Winter Training Begins

Post date: Oct 23, 2016 9:23:23 PM

(By Shay O'Toole - Sun. 23rd October 2016)

With the road racing season finished for 2016, the Sunday spins for the next few weeks are all about building those important base miles again. This involves riding steady spins over varying distances paying attention to heart rate zones.

Last Sunday the clubhouse was buzzing with cyclists eager to take advantage of the beautiful autumn weather. The groups split as usual with Jerry Waugh taking charge of the B’s whilst the A’s were forced to divide into two due to numbers. These were led by Mossie Keane and Eoghan Kevlihan. The C group stalwarts were also out in force with among others, Jimmy Marshall, John Culligan, Sean Magee and our evergreen President, Oliver Bright. Ollie was spotted on Saturday leading a decent sized D Group so he is certainly getting the miles in.

In keeping with the training plan devised last year the A groups departed to do a steady spin keeping the speed, for the most part to 30kph. The chosen route was Crookedwood, Collinstown, Dromone, Lough Crew, Oldcastle and after the tea/coffee, home directly via Castlepollard. With all the hedge cutting these days it is practically impossible to avoid punctures and so it was at the Wood Inn that Adrian Keavney was visited by the dreaded puncture fairy. Just at this point the first of many showers fell which left everybody feeling a little chilly. The second “visitation” came just before Dromone with Jack Nugent being the victim this time round. From here the group headed for the short sharp climb to the top of the viewing point at Lough Crew before proceeding for coffee in Oldcastle. The homeward spin was very well controlled along the “rolly” road to ‘Pollard and back to base where everybody was very pleased with their efforts in what were fairly testing weather conditions.

This will be the norm for the A group over the coming weeks so if there are any B riders considering making the jump this is the perfect time to do it as the spins will be controlled and nobody will be left on the road.

The A Group on at Lough Crew on Sunday 23rd October 2016