Toughen Up

March 26th, 2009 by Gavin

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It was an evening turbo session sometime in the 1990’s ….. note the ‘under cut’ hair style, old school profile tri bars, very dubious blue lyrca and extra weights attached to my top tube - im still not sure why I used to add weight to my bike … if only I had of known then what I know now ! back in the day of ‘trial and error’ - Triathlon Ireland didnt have the coaching structures in place then as they do now

I slept for 12hrs last night and was still sluggish when I woke up. I had a 2.5hr ride to do this morning - I sat infront of the TV looking out at the wind and hail and asked a few people if they could do the ride for me … but there were no takers !

Today was my first road ride in the Northern Hemisphere since October 2008 (I was a mountain bike convert before heading to South Africa), 2.5hrs at an average of 251watts. This time last week I was chasing and drafting trucks at 65kph with Dann Brook and Dion Harrison (2 British non drafting lords) around the ‘4 passes’ - my sleeveless top had its zip down, we stopped twice during the 130k ride to refill our water bottles and my big nose was getting burnt. That ride during an 18hr bike week seemed a distant memory as today in Enniskillen my big nose was streaming ‘gu’, I had 4 layers on and instead of looking over my shoulder for a truck to draft I had my head at an angle trying to keep the hail stones off my cheeks. I wasnt a happy chappy.

Mr Voice was suggesting my time in South Africa had made me soft and reminded me what Bobby Behan would say with a gleam in his eye when I complained about it being 24 degrees and cold - ”here Gav, toughen up”.

The cafe stops with my Stellenbosch training partners have been replaced by a stop at Nana Nobles for a quick cup of tea / my custom champion system socks are no long visable under a pair of water proof booties / and vainly taking my watch off so as not to get a tan mark no longer applies !

Indeed, its time for me to toughen up