Today was a training day that I’ve been looking forward to all week. It was the much anticipated double day. Double as in two rides in one day. Cool. Felt like a real bike racer today. Getting out on the bike for two training rides.

Kicked off the day with an action-packed two hour ride. After a cozy 20 minute endurance warm-up, followed by 2 x 5 minute x 5 minute recovery tempo intervals, then the fun stuff – 4 x 45 second standing starts in my hardest gear, then to wrap things up 6 x 5 minute x 1 minute recovery tempo intervals. Like I said – action packed. A very satisfying ride on so many levels. The tempo intervals are just hard enough to get the blood flowing and a dull ache in the legs. The start intervals – well they are damn hard but uber-satisfying. Then to round out the ride with another batch of tempo riding makes me feel super strong. An excellent ride for the body and the brain.

Got home and chilled out for a couple of hours. Little walk to the bakery for a fresh loaf of bread. Tried a new one today – Toscans – it is super tasty. Nice little lunch and chat with Marc. The time difference can be a bit of a hassle for communication but it is nice to break up the afternoon with a chat with my favorite guy.

Then time for the second ride of the day. This one was all about ‘cross riding. I ended up going to Tessenderlo because the course for this Sunday’s race is set up already. Decided it was the perfect opportunity to work on different ‘cross riding skills. The plan for this ride was to section the course and then repeatedly drill the trick/challenging/key sections until I was better and faster with them. This course has a bunch of sand in it – climbs, descents, and a flat section. So these were the parts that I broke down and worked on. It is super awesome for the confidence to see the improvement after working on the sections repeatedly. Doing this kind of training alone is not ideal, but I made the best of it. Gave me a chance to try different lines, approaches, exits, gears, etc. Had fun playing and learning on the ‘cross bike for a solid 90 minutes.

Now I’m home just chilling out. Hung out with Jos and we caught up on each other’s days and dramas. Great talk with Marc and now I’m just winding down. Tomorrow is a lighter day with just a 2.5 hour road ride. I’ve got a few errands to do though to get ready for Koksijde – need to pick up a couple of new chains and do a bit of work on my bikes. So it will be a jam-packed day. Just the way I like it.

Looking forward to racing this weekend. I hope I can hold off the super-fast junior boys…