Spring break (for my family) "Training Camp."

Wow! What a past week. I’m tired! The family was in Phoenix on spring break leaving me with nothing but time and solitude to get some training done. So, I used it as a little training camp!

The plan was race Saturday and then ride a little extra. Then on Sunday try to get at least 3 hours in zone 2.  Then rest with short easy rides on Monday and Tuesday before doing a TR workout plus some outdoor riding on Wednesday. Then 2 more days rest before doing more long rides and no racing the following weekend.

Saturday morning I saw the family off and then packed my bags for the race. I blogged about it in another post so you can go check that out if you like. But, briefly, it went a bit better than the week before but I still got dropped with 5 laps to and pulled with 2 or 3 laps to go. Still not finishing in the group. When the race was over I rode back to the car, put on some dry, warm clothes as it was quite brisk, and headed out for some more riding. The race was very near another circuit race course I’ve done a few times so I went and did an easy lap of that.

Sunday dawned sunny and warm. I slept late, got up slow, ate a good breakfast, drank a lot of coffee, and then set off on my bike around 10am. It was a great day and I did a really nice, easy 3 hours (50miles) around Denver. My legs felt tired but I didn’t run out of gas.

Monday and Tuesday were easy days where I just rode “the long way home” from work, about 40 minutes, easy with a backpack on. Not my favorite way to ride but hey, mission accomplished. Wednesday I got up slow again and then climbed on the trainer for Wynne, an hour of supra-threshold stuff that I’m in desperate need of. Then I slathered on the sunscreen and headed outdoors for another 2 hours. It was a big of a slog but I got it done and enjoyed the warmest spring day in Colorado yet this year.

Thursday and Friday were rest days again. I was unsure whether I was going to race this past weekend – Sunday specifically – so when Saturday dawned with snow on the ground and cold, I decided to take it a little easy on the trainer just in case. I did Truuli -2 followed by Baxter. About 90 minutes of indoor riding. 

I decided not to race on Sunday so I smashed Hunger that morning and then went out and rode 2 more hours outdoors. Not as warm as the previous Wednesday but still sunny and a nice day on the whole.

I normally do about 350 TSS on a good training week with TrainerRoad workouts and maybe an outdoor ride or race. But, this past week I did over 450 TSS. I felt really good about the training and am looking forward to my next little block of racing. Unfortunately, to throw a monkey wrench in the works, I have to have a bone marrow and liver biopsy this coming Friday so training and resting leading up to the next race won’t be ideal. And it won’t match up with my TR schedule so I’m gonna have to get creative. It’s clear that my fitness isn’t deep enough yet so the long rides were definitely necessary, hopefully I won’t lose any of that benefit in the next 2 weeks.

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