Twilight

Banking miles and effort before the end of September is nothing new. However, this time around I'm doing it with proper purpose. I have good reasoning behind each effort, I know what I should achieve as a result and I welcome the specifics. My coach knows what he is doing and has made the training fun. I need to concentrate and work hard. The old 'use-it-or-lose-it' thing at my age looms large.I used to sit down every Autumn and work out what I needed to work on [a long list!], look at the time I had to do that in [never enough], try to find novel ways of achieving targets [ever-moving targets] and then use some vague concepts to bury myself all winter long with sprints, hills and intervals. Malcolm Elliott without the talent.The only way I seem to have survived that carnage approach to training was by tagging along with more talented cyclists than I and reaping the benefits. I've been damn lucky in the last six years to have cycled alongside two of the best. But I ain't as talented or fit. I figure I've survived at a decent level of fitness for my age and time constraints because while those talented dudes could tie themselves in a knot and then do it all again the next day, I didn't have the time to go out the next day so I'd recover and reload and be fresh for the next onslaught. The only thing I seemed to do right in all those years was arrive at a race ready to race. I can't get to races regularly but even if there's a month in-between events I know what to do to get there. I actually like the challenge. I have no idea where next year will take me but I really want to hit the races that meant something to me, that would be the couple of gallops in Meath at season's opening, the Frank O'Rourke and county champs for the rose-tinted nostalgia and the Eddie Tobin because I know I can win it if ridden right. Meantime, as the 2017 season doesn't start for another 20 WEEKS, I'll just keep the head down, chin up and do what I'm told.