a long december

The weather has destroyed my will to ride. Last year, I’d logged well over 100 hours on the bike by this point. This year I’m a few minutes shy of 35. It’s actually working out well, though. I spent a good bit of time talking with Sean, going over last year, identify strengths and weaknesses, developing goals, and applying all this to my training specifically to meet my goals. Instead of as much mediocre training as possible, I’m adopting relatively small amounts of high-quality training. I don’t need to put in a massive base with six plus hour rides; my longest race is four, and even those will be few and far between. I also don’t need to work on my aerobic system too much. Anyone who’s raced a crit with me knows I should probably focus on my anaerobic capacity. I’ve spent several days riding in Wilkesboro, which has been great. I’ve even ridden the trainer a handful of times… which is still more than I’ve ever ridden the trainer in a single season (not counting the hours spent in the Human Performance lab for the Quercetin trials). And races start in January now, with the chance to race twice, three, even four or five times a week from February to September.

I like training, don’t get me wrong, but I love racing. That’s why I do this whole silly bicycle thing. January Nats is tomorrow and will sort of kick things off, followed by NC State, Spring Training series, and then the “classics”: Rouge Roubaix, Blythewood Roubaix, Boone Roubaix, Harris Roubaix, anyone want to go to Battenkill?, take it easy for a week, then lather, rinse, repeat. And the best training for racing is racing, no? One of the best tips I’ve heard in regards to training is this: until you’ve dialed in the perfect training plan for you, take one aspect and do something totally different for a year. Last year was the year of high volume. This will be the year of specificity.

Here goes nothing.