May 2013

Hi everyone, may was a month mainly preparing for the Pescanectoria u-23 race. The preparation was trying to grow the legs. Tuesday was 150km with sprint and the specific progressions. Wednesday power work 5 mins with 53✖13 then 5 mins spinning. Repeated 6/7 times. Thursday 200km. Then racing on the weekend. 

The Pescanectoria went well except for the first stage. The first stage was 150km with two 3/4km hills. Unfortunately I had a bit for bad luck and miss the head of the bunch when it broke away and lost 1:07. The second stage was the hill stage. 160km with 8/10km hills. The weather was awful with rain and -2 degrees. I manages to squeeze out a 15th position and 23rd overall. The last stage was a sprinters stage with is being 150km and all flat. After about 100km it started hail stoning and I ended up in the breakaway with three others. Unfortunately it stopped raining and hail stoning so the inevitable happened and they brought back the break with 3km to got. Still went well just the first day didn't go as I planned. 

  After all the racing and training the wasn't much time for anything else, anyway now on the June and the nationals. 

April 2013

Hi everyone, this month has been a busy one. It's started with a couple of doctors visits and him say I'm a load a crap more or less. I now have spent the last month trying to change my pedalling style, as he said I don't pedal roundly enough. So now after most training sessions I have to go and do an extra hour of exercise. I was told to think of it as a good thing as he said my body has a lot to improve on so I can only get faster.... Hopefully. The down side is that now for a month I can only do one race a week so my legs can recover from the exercise. 

   There has been a couple of good races latterly. The main one being the international race at Sora in Lazio. 175km done at an average of 45kph. It was a nice and hilly race with a long lap of about 20km with a 4 km hill then the short laps with a steep 3 km hill. Me and a team mate sore a break of about 20 go of the front half way through the race so we closed it and found ourselves there. After 90km in the break the last hill I helped my team mate as he had the legs that day. But ended up with a 15th. ( for weekly info on races go to my twitter page)

In general things are going ok, whether is getting better, and life is waking up in the village finally. 

March

Hi all, this past month has been a busy one. Over the Easter period it's been race after race. In the past 10 days alone I have done 5 races and have another this Sunday and Tuesday.
For all I have to do in the races is work of the others. This is because we have a few guys who have peaked for the spring races. My main objective in these early races is to get in the break as this is an optimum was to prepare my legs for summer, i.e when I plan to peak.
This last month I have also had to change my peddling style. Hopefully this means I produce more power by using every muscle in my legs.
Also this month I have booked my flights to come back and do the national champs. Been out for a few meals with the lads as well. And I've done my first appearance on tv.

Well this years cycling season is getting closer as my first race will be next week. From then it's pretty much racing every week after that. My preparation so far has been going well so let's see how it's goes in the races.
Team preparation this past month has been pretty hard. The sprints from behind the car and the standing start sprints have been breaking my legs. And that's just a Tuesday. Most Wednesdays we do power work which isn't so bad. Then Thursdays are quite nice as its just distance I.e 150-200km.
Also this past month I've taken the opportunity to finish off doing the things that I should do during the season. The diet kicked in in January but the drink has now been knocked on the head for a while. Hope it all pays off.

first one of the year

  
     Hi All, hope you have all had a good Christmas and a Happy New Year. The Cycling season is nearly upon us so im now back in Italy doing team preperation. That basical means 11 guys trying to kick the shit out of each other. Fortunetly it's three weeks long then a rest week. So far it seems to be going well, but it is only the second day.
    It's been more then two months since I last wrote. Well all I've been doing is catching up with friends in the North East and trying relax as much a I can. I have been out on the bike a bit but mainly I was doing gym work, oh and playing takeaway bingo. I got them all except Chiense, but being since Im from Tesside I had a Parmo or two.
   For all readers on Facebook, I am now on twitter @matthewwoods92. When the season starts I plan to leave weekly staments about the races and I will to a blog monthly.
    

last post of 2012

This past season has been fantastic. I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have helped me out this year. Especially the team and the Dave Rayner Fund. This year I have learnt so much and had a great experience thanks to them.
  My next blog entry will be the start of 2013 as now I'm rest till then. So see you in 2013 and thanks for reading.

    The past couple of weeks has pretty busy, with trips to Tuscany and other parts of Italy for races. Its been a long season, starting in February and now there are only five weeks left. It's mainly flown by with all the important races I've been fortunate enough to do, but now these last couple of weeks are dragging. I have got all my training programs for gym work and on the bike for winter when I get back to England. Thankfully it's all nice and easy until I return back to Italy in January to start the speed work.
   Good news is that when the season finishes I might actually be able to see some sites of Italy as I've booked a trip to Rome for a couple of days with a mate of mine from England.
   My plan was to have a good last month , but now I have a virus. So for the last month or so I'm just going to take it as it comes and then a whole month off... woooo.
    This has been a great year of racing. I was told that this year was only to be used as experience. Considering that I have do better than my expectations. I'm 21 next year so it;s the start of the make it or break it year's. Counting the ends for this season to end, but counting the days for next season to begin.