The world marathon championships are 32 days away
and I thought it might be a good time write a blog. I plan to post regular entries here, so if you are
interested in keeping track of my progress feel
free to drop by again over the next month.
After the Husky100 I had a bit of a break off the
bike; it was a little shorter than I would have liked after having a
pretty busy season, but big objectives require some sacrifices so I had
to hang up the skis and get back on the bike.
I have been focusing a lot on volume rather than intensity over the
past month in and effort to build slowly and resist the temptation to go
too hard and peak too early. In theory, it sounded good but the reality
of working as much as I do meant that I spent
a lot of cold, solo hours in the dark in the hills and back roads West
of Canberra. My only solace was that I convinced myself that it would
make me tougher.
The first big test of my progress was last
weekend in Wollombi NSW, Round #5 of the Real Insurance XCM Series. In
the bigger picture of my preparation for the World Champs this race
wasn’t much more than in indication of my level, but
sitting 2nd in the series behind Shaun Lewis who has dominated the series so far, I couldn’t consider it as
just another training ride. It was a must-win for me in
order to keep the increasingly prestigious series alive as well as my
first opportunity to race in my national champion jersey. Trenton Day
and I broke away from the field on the first climb
at 10km and worked really well together to build a comfortable lead.
At the turn around we had over 2 minutes from what looked like a
fragmented and disorganised chase and I was confident that we would stay
away. With very few climbs in the second half of
the course I was resigned to a 2-up sprint at the finish, however at
the bottom of the last big descent I noticed that I had a small gap of
around 30m. Without thinking too much, I attacked and to my surprise I
had managed to catch Trenton off guard and soon
built a small lead. It was then a 15km individual pursuit to the
finish which was very reminiscent of the Convict 100 and I managed to
hold on for the win. I was happy with my sensations and stoked to keep
the series alive with only the Highland Fling remaining.
Unfortunately for Trenton it was another 2nd place (he has 3 now for the year), but as a very young guy I know his time will come....very soon!
Now I will start to increase the training
intensity through to my next big test which will be the Dwellingup 100
in Western Australia. I am really looking forward to this event that I
did last year for the first time; it is really well
organised and has a great atmosphere, there are also some super strong
lads over there like Peter Hatton and Craig Cooke that are always
motivated to stop guys from the East coast coming over and burgling
their races.
Enjoy the Spring weather!
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