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

Monday, June 23, 2008

As I finish a two week training block, I thought I'd make a few observations about what I learned:

First, I hate two-a-days. Near the end of the block I felt like I was tired and dragging the entire time. I think a lot of that has to do with the intensity of the rides. Since I was going a shorter time, I could go a lot harder but that meant I accumulated more training stress in a shorter period of time.

Second, the TT training I did really, really helped. Each ride I dropped my average watts per mile per hour meaning it took less power to go a certain speed. I attribute this to two things. One is that my body started to adapt to the TT position and did a better job of utilizing the muscles used in the position; namely my hip flexors. Another is that I started to really get my position good and low. The interesting bit is that it seems to take me about 30 minutes of warm up before I can get down that low so that may mean I need to rethink my warm-up for races. Still, at the Thursday night TTT practice I seemed to be able to get down lower than anyone else aerowise, at least looking at our shadows during a couple of the really smooth efforts.

Third, I have absolutely no high end right now. I can really motor for 10-20 minute efforts but ask me to go for 20 seconds and I get dropped every time. This is why I can't win anything other than a TT right now and it's not something I'll fix soon. It's an area I need to work on specifically for the next six months through the end of this season and into the beginning of the next. What that means for riding with the team is that I need to offer myself up as the team diesel to pull for long periods of time as a guy who can work in breaks or as a guy who can pull them back. It also means that I'm the ideal team mate for the TTT.

Fourth, doing the two-a-days really killed my ability to go longer by the end of the block. Sunday, after returning from my Alabama trip this weekend, I tried to go out and do a 50 mile ride. The interesting thing is that I did great for the first hour and then sort of sucked after that. It tells me that I need those longer rides.

So, what's up next? This week I taper into the Rome Georgia Cup event. Easyish rides and lots of rest. My long days of teaching have come to an end so if I can get my body to let me sleep, I should be able to rest up and be ready. We've got a TTT and a road race with a long climb that might actually suit me a little bit. I'm looking forward to racing when I'm not tired and worn out. After that there's a 40 k TT in Alabama I'd like to do in a couple of weeks as a fitness test to get ready for the state championship TTT and a possible state championship TT a little bit later down the road.

Tomorrow is the final for my astro class and a team photo op and then Tuesday's the set up for my second session on-line course. I'm busier than I'd like to be but that'll pass soon I think.

Thanks for reading.

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