Oh my what have I done? =)
BY KENNETH LUNDGREN
Well, time to start gettin’ down to business… No matter what the goals are, what the training objectives are, when the A races fall on the calendar, around mid-JAN the light goes off in my head, and cycling again becomes the focus. Don’t get me wrong: in recent months, I’ve been diligent with the training, but around this time of the year I seem to get more serious. If it’s cold outside, I bundle up, don’t hit the trainer. If there’s a group ride and it’s 33 degrees, I don’t sleep in and ride later but I make sure I get my butt over there…
I recently did two sets of power tests. This year I’ll be focusing on TTs in the beginning of the year, so the tests were 20 and 30m… I did both tests on my PowerCrank bike and my TT bike… Well… I tested HIGHER on both tests on my PowerCrank bike. WTF? ??? It is what it is! I guess I’ve been following the plan properly, lol… But, it’s almost scary that I can produce more power during a half-hour on the PowerCranks than I can on my TT bike, on a bike where my power smooshed the power I could produce on my road bike…
But it just shows how the human body works and the idea of specificity. I’ve been riding the PowerCranks a ton, doing quality aerobic work, tons of force work, and the tests show that. These months have NOT been time to open up the LT and Vo2 Max intervals…
The main thing is I’m hungry and ready to go… I laid an ideal foundation this winter, thus far, and was actually startled how much power I put down on the PowerCranks… I remember a few years ago on Nyack, I was off the front on the PowerCranks with a few other riders, ended up dropping everyone but one guy and powered to the end — after time, you do get in the zone on them. You just need to put in the work…
The LT engine has been resting in my garage, and pretty soon it’ll be time to turn it over, hear how it sounds… The more of a foundation you can lay, the better this engine will respond when it comes time to start turning things up… It might be hard to hold back, etc., but for the riders who do, they are hugely rewarded in the end.
Had a great day today, first endurance ride in a long while, and I was on a foom foom day, legs electric. Had to be careful not to overdo it. But I nailed the ride time and was very surprised with how strong I felt, given I’ve been indoors and haven’t done a 60+minute ride in close to 45 days… I’ve REALLY been drilling the aerobic work, longer intervals, and the fact that I was able to accomplish today’s training objective is a testament to how much you can strengthen the aerobic engine with limited time… The days of noodling for 2+h on the trainer are over — quality over quanity, people, especially for the goals of most local riders…
The Paleo Diet has been going very well… I’ve been continuing to read and gobble up info on this very extreme diet, so if anyone has any questions, feel free to shoot me an e-mail or give me a call (201 951 4732) — I’d love to educate… To be honest, I really don’t know if the Paleo Diet is the way to go for an endurance athlete, but that’s why I’m trying it. As a professional cycling coach and someone who makes a living training and guiding other athletes, you need to go out and experience things first hand and garner absolute experience so you can produce real-world opinions… But so far, so good…
The weather seems to be thawing a bit… A bunch of Elite Endurance riders will be heading to the Nyack Rocket Ride this Sunday — hope to see y’all there! To PowerCrank or not to PowerCrank, that is the question?
Thanks for reading.
