Oh how the time flies… December is knocking on the door, with 2015 right around the corner. Time to stop slacking and hop back in the saddle to prepare for next year’s race season… while I’m still in 2014 race season.
Eek.
I came to the realization a few weeks ago that I have raced every single month since March 2013. Yep, nearly two years straight of racing at least every few weeks… I’m tired. My body is tired. Therefore I haven’t really pushed to do any training for cross or really to even try too hard lately. But that’s all going to change December 1st when I kick off hardcore training again!
I am still continuing with CritFit and my coach, and he’s bringing out all the secret awesome stuff for me this year… I use the term “awesome” loosely when it comes to core workouts (what?! I only ride a bike, ONLY RIDE A BIKE. haha)! We’re also using Training Peaks for mapping out and analyzing my workouts. I’m finding it to be a neat system, though once again I’m on a crash course in understanding what some stuff means, like TSS. I think it stands for Torture Suffer Score. 😉
TrainerRoad will also be helping me along as my way of having my workouts in front of me and set up for power. I do have a Quarq Riken power meter on order for my road bike, which opens up the possibility of doing some of my intervals and CritFit workouts outdoors when weather allows – something I couldn’t do last year when I got cabin fever but only had TR’s Virtual Power feature.
On Monday I’ll do my FTP test to kick things off (using Virtual Power until the Quarq arrives). I was at 219 at the end of my pre-season training in April, so I’m curious to see where I am currently sitting. Not that I’m looking forward to the test, but hey… necessary evil!
I only have two cyclocross races left – regionals and states and I’ll be done December 14th. I’ve done a lot of long and hard thinking about my 2015 race season and what it’ll look like. After some soul searching, I have decided to skip mountain bike nationals in 2015. I loved my experiences the past two years attending nationals and the wonderful women I have gotten to know (Kim, Robin, Amy, Elizabeth!), but have felt my desire to attend 2015 wavering. It’s a tough time of year and conflicts with a lot of other events I want to do, and honestly I am not super keen on the move of venue to Mammoth Mountain, CA. So for at least 2015, I am sitting out. I think it’s a wise decision.
I’ve randomly become interested in racing in a lot of longer, endurance type of races. Can’t explain why. But they’re something I want to pursue more. I start out 2015 at 24 Hours of Old Pueblo in Tucson, AZ in February! I will be racing on a four women team, and am really excited for my first 24 hour race experience. I am also eyeing the Gunnison Half Growler over Memorial Day weekend, the Laramie Enduro (one of the events that conflicts with nationals), Pierre’s Hole 50k, and the Dakota 5-O over Labor Day weekend. Dang, so many long races! After two years of bad experiences at Rumble at 18 Road, and the lack of needing to qualify for nationals, I am safely saying that I will be skipping out on 2015’s rendition of that race. Instead I am focusing on the Nordic Valley Stage Race ProXCT in Ogden in May as one of my A races, with the Laramie Enduro being the other A race for the summer. Yes, that’s right… the Laramie Enduro is a race I am training around! Also on the mountain bike list is the Gowdy Grinder (first year in open!), Beti Bike Bash, maybe a few RME events, the Laramie Mountain Bike Series, and the Stone Temple 8 (hopefully as a solo). Utah is hosting more and more USAC mountain bike racing, so I might make the drive over there for some of their other events as well.
Naturally I’ll be fooling around at some of the early season road events, starting with the Frostbite Time Trial in early March, followed by the Boulder Roubaix, Weld Country Road Race, and maybe the Deer Trail Road Race. Apparently 2015 will the be year of redeeming myself at the two races I DNF’d in 2013! I’ll also try to do a few of the hill climbs.
The crowning fun summer activity will hopefully be riding in the Tour de Wyoming, a 6 day tour of Wyoming (and South Dakota this year). 350+ miles on the bike that week, which is definitely above and beyond anything I’ve ridden before. This event always conflicts with mountain bike nationals as well, so I am hopefully going to get experience some of the fun I’ve been missing out on getting those shiny medals in PA the past two years!
Whew.
But it’s coming together, and I’m diving into planning. I know it’s time to focus and stop being lazy. I’ve gotten rather good at not moving from the couch for the 6 hours between getting home from work and my bedtime, and I gotta rewire myself mentally to allow for that hour or two of training occur.
Heidi Rides Bikes 