I am super super super super excited to fly to Spain on Thursday 31st May with the Aussie endurance para-cyclists. Spring in Europe, bring on the long training rides.

We fly into Barcelona, Spain and then proceed to drive to San Sebastian on the coast near the border of France. We shall be training for a few days around that area and then race in Urt, France over three days and then the next weekend we race a para-cycling road world cup in Segovia, Spain. After this amazing adventure some of the team fly home while others (myself included) get to head to London for a few days to check out the road course that the Paralympic Games will be using and hopefully I will be using. Fingers crossed. 

While we are in London the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) shall be video the course for us so we can get some stats and numbers for use when we are back in Australia. Sounds great to me! 

The weather in Spain and France at the moment is supposed to be beautiful riding weather and I am super excited not to have to use arm/leg warmers on my rides. I cannot put my excitement into words. I love traveling with the aussie team and there is a huge amount of support from both staff and athletes. 

I shall keep you updated if I can (could have pretty shifty wifi) with photos and some stories. 

So with that all I really have to say is, WOOO HOOO. 

Alex xx

2012 Para-cycling National Road Championships

Road Race

Distance: 54km undulating, no long climbs (conditions: rain for 1 lap, clear for the rest)

Avg HR: 164 bpm

Max HR: 180 bpm

Avg Cadence: 96 rpm

Max Cadence: 132 rpm

Avg speed: 32.4 km/h = 9 m/s

Max speed: 56.2 km/h

Time: 1:39.57

Time Trial 

Distance: 16km, flat (conditions: raining and slight wind)

Avg HR: 177 bpm

Max HR: 186 bpm

Avg speed: 37.61 km/h = 10.45 m/s

Max speed: 43.2 km/h

Time: 0:25.31

The 2012 para-cycling road national championships finished today. Two days of competing in Queensland. The time trial run on Saturday and the road race on Sunday.

After coming home after track worlds a few weeks ago my training switched from mainly track sessions to all road sessions. My coach tried to turn me into a road time trialist in a very short amount of time with no thanks to my immune system and my mental capacity.

I got 2 silver medals this year (same as last year) and pb’d in both events yet I think I wanted more. Gold would have been nice but I am obviously not where I need to be to achieve that… Yet!

I am excited to go home and switch my training schedule up and hopefully I will switch my brain on and train it as much as my body.

As usual my wonderful coach Tom is full of advice, constructive criticism and encouragement. Without tom … Well I would not like to think about it.

So here is to the next 5 weeks of training before I head to Europe to race some more on the road and then hopefully LONDON! Cheers

Love it when things arrive in the mail. Just got some new stuff for my bicycle. 

New wheel bag (for my new race wheels), new cassette, tyres, tubes, gels and hydration tabs. All the gear and no idea???? hahaha 

Super pumped to race next weekend at the para-cycling Road Nationals held in sunny Queensland. 

I shall be racing the C4 time trial and C4 road race. I haven’t raced a tt or rr since the sydney world cup last year in may. Should be an interesting weekend! 

The road is so different to the track and since coming back from track worlds in feb I have been doing lots of road work. I kind of miss the track and the inability of the weather to play a role in training. 

I am still such a beginner in the sport of cycling and every race and training session I complete I learn something new. So next weekend will be another race I get to learn from, hopefully with a win to two going along with that new knowledge. 

Getting pumped! 

Just got to chat to Bethany and Heather on The Bicycle Show on 94.7

Who doesn’t love chatting about cycling on a beautiful day like today. Sun is shining, tt session completed and maybe a diet coke. 

:)