John Keyes

Didn’t make it out this morning, so did a tempo session on the turbo instead.

Sniper Reloaded provided some distraction, not as much as I would have liked but some.

The Turbo awaits again tomorrow. It makes little odds to my legs where they are pedalling, but my brain longs for the road after the past few days.

I had a great nights sleep and a clean bike so there was nothing stopping me today.

I got the finger out and did a turbo session today. Let’s just say I got through it. Many times I asked myself was it worth it, and many times I called myself a wuss and decided to knuckle down.

Memories of Stinger (Paddy Ryan) bringing the pain in the Portlaw Woods in pre-season training came flooding back. His smile grew proportionally to our grimaces, but come the first game of the season we’d be flying (fitness wise at least).

This was the first day of a three day block, tomorrow was supposed to be an outdoor spin, but I’ll have to get up early if I’m going to squeeze it in. If not I’ll just do an equivalent turbo session. Please let me get up early, and please let the roads be dry.

Pretty annoyed with myself right now. I missed yesterdays session due to time restrictions somewhat of my own making.

I spent between two and three hours just cleaning the drivetrain. It was manky. Everything is now spick and span, but as we know that won’t last for long.

I only finished cleaning the bike today so I’m skippng this session too as I need to catch-up on some quality sleep.

All of this means I’ll be out of kilter by a few days on the plan. I’m annoyed with myself for this, but I won’t try to make up the time as that may lead me down the road to injury.

Tomorrow will be treated like Week 2 Day 3 and I’ll go from there.

This morning’s weather, wet and wild, helped me make up my mind on whether to go out for an early spin.

Weather rarely bothers me, in fact I get a kick out of venturing out in dirty weather. However, this morning I wasn’t in the mood for dealing with it all.

My patience paid off and by the afternoon I was greeted by blue skies and bright sunshine.

I had a two hour session ahead, a fifteen minute warm-up, one hour thirty of moderate effort, and a warm-down. It would have been easier if I made sure to stick my pump up my jersey. One return to base later I was back on track.

Apart from a fairly strong crosswind it was a decent spin. I did my warm down with the two childer, doing laps in the front yard for about twenty minutes.

Two rest days ahead.

Oh, I almost forgot, TOTD (Tool Of The Day) goes to the genius who almost clipped me when overtaking into oncoming traffic near the Ballyragget/Comer roundabout. Bonus Toolage as he was carrying a road bike on a rack.

It turns out that yesterday’s rest day was definitely needed. I was pooped for most of the day. I didn’t have a good nights sleep either so that would have contributed to the general lethargy.

I spent fifty minutes on the turbo tonight and didn’t enjoy it one little bit. Legs were heavy, sweat was dripping off my elbows, but now it’s done I feel great (as expected).

The video I was using tonight was The Long Scream, which uses footage from the World TT Championship from Copenhagen. Check out the preview below:

The Long Scream

I thought it a bit much to be told to match the cadence of Wiggins when pushing hard! Ah sure, I made an attempt at it anyway.

Another rest day tomorrow then out for a while on the road on Sunday to complete week 1.