Base Training

After taking a rest week and being sick for over a week, it's good timing for me to write about training.  I know most everyone reading this, and most everyone that rides period, does so around a normal life, family and work.  So hopefully some of the training strategy that's worked for me over the years may help some of you out as well.  The "good timing" is because I can remind myself at the same time that I really have gotten in some solid training so far this year even though it didn't feel that way this past week.

Sept - Nov - I had a really long off season this year and haven't done a race in 6 months now.  After Leadville in August, I spent the next 3 months without any road riding and did whatever mountain bike rides I felt like.  On average that was about 2 rides per week with just a few random hard efforts and long rides thrown in.

December - In December my goal was simply to be more consistent and I was getting in 4 rides per week with one long one (5+ hours) on the weekend plus doing a pretty solid core workout twice a week.

Jan endurance block - after a week off the bike over the Christmas Holiday I took advantage of some extra time off work for New Years and did a really big endurance block.  In 8 days I rode about 30 hours with about 40,000ft of climbing.

Doing a focused block of rides like that every couple of months can give you some really good results compared to smaller incremental changes that you might see when keeping a similar routine week after week.   It's probably not a good idea for most people to have a huge jump in volume like I did, but I know from experience that my body reacts to the endurance rides really well.  If I were doing multiple days of hard intervals in a week I would personally have to be a lot more careful to not over do it.  But doing a similar training block like this at however many hours is a stretch for you can give big improvements.  Our it might be an intensity block right before your racing season starts.  Either way it's a good strategy to consider and can be balanced well with work if you do 2 big weekend, rides, 2-3 weekday rides, then 2 more big weekend rides, followed by the rest period.

The training period / block I work with most is a 2 week stretch, followed by 5-6 easy days.  I find this a lot easier to focus on compared to a 3 week training block that a lot of people go by.  It's better to be focused, and push a little harder for 2 weeks, compared to stretching things out for 3 weeks.  I follow-it up with a 5-6 day rest week and repeat.

Late Jan - The 2nd half of January I did 2 solid weeks of about 15 hours with a focus on endurance and introduced a little intensity with short power intervals one day per week and some tempo climbing on one of my big weekend rides.

Early Feb - The first half of February was another solid 2 week block at about 16 hours per week with my weekday intensity ride being some VO2 climbing repeats on the mountain bike and my other key rides being a hard tempo road ride on the Saturdays followed by a really big mountain bike ride on both Sundays.

Late Feb - After my rest / sick week it's time for 2 more weeks of building before the racing starts.  My intensity days will focus on efforts right around my threshold with one more real big endurance ride the first weekend and then tapering down to a more moderate endurance ride the 2nd week.

Then it's time to put it all together on race day!

Enjoying the Routine

After fighting a cold all week I had to sit out the Harding Time Trial this morning.  I wanted to be out there racing but it was really nice to have a chill morning with my girls.  Sometimes the best laid plans don't work out and you just have to listen to your body.  The last few weeks have been busy, but I've had some great training and even better times with Beth and Cameron...

 Rolling out early

 Some amazing sunrises!

 I know every bump on the bike trails here

 Where I spend most of my time

Burning through my snack drawer

 Checking mail

 Cameron helps with training plans

Lots of big climbing on the weekends

Cameron at her new desk

Spring Schedule - It's Time for Some Mountain Bike Racing!

Well here we go, I just registered for my first race, the Harding TT!  It's time to do some racing!  On the heels of the big announcements about the prize money for the PRO XC series, I'm as confident as I've ever been in my focus on endurance races.  I'm truly happy with the effort I put into racing national level cross country events and accomplished some big goals including a couple top 10 finishes and earning enough UCI points to race a world cup.  I still love cross country racing, but my inspiration has moved on to bigger landscapes, and my legs must follow!

Here is my plan for the Spring which will be followed right up with a couple big goals for the summer, still to be locked in based on how my first couple spring races go...

Feb 22 - Harding TT - Training race on the home mountains

Mar 1 - Racers and Chasers Box Canyon - Riverside

Mar 15 - NUE Series True Grit - St George, UT

Mar 29 - Austin Rattler - Leadville Qualifier

Apr 5 - The Vision Quest

April 26 - The Whiskey 50, Prescott, AZ

May 17 - Catalina Island Gran Fondo 

Wish me luck and see you at the races!

Sometimes we need a tough week to remind us that we don't have it that bad

Last week I had a challenging week, mostly just busy and stressed at work, while catching a cold and not feeling well late in the week.  Of course I know that being stressed at work or having a cold during training season is not that big of a deal.  But at the time it's easy for our minds to start racing about how that busyness and lack of energy is keeping us from what we really want to be doing.  Being in a better mood when I'm home with my girls in the evening, getting in training rides, going to visit family, simply feeling positive about my work and not overwhelmed...  At least that's how it is for me, when my days gets out of balance I start exaggerating everything in my mind.

Well as I was getting ready to write this I found out that a 21 yer old local cyclist and employee of Jax Bicycle Center was killed while riding on Santiago Canyon on Sunday morning.  It's such sad and terrible news, and really puts things back into perspective.  We're called to live with an attitude of thankfulness and joy, even on the bad days.  Be thankful for all the positive things you have in your life TODAY.  Do something to help or encourage a friend or co-worker.  Hug the one's you love and tell them you love them!   I'm heading home from work to do that right now...