Wow.. one week down. As of this date, it's actually been about a week and a half.
It's not been that bad.. I think the reason for this is that over the past several weeks I've been wanting to finally get back in the saddle. (sorry to coin a phrase) So definitly the newness is a factor in the enjoyment. Plus the weather has been nice and cooperative.
Yes in the first week of January it wasn't too bad, heck great. 60 degree weather isn't too bad.
So this first week I actually plunged gung ho into it and hit it full bore.
First..... The Plan..
A few months ago.. about after the Dirt Derby - 1st Annual, I felt reinvigorated. This may have been due to seeing friends, and seeing a race. Nevertheless I decided that I have to do something. Well of course nothing happened immediatly, but the feeling lingered. So after recieving an email about the upcoming WVMBA season being set it was decided to set a plan.
Basically I agreed with some friends to do the 24 Hours, as explained in the last post, so no bore here. So to help "train" (and I use that term loosely) it's a good idea to do other races. So with this new schedule I picked a few that I would definitley do - Six, and two or three of those I picked that I would want to do well in. Let's call them A Races. The others would be B races, and then of course there's several C races.
A - Do well in.
B - Do
C - Do if you want to, nothing else better to do, etc.
Then break out my dusty copy of the Mountain Bikers Training Diary and follow the authors' regiment (Joel Friel).
The key is periodization... So I'm sure after a couple months of peridizing I'll be ready for a midol. But more seriously, periodizing works like this...
Activity, Activity+, Activity++, rest
Wash, Rinse, Repeat
Obviously there's more to it than that but that's the jest.
So according to the book my first goal is to work on the Base Period.
What is the Base Period you say...Well as far out of shape I am, this is probably the most important phase.
This is where I begin to work on endurance and skills. I've been out of it for awhile, so I really need to work on skills - shit - most of my pals will say that I never had any anyway. Plus it's also to build some strength. Because this period usually takes place in the winter months. A lot of rides will be done on an indoor trainer, weights, etc. Riding on ice will help develop skills. So it has it's advantages. The disadvantages are obvious - freakin' cold.
WEEK 1 250lbs
For this week -
Well this week started off in Florida - St. Augustine. I did manage to run 20 minutes around this quaint little town. Once home on Wednesday, I began watching the diet. Not strictley but for me it is quite a stretch.
Nevertheless, I ended up running 3 more times this first week. Mostly prior to lifting weights - which I did twice. I managed to ride 4 times, most on the trainer, but one ride was a night ride for about 10 miles. The other was a long 2+ hr ride on Saturday prior to my gf's party. All the rides went good and it totalled something like 8 total workout hours, 77 miles of riding, and 6 miles of running. For the record I had planned 8:48 hh:mm, and my actual was 8:28 hh:mm.
WEEK 1 ended at 246lbs
