April has been a real rollercoater of a month. I've been tackling an annoying knee injury which managed to be resolved after some professional help and week of the bike. It was important to pin down the cause of the pain so I didn't make the injury worse and prolong the injury or recovery process. Its a long season so the sensible thing to do was fix it ASAP!
The injury caused me a tough mental challenge as working so hard over winter and the past couple of months made me really hungry for a result. This is self pressure that is healthy when used in a good way, but not used in a positive way can be damaging to your performance and cause some low times. The worst thing any athlete can face is time out when they feel like they are just getting going and training and racing is going well! Thankfully after the week off the bike I managed to come back stronger mentally and that allowed me to build back up slowly to the bigger races and training rides. This made sure the Knee pain didn't come back.
Races this month seem to have flown by and I have to admit they haven't been the best result wise, but nevertheless I have gone out with the attitude of 'Nothing to lose but everything to Gain'. Using this moto I have gone out hard on each race trying the search for winning breakaways and really taking racing on. I have been going for the all important primes as well. Primes equal a small prize reward when crossing the line first on set laps. When you win one they are used for some extra food shopping or the all important CAFE STOP! Its a real morale boost and good incentive during the race.
NEXT MONTH:
Next month (MAY) sees some really big races for me and first big personal target of the year. One of them being the 5day stage race held in France called La Mange, this is held at the end of May. To build up to this we have a number of interclubs and hilly U23 races to build up to the stage race. My personal target to the race is to win a jersey (Preferably YELLOW!) and place highly overall. Stage 2 sees us tackle a 14km ITT so I will be going for a top result in that also. For a team target I would love to work hard for the sprinter in our team and see a team member on the podium!
The injury caused me a tough mental challenge as working so hard over winter and the past couple of months made me really hungry for a result. This is self pressure that is healthy when used in a good way, but not used in a positive way can be damaging to your performance and cause some low times. The worst thing any athlete can face is time out when they feel like they are just getting going and training and racing is going well! Thankfully after the week off the bike I managed to come back stronger mentally and that allowed me to build back up slowly to the bigger races and training rides. This made sure the Knee pain didn't come back.
Races this month seem to have flown by and I have to admit they haven't been the best result wise, but nevertheless I have gone out with the attitude of 'Nothing to lose but everything to Gain'. Using this moto I have gone out hard on each race trying the search for winning breakaways and really taking racing on. I have been going for the all important primes as well. Primes equal a small prize reward when crossing the line first on set laps. When you win one they are used for some extra food shopping or the all important CAFE STOP! Its a real morale boost and good incentive during the race.
NEXT MONTH:
Next month (MAY) sees some really big races for me and first big personal target of the year. One of them being the 5day stage race held in France called La Mange, this is held at the end of May. To build up to this we have a number of interclubs and hilly U23 races to build up to the stage race. My personal target to the race is to win a jersey (Preferably YELLOW!) and place highly overall. Stage 2 sees us tackle a 14km ITT so I will be going for a top result in that also. For a team target I would love to work hard for the sprinter in our team and see a team member on the podium!