Tuesday, 15 January 2013

"Bulletjie" Traning Session with the Velo Group - Edwill O'Neill


I woke up at 4am, feeling slightly dusty, but after my first cup of coffee I was ready to hit the road with the roadies (Velo Group) and the a[s]g PYcycling MTB group.

The morning conditions looked good, with just a light wind and a sky full of stars when I left home to meet Paul Cordes, Yolande Speedy, Arno Du Toit and Marcel Marais at the Engen in Pierre Van Rynneveld at 5 am.  



We rode at a nice chilled pace to loosen up our legs. We eventually reached the Engen on Hans Strijdom, where Amy McDougall, Francois Ebersohn, Neville Ackerman and the Velo group joined us. After 30 minutes of chilled riding along Hans Strijdom and onto Lynwood road, the adrenaline kicked in.  We took the Boskop road towards Cullinan and from there it was “all out”... full throttle! Myself, Paul, Francois, Yolande, Arno, Amy and Marcel, pedalled our bikes fast and hard and kept up with the front group of riders. I reached my Tempo (170 bpm) in the first 15 minutes. It was a great feeling; it felt like I was doing a stage race in the Tour de France .

The tough part of the ride came when it was my turn to sit in front and keep the pace. Half way through, I fell off from the leading group.  Marcel and I tried everything to stay with the leading group. We were struggling to maintain the power of the leading group, eventually we caught up with Amy and the three of us settled into our own pace-line until we reached Lynnwood Road and joined the rest of the group. Pauls words to us: “ if you let them put a 2 meter gap on you you’re going to fall off to the back”...true words!

Marcel and I thought our training for the day was done, but Nah! Paul had something else in mind... Muscle Tension training up Klapperkop! Ouch!

Just as I thought I was going to die we got the green light  from Paul to head off to our favorite meeting place, Bicccs,  where we had  our regular, well deserved coffee, breakfast and a good laugh.  Never a dull moment with the a[s]g PYcycling group!

Riding with the roadies was great fun!!!! A Few hours of pure pain!!!
This was a “bulletjie” of a training session!!

Edwill

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