No Train, No Pain, No gain

Ah training, as athletes this is where it all started.  Nobodies first ever bike ride was a race.  Whether it’s a leisurely spin on the canal on a warm evening, a dull day on a gym bike staring out at the rain or a 100 mile epic with your mates, training is where it all begins.  I once read a quote by Peter Van Petegem that said no one ever got lucky at Flanders and Roubaix.  This is my basic principal, the goals may be slightly scaled down for me but the hard truth is right there.   As I look out at snow laden fields and the slivers of tarmac that criss cross the dales like a chess board, it’s all too easy to sit behind a window, sup your hot chocolate and look at equipment that claims to make you faster.  And this is where Van Petegem comes in.  For six weeks now I have been back in the endless routine of getting up, fueling up on porridge and heading out into the cold, with nothing more than my pockets crammed with homemade flapjack and an ipod full of motivational beats for company.  I train largely alone; weekdays are where the real difference is made for me.  My standard training consists of a couple of back to back days of long rides, on average 4 hours long, followed by a shorter harder day for speed, then back to the monotony of a couple of long rides again with either a rest day or a spin on the rollers to let the body recover.  I am sticking to a set plan every week of around 20 hours riding and a strict café budget of 5 pounds so as to not get lulled into easier rides.  

Training days are rarely the same.  There are days when you go out and feel as though the wind is on your back the whole way round, when the pedals turn effortlessly in a smooth action and where you head thinks… faster and the body delivers.  If you manage a couple of these a week then the form is coming along nicely.  Then there are the days when you curse every little rise in the road, when the slightest gust from a passing car is resented for the next hour and when no matter what track your listening to it just doesn’t ‘do it’ for you.  These happen a couple of days a week as well but if every day was a good day then you would never have a good day…something to think about.   In between my outings into the dales there is normally at least 1 day a week on the rollers.  Rollers are an example of brilliantly simple engineering, 3 rolling pins and an elastic band, so simple and yet so painful! I remember my first experience of rollers, I hopped on a pair before a prologue at the junior tour of wales and within 3 seconds I was on my backside with half the car park staring at me wishing they’d had a video camera and an envelope for you’ve been framed.  Since then I have come on a lot.  The rollers teach you to be smooth, efficient and allow you to do all this without leaving the house.  So once a week I don the summer kit, set the bike up in the garage and ride for an hour with nothing more interesting to look at than the pointing on the garage wall and the clock as it creeps by.  An hour is perfect, any shorter and you don’t get the race rhythm in your legs, any longer and your prostate goes to sleep for a couple of days.  The controlled environment is the perfect place to measure efforts without being interrupted by a poorly timed railway crossing or an overly keen motorist.  So there you have it, training, come March and the training will be put to the test as all eyes will be on who rode through 3 chains in winter, who trained abroad, who put the hours in down the gym and who partied a little too hard over winter. 

I should give a brief mention to this year’s team which I am pleased to announce as ‘Lotto Olympia Tienen’.  I know little of them so far but I will be giving the new bike it’s first competitive outing on 4^th March so stay tuned for my first race report with the new bunch of lads.