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Getting ready for BikeRadar Live!

A few weeks back when I last updated my blog I knew that the weeks that have just passed would be crucial. I had become slightly slack during late March and April and my progress had stalled. I still don’t really know what happened, but probably a mix of moving house and a slight lack of motivation meant that my training time in April was almost half of what it was in January or February!

Enduro 6 and the Dyfi Enduro gave me a bit of a wake up call and I am really pleased that the last few weeks have been excellent. I’ve upped my game and gone back to the type of training that I really enjoy in order to get the most out of myself. I’ve had a bit of a fascination with doing century road rides on the Kiron Scandium and really enjoyed planning some new routes around the Cardigan coast and into the South Wales valleys.

Distances between 100 and 120 miles on hilly, scenic roads. Last week I tested myself by doing big rides on consecutive days, 100 miles on Monday and 115 miles on Tuesday, both with over 2500 meters of climbing and both on wet and windy days. I loved both rides and doing them really boosted my confidence as I wasn’t too sure how good my endurance and recovery was.

This week I have planned a hard ride for Monday, but from there on it will be a case of easing up and getting ready for BikeRadar Live, a 12hr solo night race which is my first targeted event this year. I’ve been riding the new Focus First Extreme for a few weeks now, so well used to them and loving riding them. I can’t wait to test myself and have high hopes for the weekend, which looks like it will be a great event. It is a totally new event, so I don’t know what to expect or how the event works, so I hope everything goes smoothly. One thing I know for sure if the lap is short at only 5km. Given dry or normal weather lap times will be between 15 and 20 minutes, which would mean over 50 laps! I don’t tend to get bored while racing, but hopefully the course will have something enjoyable to keep the motivation up.

The event will also be a bit of a practice for myself, Nia and Ben in the pit ready for Mountain Mayhem, just 4 weeks away. It will be a great chance to finalise my bikes, nutrition plan, lights and pacing. If all goes well I’ll start quickly and finish quickly!

After BikeRadar we are heading up to the Lake District for a few days to chill out and explore the area before heading to Dalby Forest for 6th June for the UK Singlespeed Championships, always a fun event!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 3:15 pm and is filed under Athlete Diaries, Matthew Page. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.