the only thing Ive eaten for 2 days was perrier and coke.
Other than the sickenss and the mis-communication life in France is ok. I miss my woman like crazy, but I'm heading to Ireland to see her in a month, cant wait!
I thought I had food poisoning but no one on the team seemed to have it other than myself, and we ate the same food all weekend. Yikes it was terrible. I feel better this morning and managed to eat a bowl of oatmeal(first food since 1pm on Sunday) and that went down ok, the coffee on the other hand is fighting to show itself though.
Well. Other than that the training camp went ok. It was a weekend of mis-translations thats for sure. On Friday I got a call from my team director telling me we were going to camp in AN HOUR. "Holy Shit" I thought. and I rushed to pack my bags before he arrived to head to the hotel. Turns out it was a mis-comunicatioon and he was dropping another rider off at the house in an hour.
So, we go to camp the next day at 11, get checked in, have lunch and suit up. The new team kits that were suppose to be in Friday were late, which is the case with every other clothing order in the history of mankind.
So, we got ready and I asked how long the ride would be. My impression I got from The DS was 70km which I thought was a bit light but didnt really think much about it. 40 km into the ride we approached the area of Suisse-Normandy, which you can imagine is full of small mountains. So, I was thinking this ride was 70km, so I rode hard up it and to my surprise came out in the font group of about 4 guys in the 5km climb. It was then as the ride carried on that I realized that this ride was much more than 70km. Having only brought enough food and water for 70km I was fighting a huge bonk brought on by the effort of the climb, and I travelled back to the team car to beg for food.
The thing about Normandy that ive learned is that the rides always seem to start out easy. It isnt until 50km that everyone basically attacks and attacks the ride becomes hard. If its not hard enough then you work on paceline, which is slightly easier but you still go like 50km/h.
So I basically rode myself into the ground to finish the ride, but all in all it was a good 120km.
The next day we awoke early to slap out another ride. As the trends are going now in Europe it was cold(about 2-5degrees) and rainy. The pace was ok at first, but then again it went up and attacks and climbs took their toll on me. I rode until the 90km point in the paceline but then just didnt have any power left(not to mention I was harbouring a horrible virus which I didnt know about) and dropped off.
So, I rode back to the hotel. Problem was I got lost along the way. Now, my french is good enough to ask where something is or where a hotel is or even a town is. The thing about France is that in 5km/sq there is about 60 small towns. So, everyone I asked had never heard of this town we were staying in, even though it was like 8km away. YIKES>.
Anyway, I managed to find the hotel and made my way in just before lunch with a total ride of about 135-140km, about an hour more than I anticipated. I was feeling ok, just really frustrated as you can imagine.
Well Im feeling better today and I might jaunt down to the boulangerie to get a coissont. I think I can afford it consdering the only thing Ive eaten for 2 days was perrier and coke.
Other than the sickenss and the mis-communication life in France is ok. I miss my woman like crazy, but I'm heading to Ireland to see her in a month, cant wait!
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