Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Well, December is upon us and in cycling terms that means it's time to move from 10-12 hour training weeks and the like to something more serious. So far, pretty much everything has been base miles and adaptation workouts in the gym. With the exception of the weekly "pain train" rides, my ride intensities have been very much in the base mile zone. I rode a pedestrian 1000 miles with almost no real intensity. The progression has been good though. As I've written before, I feel like I've got some power on the flats. At yesterday's 77 mile ride I really felt like I had what I wanted for the rotating double paceline intervals we did being able to help sustain the 27-29 mph pace. It was really cool to be rotating through with five other guys at that speed. Once we got to the big climbs, I got popped off the back and sat up as I didn't have the climbing power I needed to hang on. What that means is that I need to lose about 10 lbs and develop a little more leg strength and I think I'll be able to hang with the strongest of the non-Cat I/II riders.

So, there are a couple a changes to the training. First, I move to actual strength training in the gym. This is going to suck because it means that I get to be sore for the next two weeks. The second thing is to start to really put in some solid intervals efforts on the TT bike. Finally, my training times have got to increase by 10% per week until I'm at about 20 hours per week. Fortunately, finals week is here and I should be able to get a goodly amount of training time into my schedule. I have to head out to Salt Lake for the holidays but I think I can get a bunch of training in out there with a gym that's right up the road from my Dad's place. The nice thing is that there will be a little altitude training involved there as I'll be at about 5000 ft. That'll really help my January training quite a bit. The only problem is that there won't be any group rides but maybe I can get a good hard hour in every couple of days with some spin training.

Finally, my last goal (beyond the obvious ones) for this month is to return to a disciplined reading routine. I'd like to do at least an hour a day each day. I have about 10 books I'd really like to get read by the end of the year ranging from a book on spiritual theology and a discussion of the 24-7 prayer movement to a biography of Thomas Young and the "Darwin on Trial" book that a colleague wants me to read and give an opinion on. Add to that the new lectures on Ben Franklin and by N.T. Wright I've recently downloaded from iTunesU and I have a lot of intellectual work to do. Fortunately it'll be mentally stimulating, spiritually challenging and, occasionally, emotionally nurturing. It's not that the work I do at the College isn't many of those things but it's also a lot more draining. The reading and considering the ideas of others allows me to rest while remaining active and keeping my thinking fresh.

Well, with all that I have on my plate, I'd better get to it.

Thanks for reading.

The Physicist   Link Me    |