This week has been less than great in terms of both training and energy levels. Don't know why but the last two days I've just felt flat. No energy, nothing. Been in bed early but still just a lack of power or my normal levels of bouncing off the walls. So this morning I woke up feeling slightly better yet still no "I want to get out and ride" feeling. Think this weekend took more out of me than I realized, what with the drive and the race. That was this morning though....
Went out this afternoon on the trail that I'll be racing on the weekend. Luckily it's really close so jumped over just after work, well a little before but I have burning the midnight candle. Its the third of the Israeli Cup races and officially my third UCI event, although they don't really count for much these days. It takes place in the hills of the Galilee with nothing remotely flat as you can see in the graph.
The trail kicks off with a whopper of climb basically breaking the field to bits without even giving us a chance to get to know each other. So no chatting on the start thats for sure but we'll have plenty of time for chit chat afterwards. We do three laps of sheer work. After the tough hill we snake back down the hill moving up and down the on some tight turns, scattered quite liberally with rocky drops and some calf chewing steps. I really liked the course although there were a few complaints of it being far to difficult with no flow. I think on a course like this you need to work to get that flow. I can't say that I was flowing as usual but after getting to know the beast and taming her a bit I started to find my way around the corners and keep the momentum going. However there was a sting in her tail, coming off a fast little section with some snappy switchbacks I found myself leaning hard into a corner only to find that the sturdy looking rocks weren't so sturdy. I came a cropper and my left side from shoulder to shin has strawberry burns all over it. Glad that I got out there for the ride, tomorrow morning its early morning two hours at recovery pace just to get the muscles working.
Went out this afternoon on the trail that I'll be racing on the weekend. Luckily it's really close so jumped over just after work, well a little before but I have burning the midnight candle. Its the third of the Israeli Cup races and officially my third UCI event, although they don't really count for much these days. It takes place in the hills of the Galilee with nothing remotely flat as you can see in the graph.
The trail kicks off with a whopper of climb basically breaking the field to bits without even giving us a chance to get to know each other. So no chatting on the start thats for sure but we'll have plenty of time for chit chat afterwards. We do three laps of sheer work. After the tough hill we snake back down the hill moving up and down the on some tight turns, scattered quite liberally with rocky drops and some calf chewing steps. I really liked the course although there were a few complaints of it being far to difficult with no flow. I think on a course like this you need to work to get that flow. I can't say that I was flowing as usual but after getting to know the beast and taming her a bit I started to find my way around the corners and keep the momentum going. However there was a sting in her tail, coming off a fast little section with some snappy switchbacks I found myself leaning hard into a corner only to find that the sturdy looking rocks weren't so sturdy. I came a cropper and my left side from shoulder to shin has strawberry burns all over it. Glad that I got out there for the ride, tomorrow morning its early morning two hours at recovery pace just to get the muscles working.
