Next years training started yesterday...

I have not done my usual long ride for 4 weeks now. Sam is 3 weeks old - see a trend? Plenty of variations of the same excuse based around the fact I had not slept a wink the night before, or that my wife had not slept and I was now on the daylight patrol....

But yesterday it all came together and Brett and Dean met at mine and we had a great 3 hr ride together. Nothing structured, just go hard when we wanted, and easy when we wanted to chat (and there was lots I wanted to ask Brett about Kona). The weather was also wonderful - crisp and sunny (with a few cheeky fog patches).
I came back revitalized and determined to do as many Sunday rides as possible.

However, with 2 little boys under 18 months old I know my 'free' time is very limited so will be very focused on getting the best bang for the buck.
That means a maximum long ride time of 3 hrs, lots of hard turbo sessions and a big winter focus on biomechanics with Ben.
Ben recently damned me with faint praise - he said that whilst I have ''a smooth pedal stroke, just not a powerful one'. So this winter is all about becoming a big gear monster, and learning to better activate the glutes.

I am hoping 30 min sessions with Ben will turbo-charge my cycling. Bring on 2012 !!