Big week

Last week was one big week of training all right. I'm not going to bore you with details, well maybe a little, but the approach to our preparation this year is markedly different from last year. Don't get me wrong, it's just training and there is no right and wrong, you can have the best program laid out, but if it's not right for you, it's not going to give you the desired goals.

When I think back to last year, I definitely know that there some things I could have been doing different. So this year the training is a lot more practical, ie riding the Cross bike. Previously we were so concerned about about power numbers and pushing those limits that we used are energy to improve the numbers. But in the end, it's not even really about numbers, or heart rates. It's about being fast and dynamic. All you have to do to win a bike race is get your tire across the line first, that's it. I know it almost sounds too simplistic, but if you just work backwards from there, a lot of things fall into place.

When I saw the program Dan had laid out for us, I was a little concerned that it didn't look hard enough for me, but after yesterday, I was in bed a 8:57 and up this morning more than 12 hours later, paining in my entire body and there is no doubt in my mind I will be better prepared than last year. I don't ever remember running out of gears on a Cross bike. What's cool is it's got lots of "hard" training, but allows me to have some fun in the middle of a workout and improve aspects of my riding that need improvement.

Last year we did allot of our technique training tiered, and for us, it just didn't cut it. Really, for us to improve the technique, we must be rested going into it, and bring at least a 7/10 intensity to the ride. That doesn't mean that we're not buggered after the ride, oh boy.

Anyways, that's our reality right now. Cross bike riding, training, some running and trying to sort out the bikes for the season. We're geeks about our preparation, people must think we look very funny chasing each other up flights of stairs, like two little squirrels. But hey as we have not been racing, we got to go out and help marshall the Camp Fortune MTB race on Wednesday and we even caught a bit of the Cornwal Tri yesterday morning during our breakfast run and who did we see but none other than the man himself, Rick Hellard...our former run/bike/swim coach. How funny is that.

So we're going back to Ottawa tomorrow as we're going to tri (get it) and keep the legs turning with an NRC crit, hopefully we can get that 8 corner course I missed out on a few weeks ago.

D