Friday, October 28, 2011

New Approach

Right now we are in the off season and the weather is changing very quickly, from warm sunny days to cold dark days. Usually during this time it makes for great cyclocross conditions however its rough during base miles. Like I mentioned before I am not racing cyclocross this season so I have time to fully prepare for the 2012 road season. It is a nice change not having to be on good form for most of the year, but I do miss the cyclocross racing scene a bit. With the different time schedule I have plenty of time to train right. I already got most of my base miles done which is awesome because I usually don't get that done until end of January early February if I was racing cyclocross. I also am now starting some gym workouts. I go to yoga in the morning to help stretch out the muscles, it is actually a lot harder then people think so don't bash it until you try it. Then after the morning yoga session I get to work on some weights. This week is the first week so very minimal weights, don't want to go in guns blazzin and be sore for the rest of the week and not be able to recover right. In the past few seasons I have done some weights but with a different approach so we will see how this years approach works. Then after all they gym workouts I am able to go out on the road and ride when the weather warms up a bit.

I am really anxious to get back and training right. This whole past week I thought I caught the sick bug. I thought I had a virus so I rested to let my body heal and really just laid low for the whole week. I was able to get out and spin for a bit and felt great but didn't want to push it and get worse. I didn't understand why I wasn't getting better, I was doing everything right but no progress. Then I was told maybe I have hay fever? You have the same symptoms if you were sick but actually it is just allergies. I usually don't have allergies but I guess I do. I took some allergy medicine last night and I now feel like a new man. Its kind of a bummer that I lost a week of training because I thought I was sick but actually it was just allergies but o well. I am learning to really listen to my body this off season and rest when my body tells me to and that's what I did, but I was fooled this time.

This "off season" is where you put in all the hard work and long days to prepare for the following season. I think many people believe the off season is where you just sit on your butt and watch movies. That is partly right, you definitely need to take a couple of week off the bike and recover physically and mentally. But once that short break is over you need to start busting you butt for the next season. I am really excited to see the benefits from this off season, after doing a whole new approach for next season.
New news, Conor and I will be writing a blog this season for VeloNation! Stay tuned for the first post.



No comments: