Although 2014 officially comes to an end in just over a weeks time, it ended for me back in October. After my well needed break at the end of a hectic race season my focus was fully on 2015, and 2014 was put behind me. Like almost all full time cyclists I know, I tend to go in seasons and not by the actual yearly calendar. When I started prepping my racing season, my new year started. Just another small thing that makes us bike riders stand out from the rest!
I thoroughly enjoyed my off season this year. I spent most of my time chilling out while catching up with family and friends. I enjoying some down time whilst not thinking about the bike and fully replenished myself both physically and mentally. For my 21st birthday I got the best present imaginable from my mother, who I dearly love! A trip to New York City. This was probably the highlight of my year, if not one of the highlights of my life to date. I won't go into detail because you'll be here all night reading but to sum it up in one word - Awesome!
After my week in NYC I was fully motivated and ready to get back into my routine which I love so much. After a week or so of getting back into training I spent the weekend in Leeds to attend The Dave Rayner Fund dinner. It was huge success - plenty of money was raised (close to 50,000 pounds if I remember correctly) for such a worthy cause and I am honoured to have been a recipient this past race season. It was great to catch up with everyone away from the lycra and bikes. Plenty of laughs were had! Here's a quick video from the night:
I've just had an epiphany. I am over halfway through my 2015 season preparations already and if I'm selected for the teams first race I could be racing on Febraury 1st which is only about 6 weeks away. I'll soon find myself packing my bags to head back to my European base in Belgium and starting my third full season on the continent. It may be close, but there's still a lot of work to do. A day at a time, Eoin, a day at a time...
My winter so far, touch wood, has been great. I just seem to be ticking the boxes and enjoying myself while doing it. This winter I have introduced more strength/core training into my schedule with the help from Dan Clifford at Goal Based Training . As Dan has been a high performance cyclist himself he works the gym/core work into my cycling programme perfectly so I get the best out of my bike sessions, which are still the most important.
I would highly recommend him as a coach to any cyclist looking for an edge! I can't believe I have neglected this aspect for so long. Don't make the same mistake I did! Get onto it!
I have been getting my gym work done at the fantastic facilities at Rejuvenate Health & Fitness in Fermoy. I'd like to thank Paul for his generous help in allowing me to work in such a professional environment. This is going to make a big difference!
I would highly recommend him as a coach to any cyclist looking for an edge! I can't believe I have neglected this aspect for so long. Don't make the same mistake I did! Get onto it!
I have been getting my gym work done at the fantastic facilities at Rejuvenate Health & Fitness in Fermoy. I'd like to thank Paul for his generous help in allowing me to work in such a professional environment. This is going to make a big difference!
I'm not long back from the first "An Post - ChainReaction" team training camp which was in Calpe, Spain between the 7th-15th December. It was the first meeting of the 2015 team, and all bar our two southern-hemisphere riders were in attendance. I'm sure we'll forgive them! We spent the week getting to know one another and familiarising ourselves with the new set-up. Being Irish, and having friends on the team it was easy to fit into, what felt like, an already familiar set up. I really enjoyed getting the feel for my new Vitus Vitesse Evo bike. I'm delighted with how stiff, light and comfortable it is and can't wait to race it throughout 2015! Big thanks to Vitus Bikes as well as FSA Components , Continental Tyres , PROLOGO and Speedplay Pedals.
The goal for the camp was to clock up some quality endurance kilometres in the sun before we all headed home to the less-fair weather. As well as training hard everyone got along really well and we had plenty of laughs throughout the week which built great team atmosphere going into the future. I've come away from the camp with extra motivation and I certainly can't wait for our next outing!
I'm now in Ireland preparing myself for the Christmas/New Year period with my family. I took a few easy days after the team camp to recover and refresh a little and now its just about maintaining and increasing my condition while introducing some more specifics building up to our next team camp on the 11th of January. After our camp some of us will only have a week before we are pinning on our numbers again. Exciting times!
A merry christmas and happy new year to everyone! See you all in 2015!
Twitter: @Eoin_McCarthy
Instagram: @eoin_mccarthy
