Well I just got done with all of my winter training blocks. Now it’s just a couple of weeks of red zone and after that it’s tapering down and maintaining my fitness for the race year. After my last rest week was 3 ½ weeks of some of the hardest training I have ever done. The goal was to really bring my fitness and strength to the highest level possible before race season, so when I taper down the races will, hopefully seem a little easier than years before.
I made my last week harder than it needed to be with a 122 mile ride with some strong friends who made me hammer the entire time. I rode with Anthony, Miles and Cale. My TSS for that ride was 358 and burned 4090 kj. That’s the most energy that I have on record with my power tap for one road ride. A couple of days after that I started a 5 day race simulation to get my stress score higher than if I was in a big race. I started with a long TT, then a 3 ½ hr. day with tempo and VO2 on some climbs. Then I got to do some awesome rides in Moab with the RMCF team training camp. We started out riding in Arches National Park. It was a great time riding with the team for the first time this year, even though my foot was in pain the entire time. I only got four hours of sleep the night before because my foot throbbed all night.
Even though my foot hurt I still rode two more days with the team, what else am I supposed to do. We started from the condo again and rode the LaSal loop. That climb is steep, perfect training for steep races like the Mogion and Mt. Washington. I tried to go all out up that climb to see how my power was, but it wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be. I’m not too bummed out since I have such a big training lode right now. The views on these rides are amazing. If you want to see pictures of our training camp go to www.rmcfcycling.com. The cool thing about that ride is you go from desert to mountains with aspen trees and descend back down to a huge canyon with the Colorado River, surrounded by 400 foot red rock walls. Back at the condo we had a feast and watched the Olympics. The next day we rode Pot Ash Rd. then up to Dead Horse Point. That has got to be one of the best views on the planet, definitely worth riding all the way up there. It was a good way to end my week.
After the ride we slammed down some big burgers at the Moab Brewery and drove back to Durango. The next day my foot was still killing me but I thought it would get better since I was taking some easy days off the bike. My entire foot and ankle swelled up and more bumps started to form so I started to get scared and went to the emergency room. They’re not sure what cased it but they think it might be some kind of spider bite. I was put on an antibiotic IV and told to stay on crutches until it gets better. When I was sitting there with the IV they also checked my blood pressure, and my pulse was 43 so it made the machine beep really loud, the nurse had to turn off the machine and told me I was either very fit or dieing. As I’m sitting here writing this, my foot looks very gnarly and still swelled up. This will force me to take some rest off the bike. I’m looking forward to racing this year and if my foot ever heals I will update you on hopefully some good race experiences this year.
Training couldn’t be going any better. If anything it’s going too good. The weather is so dry in Durango that I haven’t missed one day of training. I’ll either over train or hopefully be very fit and strong this year. I think I’ll do ok Dave has me pretty dialed in with my Chronic Training Load so I wont over do it.
I started training in October with weights and running and biking just a little bit. It was more of a fun, easy month just to get ready for long structured training. My build up has been very steady all winter. I don’t know how most people can do base and almost immediately do a 35 hr week - that would kill me. Don’t get me wrong - it seems to make a lot of people fast. I already have pretty good endurance so I don’t do the big base under 140 hr. I’m doing a lot of tempo work this year.
November was a fun month. I did a lot of weights and low cadence climbs to build power. Also, big mountain bike rides in Moab like the White Rim. But you probably already heard all about that ride from three different websites. December through most of January I did a 7 week training cycle. Each week consisted of weights, intervals, long rides, and slowly ramping up the tempo. Finishing one gym workout I started to walk down the steps of the rec center to go home and both of my legs completely cramped up. I’ve never cramped up that bad before, and I know I had enough electrolytes and fluids. It’s just all that training finally got to me. The next day I spun easy and completely recovered. To help with recovery I’ve been eating as healthy as possible. If you want to get some good advice on health, read Shane’s book Health Myths Exposed.
In October Cottonwood Cycles hooked me up with a sweet TT bike - the Equinox 11. I built it myself and have been training on it once a week to hopefully improve enough to not lose minutes from the TT during every stage race I do. I even have a power tap cable on it. I hope this year I will be able to push more than a measly AV of 284 watts during the Gila TT.
The good thing about living in Durango is that there are so many fast people to ride with. Whether it’s the Tuesday night warriors like Charles Shaw and Michael Carol, or all my friends on team Health FX and my RMCF road team. They can always push me harder than I need to. Lately for some of my long rides I have been riding with Cale, Michael, and Charles. We rode up La Posta to Ignacio then Navajo Dam. That ride was hard because of all the big rollers and side wind all day. Plus they hammered the entire time for 120 miles. The day before that my TT bike was in the shop so I rode 4 hrs. On Sunday after Navajo Dam ride I went out alone to ride and ran into a group ride and ended up going pretty hard again for another 4 hrs. The good thing was I still felt strong after all that but started to feel my energy drop the next week. It took me an extra day to recover by doing an easy 3 ½ hr team ride with RMCF.
This last Sunday I did an awesome ride with Anthony, Miles, and Greg to Mesa Verde and back. The whole way out there we had a massive head wind, as Miles said it was like being in a wind tunnel for 3 hrs straight. This was the first time I have ever done this ride. The road up Mesa Verde was smooth with hardly any cars. You could see forever from the view at top. Those guys are strong - we got back quickly because of the tail wind. Well, I could go on and on about training rides this winter so I better stop here before this gets to long, like I said it’s dry outside.
It finally got cold but still dry. I had my big bowl of fruit this morning that my coach Master Watt, (Dave Harris) said was good to eat. Even Nick Ranno was impressed with my big bowl, and that guy can eat. I called the temperature this morning it was 1 degree outside. I called Anthony Colby to go ride, we waited until it was at least 15. Somehow we seemed to get an insane headwind every way we rode. One direction we must have had a 30 mile an hour head wind for an hour. On top of that I used a different wheel that didn't work with my old chain so I had to stay in my big ring the entire time. But that’s ok - I figure it’s a good way to build power for my skinny legs. Anthony just started base and he still had great power and never got tired doing a 4 ½ hr ride.
I finally bought an MP3 player for training, I've been wanting one for years. I uploaded a bunch of stuff and a Celtic Women CD that I found laying around. It's awesome to listen to for riding, there voices are extremely sexy and motivating to listen to. Well I hope the start of everyone's winter training is starting out good, talk to you next time.
Mitch
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