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

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Well, in spite of my best intentions, the cycling season has come to an end. Unfortunately, that means I won't be racing the state TT championship. Before anyone gets too concerned, I haven't gotten injured or anything but I can tell that if I continue to try and push to extend the season I will endanger next season pretty seriously. I tried to stave off this occurrence by taking a week off a couple of weeks ago but when I came back it was pretty clear that my body wasn't having any of it. As I tried to ride with effort during the week I could get my heart rate to a good place but I was worn out after 45 minutes and I was suffering from a lot of post ride muscle pain. Add to that the fact that I can't seem to get enough sleep and I've had a couple of episodes of slight vertigo I see all the signs of overtraining. If I try to push for another two weeks I can see that I might push my body way over the edge or make a big training mistake and injury myself. So, it's three weeks off the bike and into some low intensity, low impact stuff. It's also time to go on a diet to make sure I don't put on a bunch of weight and maybe I can lose some without having to worry about negatively affecting my training.

I have a good plan for the time off. I'll do yoga/Pilates work three days a week to develop core strength and flexibility and on three days I'll do some light weightlifting to prep by joints for some heavier work in late October. I'll probably add some swimming to the mix to keep the aerobic systems active and to help rebalance by nervous system from mostly lower body to a full body state. I'm hoping that the pool work will also help me to work on breathing in rhythm for time trialing next year. It's weird how everything is planned in my mind for the three week "off season" to make for a better next season. I really want to take a biger step up next year. I'm tried of being a great time trialist and then not seeing anything for it in many of the stage races. I think that with some coaching I can develop enough of a burst that I can be threat to win road races that have any sort of selective section. It's all going to be in the training I do from January through March that's at or above my Lactate Threshold that develops my VO2Max system more fully.

I'm amazed at how much I've learned about racing and training this year. The high point of the season has to be the Tour of Atlanta and my second place finish in my first race for the Security Bank team. That's the other really great aspect of the season. For the first time I'm riding for a team that actually rides as a team. To work with Robert, Ron, Bill and Doug to get an excellent set of results has been fantastic. I really believe we've been the best team in 4/5 in the state. We've managed to start changing the culture of negative racing in the cat 4 group thats plagued racing in Georgia for a long time. That's a hugely positive development and I think next year will be a much more wide open season because of it. Add to that the fact that we've moved Doug and Jake into higher categories and have something that's looking like a good small Cat 3 team and I think we have a lot to be proud of. We won every team time trial in our division including the state championship and took a first and second in the ToA.

Looking forward to next year I'm not sure if we'll all try to race Masters class (and get our butts kicked around for a while) or if we'll try to move more guys up but I'm game for whatever it is. For me, I'll do a better job of managing my season so that I don't end up digging myself a hole in late May and early June and then spend the rest of the year fighting to stay out of it. I think the new Georgia Cup schedule with a big break in the summer will really allow me to work hard in the spring, take the good break and rest in the summer and then finish a lot stronger in the fall. I'll definitely restructure my training and see if I can breakthrough in '09.

As I write this I'm witnessing some thing I never thought I'd see. By beating Auburn, Vanderbilt is in first place in the SEC East division ahead of Florida, Georgia and Tennessee. I remember the days when Vandy was the doormat of the SEC East and now they're leading it. They still have to play Florida and Georgia but 5-0 is an amazing thing. Nice to see the geeks doing well.

Thanks for reading and I'll update a little later in the week.

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