First race of the year and changing things up a little.
First race of the year.
Well, It’s a brave new world we’re living in! Normally by mid-February we’re deep into racing
here in Arizona. This year there’s been only one race, a 20k time trial. And it was the usual drab
frontage road affair. Held halfway between Tuscon and Phoenix, it was a windy day in the mid-
50’s.
My training has been pretty consistent this winter and I’ve been pleased to see my FTP rising.
While my goal is usually to hit a modest 3 watts per kilogram, I was hovering around 2.8 leading
into the race. So, the fitness was good, but not great.
The time trial used to be my specialty. I’ve won some, placed in a lot, and even won a national
championship medal in different versions of time trials (that’s another blogpost altogether).
These days I don’t train for them and I don’t really have any TT equipment other than clip on
bars. So, I just put my mini triathlon clip-ons on my road bike and hoped for the best. I knew it
was like bringing a knife to a gun fight but I wasn’t attaching too much importance to the race
and wasn’t worried. I figured it’d be a good yard stick about how hard I could go, and a nice day
out in the sun.
In fact, I was so blasé about the race that I went for a few hour ride with some team-mates the
day before the race. I’m not really fit enough to get away with this but a day out in the sun with
company is a rare treat for me these days so I couldn’t say no. We ended up going a little bit
faster than I would have liked and I’m sure it made a difference on race day.
The race itself was nothing to write home about. After a good warmup, I started a little easy as
there was a headwind and worked my way up to the heart rate I thought was appropriate for
the effort (I did not have a power meter for this event). It’s been my experience that it’s better
to start slow and work up to the right pace than it is go start to hard and try to figure out how
to back off enough. I was pleased to see that I could maintain more heart rate than I thought
for a longer effort but didn’t do much of a ride, placing pretty near the last of my age group.
The week of that race I had a TSS of 400. That’s a big week for me and the following week I paid
for it. I could not get out of my own way and was unable to complete any of my planned
workouts. So, I took the week easy and then retested the following week. My FTP had risen
again and I was planning on moving forward as usual.
However, as I’ve looked at the racing calendar for this year here in AZ, and upon reading
bulletins from the local clubs, it’s become apparent that there probably won’t be any racing this
spring, or very little anyway. I’ve been working awfully hard since last August and frankly,
without the races as payoff, I don’t want to work that hard anymore or be that tired all the
time. So, I’m backing off of the bike and adding back in more weight lifting. I like lifting and I like
how it makes my body a little more well rounded.
I’m going to go from getting up at 4.30am two mornings a week to do my training rides to only
getting up early one morning a week. And on that morning I’ll probably do a Zwift group ride or
race (you’d be surprised at how many Zwift group rides and races there are at 4.45am or 5am!).
And I’ll do a 2nd bike workout on Saturday. And then Sunday can be long ride, hike with the fam,
roller skiing, anything outdoors.
From what I’m hearing most of the local clubs feel that racing will resume in the fall so I’ll cycle
back up for that and see how it goes.
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