See I've had these two weird bouts of illness recently, but both strikingly similar. First, last weekend. Saturday I woke up with a pounding headache, no energy, woozy-doozy head. I pretty much literally slept all day.
Felt OK during the week but then the same thing happened this past Friday. Yesterday I felt better, today about the same. Still a little woozy in the head but I'm managing to get through my days.
So what am I, just some whiny, sick fuck? Maybe I've got a touch of this flu going around? In all it kind of sucks, but it's given me time to think about the 08 cycling season...
Once I got back into this cycling groove a few years ago (after about a twenty year break) I fell back into old habits of training for a typical road season. I relied on old memories and probably older theory. Long base miles in winter and early spring before transitioning into a standard weekly pattern of some speedwork and intervals and more long slogs. In all, good enough I guess.
But now I'm thinking, what the hell? What the hell am I doing? First off, do I race on the road to the extent that demands this kind of prep? No. No, I don't. Most I ever do is 25-35 miles of concrete circles at the circuit races on Long Island or NYC. 60-90 minutes.
I'm just so bored by that stuff. It has taken everything I have to load up the car and get to these races, mostly just because I don't really care. I can tell I'll feel the same way this coming season. Rut, I guess. But I'm digging the idea of more cross in the fall. 45 minutes of fun. Summer weekends are for family, beach, camping--I just can't wrap my brain around the thought of trying to squeeze in summer racing, especially anything off this godforsaken island.
So here it is the first week of March. What am I doing (he asks rhetorically)? I had this notion of doing some structured base building this winter, but that's kind of fallen apart with work and this flu bug. I've been moving, keeping active, doing the smorgasbord whatever-I-feel-like workouts. All the other Long Island racers are gearing up for Central Park racing in a week or two. They've been POUNDING out long workouts, speed, hills all winter. Sheesh. Not me by a long shot. Central Park: dark, cold, icy, horse shit on water bottles and teeth. Nope.
But now what?
So here's a serious question if anyone is reading to this point: If all I plan to do this year is some speedwork circles over the summer leading into a cross season of 45 minutes nailed in the coffin this fall, is there any reason to slog out long base miles?
Right now I'm thinking, what's the point of anything over, say, two hours of hard intervals/hills as the hardest, longest workout this year? Keep everything else to 90 minutes or less? Do a little running starting now? Figure out dismounts/mounts and running with the Zank BEFORE the cross season starts? Wouldn't I be better served doing some fun mountain bike rides of whatever rather than forcing out some antiquated road training pattern over the summer? What's a cross racer who wants to have fun to do? HELP! Somebody be my coach. For free.
That's what my woozy head is thinking anyway.
3 comments:
Zanc is the man. And any plan of his is worth following.
But and a big butt it is, my two cents. My mentors would seem to defy the old school theory. They are what you'd call specialists. P-bob plays soccer all summer, rides the road and then goes mission specific come june/july and races every weekend until nationals. The Funkemaster slacks all summer on a singlespeed and windsurfs, then again in June and July an alarm goes off and it is cross all day long every day...ie short and hard, speed work, barrier work, motor-pacing etc, etc, etc.
I need more than that as I was born wayy too slow and have crappy genetics. So for me its mtb in spring/summer, heavy dose of road rides ie group rides early spring/summer, no more than 2-3 hrs, and intensity is the name of the game, cross prep starts in July/august heavily focused on skills, starts and speed. Running....hate running forget about it its bad for you...kidding...I do very little running but again cross specific during training I run hills with the bike, practice dismounts at speed, run soccer fields with the bike, etc.
Hope that helps.
My Zank says "Ride Me." That's the plan.
Thanks, good stuff.
Fred - Don't be such a whiney, sick pussy. Ask yourself - What would Heywood do?
The purpose of the long base ride is not training. It is to get away from people who annoy you. That is why you do these rides alone. Masters don't ever need to ride more than two hours for training purposes.
If nobody is annoying you enough to need a long ride, maybe you are just a plain old pussy. Or just plain old.
I'd suggest buying a motorcycle. You can ride it if you want, or you can teach little Fred to ride it, then he can motorpace you. That and buy a sledgehammer and medicine ball and go out in the back yard and take home run swings, do squat thrust, grunt and all that shit. You might not get that fit, but at least the neighbor's will stay the fuck away from you, except maybe to offer you a beer.
Good luck. If you ever get off the island, come to the homeland for some real racing.
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