Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Ready to Get Back Into Racing

If you follow this blog you will have noticed that it's been a little while since I've been out racing. The past 3 weeks and the next 5 are all part of my second build phase of the season. As I work my way through building my fitness back up towards another peak I'll again be participating in more and more races, eventually trying to get some better results as I hit my next peak/race phase.

For those not aware I have set my training plan up based upon Joe Friel's Cyclist's Training Bible (I highly recommend this book if you entertain any thoughts of taking your cycling more seriously). The basic phases of the season are:

Prep - unstructured exercise focussed on basic fitness (a couple weeks)
Base - focussed on building an aerobic base (12 weeks)
Build - focussed on beginning to build force, speed and anaerobic endurance (8 weeks)
Peak - focussed on power, anaerobic endurance and lots of recovery (4 weeks)
Race - get 'er done! (2 or 3 weeks)

After going through all these phases once already, my second build toward a peak began at the build phase. Having just completed my race phase and a week off I really found that I had lost some of my aerobic endurance; however, some long endurance rides over the past few weeks have begun to bring things back to where I am really feeling good.

This weekend I'll be up in San Pedro (Long Beach area) for a race. Next weekend is the Manhattan Beach GP, which is a key race in our team's season. We'll be pulling out all the stops to try to get one of our guys on the podium. So things are starting to heat up again.

Now that I again have the internet at home, look for lots of posts regarding future races and results.

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