Transition time...in my training

I’m heading into Base2 of my training plan next week. I think Base1 went really well and I’ve established a solid foundation. I’ve gotten up to a 2.5 hour long ride and completed several 2+hr rides, introduced my first hill-work in, and been consistent with my swim training although I should probably get another workout in per week than I do (only 2 currently). Other than my run training, which is in more of a build phase as I prep for the half-marathon…there has been very little high intensity work. The end of Base1 also marks the end of my strength building phase that started in the off-season. I have my last heavy lifting sessions tomorrow before cutting back to lifting high-rep and only doing 1 full-body circuit per week instead of 3 more focused workouts.

The focus of Base2 is still establishing my aerobic base, so there won’t be sweeping changes. However, the changes that are likely are as follows:
Weights – 1 strength maintenance circuit instead of 3 strength building workouts
Bike – Introduce a hill-work ride to the weekly routine for muscular endurance.
Bike – Start commuting to work 2x/week in place of removed lifting sessions (7.5 mile 1 way trips on heavy hybrid bike—recovery work)
Swim – Increase length of endurance session to cover 2000-2500m (was 1600-2000m)
Bike/Run – Start adding 1-3 mile transition runs on end of at least 1 bike ride per week
If I can make all the above changes and continue on the path I’m currently on, I will feel very confident heading into Base3. The beginning of Base3 marks the beginning of the warm-up racing season, so we’re not too far off now.

Also, I’m looking at possibly adding a 40k time trial to the slate in early May. In reality, it would be a portion of a long ride for the day, but there is a local cycling club that is hosting 40k TT’s this year, and I’d love to try one, so we’ll see if that pans out. They also offer a weekly 10.2 mile TT on Tuesdays that I went to once last year (it’s kinda out of the way for a week night) and they seem to do a good job for low cost high-intensity training.

Hopefully, I’ll remember that I want to do a write-up of my weight training gains through the off-season once I’m done with the strength-building tomorrow. If not, I’ll update again soon…I’m not sure if it’s the extra energy from a recovery week or good weather and anticipation, but I’ve been pretty motivated to write in the past week or so.