My Week In Training
So I bet you're wondering what a typical training week is like for me. Well, let's go over this past week and see what exactly I've been up to:
Sunday: Sundays I almost always hit up the LBC club ride out of Heine Brothers Coffee on Chenoweth. A lot of the Louisville guys show up and every once in a while a Papa John's contingent will show up to put a hurtin' on the fat bike clubbers. Since I didn't race this past weekend (stupid work, stupid salary, stupid unpaid overtime...), I was feeling pretty fresh. At least until the ENTIRE PJ team showed up with Dude from Roadhouse in tow. The ride ended up being 25 miles of fast paceline work, a good 1.5 mile climb up Glenview (20 mph), and then a hard effort to the finish. I came in third. The entire ride for the day was 45 miles.
Monday: Took it easier on Monday, rode 2.5 hours around the parks with a bunch of PJ guys again. 40 miles or so.
Tuesday: Every Tuesday (after Daylight Savings kicks in) is the Worlds. I've written about it before, but the Worlds is everyone else's weekly reminder that they are actually terrible bike racers and will never be as good as whoever is driving the pace way up front. I got dropped off the front group (again) but four of us formed a solid chase group and kept the second, chasing pack at bay, coming in at least a minute ahead of everyone but the small group of leaders. Another 25-miler, but this one only takes about an hour and sometimes less because it's so fast. I always combine the Worlds with a longer warm-up session for a total of about 3 hours and around 60 miles for the day.
Wednesday: Tired from three straight days of good riding, I took the day off and concentrated on being a lazy bum. I swear I'm a fat kid at heart. Normally I'm a proponent of the "Active Recovery" ride (short, slow, relaxing), but Wednesday I just felt like sitting around the house and doing absolutely nothing of value. It was nice.
Thursday: Thursdays are usually my long endurance days, and this week was no exception. I rode mostly on my own for 3.5 hours, just over 60 miles, concentrating on periodic tempo efforts and short hill climbing intervals. Out of the whole time spent on the bike, about 45 minutes were actually hard, the rest of the ride was just steady cruising around (18-22 mph tops). It was warm and sunny, so the time flew by.
Friday: Tomorrow will be one of those "Active Recovery" days as I rest and recover for this Saturday's racing. Slow and easy for about an hour or so.
Saturday: The team is doing the Ceraland Circuit Race/Crit up in Columbus, IN, and I'll be looking for my first decent result of the season. Ceraland is the opening race of the annual Indiana Racing Series. Not only can Hoosiers ride bicycles, but they can design web pages, too! Who knew?
So that's a pretty average week for me. Train hard four days, rest/recover two days, race one day. I'm averaging between 12-15 hours on the bike a week, so I'm not doing too horribly, considering my work schedule, random Spring weather and various other non-bike responsibilities.
Sadly, however, I'm probably not going to get signed by a ProTour team any time soon.
Sunday: Sundays I almost always hit up the LBC club ride out of Heine Brothers Coffee on Chenoweth. A lot of the Louisville guys show up and every once in a while a Papa John's contingent will show up to put a hurtin' on the fat bike clubbers. Since I didn't race this past weekend (stupid work, stupid salary, stupid unpaid overtime...), I was feeling pretty fresh. At least until the ENTIRE PJ team showed up with Dude from Roadhouse in tow. The ride ended up being 25 miles of fast paceline work, a good 1.5 mile climb up Glenview (20 mph), and then a hard effort to the finish. I came in third. The entire ride for the day was 45 miles.
Monday: Took it easier on Monday, rode 2.5 hours around the parks with a bunch of PJ guys again. 40 miles or so.
Tuesday: Every Tuesday (after Daylight Savings kicks in) is the Worlds. I've written about it before, but the Worlds is everyone else's weekly reminder that they are actually terrible bike racers and will never be as good as whoever is driving the pace way up front. I got dropped off the front group (again) but four of us formed a solid chase group and kept the second, chasing pack at bay, coming in at least a minute ahead of everyone but the small group of leaders. Another 25-miler, but this one only takes about an hour and sometimes less because it's so fast. I always combine the Worlds with a longer warm-up session for a total of about 3 hours and around 60 miles for the day.
Wednesday: Tired from three straight days of good riding, I took the day off and concentrated on being a lazy bum. I swear I'm a fat kid at heart. Normally I'm a proponent of the "Active Recovery" ride (short, slow, relaxing), but Wednesday I just felt like sitting around the house and doing absolutely nothing of value. It was nice.
Thursday: Thursdays are usually my long endurance days, and this week was no exception. I rode mostly on my own for 3.5 hours, just over 60 miles, concentrating on periodic tempo efforts and short hill climbing intervals. Out of the whole time spent on the bike, about 45 minutes were actually hard, the rest of the ride was just steady cruising around (18-22 mph tops). It was warm and sunny, so the time flew by.
Friday: Tomorrow will be one of those "Active Recovery" days as I rest and recover for this Saturday's racing. Slow and easy for about an hour or so.
Saturday: The team is doing the Ceraland Circuit Race/Crit up in Columbus, IN, and I'll be looking for my first decent result of the season. Ceraland is the opening race of the annual Indiana Racing Series. Not only can Hoosiers ride bicycles, but they can design web pages, too! Who knew?
So that's a pretty average week for me. Train hard four days, rest/recover two days, race one day. I'm averaging between 12-15 hours on the bike a week, so I'm not doing too horribly, considering my work schedule, random Spring weather and various other non-bike responsibilities.
Sadly, however, I'm probably not going to get signed by a ProTour team any time soon.
posted by Joe at
8:29 PM
