Training smarter

I've been keeping my training resolutions and my diet has changed drastically as a result. Also, I've been riding more, about 5-6 hours at tempo weekly as opposed to the 3 at endurance I was doing for a while. It feels great to ride more and harder. My motivation level has been really high in all aspects of my life, which helps in this midwinter lull.

My Powertap is on the way, which should help with a few of my specific goals for the year. The biggest is my ability to maintain a consistent speed on climbs. I have great initial acceleration, but can't maintain it very long. It's good for sneaky crit breakaways and drag racing kids around the neighborhood, but not much use on longer rides.

I'm also getting a new road bike in a few weeks. It's going to have a custom paint job, so I'm geeking out a bit.

Spring break? Yeah, that coin is still spinning mid-air, but I'm not worried about the outcome. If I have to, I'll just make it a brutal week on the trainer. If I can go, I plan on at least two days of 5 hours on the mountain bike.


On the iPod:
by Jay-Z: 99 Problems, Run This Town, Empire State of Mind
by The Killers: Sam's town (the album)
by Dot Dot Dot: Edge of the World
by Phoenix: 1901

End of break

My leg is finally feeling better, and it's been two weeks since Sheboygan. My trainer has arrived, and next Monday is the end of daylight savings. I've finished reading the Training Bible, and will soon be done with my first nutrition book. Other than one night of light spinning, I haven't been on th ebike since Sheboygan.

It is time to begin training for next year.

I've never started training this early, and while I'm not going to ramp it up for a month or two, I will be spinning 4 or 5 days a week, just to avoid putting on any extra weight. When it's nice I'll ride outside.

My eating has already changed a bit, and early and mid-day meal portions have shrunken to accommodate the lower number of calories burned, but I still have my lifelong bad habit of pigging out later at night. Perhaps meal planning will help me avoid that.

I've never felt so motivated this late in the season. Between this year's successes, my category upgrade, and my preliminary team plan for next year (which I cannot discuss quite yet), I've already generated goals for the off-season. While my training goals are a bit more abstract for the next few months, they'll become more concrete as we approach Spring.

Off-season goals:
1. Learn about nutrition. This may seem vague, but I've never known much about nutrition and tend to eat things that make my other mom (Denise Whalen) cringe. Beyond eating fruits and veggies and avoiding sugar and fast food, I don't know much.
2. Keep riding weight below 160 (normally I jump from 155 in-season to 165 off-season).
3. Purchase a Powertap and learn to train with power.
4. Learn about racing with the big kids from those who do it.

Next season's specific goals:
1. One top 15 finish in a WORS event.
2. A top 25 overall finish in WORS.
3. A top 75 finish at Chequamegon.

Less specific in-season goals:
1. Attend 10 WORS events.
2. Attend the Tuesday night time trials at Franklin.
3. Attend two large non-WORS MTB races, such as an MNSCS or Michigan event. Maybe SBF.

I'll soon be posting retrospective pieces about my races from this year. Writing is how I think about things, and I think it will help me process some of the less obvious skills I've learned from this year.