Back on Track

Whew - that was a rough weekend, but now it's time to move into happy race place. My aunt is in the hospital and working with a new Dr. and I am working on having faith that she is being taken care of and will be better. My negative worry will do nothing to help her so I am choosing to have positive hope. *exhale*
Onto happier blog things! Today I will write about those nasty little bike limiters. I know all about these. I am that chick on the bike that gets a great lead on the swim, only to hit the bike and first the fast people that are crappy swimmers pass me, then the people that I look at and go WTF? HE/SHE is passing ME? (usually followed by murmuring curse words under my breath), then my the 70+ old men pass me, followed by the blind athlete on a tandem bike, and pretty much everyone else in the race. I am getting better on the bike - I am up to only half of the WTF athletes passing me. Maybe this year it will only be the fast/crappy swim folks! (see positive thinking!!)
I do absolutely believe that biking is a cumulative sport. Over the years you build strength and experience on the bike that one season of heaving training or all the right coaching can't make up for. The tricky thing about biking in the off season - at least in VA is the weather. To a certain extent my advice to you (and myself) is to buy some good winter cycling gear and suck it up. On the days when you can not get outside here are my thoughts on off season bike training:
*focus on speed over distance. There is plenty of beautiful spring outside time to build the miles back up, for the winter think less miles - more pain.
*speaking of pain - the trainer is a great controlled environment to work lactate threshold sets (or if you train with power max power sets!) You can really focus on pushing that l.t. up by doing those great repeat sets at or just above threshold.
*there is still skill to be had in the winter! The trainer is also a great place to work on your bike skills. Unclipping one leg and doing one leg drills - great for strength, but even better for seeing where you might have weak spots in your pedal stroke.
*cadence work - I don't believe that one cadence fits all so I won't say that everyone needs to be working on having a cadence of 100+, but on the trainer is a great time to experiment with some high cadence spinning and see how your legs respond.
*strength - look for a good off season cycle weight workout and DO IT! Your pedaling will thank you come race season!