The Plain

(Again, things never seem to work as they should in France so the pics are first, stupid electronics)

Last weekend was the first real race of the year for me, and oh man did I feel it! The thing about racing is that it pushes your limits in all ways. You have to think sharp, you body has to be sharpe and you have to push yourself further than you noramlly would in training.

The worst was my hips. I went from doing mostly LSD and intervals to 3+ hours hard in the drops over terrible gravel-type roads. This is quite a change for the old body and when I got off the bike after the race my hips were sooooooo sore I could barely walk or bend over. The next day every little muscle in my hips were pretty much torn apart and I looked like and old man walking around.

Tuesday I did some climbing intervals. Its interesting using a power meter. I thought I would simply plug it in and go for a ride, not pay attention to the numbers and just send the file off to coach Luc. Honestly I hate electronics and prety much everything to do with them, but I notice I use the SRM as a tool now, and Tuesday I realized how valuable it was. I noticed when I did the intervals on the climb while standing the power was much better than last week, but while doing seated intervals the numbers were a bit down.

Makes sence as 2 days before was basically allllllllll seated power intervals. But its interesting to see real number that show that part of your riding is tired.

Yesterday I made the push for a 4 hours ride. Again, the wind has been brutal here and you find yourself either riding at 20km/h or 45km/h. Like last week the last half hour I bonked which I was expected, especially fighting the wind.

I felt a bit tired too, so Im taking today and tomorrow pretty easy. I have to race twice this weekend....the details of the race is something my understanding of french cannot grasp so Im going to go with the flow. Apparently there is hills in one of them?!

I have one more week of training before I go to Ireland/Paris where I wont have my bike. Im looking foreward to it. Luckily the trip co-incided with a rest week so Im trying to push myself a little bit more as to justify a week of the bike.

Hopefully a week with my darling will ease the mind. As the saying goes, when your head is good, usually your legs are too.