Earl(e)y season BIG training

So it's been another solid block of training and I just came off a rest week last week feeling okay. (note - not feeling fantastic, just okay) But that might have something to do with the fact that I've been pushing some hours that I didn't quite know I was capable of in mid February/early March.  You see, the last three week build that I did went (in total hours) 16 hours, 17.5 hours and then a whopping 18 hour week before I kind of broke down and went onto a rest week.  (and only 30 minutes of those were core work - abs, pushups, etc...the rest was good old fashioned S/B/R)

I woke up on that Monday of the rest week and felt like my body had been broken. I ended the 3 week build with a solid 3 hour ride and it had some intense tempo efforts in it in an effort to increase FTP and also muscular endurance.  I'e been ending all of my long trainer rides with tempo at the very end to "finish strong" and I can feel it's going well.  But I know that the hours took their toll and I was teetering on that fine line of just overdoing it and getting sick for the beginning part of the week.  So sleep, liquids and OJ were on the dockett and I felt quasi-normal by mid week.

This block though I am concentrating on more "strength" type work on the bike and will be breaking my muscles down a lot more than they have been in the past, so I don't expect to see my weekly hour totals go up as high as they were in that last block.  This will be more quality work that will tax me physically and I'll need more protein to rebuild and recover to go after the next workout. 

On that note though, the Garmin that I got is pretty swanky.  I'm a big fan of the charts and graphs and seeing the power lines and #'s mid ride is a definite bonus.  It's taught me to let go of the speed #'s that I chased after for years and to focus on staying within my wattage (and riding within myself) It's also pretty slick for runs too, not having to guess at how long I ran or anything.  Good stuff that makes my mileage and logs much more accurate. 

So on a side note, I gave up Mountain Dew for Lent.  This might not seem like a big deal, but that was one of the perks that I looked forward to slamming when I was low on energy.  Now this wasn't by any means a daily thing, but I would often have one maybe 2x per week and it would be a special treat for me.  It's gonna be a long haul until Easter, but I think I can manage.  I might just have to replace one vice with another...we'll see how it works out. 

Other than that, things have been going well here in the land of Keep Moving Forward.  The next race on the horizon for me is Spring Forward 15K and that will be a fun way to blast the rust out of my legs as a start to the season.  It's gonna come at the end of this 3 week block for me, so we'll see how it pans out. That's really all I got going over here, nothing new, just training lots and getting stuff ready for this years season.  See you out on the roads, the trails (when they melt) and in the pool friends.  Cheers.