I'm over the cold and last thursday I was ready to get back to training. Snow is no excuse for not riding, that's why you buy a trainer. Fortunately for me some people don't understand that and are slacking off in their training right now. Fortunately for me I have a a good frame of mind for indoor training this year, and haven't been stumped by weather once. Indoor training has been key for me this offseason, and with increased homework demands and unpredictable weather, the basement has been where I've done the majority of my training this winter. I stayed hungry for the season all through the fall and winter, I feel like I never lost the enthusiasm that you keep through the season. As the season draws closer, my excitement isn't increasing, because it's already been maxed out since October when I set my goals.

As for Soot she is just being a baller as usual and is so cute. She started her first ever heat, a couple more of those, a few passed medical tests, and she will begin her career as a mommy, because of our co-ownership with the breeder. For now though, we have to be careful with her, and also she wears this cute diaper so that she doesn't drip everywhere.

Helmet
Winter Hat
Cycling Cap
Sunglasses
Arm Warmers
Long Sleeve Base Layer
Long Sleeve Jersey
Wind Vest
Wool Gloves
Craft Winter Gloves
Bib Shorts
Leg Warmers
Bib Shorts... second pair
Wool Socks
Tall Socks
Shoes
Booties

That is everything I had to wear to ride today. I have been sick since last Thursday and have only been able to ride once (it was a 30' easy spin indoors) and before that I have been 100% inside for a couple weeks now, except for the hour that I ride to CT on Saturdays. My training was going really good though. I was doing the gym on monday (plus 20' spin afterwards), rollers or trainer on tuesdday, a hard interval workout indoors on wednesday, gym on thursday plus a spin, friday completely off, a hard interval workout at CT on Saturday (3.5-4hours total because I ride there 1 hour each way), and then a lot of TT work on Sunday at CT tt class. Basically I was training super hard, only 10-12 hours total per week, but a very very hard 10-12. And it was going great, I was building up fatigue, but maintaining motivation and didn't have any days where I totally crapped myself on the workout. I was making great progress on the tt bike, at the sunday class we usually do about 50-60 minutes total of time trial work with really short rests... I think Susan is trying to build us up doing 1x60' on the trainer by the end of the class (last time we did 20' on/5' low z2 rest/15' on/3' rest/15' on and done). My during the week workouts were going well, I was doing a lot of 5' and 7.5' efforts on my road bike, along with some speed work and rpm stuff. I can cruise control 250-260 watts and am good for about 5x5' intervals. But that's when I knew something was up. 6 Days ago, January 27, 2010, 8:00pm, my basement, on the trainer, I am sad to say... I experienced a TrainerFAIL reminiscent of Mike May or TheWrobb. The workout was 5x5' at 260w's and I had my tunes going, watched a little Jan domination at Luz Ardinen circa 2003. I made it through 3 intervals barely averaging 250watts and then I was died. At first I had thinks that teh Jan had pwnzd me too hard and I crawled upstairs, but the next day I was the come down with za terrible sniffles and body aching and throat ouchy.

Now 5 days later and I am starting to turn upwards towards feeling better. I needed two things though: I wanted so bad to ride and I wanted so bad to ride outside. I decided to just do 45' super easy 130w even though it was the snowz outside (see list at top...) but I got a flat ten minutes in, but I changed it in about 180 seconds (sounds faster if you use units of seconds) and shortened the ride a little (35' total...), but I was so happy to be outside and riding. 5 Days without riding, and only a few weeks of riding inside, but that was enough to make be happy to be outside riding regardless of the ice/rain mix and za flat tires.

On new years I flew home from tucson with Andy and then had a mellow week. Since I hadn't been on my tt bike for almost 2 weeks I decided I would do tt bike all week. I took the time to make some adjustments to my position. I have consistently ridden my tt bike 1-2 times a week every single week (except for tucson and maybe two other weeks that I just slipped on that) since september and still get 4 days a week on my road bike. When I first built the bike I set it up way too aggressive and my power was bad so I made it a little more relaxed but adjusted my body so it was still very aerodynamic. I have gotten really comfortable in that position, so I decided to make it a little more aggressive again and hope that gradually my power will come back up in that position, hopefully pretty quick because I already feel good in it.

Getting to train in Tucson for a week was fun and it was much warmer. It was about 60-65 degrees every day in the high. There was ice past mile 20 or 21 on mt. Lemmon so we only went to 20, but I felt great all the way up and it felt like it went by really quick. I remember feeling like maybe I could even do it a second time but I probably couldn't. It is so nice to go up Mt. Lemmon because you can go for hours without having to coast for even a split second, sort of like riding inside, but it is much more fun and interesting.

We did a lot of riding in tucson. I was there for 6 days and we rode 22 hours total which is a lot for me. I have been having really good training this year season though. I have had my goals set in my mind since october and have had to do a lot of riding inside. Since I ride inside on all the weekdays, about 75% of my training this winter has been inside, but it has been going well I think. I have been getting like 10 to 12 hrs a week every week. but on weekdays I rarely ride more than an hour (1.5hrs max) because I am inside.

ttposit