Practice run!

Today i had an official pre race practice run! The GP Lugano was called off just 30min before the start due to snow today so i had my first ever official pre race rehersal without actually getting on the start line. I am very dissapointed as after arriving in italy on thursday night todays race was meant to be a good cobweb blow out for my first major competition, paris-nice whch starts on march 3. Not only that but with the race being a relatively home race for me, just 30km from my european base in gavirate so i always enjoy racing on my adopted home training grounds. Added to this was the star studded cannondale team assembled for the event with Moreno Moser and my training buddy Ivan Basso set to steer the ship for the day meant a very exciting debut on european rds me in 2013 was something i was greatly anticipating. Anyways it is winter in europe after all so the risk of this type of thing occurring is always there at this time of year.

For me it was also a little frustrating. I was so excited about racing that I think I was the most organised I had been for a race in a long long time. I had eaten very well at dinner the night before, slept like a log and was up early bouncing out of my skin for race day. It felt like a saturday morning as a little kid heading off to nippers or soccer where I was always ready and rearing to go. I ate a good sized breaky as with the forecast rough weather I was not planning on eating much during the race so figured I would load up on perfectly cooked italian pasta and crostata (italian jam tart) and off course a few too many cafe's! I was one of the first on the big team bus which also never happens, usually I am the last, and off we went.

When we arrived and the race was cancelled all this excitement completely vanished. I felt like a big fat slob with a belly full of fuel and no way to burn it all off and basically felt very lethargic all off a sudden. This is stupid I know as its hardly the end of the world but my bubble had been burst and I was left to find some other way of filling in my 24th February for 2013! So with my tummy now really grumpy with me I headed home with my tail between my legs and tried to find some motivation to train. It was crazy feeling as only a few hrs before I was excited about doing 5hrs in the freezing northern winter on a push bike and all the obstacles that go with that and now I was moping around home seemingly incapable of getting on a push bike. I finally found the motivation to bang out a couple of hrs on the home trainer at about 4pm and then headed for the sauna to sweet out my grumpy mood and try and convince myself I had not wasted the day. Was a crazy few hrs of seeing how quickly your emotions and mood can change so fortunate race cancellations don't happen very often as obviously I am a bit of a cry baby when they do!

Anyways onwards and upwards and the most important thing in this sport is to forget a day once the calender ticks over for the next day and now I am excited and focused again on training hard in anticipation of my next race on sunday. One positive is I have all my bags packed from my practice run this past weekend so already I am all packed and ready to head to the airport on saturday!

Cjw       

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