Winter Plans

It's extremely satisfying when you find out that the basic training plan that you scrapped together the year previous is exactly what you should be doing.  Basically, I ride every day, indoors or out, and twice a week I hunker down for a 2x20 interval set at a sub-threshhold effort level.  Exactly what I did last year though the winter and exactly what set me up for a fantastic early season.

So, this year, the same thing.  Last year, where I went wrong in my training was forgetting, on a fundamental level, that I couldn't concentrate on all the races I raced.  I have to train through most of my races; something that I didn't do.  I got confused.  People were telling me to back off a couple days before the race and, well, if you are racing almost every weekend, that doesn't leave that much time for structured training.

Base training will be 2x20s, twice a week.  These aren't really the hard pukey intervals that everyone talks about.  These are just base training to train the "time trial" ability.  Once racing starts, I'll add some shorter, more intense interval sets and some hill sprints to train my sprinting ability.  Once racing is closer, I'll probably back off to 2x20 once a week, some 5 minute interval at higher intensity once a week, hill sprints once a week, and the rest tempo miles.

"A" races for the year: Willamette Stage Race and Cascade Classic.  I want to be in peak form for these two races.

Year end goal: to become competitive in the Cat 3 field.  I need 9 more points to graduate to the 3's.  I hope to get these at Willamette.  It's a race I can win.  At Cascade, I just hope to be competitive in the 3 field.  I don't think it's a race I can win, but I can certainly help Mitch or another, more mountain goat like teammate, win.

On a somewhat unrelated note, the best feeling of relief I've had all year is finally popping a saddle sore that's been bugging me since Willamette last year, in April.  It finally popped after I used some Preparation H to reduce the swelling.  I think, by reducing the swelling, I let the head come to the surface so it could finally be ejected from the body.  I'll be sure to have a tube of Preparation H on hand at all times to nab saddle sores as the appear in the future.