Many thanks to the underage cyclists, their parents and everybody who rode with the youngsters or drove support cars at the 2nd Wexford Underage coaching day. Thanks also to Ann, Ann & Mary for the superb homemade soup, scones, cakes and sandwiches. In particular thanks to our coach Frank O’Leary for travelling from Dublin to lead the day, to Bill Jordan for organising the facilities, Paul Jordan for his training imput and to Murry McDonald (also our multimedia provider!), Mark Bowkett and Peter McGowan for riding out from Enniscorthy and to Ken Blanche, Paddy Dunne, John Busher and Nicky Stynes who were available in support cars and the adults from Wexford Whls, Barrow Whls and SERC who rode with the underage.
With some of the iciest roads of the year in the morning, the days agenda was changed with Frank beginning the day with a review of the first training day and and a slideshow and discussion on proper nuitrition for underage riders in training and preparing to race. Frank discussed the different food groups that would make a positive impact on the the riders health and strength and the importance of plenty of rest and recovery.
With the sun well up Phil Skelton, Murry McDonald, Peter McGowan and Mark Bowkett set off on a lap of the route to check conditions and the training spin for the youngsters was considered safe enough to begin.
The idea over the 3 days is to have a number of different style courses and this one was about 5 or 6 miles long and being around Kiltealy and Mohurry was a mixture of climbs, drags and twisty descents.
After a great lunch Frank had a short review of the morning ride and had a futher hand out for the participants to add to the one received at the first day. At this stage Paul Jordan was introduced and gave a quick presentation on suitable core and body resistance exercises for youth cyclists.
Paul ran through and demonstrated with the particiapants a range of simple workouts that could be done at home with no equipement required to aid flexibility and to work on core strength. He showed a couple of circuit training routines with the lads and introduced a little (but not too much!) pain to the session. He also managed to keep big brother Bill quiet for a couple of minutes with a 25 push up test!
(90 seconds from the end of the circuit routine example. The burpees and planks were fairly painful at this stage! Apologies for the shakey camera work – with hindsight I should have recorded the routines demonstarted by Paul so they could be perfected at home – next time.)
One of the things Paul commented on was a general lack of flexibility in cyclists so these excercises are suitable for adult riders who want to improve their core. (Let Bill or I know it there is interest in a club session with Paul)
The Youth Cycling Training Day Program is a joint County board initiative between the 5 clubs – Barrow Whls, South East RC, Slaney CC, Slipstream CC and Wexford Whls. Attendance is free to all underage riders in Wexford, everyone involved is providing their time voluntarily and any costs re venues and lunches are picked up by the hosting club.