Training Status / Plans

Well I’ve been thinking about my training a little bit and how the season has been going.  I guess this year is really a “building” year, as I don’t  quite have the fitness to be very competitive in my current categories.  I think it will actually be a good chance to focus on training well and getting experience without being too concerned about results.  Here’s a little summary of my current training status:

Climbing: I’m not climbing as well as I was last year.  I haven’t been doing a lot of hill training and I’m carrying a few extra pounds.  I’m going to try to get some more hill workouts in but I’m not going to worry about my weight right now.

Sprinting: I’ve been getting my sprint workouts in but I don’t feel like I really have the snap that I should.  I felt like my top end was weak on the last race ride.  It’s early in the season though, so this stuff will come along with time and higher intensity rides.

Time Trialing: I am actually feeling pretty good about it.  I think I’m at least as fast as I was last year and definitely getting faster.  I need to work on pacing.  I will be doing a 10mi TT tomorrow to sort things out.

Endurance: This is kind of an odd category but I think my ability to ride long distances at speed without a great deal of fatigue has improved.  My ability to handle multiple hard days in a row has also improved.  I’m pretty happy about this.

That’s about it… we’ll see how things go tomorrow.

Time Trial Stuff

I’ve pretty much always convinced myself that my body type isn’t well suited for time trialing and that I don’t need to really train for it because I’ll never be any good at it.  In the past couple weeks I’ve stepped back and looked at what I’ve been saying… and it just doesn’t make any sense.  Regardless of what type of racing you’re doing — road races, crits, or time trials themselves — you need to be able to put out a sustained solo effort.

I will now be putting a fair amount of effort into TT training… I’ll try to be on my TT bike at least once a week (Yes, I got a really good deal on a used one and I figure, at the very least, it will help motivate me to train).  I’ll be regularly testing myself using the local 10mi course.  Yesterday I timed myself on the course (pretty much my first real ride on the bike)  and I did it in 26:38 — within 10 seconds of my fastest time last year.  I’m not particularly happy with the time but it could be a lot worse.  I think with some dedicated effort it will come down.

We’ll see what happens.

Race Report: Snelling RR Cat 3

Wow, this was a fast race.  It was really windy, so the course started out with a hard tailwind and winded back around with horrible crosswinds especially through the very bumpy section of the course.  The first lap was ok, I had some poor positioning at times that made me take more wind that I should have, but I hung on and felt like I would be ok.  I figured if I could survive the first lap then I should be able to at least hang on to the pack for the rest of the race.  Nope.  They really started ramping it up through the feedzone and by the time we hit the crosswind section I was really suffering.  I held on for as long as I could but eventually being guttered in the crosswind (it was strung out single file) was too much — my lungs just couldn’t take it.  I finished that lap, did one extra, and called it a day.

I don’t really know what was going on in the front of the race to make it so quick, but wow, it was fast.  I got ~50mi worth of training in and lots of intensity, so I figure it was a good day.

Hilly Ride

Yesterday I went for my first decent hilly ride since training camp.  For a “climber” of sorts, I really should do more of this.  My legs felt a bit stale after the race on Sunday, but it actually went pretty well.  I rode with two guys who I will be racing with this season — I’m glad because they’re both in really good shape and we seem to work well together.  The three of us kept the pace pretty high the entire time and gunned it a bit on some of the climbs.  They descend a lot faster than me but I’m working on it.

I totally forgot to mention that my girlfriend absolutely tore up her race this weekend.  I am so proud of her — she’s really an inspiration.  I usually end up more excited watching her race than racing myself… :o)

Race Report: Norlund Criterium 3/4

The course was smooth, fast, with pretty easy corners.  The rather large field size made it very difficult for me to advance. and there were lots of folks diving into the corners yelling ‘inside’ and such.  Two crashes (the first was very ugly and stopped the race for ~10 minutes) and the constant bumping made for a pretty intense race.  I usually feel pretty bad for the first 5 laps as my body gets adjusted to the situation… but I felt pretty lousy throughout this race.  I rolled in safely at the back of the pack after we restarted with 2 laps to go.  I’m not feeling very confident about my fitness, but at least I’m not off the back, right?

First Cat 3 Race

I finished up my first Cat 3 race today and I’m very happy with the result.  My goal was to finish with the pack and I did just that.  Nothing spectacular — I was pretty much sitting near the back the entire race.  After all of my training problems the past few months, this is a real confidence builder.  I was concerned that by upgrading I had gotten a little bit ahead of myself, but I’m pretty sure I’m in the right place now.

The race was a great learning experience — riders were much more aggressive (yet safer) in the corners and it pushed me to do the same.  I was concerned that my current level of fitness would be a problem because it was not an entirely flat course, but it didn’t seem to be.

That said, I was far from being competitive or comfortable at all.  I guess that means I need to do some more racing! (Perhaps some training would help too :o))

Big Changes

Things haven’t gone as planned. I lost every last bit of motivation to ride my bike for a few months. I am severely under-trained and not at all prepared to begin racing. I’ve also gained 5lbs. Despite having regained some enthusiasm, I still have not gotten myself back on the bike as much as I should have. At this point I just need to ease myself back into training and figure out once again why I love the sport so much. While the collegiate season is mostly out the window now, I hope to be back in shape to race competitively come Summer.

The positive: I decided to get my Cat 3 upgrade while the points were still valid. This means I have “achieved” one of my long term goals even though I am now in worse shape than before. I figure this is the sort of challenge that I need to get my training back in order.

I let some things that were really completely unrelated to cycling discourage me these past few months. Deep down I have a great love of the sport and have gotten more satisfaction and pride out of it than anything else I’ve done. It’s time to get back on the horse — let the racing begin!

Inspiration and Finding a Focus

I’ve started riding with some of my teammates again and wow, one of them has really stepped up to the plate.  His climbing is MUCH better than it was last year and his time for the 10mi time trial is now 2 minutes faster than mine (we were usually about the same before).  It sort of scared me a little bit — I’m concerned that I have not improved enough and that I may not be as ready for next year as I’d hoped.

However, the season is a long ways away and I have lots of time to work on my weaknesses.  Time trialing is definitely one of my weaknesses, and since I don’t really enjoy it, I don’t practice it all that often.  This is where I end up being a little confused as to what I should do… should I invest extra time to become a better time trialist or stick with what I’m good at and focus on the road races and crits?  Or even… should I build up a time trial bike or spend that money on a PowerTap?

I’m leaning toward spending some time optimizing my TT position, riding in that position regularly, but not going so far as to really worry about race results.  Monetarily, I think a PowerTap would be the wisest investment as it would allow me to get more out of my training regardless of discipline.  Since my actual training plan is pretty much made for me, I don’t think I will make any major changes in terms of TT training.  I guess my outlook is… I want to do well, but TTs just aren’t my thing.

In other news, I hit the gym for the first time this year.  I took it extremely easy so that I won’t be too sore come tomorrow.  I’d like to really ease into it this time and avoid having a week of soreness.  I know a lot of folks don’t advocate weight training for cyclists, but I think it helped my knees out last season and maybe even helped my climbing a bit.  It makes me feel stronger anyway.

Who knows…

New shoes, school, and more miles…

I finally got some new shoes (Specialized S-Works) and they’re working out pretty well.  They’re super light, pretty comfortable, and have a handy ratcheting wire fastening system instead of the typical straps.  I’m happy.

School has started so my time will become more limited, but I think with my current schedule I should have no problem getting in the training that I need.  I sort of piled all my classes into one horrible Monday, which should give me plenty of time throughout the rest of the week.

Base miles are going well, in order to prepare for the longer races that I will be facing this year, I’ll be trying to do at least 2 60mi rides per week.  In addition to the rest of my rides, this should give me 13-15hrs per week.  This should go on for the next month… then we’ll see what the training plan says.  I’m back to keeping an eye on my weight — though I don’t ever intentionally try to lose any.  I’m hovering just under 130lbs which is just where I’d like to be.  I think things are going well!

Welcome back, base miles…

Well, I’ve entered the base phase again.  I’m doing five days of low intensity riding and a sixth day with some hard efforts.  Once I get my gym access back, I’ll also start hitting some light/high rep weights.  I’ve gone back and read some of my posts from a year ago and I’m happy to say that I’ve lost the 4 extra pounds that I had hoped to.  Yes, it took a year, but it was healthy and natural weight loss brought on by training lots and eating lots as well.  Things are going really well and I’m motivated.. let’s hope this keeps up.