2/27/08

Greetings Readers!

 

Another off day and recovery, I’m beat. The line we have to walk as self coached athletes is a difficult one. Do I workout? Or Recover? I have to be careful as my goal is to peak in Oct, not June.

One of the factors that clue me in on where I am fitness wise is climbing. After yesterday’s ride in to work my legs still felt hungover from Sunday’s stair intervals, (I do not advise running concrete steps in biking shoes) I decided to go out @ lunch and do this climb, it’s about a 10mile loop, half up, half down. I fully expected to really struggle, I didn’t. I was surprised at how well I got up that climb, barely broke a sweat. I seemed to have pretty good energy going home as well.

I’ve made this mistake before, got all gung ho for the season and rode my ass off only to find that come September I had peaked too early and I was going back down, struggling to maintain the same speed/time that I had done a few months earlier.

I want to be firing on all cylinders come October, basing my self coaching on my own body and the trial and errors of the past. When push comes to shove, on lap 4 of 5 in a cross race, I want legs to respond on demand. What I don’t want is survival mode for the last 3 laps, that’s not racing.

Tomorrow, back on the bike.

Friday I’ll rest for the upcoming weekend. I’m looking forward to hitting the trails on my crosser, that will be more about the fun of riding, (it will be muddy too) vs the specific goal of a minimum 50 base miles.

 

-Jim-