Athlete Blogs
February 24th, 2009The grind...
Some days a grind. It would be really nice having a binary indicator telling you - that you are recovered or not recovered - so you aren't wondering if you should be taking one more rest day or not. This morning was one of those mornings - the legs felt OK - but not great. I managed the workout but I wasn't really pleased with how I felt, I wasn't ripping it as much as I woudl have liked. I did the 2x20 and then microbursts after - then did a 45 min easy spin outside at lunch. My legs felt like total crap on the easy spin as well. Ugh!
Maybe I'm just getting old and need more recovery than I'd like to think! The problem is with "race weeks' where you have two hard race weekends - you really only have 2 training days, tuesday and wednesday, so the pressure is on to fit in some solid training. Otherwise I'll be afraid that my fitness will evaporate as Ed would say LOL.
To comment on what Ed said - I'm never 100% confident in my form. Even when I'm rocking a 5.6w/kg FTP and ripping legs left and right - I always fear, just a little, that I won't be able to go hard, that my workouts were TOO hard or my legs won't respond during a race, etc. I'm not sure that will change but it's always there in the back of my mind.
I've been looking at the calendar a bit more, doing some more planning - obviously masters nats in louisville is the #1 target and event I'll peak for. The weekend before is big too - tour of of washington county which I won last year (p/1/2) and want to win again. This season I'll be doing one peak - this two week period - otherwise we have some great events in the carolinas this spring and some really good races later in the summer I want to ride well in. For those events, mostly crits, etc I won't have to show up with 100% form, with peak power to do well - but the big time trials like nationals I'll need every single watt - perfect taper, form, etc - because you never know who will show up better prepared, lower CDA, etc. No one expected me to show up last year with a super aero position and good power and the same thing could easily happen this year with someone else. Plus I also want to try for a RR win as well and that will take great form and perfect tactical execution - not to mention beating some serious men in my age group including some new guys who are massively fast. Shoudl be a fun week in louisville.
This weekend will be fun - big george h. is racing with us saturday on a nice 75mile RR course on the SC/NC border. Sunday is back at the donalson center RR course - and I'll either do the M35 race or p1/2 depending on schedules - but either way another solid weekend of training and racing.
Tomorrow - basically same as today, more threshold work, microbursts and some sprints. Then resting up for the weekend...
Cheers,
Coach Pete
