SportsShoes Blog

Just got back from Italy where I’ve been training in the warm weather It was fairly near Florence but thankfully I didn’t have to make use of too many of the surrounding hills as my preparation for the Track Nationals and hopefully the Track Europeans has begun! I found a nice falt stretch of about 7km where I did some standing starts, zone 3 efforts and high cadence efforts. I go to Belgium tomorrow with the Olympic Development programme where I’ll be doing some racing and some more training as there is an outdoor track near to where we’re staying.  My legs are starting to feel good now and I’m looking forward to the next few weeks!

I’ve been racing a lot recently and done ok! Got a 3rd in a National Women’s Series in Brentwood, Essex which I was happy with. http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/

A couple of days later I won the womens prize in a local mens circuit race in Brighouse and then got 10th in another Women’s Series race, a road race in Capenwray. This was quite a hilly race which doesnt usually suit me so I was pleased with the result.

Unfortunately the National Circuit Championships didnt go to plan as I missed the break, but I’ll put it down to experience…I wont make the same mistake again!  See Natural Circuit Championships

Trainings been based around the racing so doing a mix of stuff. Trying a new rollers session at the moment which is really hard: 2 mins @ 120 revs per minute, 2 mins @ 100 revs per minute x 5. Hopefully this will get some speed into my legs as I start the track training block in the lead up to the Europeans pretty soon.

Hannah

after a 4 day break I went back into the gym on Friday and since then my legs havent recovered! Im working on doing deep rear squats at the moment, which will give me greater mobility in the hips when pedalling and allow me to get more power through each pedal stroke but as they work more muscles than normal squats they’re pretty hard and instead of squatting 70-75kg I’m only doing 40kg! I thought that after riding to the gym and back my legs would have loosened up but even after a couple of 3 hour rides over the weekend they’re still feeling the effects! Today is just an easy 2 hour ride, then, after my last exam tomorrow I can celebrate with…a 2 hour turbo session…and more gym! Over the week I can enjoy being a ‘full time athlete’ until its back to school to start A2. This week will be a mix of long rides, a time trial, rollers, turbo and ‘on-off’ efforts

Hi,

A disappointing result in the National 10 yesterday, I came 4th with a time of 23:00 to Katie Colclough (22:10) Corrine Hall (22:36) and Hannah Barnes (22:43) 
I had hoped to at least medal in this, so to come 4th was a huge disappointment, especially as it was a selection race for the European Time Trial. However, I simply wasn’t good enough on the day.

I’ve got a few days off my bike now, so I can enjoy doing normal things like shopping and going out and then come back off my break refreshed and ready to start putting the hours in again! 

My next race is a Womens National Series race early June and the next main target is the National Womens Circuit Race Champs on the 22nd…hopefully next time I’ll have some better news!

Hannah x

This week has been a fairly quiet week training-wise. I got back from Italy on Sunday where I’d been competing in a stage race. It was pretty hilly with lots of steep twisting descents but it was a good learning experience and GB’s climber, Katie Colclough finished 3rd overall so it was a good result for the team! This week I’ve been mad revising for exams, so have been doing quality work, but not quantity. Its been mostly sessions on the turbo or rollers and gym sessions at Leeds Met. (I got new PB’s in the snatch and dumbell press!) The turbo and rollers are quite hard mentally as there isn’t the enjoyment of going out on a ride but its a good way to sharpen up for competition, especially time trialling. I also did a 10 mile time trial on Wednesday night down at Kildwick nr Skipton which went well…good preparation for the National 10 mile tt Champs down in Portsmouth next weekend …will let you know how that goes! Hannah x

Hello,

Welcome to my Weblog, i hope you find it interesting and useful.

Hannah Mayho