Happy New Year!

The holiday period proved to be tough on my training regimen. Between the added stress, work hours, and winter weather, I only rode about twice a week (mostly on the trainer), but I was in the gym a decent bit. Kettlebells have been my staple workout tools recently. I was able hit the road a few days ago, and I must say, the legs felt STRONG!! I should be able to resume a full schedule beginning next week. I'm looking forward to it. Everyone has small lapses in their training, right?

I'm waiting for my new front derailleur to arrive, so I can officially convert my bike from a triple to a double. I've also added a set of 50mm carbon tubular wheels to the arsenal, so I'm eager to try them out. I can't wait to race this bike!

Happy New Year to all...happy training!

This week's schedule

Monday- Rest

Tuesday- 2hr. EM (Endurance Miles) with 4x5min MT (Muscle Tension) intervals

Wednesday- 1.5 hr EM

Thursday-2hr EM (Endurance Miles) with 4x5min MT...Lifted legs at the gym, due to WIND!!

Friday- Rest

Saturday- 2.5hr EM (Endurance Miles) with 20min T (Tempo)

Sunday- 2hr EM (Endurance Miles)

Once again, it's been a while...but I'm still training!

With daily life, it's not always easy to blog everyday, and I'm not very good with consistency anyways. I am still training, though. In fact, my training schedule just switched from my "foundation" period, to my "preparation" period. My workouts have become more intense, with a higher heart rate, as well as adding a bigger focus on muscle building. For example, in one of my workouts this week, I climbed a hill with 8% grade in 52x17 gearing (about 4 minutes to complete). Repeated x 4, in the middle of a 2 hr. ride.  Normally, I'd probably be in 42x15 or so...and who knows how low I'd go if it was an extended effort.

I just got a set of 50mm deep Carbon Fiber race wheels, with bladed spokes. Not only are they super aerodynamic, but I also shaved about a pound of weight from my current wheels. They're tubulars, instead of clinchers, so they'll be reserved for race day, but I'm waaaayyy excited to have them.

Some other changes I hope to make soon:

Double crankset (53/39)
New seatpost
New pedals

This week, I also got to ride with another teammate from the CRFP team. I was excited for a couple reasons. First of all, I think it's important for the team to ride together as much as possible, to learn each others styles and strengths. Secondly, Dennis has a reputation as being a STRONG rider, and I love pushing myself. It turns out, he's been sick recently and still hasn't recovered fully, but it was good to ride with him, nonetheless.

Hip/Knee Pain Info

Recently, I've been having some pain in my hips (bilaterally, although worse on the right). I know my flexibility is horrible, so I've started stretching more than usual, but probably still not enough. I did some digging around on the internet, and found that oversized crank length can lead to knee and hip pain. This is interesting, because when I built my bike, I initially had 175mm arms (WAY too long), which I downsized to 172.5mm. For the race season, I'd like to switch my setup from a triple ring to a double, so I'm faced with the issue of deciding crank length once again. I stumbled across an interesting read....here it is:
http://www.cptips.com/crnklth.htm
According to the author, at 5'10" I'm exactly borderline between 170mm and 172.5mm proper crank arm length. It does say, however, that too short can be inefficient unless you spin at higher cadence. This still doesn't help my decision, as I'm comfortable around 90 rpm. Why can't the technical stuff ever be easy?

The past couple weeks

It's been a few weeks since I've updated, but I'm still training frequently. In 3 weeks, I will switch from my "Foundation" period, to my "Preparation" period. Basically, my intensity will increase, and my training hours will decrease slightly. I recently had ANOTHER cycling computer take a dump on me, so hopefully I will be able to replace it soon. If anyone can recommend a reliable computer with HR and cadence, I'm all ears. And don't say the Garmin 305....that's what just broke. On the indoor trainer, I've continued to combine workouts #1 and #3. This has been amazing. The past few days, the weather has been great, so I've gotten out and put in some good "hammer" miles, too.

Recently, I've been working on getting my nutrition squared away. I've managed to put together one hell of a workbook to help me track my intake (ok, so a couple of my computer savvy friends helped a little).  If you've ever worked with syntax in MS Excel, you'd appreciate how tedious this has been! I also received some info and recommendations from my nutritionist, so I'll be putting her stuff to the test. Hopefully, this keeps me from overtraining (underfueling, actually).

I also recently started working with a sports psychologist to work on eliminating competition anxiety, and maximizing mental performance. Y'know, David Goggins says that once your mind makes you want to quit, your body is only 10% finished. So far, we've talked about things like visualization, positive "self speak", focused thought, and eliminating comparison-based evaluations of performance. It's pretty interesting stuff.

Trainer Workouts

Recently, I've been riding my stationary trainer a lot. The weather has been difficult, and my schedule got kinda hectic for a while. From the workouts that I posted previously, I've been combining #1 and #3 in the same workout, and it's awesome. I simply go all the way through workout #1, and use the "cool down" as the warm up for #3, and then roll right into the next workout. A word of advice if you do this: Make sure you have both water bottles full!

Cold Weather Training

A good portion of the country is either already experiencing a taste of what's to come this winter, or soon will be. We have 2 choices: go out and ride in it, or workout on the indoor stationary trainer. I'll be doing a good portion of both. I found a great couple of workouts, and will probably be referring to some of them during my winter blogging. It's in pdf form, and from what I can see, it's free for all to use. Here's a link:
http://www.purpleextreme.com/Info/Trainer%20Workouts%20Complete%20Series.pdf

Enjoy!