Work in progress...

Yes, my cycling is certainly a work in progress... in more ways than one. In one way, cycling form is always coming and going, building and retracting, racing and resting... a constant work in progress. That is not the topic of this blog. The "work in progress" that I am thinking of is the work of self coaching.

I self coach mainly because I don't know a coach that I would trust and don't want to pay the money that a guy I would trust would want to charge me for his services. I am convinced that I have a pretty good idea of what I am doing (the power meter helps a lot), but there are two major factors I must face. One, as I get closer and closer to my genetic potential as a cyclist, through hard training and racing, the more important a good coaching is... with a full time job and family, there is only so much time to train... I have got to train very smart (with my limited potential) to be a good racing cyclist. One day, maybe I will realize that I need help to get a little more out of my time.

Two, I am quick to abandon a plan if I don't see immediate results. A coach would help I think. The blog has helped for sure. I have looked back over my blog since my injury... I have set a number of training strategies that would bring me back to form... I have followed none of them more than a week. I realize now that my strategies I set forth in late June would have worked. I wanted to raise my FTP to a peak with 5x5s and max my anaerobic system over the following 3 weeks. That would have put me at a peak right around now. What happened? I looked at my charts the other night and I had ramped up my CTL at a steady 4 points a week for 6 weeks after my injury and had rebuilt it to around 80 when I went to the beach. The ramp rate was steeper than what I did this past winter... which left me with a low TSB around the first of July. My legs were tired, I wanted to ride competitively again and keep the excitement I felt from the rebuilding process. I went out hard with a low TSB and an unbuilt anaerobic system while in Florida and started to get frustrated.

I got dropped a few times... I realized that my anaerobic system was to blame and started some 1x1s... then I quit the plan. I don't know why I did. I think I got frustrated by the intensity of my cycling friends this time of year and the fact that I couldn't hold on. Anyway... I quit the plan. Last week, I checked my FTP... good ride... 303Watts. Good enough. I now realize that the work I did a month ago actually worked to raise my FTP to a reasonable number. I am now kicking myself for not sticking to my plan... a coach would have been yelling at me for sure.

Good news... it doesn't really matter. Normally a one month set back would be frustrating if I were going into a season and I had a certain race in mind. That is not the case now. I am looking forward in my schedule to Augusta... no matter the form.

How do I know my anaerobic system sucks? Good question. I get dropped... you know that, but still...

I went out this weekend to do 1 minute intervals. I did 5 (instead of 10) and could barely hold 440 Watts across the board. My usual is around 490 Watts and has gone to 520 Watts (repeatable) on good days, but never below 450 Watts on average. The system is gone for sure... the good news again... easy come, easy go with that system... it takes 2-3 weeks to build it and 2-3 weeks to lose it...