Refocusing

I went for a run the other day, and it felt good. Then I went on another run, and it felt very good.

2010 started off with some ambitious goals, featuring a Cat 3 upgrade as the main quest for 2010. Battenkill was a big event early in the season, and I trained hard hitting the weights aggressively in February and logging over 500 miles in March. I felt really good, it was the best cycling shape I've ever been in. In April I logged a century the week before Battenkill, felt good for the main event, and noticed my improvements in the Thursday Night Crits. It was a great start to 2010.

I still logged over 400 miles for April, but my training totally dropped off in May. It didn't help that I spent almost 2 week off the bike, sprawled out on my couch trying to get over some nasty flu type virus that completely knocked me out. Coming back after that was tough, and now with June half way over I want to pause and re-examine my season. It didn't help that my next big season goal, Mt. Nebo had lost sanctioned status with the USAC. I was interested in doing the race anyway, but felt that doing a 25 mile event with 90+ other Cat 4/5 riders was too perilous to my health. Those descents are fast and tight.

So now I want to step back, re-assess my goals for 2010, and regather some training motivation and focus. Given that my top races are no longer USAC sanctioned (all the good hilly ones!) the singular goal of upgrading to Cat 3 no longer seems to be in the picture. Rediscovering running will help to diversify my season goals, which I think will be important to maintaining my training motivation. Running provides an intrinsic enjoyment and doesn't require any specific goals.

This has been a good long break, probably mostly a mental recovery, but now I'm ready and excited to start some focused training again.

Here are some tentative plans. Cyclocross will remain a top goal for the year, and I want to add some running events, a stage race, a duathlon, and maybe some adventure races.

Thursday June 24 - Route 29 Time Trial

Sunday July 11 - Catfish Duathlon in Harrisburg

Sunday July 18 - Route 29 Time Trial

Saturday July 31 - Pottsville 17

August 14 & 15 - Tour de Millersburg Stage Race

Sunday September 5 - Robeson Township State Race

Saturday October 2 - Lamprey Systems Cyclocross

Sunday November 22 - Philadelphia half marathon

That's something to get excited about.

Flint Hill

Today was one of those defining workouts where it is made clear that yes, I am indeed getting faster on a bike after 9 months of training and like the famous quote goes, training doesn't make riding any easier, it just means you go faster for the same effort.

I have the fortune of living on the side of a small mountain, it makes for good views, interesting weather, and great bike riding. On any ride I take from home, I have to do plenty of climbing, either on the way out, coming back, or both. Some of my favorite rides take me up and down the mountain at the beginning and end of my ride, just like my Flint Hill Loop. That is one of my benchmark routes, I like to ride it periodically as if it were a time trial to gauge my fitness. I love climbing, and at 135 lbs it is definitely my cycling strength, I only wish the hills around here were longer, it is difficult to find any climbs more then about a mile long.

So anyway, my best ride so far this summer was somewhere around 70 minutes, but today clocked in under 63 minutes (18.4 average), a sudden improvement. I'll document it here for the sake of future comparison. My average HR was 167, 34 minutes in zone, 8 minutes below, and 21 minutes above. I always try and maintain as high a speed as possible on each of the climbs, out and back.



If I'm doing well, I can sustain over 10 mph for the entire climb. On the way back, I frequently pop near the top of the last climb, it kicks up to a max of 11%.



Today I held between 10.5 and 11 mph for the entire climb up, including the 11% section where my heart rate was hovering around 185-189 bpm. According to a bike power calculator, that was roughly 400 watts for the minute or so it took to cover that section of the mountain.



Not bad, that felt like the absolute maximum that my body could do for 60 seconds without exploding. Man, that was fun.

Really, this ride was what I needed to give my season a good kick of energy for the final weeks of road racing. I had been winding down, feeling like I didn't have much to motivate my training. Now I feel like I can see the fruits of my efforts and I'm ready to give final hurrah to the 2009 racing season.