Blogs
Mon, 20 Jun 2011
Catching up...
By Ruby Miller - Horizon Fitness Racing Team
Well the last few months have maybe been the busiest of my life! After coming home from the Horizon fitness training camp in Italy with my morale high and legs going well, I got struck down with a cold and had to be off the bike for two weeks. Unfortunately this led up to Bedford 2 Day one of the teams early season targets; I really wanted to do Horizon proud however still not 100% had to pull out after the first day. Eventually things started to look up and I started getting back on the mountain bike leading up to the welsh champs, were I managed to get 6th.
Then the hard work started my last 6 week placement of the year until I finish for the summer. I'm not going to lie as much as I love my university course going from being a lazy student. Where I can ride my bike when I want and go to lectures when I want, to starting placement and working 9-5, 5 days a week is not easy and trying to fit training in around this and getting my beloved 9 hours sleep a day near impossible! I really don't see how people do it they must be superhuman!
In between all this (where did I even find the time) I bought a car, which I was super chuffed about until it eventually dawned on me that I may actually have to start driving myself to races. However it has been good to be able to nip down to the trail centres after work for a lovely mountain bike ride to help me build up to my first national mountain bike round of the year. But before that I had to travel to London for the Smithfield nocturne which for me didn't end so well.
Training is all well and good but if you don't work on your speed and cornering it will get you nowhere, this is what I learnt the hard way but all you can do is learn from it and work harder! After Smithfield a swift trip back west to Reading was made for the mountain bike national series on the Sunday. This ended on a much better note with me eventually finishing 4th but coming second until the last lap, where unfortunately the racing of the night before took its toll and I began to tire, but hopefully a sign of things to come.
It was then my turn to take part in the popular women's Johnson Health Tech tour series. Unfortunately I've not managed to make any of the others due to my placement but of course I have been watching every week on my TV with the rest of the Horizon Fitness girls doing the team proud as usual.
The race went well for the team as we won the overall for the series! And better for me since my last criterium but it just proved to me I still have a lot to work on. I now have the end of my placement to look forward to with a whole summer of racing waiting for me!
For more information on the Horizon Fitness Racing Team, visit www.horizonfitnessrt.com.