For some reason I just love to point my front wheel uphill and spin out a good tempo/steady state effort. Not race pace, but definitely cruisin’ at that balance point. It takes about 30 seconds at this effort and my mind clicks into its own personal time warp where everything just feels great. I seriously can’t get enough of it. The people living along the Palo Verde climb have already started to recognize me as I continually ride by them. This week I was doing 20 minute drills as a progression from the 15 minute climbs of last week. Next week I hope to find some 30 minute climbs, but I’m not certain where I’ll find those.
Kyia and Chris from Minnesota are in town for awhile so we might get out for a group ride on Friday or over the weekend sometime. We just have to make our schedules line up so it works out, but I think we are all looking to do long rides on the weekend so it should happen.
About a month from now I’ll be relocating to Rosamond, California for the first block of racing on the year. The road stage races should prove to be a good distraction and of course the Sea Otter experience will be pretty huge. It’s hard to think that those events are just around the corner…
While I’m at it, here’s my approach to the early season racing: If you want to be going fast in July or August you better be going fast in March. Many of you might disagree, but I’m not alone in my thinking. Fitness does breed higher fitness and if you start behind you’ll never catch up. Fact. Also, the biggest limiter on improving from year to year is the amount of intensity you fit within the year. So the early racing approach should set me up for good seasonal fitness as well as prepare me for the years of racing to come.
Where people go wrong with this approach is in their mental game. If you aren’t “amped” to be racing in August because you’ve been going hard since March of course you won’t finish well. So if you can get your head on straight (and keep it there), you’ll be better off going with more early season racing. Simply understanding this will help keep things on the right track. The variations between two unique demands, one being mtb races and the other being road races, will aid in keeping the motivation high.
That’s my take… Enjoy the racing, and of course, keep it real. -TJ
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