Rhys Gillett blog Post: Head Down

It's been quite a while since my last post. I've been busy preparing for the Road Nationals on the 7th of January. Here's what has been happening...


- I've signed with an Italian U23 team - US Fracor - for the 2012 season so I'm moving to Tuscany (hard place to live) in February. It was a huge relief to finally have some certainty as to what I'm doing after coming close to deciding to hang up the bike earlier in the year.

- Travelled to NZ to visit my mum, stepdad, brother and sister. This coincided with the 2nd week of my break (travelled to Rotorua to see/smell the boiling mud pools) and the 1st week of training (Auckland is a great place for riding, plenty of hills to the south and an awesome road along the beach for recovery days).

- Spent 10 days in Adelaide at the beginning of December chasing Pat Jonker around on his scooter. Motorpacing with Pat is different to any motorpacing I had done before this year, it's much more like being in a race. There is no set time for any efforts... it's not uncommon for Pat to hold 1 finger up - signalling 1 minute left - only to spend the next 5k chewing stem. Also, his scooter doesn't have a speedo... the pace is set by the look on your face.


- Started a caffeine free 3 weeks leading up to nationals. The effects of caffeine withdrawal are listed as "headache, irritability, inability to concentrate, drowsiness, insomnia; and pain in the stomach, upper body and joints" and I can report from experience that I was extremely frustrated by my lack of focus in ignoring the pain as I constantly dozed off feeling wide awake.


Random stats from the last month...

2.400... km ridden

52,000... kJ of work

30... ZipVit gels consumed

1:1... ratio of "motorpacing sessions with Jonker" to "motorpacing sessions during which I have abused Jonker for hurting my legs"


Peace

 

Follow Rhys' journey at http://www.rhysgillett.com/