NEW BEGINNING....WATTAGE, MATT BOTTRILL and a new start......Euro 2016 qualification.

It has been a rather tough month and if you asked me how I felt 4 weeks ago I would have gave you an honest answer and it would have been rather confused. I  was on a taper week ready to race clumber classic after a rather crap race two week prior. I had no idea how I was going to race and was very worried that it would be another repeat performance of a substandard race....and low and behold it was another very poor race by my standards. I wanted more from racing and have worked my ass off during the winter (turns out making myself weaker and weaker, week on week). After these very disappointing results I found myself very lost and didnt know what to do where to turn or what step to make next, I also had Horst European Duathlon Championships on the horizon...so it was crunch time. I needed to now make some decisions, first of which was getting a coach, this was and I hope to be a fundamental and critical decision to contribute towards me making progress in the future. I almost want to achieve too much and have been burring myself week in and out and doing far to much with not enough of the right stuff. I can now see and say that I was chronically fatigued and am now starting to shake it and come out of it, but there is still more work to be done there.

The coach I have chosen for my new beginning is Matt Bottrill, his credentials talk for them self and he is one of the most talented time trialist's to ever grace the British shores with some fantastic records for numerous distances.



http://www.mattbottrillperformancecoaching.com/


Matt is going to look after my cycling and provide me with the correct training plans to improve my cycling. I know this isnt a quick fix...what it? So I am in it for the long run to suffer and strive to improve my cycling and get faster! The first thing Matt told me was, if you want me to make you faster you must train to wattage...so thats what ive done, and the chosen type of power meter is stages. This was recommended by a friend and has been great so far. Wattage has no variance and is what it is, you push what you push and things like caffeine will not alter it. So on wards and upwards!  Next stop....new bike?


The next decision was, what do I do about Horsts? obviously the race had now passed, but it was a very hard decision especially because it was something that I was working towards all winter....but I decided to pull. It was a hard decision, but certainly the correct one. I had such high aspirations to do well at Horst but it just didnt work out, the training and focus was lost due to many things and I just had to make the best decision for myself!



Although I had such a bad race at Clumber Park duathlon I did however manage to qualify for the European Duathlon Championships in 2016, which as a slight silver lining. This is something to aim for and a realistic goal to aim for to achieve something serious in the sport.

NEW TOY!


So where to go next, I have a program in place, a new coach, a few new toys and a summer of miles and improvements! The winter almost killed me and now I have a coach to make sure this does not happen again!


Also watch this new space for some new recipes..............