Scott Creighton - Junior Worlds Prep in Switzerland

Hi everyone.

Sorry for the delay in the next update, it’s been an intense couple of days as we are getting down to the business end of training.

On our second day here we went for a road ride in the morning and we were allowed to go for a wee climb. We found an 8km gradual climb and rode up it slowly as we had our first day on the track that afternoon. This would be just getting used to riding back on a track bike and used to a smaller track. Being a smaller track, there is a lot of G-force in the corners, so it was a bit dodgy for the first effort but that was to be expected.  It was the first time we’d been on the track in a few months. We did four Team Pursuits (TPs) at about 80 – 90% on the first day and by the end we were all looking a lot smoother than when we started.

Day 2 at the track involved a 15min progressive TP warm up. This was followed by one individual 500m standing start, four seated kilos (1km not getting out of the seat to start), then two standing team kilos with. I went well in the 500m doing the second fastest time, then for the kilos I was sitting at around the third to forth position. It was a hard and long day in the office and to top it off, we did an hour on the road afterwards. Doing the hour on the road flushes the legs out so we aren’t as fatigued for the next day.

Day 3 saw us doing two sets of 4 by 3 TPs (four lots of 3km efforts with 3mins rolling around in-between). We warmed up on the erg and were straight into it. The purpose of this session was to get our technique right, and to get us used to the changes and riding on the wheel. I started off doing a few bad changes but improved throughout the session. It is hard on a small track to get it perfect. They will be easier at Moscow, as the track is 333m. After the 4 by 3, my hamstring started to play up so it was strapped. Managed to finish out the day though and got all the efforts done. It’s all better now; the physio thinks it was just the effects of the seated kilos.

Yesterday we had an easy day doing an hour ride in the morning.  We then went on a train ride to the next town, called Montreux, to have a look around. There wasn’t a whole lot there so we didn’t do to much shopping. We had some lunch on the lake front then caught the train back. Last night we went out for dinner to a pizza restaurant for a treat.

Today we had an hour recovery ride in the morning, then we were back on the track for another day of pain. We did Individual Pursuits (IPs) today. We had to do two standing 2km, then 2km flying efforts and to finish off, a 3km flying. I had quite a good day doing some fast times and managed to complete all my efforts. I think am just peaking at the right time.

Will try get another update done again in a couple of days.

Thanks all

Scott