Sunday, March 4, 2012

What’s it mean when….

So like more than a few hard core MTB racers I’ve been back to hitting the training this winter.  Starting a month later than normal because cyclo-cross ran into January this year. 

We all have our “top secret” training methods, but I gotta say coach Gordy has served up a particular useful dish of pain the past 5 weeks.  It’s perhaps unconventional considering commonly accepted training principals… but I gotta say it’s working.

I did some higher end “threshold” work today, that after 3 1/2hrs of endurance riding & some lesser intervals yesterday(Saturday)… here’s the crazy thing… my watts/output in the final (of 4) 10min intervals today… nearly matched my all time best 10min wattage recorded last November.  That with a lower HR too.  Wild.

Seems I could actually have some gas in the tank to move the horsepower this year!? 

Hasn’t been all roses though, I’ve been sick three times with a cold or stomach ailment since the end of January & had to ease up on training.   Gotta remember one missed workout never ruins a season, heck one missed week ain’t usually going to ruin a season.

Also there’s a point when you are getting back into training (at least for me) that you wonder how the hell you’ll ever raced the Chequamegon 40, or some race like it, as fast as you do ….when in February often it feels like a 2:30 - 3hr ride alone is tough enough to finish, let alone race all out.  That was how I felt most of this past month.. .finally the past couple days the fitness has come around where I feel racing the 40 is finally feels like a physical reality again.

At least March is finally here.. .with it’s nearly foot & half of snow… at least in Ashland… no worries… it’ll be gone in a week & half …maybe..

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