A week in the life of a now EX-“party animal” teenage cyclist

A standard week for me is always busy fitting in everything from my studies and social life to training and recovery.

I’m normally up at 7am to get the bus to school. I get home at roughly 4, and then I’ve got training along with the large amount of work from school to cram in. Mock exams are approaching fast so there’s been some long days trying to get everything done, but hopefully it will all pay off come exam time, and racing!

As it’s my final year at school, that means everyone’s turning 18. So there’s been huge parties of hundreds of people almost every weekend. It’s been an enjoyable couple of months up till New Year, but its time for those 9pm bedtimes and early rises. My plans for my birthday are riding a TTT the day before and an elite road race the day after… couldn’t think of anything better!

With sixth form comes a lot more free time than at school and my teachers are very supportive and helpful that i make the most of my free time, with extra after school classes for work, but also being able to have mornings and afternoons off to go out and train with the famous Iron Bridge Crew. 

So, here’s the past week of training that I’ve done, with some other details added in for good measure; 

Monday- Rest Day involves riding on rollers at high cadence with sprints at v/low resistance. I am also learning to drive and this is the day i have my lesson. 

Tuesday- 2×20 min efforts on TT bike on turbo at Z4. Now realising i made the most of the rest day relaxing, I’ve now got two days of homework to get done. This week i was up till around 11 before i finished and crawled into bed.

Wednesday- I finish school early and I’m out on the road for 3 hours. That’s Z2 for 2 hours with the last hour Z3 with some sprints at end.

Thursday- Starting school late means an even shorter lie in… why? oh yeah I’m up at 6:30 to do my VO2 max efforts on turbo, just giving myself enough time to stop my head spinning and ready to go get the bus. 

Friday- Now it’s got to the end of the week and its time for another rest day. No riding whatsoever. I get to see my very lovely girlfriend who is extremely supportive of all the training I do. She often cooks for me too. These past months it’s been late nights; going out to parties and town etc. It’s now all come to an end in the effort to reach race weight and form come race day.

Saturday- Big days training today, this week it was Bukden run, last week was 200km so its always a big day out on the bike. Bukden run is similar to the reliability rides that are fast approaching. Riding fast tempo it’s a solid workout. I had 70 mile, in a little over 3 hours, on clock before the cafe stop with 20 still to go. Towards the end of the ride i might reach the “pop-a-gel” stage, ill bolt down an OTE caffeine gel and ill be able to get in those last miles still going strong, rather than riding on empty which no-one enjoys. 

Sunday- i like to have a lie in on a Sunday to give me a decent amount of rest after yesterday’s antics. It’ll be another solid ride. This week was with a local pro Tommy Bustard, a good mate who’s helped me out a lot. It was tough with some big efforts on the way back but moral was high even if the temperatures weren’t.

After all my training sessions ill have my OTE protein shake, ill wake up feeling fresh and well recovered ready for the next days training.

So that’s it for the week, back on the rollers and the turbo and praying for better weather this weekend.

Also this weekend is the CTT awards dinner which luckily the whole team are able to get to; it’ll be great to see my team mates up getting their awards.