Howdy folks! Welcome back to the wondrous world of winter training and relentless bike riding. I hope your aat-a-bunch-of-food-and-fall-into-a-coma day was satisfying. We went for a short ride followed by an all-you-can-eat turkey extravaganza (delicious you might ask? absolutely).
OK, now down to business. Let's start with the good, followed by the bad, we will shift gears into the ugly and then culminate into something glorious: ready set go. I've been working on building my cumulative training load toward 15hrs per week. This is a big change from last year as I haven't put in this much time on the bike this early in the season. Right now I'm sitting at 13hrs of training each week but we will add one more hour next week until we hit the magic 15. My coach has me varying my training days to help maintain my "sharp end" as well as keep that big diesel engine (the one I supposedly have) purring. It's been tough but I'm committed to carving out the time. My weight right now is sitting at 142-143lbs which is much lower than what I'm used to seeing this time of year but with the increase in training load it's to be expected.
The bad...As much as I love them I have fallen off the bandwagon of making my rice cake portable slices of nutritional nirvana, but I have been eating oatmeal (by choice, I might add) in the morning before riding and it's helped to keep me energized. Let's see, what else is bad...hmmm... it seems as though I don't ever have enough winter riding clothes because they are always sitting wet in the laundry bin (yes, I do often times take them out anyway and get them even more smelly. Although when you factor the wind, I can't smell me at all). Biggest problem with winter training in the biting cold is that I have 2 metal posts right under my nose that are implants to hold my two front teeth in place, these act like pitchforks of doom to my face. Think of it like this, you bite a popsicle and get a brain freeze...for the next 3 hrs (yeah, stew on that). Oh, weather is cold and wet and more cold so that's bad too.
**Insert cool video on bike riding in winter** Watch this, it's pretty cool (even though it's an advertisement).
OK, now down to business. Let's start with the good, followed by the bad, we will shift gears into the ugly and then culminate into something glorious: ready set go. I've been working on building my cumulative training load toward 15hrs per week. This is a big change from last year as I haven't put in this much time on the bike this early in the season. Right now I'm sitting at 13hrs of training each week but we will add one more hour next week until we hit the magic 15. My coach has me varying my training days to help maintain my "sharp end" as well as keep that big diesel engine (the one I supposedly have) purring. It's been tough but I'm committed to carving out the time. My weight right now is sitting at 142-143lbs which is much lower than what I'm used to seeing this time of year but with the increase in training load it's to be expected.
The bad...As much as I love them I have fallen off the bandwagon of making my rice cake portable slices of nutritional nirvana, but I have been eating oatmeal (by choice, I might add) in the morning before riding and it's helped to keep me energized. Let's see, what else is bad...hmmm... it seems as though I don't ever have enough winter riding clothes because they are always sitting wet in the laundry bin (yes, I do often times take them out anyway and get them even more smelly. Although when you factor the wind, I can't smell me at all). Biggest problem with winter training in the biting cold is that I have 2 metal posts right under my nose that are implants to hold my two front teeth in place, these act like pitchforks of doom to my face. Think of it like this, you bite a popsicle and get a brain freeze...for the next 3 hrs (yeah, stew on that). Oh, weather is cold and wet and more cold so that's bad too.
**Insert cool video on bike riding in winter** Watch this, it's pretty cool (even though it's an advertisement).
The ugly.... Oregon's 11 1/2 months of crap weather is ugly, period. Oh and I am becoming slightly more open to riding the trainer when I really don't feel like going outside, that's pretty ugly as well.
Our trip to Solvang, CA for our mini-honeymoon keeps getting closer which has been good motivation for training. I am itching to get back to racing and actually have a good road season once again. My new super secret team is quite invigorating and it's been extra icing on the cake to have Lauren join me on both trainer rides AND road rides (yup, she's hooked). All in all, life is quiet: I live like a monk, eat, ride, work, spend time with Lauren & Jacqueline (our cat): repeat. And everything is Glorious!!!
That's all for now folks, enjoy the weather see you next week!
Cheers,
-Andrew-
Our trip to Solvang, CA for our mini-honeymoon keeps getting closer which has been good motivation for training. I am itching to get back to racing and actually have a good road season once again. My new super secret team is quite invigorating and it's been extra icing on the cake to have Lauren join me on both trainer rides AND road rides (yup, she's hooked). All in all, life is quiet: I live like a monk, eat, ride, work, spend time with Lauren & Jacqueline (our cat): repeat. And everything is Glorious!!!
That's all for now folks, enjoy the weather see you next week!
Cheers,
-Andrew-