Weekend review

Westerly winds, Connemara roads and the Pezula Professional cycling team were the highlights of the last pre season training camp before the season gets under way in 3 weeks time.

Strong westerly cross winds battered the riders over the Connemara roads on the Saturday spin, conditions were however bright and mild which added to the spectacular views of the lakes and mountains.

2 groups of riders started out, Dave O Loughlin led the elite guys where juniors Michael Duffy and Charles Predergast gauged their form against Ireland’s best.

Padraig Marrey Led the 2nd group over a similar route, Threshold and lactate efforts were the ingredients for the day, up hills down hollows, and after 4.5 hrs the riders were glad of the soups and sandwiches.

Talks in the afternoon were all to do with been in prime condition for the season, training and the types of training to do when you are racing were discussed in depth, and when your training hard you must eat well so nutrition was the 2nd topic on the list, Jay Daly explained in detail that you are what you eat!!! and when training hard Nutrition has to be of optimum quality for best recovery.

Sunday spin started early so people could do the MTB race in nearby Cong Woods in the afternoon, but 3hrs over hard Mayo roads had first to be conquered..

2 groups started off again all headed around Lough Mask, where 5 climbs of varying distance lay ahead of them. Vo2 efforts were the priority for today and these babies Hurt.

Alan Heary was the guest speaker at the mid morning talks, his back round is in Sports motivation, he has got the best out of Boxer Steve Collins back in the mid Nineties against the like of formidable opponents Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn now he had to do likewise fellow cyclists, this he surly did so now it’s a case of waiting for the cake to cook to see if the ingredients are right!!!