It’s been a
while since I’ve posted on my blog, but the racing season is near, so it’s time
to get it started again.
For 2011 I
had a total of 627 hours of total training time (outside riding and trainer
time combined). I don’t know my actual outside mileage totals but if you take
the total ride time it would equate to a little over 12,500 miles for the year.
With the new
season nearing, I had a decision to make when it came to my team. I had been
considering changing teams for the past year or so, but hadn’t done so because
of our Team Time Trial team and a few other reasons … But overall, I just felt
my philosophy when it came to racing was different than some others on the team.
It also seemed that there was a movement toward Cyclocross being a priority for
the team and road racing less so. Since I don’t race Cross…I felt like I was
growing farther and farther apart from them.
So with all
that said, I decided it was finally time to move from Portland Velo after 4
great years and lots of friendships … and will be racing for Team Oregon this
season. I have several reason for moving
to Team Oregon, the biggest of which is logistics since they start their group
rides about 6 miles from my home and I can ride to/from the rides for a few
extra miles. Other than that, they are a road oriented team (who also
participate in cross, MTB and track) with an elite CAT 1/2 squad, of which I
don’t plan on moving beyond a CAT 3, but will enjoy training with some of them.
My training
is fairly on track right now compared to seasons past with my top end/sprinting
power better than normal. I actually set a new 5 second power number (1418
watts) in December during a sprint that I didn’t put everything into and didn’t
even realize it was a new PR until nearly a month later. That was also the
first time I had held over 900 watts for 30 seconds in a while…So, the
light/high rep lifting I’ve been doing during the fall/winter seems to have
helped my sprinting.
As far as my
weight goes, I’m about where I normally am this time of the year … maybe a few
pounds below normal. I started the year at 215 pounds (normally 225-230 pounds)
on January 1st of the year and have lost 7 pounds during January.
This is a little slower weight loss than normal, but has me on track to be 190
pounds by the end of March/beginning of April when I start to hit the road
races. I’ve really focused the last two weeks on weight loss which is where
most of the 7 pounds happened and plan to keep this up for the next two months,
which might get me to 190 mid-March, which would be great.
As for my
race season…I’m looking at most of the same races as I did last year by
competing in:
·
Jack Frost TT (late February)
·
Piece of Cake (early April – Maybe)
·
Kings Valley (mid April)
·
PIR TT (two races this season)
·
Eugene Roubaix (late April)
·
State Championship road race (Mid May)
·
ITT Championships (Late June)
·
TTT Championships (early June – if my new team
has one)
·
Eugene Celebration stage race (depending on
whether I have time and what type of shape I’m in)
Overall…I’m
looking forward to another season, though with a new team. I look forward to
seeing many of my old teammates at the races and hope they take it easy on me J
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