Early April 2007 Training Status Report

How am I doing so far this year?

I feel like I'm well ahead of last year at this time. Sufferfest 07, training for the 50 mile ultrarun, the marathon and somewhat regular Airport rides all kept my base fitness over the winter. This was one of my big goals for the off season. So props to me.

However, I'm falling for one of the same traps I fell into last year: epic efforts followed by epic recoveries. Add in some Stupidfest and a cold and you have a swiss cheese training report for the last month. Very bad consistency. Way too many hard efforts (i.e. Pizza Ride). Unprops to me.

My swim is also behind last year. Last year I had The Streak... something like 50 days of consistently increasing swim workouts. This year I was two months worth of swimming ahead of the game going into March (when The Streak began last year). So I was confident. But my swim workouts have languished and I now find myself behind the swim eight ball. Unprops to me.

So far no plyometrics this season. Unprops to me.

Decent core strength and weight management. However, low flexibility. A wash on the props.

In two weeks I have St. Anthony's. Two weeks after that I have Gulf Coast. I need to ramp up some mega workouts soon and hit the consistency hard.

After May 14th I need another installment of Sufferfest... Sufferfest 2.0... as soon as possible. I then need to translate that non-impact base into a run base so that I can do the 100 miler in Vermont about two months later.

After Vermont? You guessed it. Sufferfest 3.0 and then more base leading into Ironman Florida.

Of course, I need to coordinate with other Sufferfesters to get the timing synchronized with other racing schedules and season master plans.

I suppose each season has to be different. It'll never go according to plan. It's good to analyze progress and improve from there. Over the last week I haven't liked what I've seen, despite generally feeling like I'm in better shape. More base and consistency is in order. It'll be hard because group rides are fun.

First trick is to get into the pool every morning this week. I made it in this morning. Tomorrow, I've got my eyes on you!