Moving onward

The weather last week was not conducive to riding outside long. And I had no focus or motivation for trainer work. So another week lost. I decided to bag this phase and begin to move on. If there is a break in the weather on a weekend maybe I'll switch the schedule and get a long one in, but for now I'm moving to intervals.

Yet once again I have failed to complete a full endurance phase. And we're talking the short endurance phase that Morris does not even one of those 3month phases like most people do.

I took first training calendar that I got from Dave Morris in 2005 and copied it word for word. The past two years I've added sets and reps or increased time lengths. This year I'm going to drop back down to the original plan. The key will be to do the intervals at the highest power for the entire workout. With the Tacx Flow or other ergo trainer this is a great way of working harder and showing improvement.

My thinking is that the area I want to work on most is the ability to put out big power for short time. The past two years I did longer efforts but they had to be at lower power settings. My thinking was that since the races will be longer I needed to up the total work per interval. But it seemed that while I did improve that I didn't get that much better especially in the starts or short efforts. I want to try now going for higher power levels.

For example the first workout of the plan was 3 sets of 5x1 on 1off with 5 min rest/set. I did these at a power level like 30W higher than in 2005. I know that in about a week and 1/2 I will be able to make a significant bump up due to supercompensation.

The workouts have been a little hard. And I could't finish one yesterday. Fatigue is an issue and I am tired. Lots of things going on with work, family and now starting to take a class. Not to mention that I'm not super fired up yet about racing. So getting through the intervals can be hard. The common phrase I've seen is "with sufficient motivation"... With sufficient motivation I can do all the intervals. That might mean the right song, or just digging deep. But to dig deep you gotta really want it and admitdly I'm kinda going through the motions a little bit.

I'd forgotten about the underlying fatigue these intervals cause and the constant hunger. I have however been feeling the spin in my legs coming back. I'm shedding tht plodding, awkward up/down mashing motion for that fluidity and that feeling of momentum in the legs. Where each pedal stroke helps the next.

I haven't been outside in a while, and need to get out there to regenerate some passion. Sometimes it is just easier to get on the trainer and takes motiation to suit up and get outside. But the truth of the matter is that almost every time I realize that I do love to ride my bike. So getting out on the trail or road and feeling the legs move and feeling balanced on the bike is going to be a motivator as much as seeing increased power levels.