Tuesday 20 January 2009

Taste the sick!


Pass the bucket.

'Can you taste the sick? No? Sprint harder next time round.' So said one of the coaches I recently worked with. I wasn't going to mention the last time I had a vomit related cycling incident, but now I've started..... A midday curry is not a good preparation for a 2 hour evening track session that involves a lot of intervals, well maybe it is if you're not determined to stick to the training plan, maybe actually taking the easy option is sometimes the better choice, er, nah.

I'll tell any riders I coach that they should carefully consider what they eat the day of a hard session for two reasons, 1) making sure there's fuel in the tank and 2) to avoid seeing your last meal on you handle bars. (Still at least I made it to the track toilets, which I'm sure is a sign of weakness. I believe squad riders actually do an extra lap, taste the sick and then lose it into a track side bucket.... nice). As with most of my coaching it's a case of 'not as I do'.

UCI - On the ball as ever.
Did you know that there was some road racing taking place in Australia? No neither did I. So thank God for the UCI, who have just filled my in box and wasted moments of my less than precious time telling me so. I look forward to future press releases 'Tour de France to take place in July' , 'Cobbles found on Paris-Roubaix route', 'Some Velodromes have banking', 'We know what we're doing' and so on.
It wasn't so much the 'bleeding obvious' that made me laugh, it was the fact that road racing has been happening all year round. Whilst Uncle Pat has been drinking coco and throwing another log on the fire the locals have been hard at it Africa, South America, Australia and several place in between. It's a global sport Uncle Pat, 12 months a year, someone somewhere is racing on the road.

Some random stuff I can't be bothered to fill twitter with.

Katyusha budget for the year £15 million, or 15 race starts for the old fella. Part of an annual £30 m project, according to CS. Good project though, womens team, continental squad, development stuff and the UCI/Pro tour squad, oh, and the boy Swifty, shame about the jersey though.

Watching Cycling dot TV, Phil and Paul trying to talk up the TDU, calm down dear, calm down. It's long season and you're not getting any younger. Save something for the final sprint. Must be the deal they have with the Aussie broadcaster which brings the old staggers out to play rather than allowing CTV to get their regulars out. Mccrossen is at the cross and IMHO that's the better option, hell it's colder and wetter, but the beer is a whole lot better.

Cycle Sport, good edition I thought, one of the best for many a long month, with the exception of the Cav and his donkey story it's a very good read. The donkey story has been getting trotted out for well over a year now and when I see it, I'll believe it.
They still seem obsessed with hair though, don't they? Perhaps they all used to work on 'blow dry monthly' or something similar.

Oh dear, all I've talked about today is turds and vomit, how sad. I hope for a better day tomorrow.


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