Lots more training

     Another big improvement this week to my training and despite a small setback at the start I'm pleased with the amount of riding I got in. Monday (once again) started the week with another rollers/core session, the last of this year. On Tuesday my dad and I headed out for a short hilly road ride in the dark up nearby hills and unfortunately coming down a road I didn't see a large pothole and got bumped over my bars and into a nearby ditch. The road rash was the only real injury fortunately although I had to ride 20 minutes home with half my lycra hanging off my legs. I showered and cleaned out the cut before getting an early night as I was heading off to the velodrome the next day for the christmas team pursuit race.
     I had found a late entry into the Union Jocks (Jack Crombie, Joe Nally and Lewis Mulholland) and after a shaky start by me we managed to qualify fastest, qualifying us for the semi finals in an hours time then potentially the final soon after. All didn't quite go to plan though and with a lot of confusion over gear sizes of other teams, ages and more the semi finals ended up being over an hour late. It then became clear that these were in fact the finals although we were lined up against the team that qualified in 4th but we were told we would just be riding for a time. After a shaky overtake when we came to lap the other team we came in 4 seconds slower than our qualifying time which was very frustrating and with all the chaos I left to get home early(-er) and didn't find out where we finished overall.
    I rested up on Thursday and headed out early Friday morning for a steady 75km in the drizzle with Ben and even though the ride was gentle my legs were still feeling quite tired by the end! An even earlier start on Saturday took me to the 9:30 ride and after a brutal outward leg to Haddington I peeled off as Grant from Perth had got lost so me and his brother pulled over and rode steadily back in but the ride was still over 80km which felt good.
    Sunday morning I got the car down to Glentress and met up with lots of people (Ben, Fraser, Lewis, Mark, Harry and Calum) for a fun social ride. We took it fairly gentle with a few efforts on the climbs but in general had quite a relaxed ride which was good craic.
    All in all I feel this week was good fun and hard work and I'm looking forward to carry on riding throughout the holidays. Cheers for reading, feel free to share, over and out. x
Oh and thanks to Yoda and his dad for the lift on Wednesday.
And that's ben in the first picture.