4 weeks to go

I used them all. I was deep into my bag of excuses and not making myself feel any better. My lungs burned and stomach was in the throes of cramping. The legs felt as if they could cramp at any moment. I was beyond the red line and the group was still pedaling slowly away from me. I settled in to wait for the group coming from behind. Once I met up with them, we got organized and the chase began. Fifteen miles later our group of 8 was down to three and the men ahead of us were in our sights. Steeling our gaze on the group ahead and galvanizing our will, we worked as one unit, pulling through, rotating, resting, pulling through, and on and on and on until, at last, we caught them. It was an epic chase and served to redeem the early ride for me. I averaged 22.9mph at the end of it, not bad for starting at 5:15am. It was a wake up call to both body and will.

Every week has a theme, this week is weather.

Monday: memorial day-rain all day

Tuesday: 25 min before rain hit

Wednesday: Recovery/lift

Thursday: COCAC5:15

Friday: 90 min tempo

Saturday: recovery

Sunday: Off

5 Weeks to Go

Last week didn't go as planned. It happens. Now I am fighting the tendency to be discouraged that I was not able to train as I wanted. I got bike time on Friday and Saturday, was sick the rest of the week. Instead of focusing on the disappointment, I am choosing to focus on the highlight. Saturday morning I met up with Justin McKibben, my wife's uncle, at a city park just outside of Knoxville, Tennessee. Justin got me into biking, letting me borrow his old bike to ride once he got his new baby, a beautiful Trek Madone. I rode his old bike for a year until I found myself hopelessly in love with the sport and could justify a bike of my own. Justin told me of this fabled route through farmland, over hills, by the lake and over perfect roads. He did not disappoint. It was an amazing morning! Temps that were warm enough to ride without arm or leg warmers yet cool enough so I didn't need the two water bottles I brought (I sweat a lot and have to drink a lot when I ride distance). We put in 28 miles and had a great time; talking, 'suffering like dogs,' and enjoying the beauty of the East Tennessee morning. Here are a few shots I took on the ride. Thanks, Justin!

This week I am hoping to get 4 days of on the bike training. Here is the plan for the week:

Monday: Recovery/floor exercises

Tuesday: COCAC 5:15 (group ride leaving at 5:15am that has gotten much faster over the past couple of years. we usually get in 30ish miles and average 22 or so. Fun ride if I can get up for it.)

Wednesday: recovery/lift, Gym

Thursday: COCAC 5:15

Friday: 20s intervals in Huntersville Business Park (HBP)

Saturday: early hour to hour and a half. hill intervals. easier pace.

Sunday: Day off. My son, Liam, turns 3!

As Jon Foreman (lead singer for switchfoot) says, "every breath is a second chance." Lets see how this week goes.

Six Weeks to Go

This blog is about personal accountability now, not as much for consumption of others. If you are reading, I am surprised and you are welcome but these words exist to focus and motivate me.

Six weeks from now is the State Games of NC. It will be my first race of the year and I am no where close to ready. CFC team meeting last night I ran into people who race all the time. That is not me no matter how much I might like to. I have to pick races that help get me close to my goal and that match proper pacing for my family. June 27 seems like a nice convergence of the two. Plus, it is near father's day and I can pull that card to get me in the race.

This week is odd. We are traveling two days. Arin is traveling another two days. Bike time looks minimal. On top of that, our kids have been sick and kind enough to transfer their funk to me. I am fighting mental insanity of not training with my body telling me to lie low and get over this illness. So this week, here is my training:

Monday: Recovery day

Tuesday: Diagnosed w/ Strep. Rest Day

Wednesday: Wife out of town-Off

Thursday: Wife out of town-Off

Friday: Ride in Knoxville

Saturday: Ride in Knoxville with friends

Sunday: Recovery

The best intentions...This week has potential to be a training disaster. We'll see.

Goals

So I have learned something about myself. As driven of a person as I am, it is necessary for my mental health (and physical too!) that I set fitness goals. Without them I flounder. When I set goals, however, I find that perfectionistic discipline that will not allow me to do anything half-way takes over. Pretty soon, without much effort, I have a plan in place.

Without plans to work that move me toward a goal, I flounder and end up discouraged.

After a rather poor off-season of training, coming on the heels of burnout at the end of last season, I have set some goals for this cycling season. Now that the big spring events are out of the way, I have set myself to focus on the second half of the summer races, the ones I didn't do last year due to burnout.

I am looking at doing the Cat 4 NC State Games Crit on June 27. That will be my first race of the year, a gauge to measure fitness and mental conditioning.

My real target for the season is the Crossroads Classics August 3-7. It is a series I wanted to do last year but was too burnt out to consider. Crossroads is 5 days of consecutive racing in and around the Charlotte area. Each little town around the city seems to host a Criterium. It is a points based series with each race having a winner but the series having an overall winner as well.

I am excited to have some targets out there and have felt direction for the first time in a year. My goal for these races? I would like to say my goal is simply to have fun but I know myself. My metric is to earn Cat 3 status out of this series. Easy for me to set a goal like this and work toward it. Perhaps the better, and more difficult goal to keep top of mind is to figure out how to have fun!

In either case. It starts end of June and winds up to the first week of August. My goal is to post training reports here once a week. Unlike last year, this is not out of a bloated sense of self-importance. This blog helps with accountability. It is a tool that helps target and motivate training.