I need to listen

This weekend was the big weekend of the season for me, Fort Ord road race, also known as NCNCA Districts Road Race. This was my A-race for the second half of the season. A 105mi road race of pain. I was realistic in my goals for this race. I was aiming for a top ten. My stretch goal was to win the race, but I'm still relatively new to the P1/2 field and bike racing in general. Hell, last year this race was first race as a Cat 4 (I just started racing in late April of 2007, Wente RR was my first race ever).
I've been training hard the past couple of weeks. My volume has ramped up a bit, going from 1.5hr rides during the week to 2hr rides. Plus the past four weekends have had some tough racing and rides. It started with the week of the 4th of July. I had a 19hr training week that week. The next weekend I travelled to Oregon and did Cascade Stage Race, an AWESOME! race. After that it was 15hr training week with two hard races (Sisquoc RR and SLO Crit). Sisquoc RR was crazy hard. My power numbers looked like something you would see from a crit, but it was for 4 hours! Then lastly there was last week, where I had the team ride on Saturday and another 4.5hr ride on Sunday.
However, the fun didn't stop there, I got to do hill repeats up Huddart this past Tuesday. I haven't done these all year so it was really tough. I actually haven't done too much VO2max work all year now that I think about it. After those hill repeats my legs and body where dead. I didn't think it was a big deal because the next day all I had to do was a two hour endurance (Zone 2) ride.
When I went out for my ride my legs were tired to the bone. My whole body was pretty tired. Still I pushed on and got my workout done. That night after my endurance ride I started to feel sick. Thursday when I woke up I was sick - NOOOO! I tried to tell myself I wasn't sick and it was just allergies, but it didn't work.
The silly thing is I was still thinking about going out and doing my workout for the day. Thankfully I slept instead. When I woke up Friday I was still really sick. This is when I realized I might not get to race on Saturday. My plan was to sleep all day, do a short recovery ride in the afternoon to spin out the legs, and see how I felt for Saturday's race.
I did as I planned, I slept, or at least tried to, most of the day, and went out for a short 30min recovery ride. Man, that recovery ride was tough. I had zero energy. I couldn't even drop some dude who was riding his hybrid commuter bike that was loaded up like a sherpas yak. There was no way I was racing on Saturday.
I was really bummed. This is one of the races I was looking forward to all year, and now I was stuck on sidelines. At least I learned a valuable lesson, I need to listen to my body, and I need to put more focus on rest and recovery. I almost have this OCD mentality when it comes to my training. I feel like if it's on my schedule I need to get done. Now I know if I'm feeling tired or fatigued I should just take it easy.
Listening to my body more often is one of my priorities for the rest of the season and in my training in general.

SRM Wireless - It's ALIVE

So I went out to Huddart Park to do some fun and exciting hill repeats. This was my first real ride using the newly adjusted power meter. I parked at Woodside City Hall and rode out to Huddart Park (hey, I had limited time to train and riding from home would have added an additional 1:45hrs).
I constantly stared at my Garmin's power display, checking to see if the power reading matched my RPE. At first the power reading seemed low, but I was still warming up and my legs were pretty tired from the previous day's strength training. Things seemed more accurate once I hit the first hill. I was really relieved.
I rode up Kings Mtn. to the Huddart Park gate. My power still seemed accurate during my ascent. However, it did seem slightly higher, maybe 10 watts, than my old SRM. That could be due to a slight bump in my fitness from all the hard training I've been doing ;)
Well I knocked out my 5 minute hill intervals. The goal of the workout was to do two sets of 1-3 five minute zone 5 intervals.
My first interval was my strongest. I just went out and hit the hill hard. I didn't look at my power meter. I just pushed myself, while trying to "unroll the carpet". I hit the the Huddart Park Gate at about 4:11 (I think my best is 4:04 at a HIT session) and kept going.
The next two intervals my legs felt swollen with lactic acid. After the third interval I was trying to think of reasons why I should call it quits, but I pushed on and knocked out the last three intevals.
My power declined a lot from my first interval, but the avg power for all the intervals were in my zone 5. I'm happy with my workout. It's the first time I've done intervals at Huddart this year. I'm especially happy my power meter is reading accurately.

Training Stats:
Elevation Gain: 4,870.0 ft
Distance: 30.91mi
Training Time: 2:01:33
Work: 1540kj

Tuesday Sprint Workout

I wasn't looking forward to this workout. I wasn't in the mood for sprints. I wanted to ride, it's just I didn't feel like doing much high intensity stuff. My body was feeling pretty fatigued. I was pretty close to just skipping the sprints. I was prescribed two set of 2-4 30 sec. uphill sprints.
I managed to will myself to do the minimum, two sets of two. I didn't put out too much power, but I felt like I was able to get some decent speed going uphill. The hill I chose was Sand Hill Rd in Palo Alto. My coach always used this road as an example for the type of hill for these workouts, so I thought I'd give it a try.
It was not the safest place to do a workout. It's a heavily traveled road, especially during rush hour which is when I was out there.
I realized I need to work on my jump from low speeds. It was difficult to figure out which gear to jump in. I'll post my workout stats later once I have a chance to go over the data. A quick check on my SRM showed I didn't even break 1000watts. However, that doesn't mean I didn't hold 900watts for the whole 30 seconds ;)
TSS=135.9
IF=0.825

The "Non-Competitive" season

Well I'm still at it. Training for the '08 season. It's somewhat disheartening to not be as strong of a rider as I was during the racing season. It's much more of a struggle to get up hills. My lungs can handle it, but my legs get tired more quickly than during the racing season. It probably doesn't help I haven't been doing much climbing during my training rides.
Almost all of my training is done on flat/rolling terrain. I guess we're trying to build/maintain my aerobic engine. The strength work will come closer to the start of the season.
I guess it's not reasonable to try and maintain my fitness all the way through the non-competitive season through to next season. I would get burnt out, and I've already been close to burn-out once this month. It doesn't matter if I can kick-ass on the bike now, it only really counts during races.
Speaking of races, I have my first CX race in over a month this Sunday. I'm not too excited about it. I don't know why. I had a blast last year, but for some reason I'm not getting that into it this year. It's probably because I didn't train last year, I only raced.
Maybe my experience would change if I could hydrate during the race. My mouth gets so dry that I start mentally breaking down. I'm going to try to carry a small flask of fluids during this Sunday's race and see how things go. Speaking of which I need to get my CX bike ready for this weekend.

Oh Where, Oh Where Have My Legs Gone?

My past two workouts have been garbage. On Tuesday I was able to do the minimum my workout required, but I was in a mental "funk". There was a lot of negative self talk during the first set of my intervals. The fact I was riding an 11-23 cassette on a steep climb probably didn't help much either. I think that contributed fatiguing my legs.
Another contributing factor was the previous day's strength session. It was the first time I have done a gym workout in over 1.5yrs and it really made me sore. That coupled with the two races I did this past weekend really drained my legs. I only hope my legs recover enough for this weekend's long rides. I have three 4hr + rides with lots of climbing scheduled for Fri, Sat, and Sun.
Getting back to the previous day's trainings, I haven't felt like this in a long time. Granted, I only started a structured training schedule a month ago, but I still don't like it. I don't like this feeling of not having any power in my legs. I also don't like not being able to complete a quality workout. It makes me feel as if I'm letting my coach down. I've been really strong up until this week, and now I can hardly ride at threshold for 6 minutes. Something is definitely wrong with my legs.
My legs were so weak yesterday I couldn't complete the minimum amount of prescribed intervals. I did two instead of 3 sets of 1-3. Oh well, at least I wasn't in my mental "funk".
As I write this my legs feel better. I'm looking forward to my recovery ride today. No pressure to complete intervals. Just a nice relaxed ride for time.
I'm somewhat nervous about my long rides because they are going to be done with some strong riders, and as I said before, up until now I have been thought of as a strong rider. Hopefully I can continue the facade throughout the weekend. Even if I don't it's not a big deal. It's training for God's sake, not a race. Racing is what counts. As long as I can continue to have good results I'll be happy.
I can't expect to have perfect workouts all season long. There will be crap workouts, and there will be high quality workouts. I still have five months of racing to train for, so two days in the "Valley" (low point) isn't a big deal.
Tonight I will get focused and relaxed for my hard workouts this weekend. I need to remember, it's only training, not racing. I'm not trying to show off how strong I am. I'm out there training for ME, to make myself stronger so I can continue to win races.