I am excited to race, yet nervous at the same time. My off-season preparation has gone about as good as anyone could hope for. With the time that I have to train, and with the weather being as crappy as it has been lately, I am very pleased with how my training has gone and feel that I am about as good as I can be right now without turning into a full-on bike hermit.
My training has been almost entirely on the road or trainer this year. I have mountain biked a whole three times this year, with two of those happening this week. It's just been too wet or muddy to ride the trail. I toughed out a lot of cold road rides in January and early-February, but the past two weeks I have been on the trainer mostly due to rain and/or snow almost every day in some form or another. I've heard a lot of people talking about how this has been a warm winter, but those are the people who have been sitting inside on their couch watching reality shows instead of living for themselves. This winter was not the worst one I have trained in by any stretch of the imagination, but it was worse than the last four or five. It has made me really earn my mileage this year.
The only time the snow accumulated this year was barely enough to cover the grass. Here's our little house all dressed in white.
The back of the farm looked like a white tundra across the fields
The ground was warm where the dirt was exposed, but the snow did stick to these gum balls.
Looking into the woods at snow-covered trees.
The trainer has been somewhat enjoyable I will have to say. For the first time in my life, I rode the trainer with purpose, not just logging time, but doing workouts. I finally accepted that the first two weeks of my intensity block were going to be inside or not at all. It was either put out on the trainer or be slow come race time. I have put in quite a few interval workouts inside and I can feel a huge difference. Some of the best triathletes in the world say that there is nothing like a good trainer workout to improve power and fitness. I'm starting to believe them. I have learned to settle into a hard pace, pushing a bigger gear than usual and just suffer like a dog. No downhills available for recovery. Just good, hard work for the entire ride. It's been a good time to catch up on all the early-season races in Europe. Most of the races get posted on YouTube right after they happen.
Shannon on the trail on one of the warmer days this week
Shannon crosses the creek on our backyard trail
A dirty Snoop running for the trail
My heart rate has always been lower on the trainer due to weakness in my legs. I could never sustain the pace needed to give my heart a good workout because my legs couldn't keep pushing the gear on the trainer without a break. That would explain why my time trialing has always sucked. My previous best heart rate max was 184, set several years ago during a Spinervals video workout. I went a few years without even getting close to 184, then I hit it twice last season. Both of those times came within a week and both were while warming up for races. I then hit it again this January during my first interval session of the year. Last week, the record was finally broken. I first cranked out 185 on my seventh of ten 3-minute intervals during a workout, then broke it again with 187 on the eighth rep! I was so pumped! Two days later I hit 185 and 186 during intervals.
So the question became how would all these numbers carry over to the road? Well, first let me talk about my road heart rate values. I have been unable to get into the 190s for a max heart rate the past two seasons except for one race in 2011, where I hit 191 and took 2nd. In the past, hitting 190+ in the finish sprint has been good for me. In 2010, I cranked out a max of 193 six times, which resulted in three wins (including the Cat. 3 Road Race State Championship), a 3rd, a 4th, and a 5th place. Not too bad of a streak! I would gladly take a top 5 right now just to get some momentum going. I cranked out 191 during a group ride the other day when I attacked on a hill and soloed for a few miles off the front. The local group has been giving me heck so far this year since I usually ride 20-30 miles of hills before I join them, but the training appears to be paying off now as I still did the distance, but smashed them on every climb this time around. I have a 51-mile loop through some very hilly roads that I have been using for my race-simulation rides. I knocked 19 minutes off my best time last week on a windy day. Things are looking good, but it'll take a few races to really shake out where I stand after the winter.
Geese in the pond.
Snoop on the dock keeping a look out for a fish using my phone. I dropped a phone while on the dock a few weeks ago. It sank good. Like an anchor.
One more thing to mention about training. I've dropped two more pounds, putting me lighter than last season, almost as light as I was after getting that nasty stomach virus last March when I hadn't eaten in three days and was dehydrated. I hate salads, but the green is helping with the lean. My core is also much improved now thanks to continued yoga and adding in TRX. I made my own TRX strap and have been doing full-body workouts 2-3 times a week. Of course, I'm hitting the glutes hard. I'm far from strong in them, but I'm a ton better than last year. I know I haven't mentioned glute training in a while, but I'm still working on my own glutes as well as developing programs for athletes at work. I'll post more about this soon.
On another note, I figured out part of the reason for my lack of motivation last season. It was definitely stress, mostly due to work. When in school, I used stress as a tool to ride harder and more often. Riding helped me let off steam. This work stress was different. It was frustrating and made me feel hopeless at times. I didn't recognize it at first, but now I see it. We made some management changes at our clinic and that has helped tremendously. It's hard to work for a boss that's only out for himself. Getting rid of that boss relieved a lot of my stress. It also put me in a position to possible rise up in the clinic and take on some new responsibilities. I thought I wanted this. I worked my butt off the past few months to prove I was ready for the job. But it has gone unnoticed in many ways. It was back to frustration and the feeling of hopelessness for a while before I realized that it just wasn't worth it. I've decided I like just being a PTA and treating patients. More responsibility is not what I need under my current supervisors. We have already had several misunderstandings and disagreements caused by their lack of communication and setting of unrealistic goals. I want to just do my job and go home, where I can spend ample time with Shannon and more time on bikes. One day I want to rise up and direct my own clinic, but today is not that day and neither is tomorrow. Stress is still there every day as we continue to have problems in our clinic, but I have identified it now and I won't let it defeat me again. This is now! This is the time to concentrate on my dreams and passions and go for them. I'm going for my goals today. I'm no longer planning to improve myself, I'm improving myself today. How can I change tomorrow if I can't change today?!
I've been a home-body for the most part, just tooling around the yard during my free time and occasionally doing some fishing in the pond behind the house. I saw two concerts last month on back-to-back nights in Nashville. First night, Dina and I went to Marathon Music Works where we saw a heavy-metal show including Shadows Fall and one of my favorite bands ever, Hatebreed. I doubt Dina really knew what she was in for! We had our eardrums blown out and left strutting like a rooster. Hatebreed just makes you do that. They have some of the most motivating, butt-kicking lyrics and riffs around. The last line of the paragraph above was from one of their songs. As is this blog title. If you ever need a good kick in the pants, just play some Hatebreed really loud. They'll remind you to stop being a girly-man and go after whatever it is you want in life.
The next night, I took Shannon for a hard rock show when Sevendust came to town. It was my third time seeing them and they continue to put on great shows. They are also one of my favorite bands, so I got to see my two favs in two days. Lacuna Coil and Avatar opened for Sevendust. I didn't know much about Avatar, but after hearing them live I have really taken a liking to them.
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