And anti-climax... Just kidding, I hope not.
For the past year I've used the MapMyRide membership features to track my training hours. I tried to train more by hours and less by miles. And this year I focused on using Joe Friel's Training Bible to coach myself. You can pretty clearly see my faithful progression of building 4 weeks then resting (minus one week where I think a heavy workload got the best of me).
So this is my fourth year of racing. In 2008 I caught the CX fever just as the season began, so I wasn't stewing myself in lactic acid all year. I think in 2008 I was an avid cyclist, but I wasn't psycho yet. In 2009 I felt so lucky I was asked to race for the Trek Store Cincinnati team, and the previous CX season inspired me to punish myself through the winter like never before. In 2010, I felt even luckier to race for BioWheels (aside from being my friends, they always seemed like the Yankees of the Cincy off-road teams) and with the 65 mile MTB races on my schedule I really punished myself. There is something about having a logo on my chest that made me not want to let the team down, I felt accountable to kick as much ass as I can. But last year's Mohican really whooped me, and I have a real chip on my shoulder going into this year's 100 miler.
Below you can see how I've slowly progressed over the past four years, adding about an extra 1,000 miles of riding into the first 5 months. I doubt it will be 1,000 more this month, but we'll see!
So this is my tentative training plan for May. A couple more weeks of killing myself, then I'm going to dial the volume way back and amp up some intensity. Plus some time for rest just before the big race (and a 2 week recovery break after).
Jimmy...I would and I am skipping the crit before Mohican. Not worth the risk before the big "A" race of the season. Nothing you can do 4 days before the big event to get faster aside from resting up and getting the legs spun out and feeling as good as possible. Besides, sometimes just fun to watch a race. :)
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