Saturday, February 13, 2010

January - February Training

As I did last year, I started my serious mountain bike training ridiculously early. The less ridiculous part is the nice variety of activities I've been getting in. My weeks have been going something like this: Monday yoga, Tuesday racquetball, Wednesday 1-2 hr trainer ride, Thursday weights (very heavy, low reps), Friday off, Saturday and Sunday skiing and trainer time depending on weather. I capped it off today with satisfying 5 and 20 minute time trials (testing protocol per Coogan and Hunter).

I think I really let my self go, relatively speaking, during the cyclocross season. I was trying to mix it up with the Cat 3s in the B races, but I never came away with great results. The training was really slack at that point. After that, I rested for a couple weeks, then got serious again.

Playing with the new (used) PowerTap has been fun. I ride so much on the trainer, that in the past I was able to gage my output level by the speed on the computer. To do this, mount the sensor on the back wheel. It helps to look up the power curve for your particular trainer.

My most significant accomplishments for this training block have been: 1) Creatively modifying my schedule - I got sick Tuesday the week of the city of lakes loppet, then, instead of powering through a hard week, I decided to make it a rest week and get recharged for that race. The following week (ending tomorrow) was then to be a quasi-rest, quasi-on week. I feel great for the nice result at the COLL and for my good trainer ride today. 2) Squatted 255 lb. 8 reps, 6 sets, with lots left in the tank. This is a big improvement over last year in terms of reps. 3) Hitting my workout time goals without dorking up my personal life. 4) Had a great 5 min. time trial today according to the benchmarks in the Coogan/Hunter book.

We'll see how things shake out as I enter the base 2 period as defined by Friel. Here's some good reading for the self coached mountain biker:

Joe Friel, The Mountain Biker's Training Bible
Coogan and Hunter, Training and Racing with a Power Meter (useful even if you don't have one)
www.mtbr.com XC training forum


2 comments:

JoshRLC said...

I didn't know you had a blog! I was looking for it a while back. I'm glad I can follow you too, now! You've given me some motivation to keep working hard! Take care. Hope to see you at the races!

JDA said...

Glad you found my secret blog. Hopefully I can be more diligent with the posts. My modest goal is once a month.

Keep up the training. You are going be a contender in expert, for sure.