Ready to Start

I feel like I’ve made great strides already this season, but technically the season hasn’t started yet. This coming Monday, I finally enter Base1 of my training plan. That puts me roughly 22 weeks away from my first A race of the season at the beginning of August. That seems like a long time. I know it will fly, especially when the B & C races start popping up, but at this point, I’m anxious to start. I get these feelings of excitement when I think of the races ahead, but at the same time I haven’t even taken my new bike out on the roads yet. Nor have I covered the individual leg distances of the bike or run of my A races yet this year (70.3s).

The good news is, even though I have been training pretty consistently through the winter, I still feel fresh. Whenever things start to get a little stale, there’s some subtle shift that makes me feel like I’m progressing toward something. For example, just after the beginning of the new year, I started running again after a month off to heal my hip. That added a new wrinkle to my weekly training. Not long after that, once I knew I was basically healed, I switched into a run focus since my first race is a ½ Mary and I’m going for a PR there. When riding on the trainer got boring, I got my new bike and changed my position with my new geometry. Obviously I can’t repeat that feat every year, though or I’d go broke fast. However, when I get tired of working on my new position on the trainer, it will be just about time to hit the roads again (Mother Nature permitting). Now, I approach the official beginning of my long-term training plan, which means increases in training time as well as some shifts in the focus of my strength training work. From one week to the next, these changes are pretty small, but it doesn’t take much for me to notice the progression.

Even though the season is not officially under way yet, I am steadily approaching one of my goals. My only non-race specific goal is to race the 2009 season below 190 lbs. Last season, I raced Clydesdale coming in at 205-210 for most of the year, so it’s a substantial drop. As of Sunday evening, I weighed in at 190.5, so I’m almost there. I’m planning on continuing to consciously diet down to 185. From there, I’ll still be eating healthy foods; I just won’t be actively attempting to lose weight. By that point, though I’ll be in the full swing of training, so the additional training hours and increased intensity should make it pretty easy to keep in the 180’s. I’ve been lifting throughout the diet as well (which has been going since November), so I don’t feel like I’ve lost any strength at my lower weight. That should net me plenty of free speed, and if nothing else will lower the strain on my leg joints.

Anyways, I guess the point of this is that I’m antsy. I want to see what I’m going to be capable of this season, only first I need for the season to actually start.