Stark contrast!

This week has been a hell of a lot better than the last so far and it can only get better with a good race at the weekend. Since the race on sunday i have my appetite back to normal which means a lot of eating has been going on to compensate for the extreme lack of it last week. As an idea of how much my digestion slowed in the race on sunday, i took a High5 caffeine gel as we entered the finish circuits... 30/40km to go but the caffeine only hit home once home that evening after the race!! well that was worth every penny for a sleepless night then!
no, since then alls been good. monday me and some of the lads from the team went out for a fairly brisk 4hrs in anger after sundays poor show, then a rest day followed which consisted of a walk round town and..... that was about it actually! I did get round to watching Slumdog Millionaire, the new bollywood blockbuster produced by Danny Boyle (also produced such films as Trainspotting, 28days later, The Beach to name a few) and that film made my day! Its about a slumdog (i didnt no what this was until watching the film but its just a child from the slums in india, living on and from the streets) who grows up in the slums in india and it follows his life in poverty and hardship ... this kid is one tough guy!... until he is a teen and gets a break on india's no1 tv show... "who wants to be a millionaire", i wont give too much away but the show would be his escape to freedom and also his opportunity to get the girl he has been after since the slums. Its not straightforward tho.
All in all a brilliant film, one of the best i have seen in a long time, so good ill probably watch it again tomorrow as the weather forecast is 90-110kmh winds with heavy showers, so apart from poking my nose out for 3hrs with a few set intervals to do, ill be rapped up indoors, watching again!

Then wednesday, which is today, i had 4hrs with several set intervals to do including my strength endurance hill reps which involves finding a 5minute hill and smashing it at 50rpm (53-11!), descend, then smash it again at 90-100rpm (down a few sprockets!). descend again.... this is one set complete... REPEAT 3TIMES IF YOU PLEASE... = mal au pattes (pain in the legs)! include 3sets of 15mins 70-80% hr then you got a fairly good ride. i did my intervals eitherside of riding with a few local lads... the David frères, Yoann (AC Lanester) and Nico (Cotes D'Armor), and Matthieu Halleguen (also Cotes D'Armor but soon to be Pro with Bretagne Schuller). werent going to hard here so had a good catch up on sundays race... Matthieu was in the days break and came 3rd after going all out at 1.5km... guts for glory! nice guy, pretty mad though... but very strong. The best part of the day was getting home as just as i put my bike in the shed, a bike rain storm came over and didnt stop for a good 15mins! Timing to perfection! sweet.

this eve has been pretty chilled, ben cooked up a huge chicken risotto with loads of veg ... all gone! Bah oui! however this means that it's me who has to do the washing up... hmm that can wait till morning!

just been thinking about the race on sunday and getting excited for it already. in training this week i have felt really strong and especially today on the hill reps it seemed i was going deeped and fasted than the last time. I know from how i'm riding that i am much stronger and still progressing so i just have to put this into practice now! Sunday's start list has been put up, a few big teams there, enough to make whats going to be a very hard race but i know i can be up there and i know i will be so watch this space.
link to the start list : http://www.directvelo.com/direct-velo/actualites/2265/manche-atlantique-les-engages.html
russian national team, Bretagne Schuller and Besson Chaussures are the big teams of note.

one last point... a link to this blog has been put up on the team site www.bic2000.net which means i may have a few french readers who dont have a clue what all this means (i've already had some asking to translate for them) so i mite start to add some entries in my attempt at written french which could be interesting! So if next time its u reading thinking that the site language has changed... dont worry, ill write it in english as well.

pour les français... je vais faire des prochaines "blogs" en francais aussi... de temps en temps! peut-etre tu va comprendre mais je pense pas! On verra!

bizous, tchuuuuuus