New Kit day! And finally a rest week.

Ooph! This was my biggest training week yet this year. I've just finished my power building phase and this past week I fought through 3 really tough trainer workouts. My TSS (total stress score) was 344. A number that's been going up every week as I work harder and harder on the trainer. Now I get a week of easier rides to recover before starting the last block of training - more power build with some sweet spot mixed in - before racing starts in mid to late March.

I had to chop a few seconds off come of the intervals this past week, blaming it on just not having the mental fortitude to go that hard for that long at 5am, or due to not having worked hard enough to date. I've been feeling that I just can't seem to do VO2 work for more than about 2 or 3 minutes. My wife, bless her!, made the point that I was in fact told by my oncology team that I may not come back all the way for a year, if ever. Given that I'm only 7 months out from my last chemo, and that I take a maintenance drug that is a more mild form of chemo (as I understand it), this made me feel better about the work I did over the past week.

I'm feeling pretty fit and strong. My FTP is still pretty poor. In fact, it puts me square in the middle of the Cat. 4 field on cycling charts. I haven't done any fast group rides, and racing is still 5 weeks away or so, so I don't have a yard stick to measure myself by. The first race'll be interesting.

I've been gently trying to lose some weight. Or, more specifically, body fat. I don't really care what the scale says as long as I see my body fat moving in the right direction (and the power not dropping off too). I've lost about 4 or 5 pounds in the past weeks. I'm down to 185lbs or so. This makes my watts per kilo 2.8. As they say in rock climbing, it's a lot easier to get lighter than it is to get stronger. I weighed 168 when I was racing on the national scene. I'll never get back there but it did teach me how to manipulate food to achieve my goals.

My new team kit arrived! It's very loud and very 80's. Given the team's irreverent, iconoclastic approach to the sport, it's perfect! Can't wait to suit up and race in it!