Yesterday was a pretty strange day. I couldn't really keep concentrated on anything and found myself staring into space more often than not. It was really getting a bit dangerous. A couple times after crossing a street I couldn't remember if the light was green or red. It seemed like my brain had it's own plans. Maybe it was busy thinking about this:
Yeah. That's probably it.
With my internship position now seems like the time to upgrade (or specialize) my training and racing gear. Earlier this summer I splurged on a set of used powertap wheels (Mavic Open Pro rims, powertap pro+ hub) and now I think I ought to make the jump to a real TT/Tri bike. Currently I am riding (and am very happy with) a 2009 Cervelo S1. Although advertised as a great road/tri convertible, it's not really all that feasible unless you want to spend a whole load of time making the switch a couple times a week and re-setting your position constantly.
An embarrassing aside:
I purchased my power wheels in May and have been happily riding them since. However I have had some shifting problems that I've been ignoring. Things like having to shift then "coax" with a half-shift movement to get where I want, or shift, have the chain double jump then "coax" down to the correct gear. Oh, and it's impossible to shift into the highest gear. A couple weeks ago I found the source of my problem. 9-speed drivetrains are not happy to be spinning a 10-speed cassette.
Anyone looking for a 9-speed ultegra set-up? I'll throw in some shimano R-500 wheels too!
...what's goin' on? What else is going on?
I'm exiting my last "build" phase (for cycling) this week and heading into a month of 2-a-week club races. This year has been pretty good on the bike, highlights so far being my first crit (didn't win, but I award myself most aggressive rider) and a 15km TT in 22:30 ish in the middle of a build period. The latter giving me the utmost confidence I could pull a 30 min 20km TT, not counting the new TT bike.
Next week and the week after I am "peaking" I guess. I'm not really sure how to go about it. I have the opportunity to do a couple races (crit next week, TT week after) as tune-ups, but then how are these weeks different from my race month? Maybe it's different 'cuz I'm only racing once a week versus twice? Let's go with that.
Enough bike stuff for now.
Running is going all right, although not typically for marathon training.
My weekly milage has dropped to about 35km a week (higher than last year), usually divided into 3 runs. 2 quality days and 1 easy day. Sometimes a Q day is a long run. Typically it's looking like 8km, 8km, 20km. The game plan is as follows:
Keep the quality, try and keep a long run, then come September really start logging the miles.
Sounds a bit backwards (and it is) but I'm banking on my cycling working as cross-training endurance work, quality as err... quality, so when I get into the last month or so I can work on lasting the whole race. Not ideal, but I think it will work.
I still want to go under 3 hours.
I think next post I will talk a little bit more about specific training, and my updated goals for next year. If you want to see exactly what I've been doing check out my Strava profile, on your left.
Adam "On your left!" Fortais
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