Holiday training camp

The words holiday and training camp don't really sit well together, training is always seen as hard work and holiday is sat on a sunbed. Time off school though is a great opportunity to get some quality sessions in during daylight hours and still have the rest of the day to enjoy what kids do best and play. Jack Brough thought a sleep over and a few days with his mate Josh would be just putting their feet up and playing computer games all day and a little bike ride thrown in. The 'little' bike ride turned out to be two real quality sessions for the lads and familiarising them with race drills and efforts

Day 1
2.1/2 hours quality, warm up over the hills around Ilkeston to our training circuit at Coxbench, this consisted of thru and off (count to 30 on front then swing off) keeping high tempo on hills rather than blasting them, onto our 5km circuit we did one lap steady continuing thru and off, 2nd lap ramped it up to race pace and above 22-25mph with a headwind one way tailwind the other, rest for a lap then repeat twice so at the end of session we had done race distance, on the third and final lap we did 1.1/2 laps and lead Josh out for the 30mph sign as the finish, I did man 1 Jack man 2 Josh then nailed the finish, throw in a steady ride home and a quality session done

Day 2
2 hours in wind and rain what I call a proper Belg day so we headed out south over to the small lanes around Aston on Trent looping backwards and forwards keeping away from traffic. Today it was echelon riding a real craft to master I was trying to get the lads to understand the fine art of this task and show how little road you really needed to use, these efforts were long hard slogs into the wind round and round till we could take no more, this is a manoeuvre that practise makes perfect. Steady ride back over a few hills to really pummel the legs and build strength.
       
Tips
These are sessions you can practise on a club run or gentle family ride, it's about how you carry out these manoeuvres, keeping them smooth and controlled NOT about how you can smash everyone, leave that to race day

Learn To Love The Wind
You may love or hate riding into the wind, this is something you need to get used to, keep positive imagine your slicing through it, don't let it get the better of you as it plays with your mind, if your struggling take shorter turns, keep tight on a wheel for protection, use your gears wisely, drive into it then off the front for a rest.
Imagine what the Dutch feel like wide open flat roads no trees for protection just wind wind wind,