Winter training

Well, after my accident back in October, it took a while to get back into the swing of things. I had two weeks off the bike completely, then another month before I started to feel better on the bike. I was then able to start lifting again, but started with: Good Mornings, Calf Raises and some Core work. Then two weeks ago added in lunges again for a full lower body workout lifting wise.

I've been adjusting my schedule based on trying to get more rest/recovery time. At first my schedule looked like this:

Monday: 30 minute easy spin before work
Tuesday: 30 minute easy spin before work - 2 hours mixed speed work on my trainer
Wednesday: 30 minute easy spin before work - 2 hours mixed speed work on my trainer
Thursday: 30 minute easy spin before work - 2 hours mixed speed work on my trainer
Friday: 30 minute easy spin before work
Saturday: 4 - 4.5 hour group ride (part of it done on my own before/after the ride)
Sunday: 3.5 - 4 hour ride outside

Lifting on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday

If found that even with the easy spins on Monday/Friday that I wasn't getting enough rest and decided to actually add more time to my schedule, but take more time off the bike.

My current Schedule looks like this:

Monday: Off
Tuesday: 1 hour before work - 2 hours after work (picking up the pace with high tempo intervals every 10 minutes).
Wednesday: 1 hour before work - 2 hours after work (picking up the pace with high tempo intervals every 10 minutes).
Thursday: 1 hour before work - 2 hours after work (picking up the pace with high tempo intervals every 10 minutes).
Friday: Off
Saturday: 4 - 4.5 hour group ride (part of it done on my own before/after the ride)
Sunday: 3.5 - 4 hour ride outside

Lifting: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday

This gives me two full days off the bike a week ... but bumps my time on the bike up to 15.5 - 17 hours a week plus another 1 hour or so of lifting.

So far, the extra time on the bike doing base miles has helped keep the weight off. I'm usually around 215 pounds by now this time of the year ... but I've been holding steady around 198-199 this year ... So, I'm much lighter than I've been past years.

I've also been taking my TT bike out at every possible time I can ... when it's been dry out. I've been working on my position, trying to get it dialed in since the first TT of the year is the last week of February. With the new saddle, it's changed a lot. I had to reverse the seat-post to the 76 degree position and have added some spacers under the arm pads so I now have about 4cm of rise compared to 1.5cm I had before. I've also been playing with pad width and think I've found a good balance between width and comfort.

I've been able to get it out 3 times, each with a different set up and I'm getting really close overall ... but still have some minor tweaking to do.

I've also set my trainer up so it's similar to my TT bike. I put a -17 degree stem on it replacing the -10 degree stem and put an Adamo Prologue saddle on it so I could mimic the position of my TT bike while training. Hopefully it helps in the end and the change in position has allowed me to pick up the pace on my trainer rides, so hopefully it's a more powerful position with adaptability to my TT bike.

Looking at the preliminary race schedule this year, it looks like there are more TT's this season ... which I'm really looking forward to. I'm hoping to hit them all as well as a several road races. They also moved the Banana Belt races back from March to May this season so hopefully they will have better weather and turnouts this year. If I can hit those around 185 pounds, I'll compete in them to support races close to my house, but they will be training races, as will all my road races ... though if I can pull off some results in a few of them I'll be happy.

Anyway ... just a winter update.