National track and TT champion Caroline Ryan outlines her build-up to this weekend’s European Track Championships in Holland, where she rides the Omnium and the Women’s Team Pursuit.
We arrived back over to Newport in Wales three weeks ago after a brief holiday in Ireland. I’ve been getting ready ever since with Sinead Jennings and Ciara Horne for the European Track Championships in Holland starting tomorrow, Saturday.
It’s followed closely by World Cup meetings in Kazakhstan and Colombia. And that’s only for starters.
We’ve almost completely relocated ourselves abroad because we’re aiming to qualify for London 2012 Olympics. This season is the last series of races in the Olympic qualifying process. Because we don't have an indoor track in Ireland I've pretty much moved my 'home' to wherever there's a suitable track to train on.
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Newport is a really great training venue for us. Everyone down at the velodrome has been welcoming and helpful and we have good fun and a bit of banter with them too. It keeps things light when we're not up doing efforts or really zoning in on certain sessions.
The 10th was my birthday. So I figured at the very least I'd wake up with an energetic set of legs. I bounced on to the track anxious to get on with the efforts Brian (Nugent, our coach) had planned for us. After the first few pedal revs I felt sooo bad. I knew we weren't meant to be feeling great because we were in an overload phase but we'd had the day before off so I couldn't understand how I felt so bad.
I felt like I was trying to spin my legs in cement. It wasn't until we were heading out for our next effort that Brian glanced down at my wheel and shook his head. It was rubbing against the frame; no wonder….
Later on that evening we went to a nice local Italian and even had a rare glass of vino to celebrate my birthday.
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This was a big camp for us to gel as a team. We had a lot of work to do and technical areas to smooth out. Our changes were something we worked really hard on as they were the biggest thing that could slow us down on race day.
Brian got someone to video for us some days and towards the end of the week we started looking really good on camera. Looking at ourselves executing our efforts as a solid unit gave us confidence that we were moving in the right direction. We have a lot of work to do yet but it's slowly starting to come together.
Individually for me I also have the Omnium to think about. To be honest because we have been so busy with Team Pursuit training I have had to do extra work on my own to focus on that. It's a case of ready or not! But actually I do feel ready.
Naive? Maybe. But I definitely don't feel out of my depth like I did going into the bunch races I did at the World Cups last season.
A couple of months ago I raced the National Omnium demo event at home in Ireland on the outdoor track at Sundrive Road. I learned a lot racing with the girls there and went on to win the overall event so hopefully it's a good omen and my racing will go well this week.
How am I feeling about my chances going into my first major champs of the new season? Well, I'm producing my fastest opening laps in training which is great for all my events, particularly the Omnium which has a sprint element to it, plus it never hurts to go faster!
Well, the taper's on now, thank God. My legs need the rest and from here on it’s all about settling into the new track and race environment.
I arrived in Apeldoorn last Friday, now I’m ready for the weekend; the calm before the storm……
Thanks for reading, I'll be in touch again soon. If you'd like to follow my progress over the track season as I chase Olympic qualification, check out www.carolineryan.ie
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