Wicked game

Not the hypnotic Chris Isaac song, the video of which has him trying to look cool while being blown off by some robo-bitch looking model. No, I'm referring to this thing of multi-sport training. In and of its self, it's not so bad. But when you mix in a real job, social activities, and all the family responsibilities (not to mention house selling efforts), it can become difficult to get everything in.

I guess, on some levels, I'm providing myself some excuses for some training plateaus. Other people are more busy than I, yet they find time to train. So, it must be about capturing the opportunity to get the right training in, and flexing the schedule around needs and available time. I really need to do this with my cycling, and in a hurry. Though I already had some hints, I became grossly aware at Langley Pond that my abilities on the bike aren't where they should be at this point in the season. The big hill on the route should have been no problem, and I should have been able to average at least on more MPH on the course. This is frustrating.

What I think I can attribute this to is three things:

• Preseason focus was on running; my aerobic fitness improved, but strength decreased
• I haven't been putting in NEARLY the necessary bike mileage in the last couple of months
• I've been taking it too easy, opting to spin up hills rather than attack, on the rides I have done

So, yesterday I went out with the goal of punishing my legs. I got a nice ride in at lunch, and stayed in the big ring (compact 50 tooth) with a wide ratio cassette. Not super hard core, but at least I didn't make it easy on myself. And there were some damn tough hills on the route yesterday. I returned feeling pretty wiped out, but still giving 100% efforts with a finishing sprint. Sure my average pace could have been a bit better had I taken some hills easier and saved energy, but that wasn't the goal. I find a lot of benefit in doing lactate threshold cycles, where I get up to max effort, then allow a recovery, and repeat. It aids me in recovering faster from hard efforts, so I can charge up the next hill effectively.

Hopefully I can organize my schedule appropriately and keep this level of effort up. There's a lot of season left to improve upon.

Oh, and I forgot to give props to Nick in my race report. Last year we were racing pretty closely, only because I was doing very well on the bike and run, making up for how much time I gave him on the swim. Well, this year not only is he a better swimmer, he's gotten really good on the bike, and his run is improving very rapidly. Nick would have won our AG, had it not been for all the import racers. Way to go, Nick! He's also the one, along with swim mentor and friend Pam, that put a boot in my butt and got me to HTFU about swimming, which has proved very beneficial. It's not so much like slow drowning any more. Thanks man!

**UPDATE**

Okay, I was reflecting on my "problem" and remembered what I came up with last year: focus weeks. I would take each week and do a bit extra of one discipline (no, Marcy, not dominatrix/submissive stuff), and rotate through them, always keeping sort of a core routine or minimum. I'll have to develop that again for this year.

Oh, and for Marcy who was hoping for some boob and pee pee action ('cause she's a sick puppy):