Late base phase, rode Azusa Hwy 39 cut right East Fork Bridge to Glendora mountain road then up and over GMR and down into Glendora. I want to thank all the peeps on this website for always shouting out advice and tips and encouragment. Last year, I could not even make a lap at Bonelli,let alone a 40 mile training fun ride! THANK YOU GUYS!
This was my plan until sunday when on a cruise with a buddy for his first mountain bike ride i crashed into a concrete wall at 20 ish. Now i have a bruide that is about 10" by 6" and swolen so bad that i had to go up 2 belt loop sizes just to wear my pants. Pretty bummed have a real important month coming up with all the XC races and VQ. This thing needs to heal fast.
David... You will quickly learn that training for the year for most cyclists starts in the November/December time frame. That allows several base cycles before build (when the early season races are, pretty much now) and then a peak (most MTB racers plan their first peak around Sea Otter time frame). Planning a schedule requires you sitting down with a calendar and determining your "A" priority race, then working backwards from there. Basically it takes approximately 6 weeks to build speed, before that you need to work on base. Your volume and intensity should build, then fall off, through the plan... depending on your current fitness of course. Friel's book will get you on the right path, I can help too if you have questions. I raced at Fontana last year with a Bursitis on my right hip from a wicked crash the day before the race. Looked like I had a big orange shoved in my bib shorts. It turned out to be one of my best races of the year. No excuses. :bang:
I am still racing just a bit bumbed and the wife is definetly now happy about it. Not mad just mostly scared.
Hey David Adding to Justin's comments above - I have a copy of Joe Friel's MTB Training Diary you can have. PM me your address and I'll send it to you. It's pretty much the gold standard in terms of how to plan out a season. The only problem, for me, is that that you have to have the time (12-15 hrs a week on average) to complete the workouts. Your 2-3 hours a day would be more than enough time - no problem. I'm using CTS this year on a really amended schedule. Basically, I'm doing a bunch of high intensity, low volume 8-9 week cycles to prep for specific races. I don't have the time every week to build a huge base, so I'm cramming as much high energy workouts in as I can. Sucks for the long term, but works great for specific race dates.
as you mentioned that methodology can be not so good for longevity... from what i have read/studied... if you are not an aerobic monster with a huge background in endurance sports, you will not develop the adaptation that goes along with the big base miles. (remodeling of the vasculature of the muscles, mitochondrial density increases, etc) year on year development will go much better with the appropriate base training. if you are into MTB racing for health and fitness (that is why I do it) then looking at the big picture is more important than training for a specific event. i may be aiming high, but i plan on shredding singletrack into my 60s (like my heroes here on STR) and want to set myself up for long term fitness and health. some of the recent studies are pointing to the idea that it takes in the area of 18 months to realize the fitness/adaptations of base training (this emphasizes the need for consistency to continue a year on year progression) another reason to be careful with this type of training is that you can be more prone to injury. the higher stress levels without the base fitness can lead to muscle tears and over-use (tendonitis etc) injuries. my patellar tendonitis was a direct result of dropping my fitness level and then doing a couple big volume/intensity weekends. just my .02 hope it helps.
^^^I've read alot of the same stuff. It was actually a hard decision to make, but I'm sacrificing the next two years this way because of my MBA schooling and wife/family obligations. I just don't have the time to dedicate to the traditional model of endurance training. So this is what I'm going with for the short term. I'm picking a few events each year to work towards in terms of dedicated training and the remaining "fill-in" time between with as many EM miles as I can get. 90 minutes here, 2-3 hours on the weekends. But you're right, this model won't force you into those long term gains. It's basically is a ton of time at LT and higher using Steady States, Tempos, Hill Repeats, Over/Unders and the like for a short term gain. It basically can only sustain itself for 10 weeks before the workload overwhelmes you and you start to deteriorate. I spent a week in Arizona at Carmichael Training Systems earlier this year working all of this out with a coach. All 3 of my bikes were refitted so hopefully, I won't have any physical issues other than getting my butt kicked for 9 weeks at a time. Trust me, after I finish school (8-[) I'm going to go back to the standardized training model. More time on the bike is a wonderful thing.
First race of the year this weekend! Who is ready? Who is training through it and carrying fatigue? Pro Men... I hope to hear about a close race between Sid and someone else... who will challenge him this year? Pro women... will the podium look similar to last year? :bang: I am hoping to play it a little smarter this year and avoid a silly mechanical. I think my AG (Cat1 35-39) is the largest so far on pre-reg. Looking forward to some good racing! If you see us out there say "HI!" :wave:
Haha! If there was no competition maybe. I will have my hands full. I think the guys in 35-39 are as fast as the guys in 30-34! Gonna be some good racing!
I'm in the 1st wk of build 2, so definitely training through. Probably will be for the next couple of races too. Hoping to peak for the Santa Ynez/Sea Otter back-to-back. Not really looking forward to the mud, but then I guess I am a mudder. Heck my mudder was a mudder too.
Awesome day of racing! Another must hit race is Idyllwild Spring Challenge. Awesome course and great people.
Too long off the bike, so I skipped the mtb race for my first crit of the year. THAT was enough to motivate me back into training #-o Joy skipped Sagebrush, too, to win the crit
So cool!!!!! Always great to hear of such an awesome person having success! I miss her humor and smile at the MTB races, but I can DIG the fact that she is killing it on the tarmac.
She is awesome. We had a few extra "warm up" laps while they cleared the course of a crash, so we got to catch up a bit. She hopped on a killer breakaway early on, then took a prime and the win. It was my first race in the new Cat, so I attempted to just hang on. I guess we dropped about 8 people, so I was happy to be the penultimate today Where is your full RR???
Don't have one yet. I might get time to work on a blog post. Work/life have been very busy and I haven't had much time to do much stuff like that lately (aside from quick stuff on my phone).
Tried to bust it out today but failed. Allison got hers up. Might get mine up tomorrow... maybe. :?: Bonelli is just around the corner! Who is going to throw down out there? Historically it is a horrible venue for me. Maybe this time I can make it through without screeching to a grinding hault.
They've added some new, more technical sections, that may play to your strengths. The maps up on the USCup site.
Georgia of the Jungle, watch out for that blog post (happened last night, but I liked singing that line). Blog posts don't hurt like trees. Thanks. I have seen a map. I just need to see the course in person. I know why most XC courses are the way they are. I am not a good XC racer, I just like to pretend. Still fun though!
