Back on the Bike, Back on the Plan

After exactly 42 minutes on the bike in the last 12 days and several near-miss ride attempts, I finally got back on the bike for a crit last night. In trying to massage my work schedule around to be able to do the “Tour of the Depot” and take the family up to Seattle for a couple of weeks I ended up with almost two straight weeks off the bike. That would have worked out fine if I had done the tour and got in some serious training in Seattle, but with a couple of sick kids and a sick wife it ended up being...less than optimal. But that's OK, because I'm back on the bike and back on my training plan.

I started the year using a 12 week “semi-custom” training plan from Rich Wharton of onlinebikecoach.com designed for a 40k Time Trial. It's a great Power based plan designed to be done on the trainer with very focused workouts. My plan was to do the first 9 weeks, take a break to do some racing, then return to the plan for the final 5 weeks leading up to my goal race. So far everything has gone mostly to plan, I did the first 9 weeks and had an improvement in my Functional Threshold Power of 11%. I took my break and got a few races in, which after 60 plus hours on the trainer I really needed, and now I'm ready to get back on the race specific plan. Weather permitting, I will be doing some of my workouts outside. However, I won't be doing any workouts that don't make me faster in the TT. I just have to stay focused for 36 more days.

That being said, I decided to withdraw from the “Escape from Alcatraz” triathlon. The ability to add swimming and running to my already very busy schedule just wasn't there and that's one race you don't want to show up for with a weak swim!

Train Hard and Smart

Pat