Sunday, December 14, 2008

Week 5

Another week of base down, and one more until a week off for Christmas. I’m starting to feel pretty good from a conditioning perspective. Long rides are tough but not draining and all the work I’ve been doing with my core and yoga are keeping the body from having any pains.

In past years any ride over 2.5 hours or so would result in a stiff and sore neck/upper shoulder region. This year I haven’t had any of those issues and have to attribute it to the yoga. Each week I can tell I’m getting a little more flexible and even if it doesn’t help the cycling I’m feeling better overall.

The weather has made training easy thus far with only a bad day here or there; however, today we got hit by some snow (not more than 2 inches or so) and extreme cold. When I went out to the mall (Christmas shopping can’t wait you know) it was 4 degrees according to the car. At least the weather men called this storm right and I listened. I switched today’s scheduled long ride to Saturday and the ride scheduled for Saturday, which was suppose to be an off-road time trail with 20 hard minutes and only 1:15 total, got moved inside to the rollers. I still did the 20 minute effort, but on the road bike, no technical stuff to worry about and only rode an hour. So the good news is I roughly did the training I was suppose to, the bad news is the weather is suppose to be cold and snow on and off all week. I just hope it breaks enough by the end of the week to allow me to get in another long ride next weekend.

The major race series in Colorado (and nationally) have put out schedules in the past week or so. I’m starting to plot out the season, but it may be hard until I know what endurance race(s) I’m going to do. I’m planning on trying to register for the Leadville 100, but only 1,000 people get in so who knows if I’ll get a slot. If not I think I’ll do the Laramie Enduro which is a few weeks early and 40 miles shorter. Either way the training plan I’m on now should help as Lynda W is the endurance coach guru so she has a plans available for any type of race distance. I’ll know far enough in advance the race I’m going to do (mid February) that not know now won’t effect anything. Later the big race I’m doing may (will) affect the normal distance cross country races I do, but for now it is all about building aerobic fitness.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey, just found your blog. So, your goal is Leadville? 9 hours? I think the key is to not get burned out of the bike and too many 'junk' miles. keep it fun, work on skills, mix it up. don't be afraid to miss a workout. worry more about what you eat. and maybe do one practice 5 hour race or longer to make sure you know how to eat and drink during leadville (check out the one in Texas in February).

F1RST

Racing Green said...

Not sure about a sub 9 Leadville, more realistic I think will be 10 or less. Hopefully follow the LW Coaching plan will get me there. This time of the year I'm taking training as I get it, given the weather here in Denver this week and Christmas next I'm hunching there will be a few missed workouts. Keep following the progress.