Well, this week hasn't been quite as successful as anticipated, with my illness returning on Monday putting me off my bike for the majority of the week. I went along to the velodrome yesterday as the team pursuit session started with a 2 hour off the bike workshop which I intended to do along with the track warm up before leaving. My body held up fine in the warm up and after I decided to do the whole track session which was really enjoyable. I struggled in the efforts and standing starts but 3 weeks off the bike probably wasn't ideal preparation and I came out the session having learnt a lot.
Exams have gone well so far as well (I hope so anyway) but with over half remaining they're still not over for another week. The illness still hasn't left me quite yet and as a result I'll keep my riding relatively gentle over the coming week with a new core session tomorrow evening and the possibility of an "off-road duathlon" next Sunday which will be a new experience. Cycle-speedway is another discipline I'll be giving a try me and some friends are riding the edinburgh schools championships in a few weeks which should be great fun and hopefully help with bunch skills for the road season (cornering, elbowing, committing to a line etc.).
That's about it for now, cheers for reading, feel free to share with muchos people, over and out.
Sunday 25 November 2012
Sunday 18 November 2012
Winter and Exams
A week on from first posting, I have finally ( I hope so anyway) recovered from my stomach bug and was able to go out for 40 miles steady this morning with the club. I'm still going to take it relatively gentle until Wednesday when I will make my first outing on the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome on my new shiny track bike (see previous post). The following Saturday will also another opportunity to get back on the boards with a team pursuit training session again in Glasgow and I'm really looking forward to both. The only downside of the oncoming week is my first proper exams start annoyingly just after recovering from an illness so the time spent on my bike over the next few weeks will still be relatively little I imagine.
From now until Christmas I am hoping to spend as much time as possible on the velodrome as the track there is amazing, although I am hoping to ride a couple of chaingangs every weekend to give me a good balance of hard efforts and steady miles. After deciding to ditch the strathpuffer and cyclocross this season, I have relatively little big goals before the start of next season but after a "team meeting" I am really excited for next season and eager to get racing already.
Fingers crossed I'll stay illness free from now unlike previous years and can start next season with a bang.
Cheers for reading, feel free to share, over and out.
Sunday 11 November 2012
Winter Intro
Well, here goes, first post.
After some discussion earlier today with Stuart Balfour (yes, THE Stuart Balfour) whilst watching a local cyclocross race, it was decided that a blog would be helpful to promote my cycling and give an insight into the life of a young aspiring cyclist. I brushed the idea off, blogs are pointless aren't they? Well, here I am...
I have ridden from an early age, racing on the mountain bike as an under 10 and on the road as an under 12. I could whine forever about my early years but the main factors in me starting racing were my Dad, Edinburgh RC youth section sorting out training sessions and helping take me to races and Peebles CC for putting on small dirt crit races for riders as young as under 8.
Quickly my riding progressed and as my racing calender increased I started getting better results. Around 12, I started proper "training". Since then I would hope to think I have had a successful few years riding as a youth travelling the length and breadth of the UK with medals in Scottish Road, Mountain and Cyclocross championships. The standout results for me thus far must be winning a stage of an international youth road race in Ireland last season (2011) and winning the Strathpuffer 24hr Mountain Bike race as a team of four (all riders under 15) competing against 60+ teams of 4. Another highlight of my time on the bike was being selected for the Scotland South mountain bike team at this year's British Inter Regional Mountain Bike Championships, where although my form was definitely on a downward slope, I feel I helped contribute to our 3rd place overall in the team's classification.
Rugby has also been a large aspect of my life up until now, with many clashes between the two sports resulting in performance in both lacking at times. As a result this winter I have decided to focus solely on road and track cycling in an effort to try and become one of the top youth road riders in Britain. I really believe this is achievable and, once I recover from this small stomach bug, am ready to buckle down and get some proper hard winter training in.
Lastly a huge thanks to everyone that had made my progression in the sport so far possible, to all the coaches and parents at ERC, to my parents for driving me up and down the country and buying me bikes, to Andy at the bicycleworks who does wonders fixing my bikes and to the Magowan/Balfour/Borthwick Lamont/Forsyth (probably more, sorry if I forgot anyone) families for putting up with me on long car journeys ferrying me to and from races.
Muchos thanks for reading, over and out.
After some discussion earlier today with Stuart Balfour (yes, THE Stuart Balfour) whilst watching a local cyclocross race, it was decided that a blog would be helpful to promote my cycling and give an insight into the life of a young aspiring cyclist. I brushed the idea off, blogs are pointless aren't they? Well, here I am...
I have ridden from an early age, racing on the mountain bike as an under 10 and on the road as an under 12. I could whine forever about my early years but the main factors in me starting racing were my Dad, Edinburgh RC youth section sorting out training sessions and helping take me to races and Peebles CC for putting on small dirt crit races for riders as young as under 8.
Quickly my riding progressed and as my racing calender increased I started getting better results. Around 12, I started proper "training". Since then I would hope to think I have had a successful few years riding as a youth travelling the length and breadth of the UK with medals in Scottish Road, Mountain and Cyclocross championships. The standout results for me thus far must be winning a stage of an international youth road race in Ireland last season (2011) and winning the Strathpuffer 24hr Mountain Bike race as a team of four (all riders under 15) competing against 60+ teams of 4. Another highlight of my time on the bike was being selected for the Scotland South mountain bike team at this year's British Inter Regional Mountain Bike Championships, where although my form was definitely on a downward slope, I feel I helped contribute to our 3rd place overall in the team's classification.
Rugby has also been a large aspect of my life up until now, with many clashes between the two sports resulting in performance in both lacking at times. As a result this winter I have decided to focus solely on road and track cycling in an effort to try and become one of the top youth road riders in Britain. I really believe this is achievable and, once I recover from this small stomach bug, am ready to buckle down and get some proper hard winter training in.
Lastly a huge thanks to everyone that had made my progression in the sport so far possible, to all the coaches and parents at ERC, to my parents for driving me up and down the country and buying me bikes, to Andy at the bicycleworks who does wonders fixing my bikes and to the Magowan/Balfour/Borthwick Lamont/Forsyth (probably more, sorry if I forgot anyone) families for putting up with me on long car journeys ferrying me to and from races.
Muchos thanks for reading, over and out.
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