Blather on Bicycling

Recently I came to the conclusion that I haven’t been training enough. I seem to have been mired in a performance plateau that stretches back as far as last year: not getting better, not getting worse. One thing that I believe has improved greatly is my recovery on a day-to-day basis and also between intense efforts during a race. This is good because Joiel identifies recovery as the key difference between the elite riders and everyone else. I think some of this has to do with my emphasis on more rest this year and higher intensity training.

So am I really in a plateau? Exhibit 1 was Foothill road yesterday. It had me bent over coughing up lung residue for a couple hours. Nothing crushes you like The Hill. My time wasn’t that great either. On the other hand, it is hard to tell how much slower the new boulder seal is compared to previous years. I had postulated earlier that it was a minute slower. Other than Timberston and myself, no one else has been doing to it give a reference point to previous years. The local “racers” aren’t nutting up and riding their bikes. The rest of the day I tried to grapple with my Foothill deamons. Then, I turned my attention to my long climb field test scheduled the next morning.

Exhibit 2: Andies Prairie, a 10.2 mile, 2,150 ft ramp north of my house. I proceeded to trounced my best time ever by 2 minutes (see Lap 2 here). And that was into a headwind. I didn’t even feel that taxed at the top, so I think I could have throttled it harder. Based on this, Foothill might be as much as 2 minutes slower. I pulled off the climb with shorts on too, which was equally unbelievable considering the weather this year. Old Man Winter is gone, but spring has been a bitch too with daily snow. Usually I would have already been up this climb a few times by now. I was climbing through some massive snow banks (a la Stelvio. . .Giro. . .can’t wait). Then again, I still have snow banks in my driveway so it wasn’t anything special up there.

That ride today gave me a boost of confidence, an indication I am off to a good Act 2 of my race season. I’m currently coming off a rejuvenating hiatus. I had planned a special 2 weeks of recovery midway through the race season this year as a reaction to 2 straight years of sicknesses that killed my race seasons. So the last couple weeks I buckled down and stayed off my bike. I also focused on my nutrition and lost 4 pounds. Plus, I’m changing a couple things on my bike setup and losing over a 1/2 lb there too (stay tuned for upcoming pictures of my road bike and also my TT bike). This now has me leaned up, focused, and ready for another go.

Another decision I made to jolt myself out of staleness was to upgrade to 2. Tour de Waitsburg was proof that these guys ride fast /understatement. The move up will be accompanied by ramping up my training. I’ve added a 6th long-ride day to my weekly training. I’ll continue to vary my intensity during each ride from the following menu: hard, harder, and hardest. I reserve the highest intensity level for races and field testing: hors hard.