Thoughts On Training

Those who ride with me know my propensity for wanting to slow down here, speed up there (OK, very rarely the speed up part), and trying to be vigilant about my heart rate. I read the books; Friel, Carmichael, etc. and am on-board with the idea of periodization.

I also have precious few hours to ride each week. I have a team, Cyclisme, that I love to ride, race, hang out and train with. Hence a slight dilemma. To get what I think I need, which is a good solid endurance base and the loss of a few pounds, I need some Long Slow Distance this winter. My big chunk of riding time comes on Sundays, with our team training rides. I've been a bit grumpy at the start of these rides (we're only two weeks in, so I have plenty of time to get less grumpy), grousing that we're going too hard, too fast, too high HR. Last week Charlie made a helpful comment that really made me remember though, that HR is a distinctly personal trait, and on a group ride I need to be mindful that just because I'm at 165 on an incline, some other folks are cruising at 140 or so, and someone else may be at 180!

So, this winter I need to be super diligent about riding on my own, either indoors on rollers, or outside with lights early am before work, or evening after work. Now that I've typed this out, it really doesn't seem like as much of a dilemma as I thought. By the way, for anyone who can make it to Dishman Community center in N. Portland, on Thurdsays between 4 and 6 PM, John Benenate is running the Rollers 101 program, which is a great opportunity to ride the rollers with a successful and experienced coach. See here for more details.

I need to embrace the team group rides for for the fun that they are, even if I do get caught up in the moment and end up riding harder than I wanted to. When I really got structured with periodized workouts last spring, I had a great late summer and fall of racing. I think that I will improve with a more solid "foundation" period this winter with lots of base miles, a little weight loss and good structured rest.

I read the following on Argentius' blog, and thought it was a good reminder for us:

"One of the easiest and most common mistakes newer riders make is failing to adequately rest. I think it's right up there with failing to adequately train. You miss some workouts, you cut your hours short, and to somehow "make up" for this you train longer or harder on the times you are supposed to be resting. We've all done it. The behavior of a competitive endurance athlete has a disturbing number of parallels to an addict.

Humans are all addicts to their habits. They are oddly hard to change, even the healthy ones. That's why there are so many runners that don't listen and blow themselves to pieces. At least, their joints, ligaments, and cartilage are all in ruins. Then they start cycling. Periodization is NOT a habit. It's completely contrary to whatever internal motivational forces drive us to do the same thing, the SAME thing, every day. I didn't appreciate at all how HARD this would be when I started training."

Greg

Rock Creek Ride

Team Cyclisme met Saturday January 12th at Starbucks SW 6th & Jackson. 10 of us seemed a pretty good January showing. We did some slow climbing, some nice paceline work, some frisky fast bursts, all in all a good team practice ride. Charlie, Greg, Chris S, Jeff, Tony, Csaba, Mike, Dave, Fergus, and guest Sasha were all present. JB supported, fed, encouraged and coached from the van.

I really like Rock Creek Road. The bumpy descent from Old Cornelius Pass, the gurgling creek, the horses, the fog. We decided that the Mile 4 sign on the false flat after the descent will be our sprint sign for future rides on this route.

Everybody please remember to add long splash guards to your fenders for upcoming rides. It sucks being in the paceline getting drenched in the face and chest with road skime because the rider in front of you hasn't a proper rear fender attached to their bike. A splash flap on the rear fender hanging to 6-8" off the pavement works wonders for your teammates and fellow riders.

Greg

First 08 official CyclismeTeam ride

Here's the route. Welcome to Reed and Mike!