I’ve started to work with a coach to bring some focus to my riding and clarity to my nutrition. For the better part of 4 years I’ve seen gains in my personal fitness primarily from re-discovering cycling. I’ve seen weight loss, strength and speed gains, and my comfort level on the bike go up. I feel stagnated from this winter and I know that as Kent Peterson says “I am not a nutritional role model”.
Our arrangement right now is pretty simple – he’s drawn up a 12 week plan to build and re-focus my base and will be pointing me in the right direction with on and off bike nutritional choices. After the 12 weeks I’ll evaluate where I’m at and will probably move into a more formal arrangement to focus on specific events for the 2008 season. After 2 weeks of following ‘the plan’ I can see that I’ve been riding too hard, too often. This is probably one of the biggest problems of self trained athletes – going too hard all the time and not letting the body rest and recover. When given proper care the body gets stronger because of its ability to heal and rebuild itself after hard efforts. If your training consists of pushing yourself to the limit day in and day out, you never give your body a chance to recover from these efforts and work its magic – its during this recovery time when the real ‘training’ happens – adaptation to hard work is what makes us stronger and faster.
The plan appears ‘easy’ on the surface – the first few weeks will see lots of Z1 and Z2 workouts with a sampling of some short intervals. I was warned that I’ll have quite a few rides in the first 3-4 weeks where I’ll question the sanity of the program, as I’m not used to “taking in the scenery”. I’ve been finding it difficult to ‘go slow’ and spin! I’m working with HR zones and limits – so for any given ride I have HR caps. The ‘easy’ days aren’t all that easy – especially when my body wants to ride at a steady state that it has gotten used to over the past few years. It seems that I always end up riding at a similar speed – moving above and below this speed takes work. As we progress the program gets rough – the mileage adds up quickly and I’ll have back to back long days in the saddle (as my primary events are Brevets and centuries) and plenty of climbing intervals.
Today I had an easy recovery spin scheduled, so I ran errands while getting my ride in. I’m enjoying my new Carradice SQR Tour bag for both my long rides and for around town. The bag comes on and off the bike easily – but is very secure while riding. It is large though – and I do get odd looks from the roadies speeding to and fro… I’m not sure what people make of a bike with a gigantic seatbag, dual headlights, taillights, and fenders. With some planning I can carry enough for a long day (maybe two) on the bike, or leave room for a run to the library, post office, bank, hardware store, and bike shop. In combination with my handlebar bag the Carradice might be perfect for a light weekend tour – a theory I hope to test later this summer.
