The off season

Right, to summarise in 2 words what I've been doing for the past 3 months... bugger all.

Well, I've been doing a few bits.

After the marathon champs, I pretty much stopped mountain biking and road cycling with the exception of commuting to work. I did not have much time on my hands with work and the little guy and after a busy end to the season I did not fancy doing much.

I did over do the cycling to work however, and ended up getting a bit run down. A trip to the doctor confirmed this and a course of iron and plenty of rest for a couple of weeks sorted me out.

Next came cyclocross in October. I did a few of the training session organised by Team WORC and really enjoyed it. Initially it was a case of swapping tyres on the Kinesis for the training, but once I decided to do a few races I bought a cheapo set of wheels for the road and used the old set for CX. I raced in the Tymon park and Corcaigh Park Supercup races and found them shockingly tough, but seriously fun. You were always chasing or being chased and it was all over in an hour - perfect. There were not many races in the Dublin area this year, but judging by the number of competitors out, there will be plenty for next season. And it gives me time to upgrade the Kinesis groupset and brakes :)

I then decided to sell the Pronghorn. Its a class bike - and it will be hard get a better XC race bike, but I'm working on something for next year so hopefully I won't regret getting rid of it!

Then the big freeze kicked in. So that meant no biking of any kind. I had been thinking about what to do training-wise this winter and one thing that came to mind was core training. Its something that I have never thought much about, but its seemingly pretty important. So, flush with cash from the Pronghorn sale I got a good deal in a local gym and signed up for some core classes. They mainly consist of planks, light(ish) weights, and press ups - plenty of those! I don't think it'll do me any harm, so its worth trying out.

But its no substitute for biking - on or off road. So Thats what I need to start doing. Today (Sat 8th) was to be the first day of training, but snow, ice and rain put me off, so todays my rest day :), will defo head out tomorrow...