The Quest for Form

THE QUEST FOR FORM:

Ah that mystical word called form, what does that mean to a cyclist and how can it be manifested into real world rubber meets the road reality?  For me form is a combimation of positive mental energy, a high level of muscular endurance, moderate to high Power to weight ratio @ 20 min ( this rises during the year ) and moderatly honed skills.  I also take into account my over all health scores and my physological metrics.  Form alows me to start riding hard without the fear of early season injuries catching the local crit or time trial from time to tme as I feel the whim come on, hit early season Gran Fondos if I choose and gives me a stable base in which to push my self to peak race capapability.

But how to get here?

Every season starts in a different place physicaly and mentally.  Some times we are plagued with the frustration of many false starts and or injuries from starting too hard.  Coming off the holidays or having to start during the holidays presents challenges and lets face it Jan-March the weather usualy sucks so we are on trainers, rollers or spin class.  This year to add a new demention to my year I did a 90 day blitz of heavy stregnth training with a super heavy focus on lower body and core work I got to 315 X 4 squat 1200 X 4 leg press and 405 Dead lift X 1 so super powerful then due to a injury had to dial down, now I do cross fit twice a week and that transition seems to have worked well to maintain all the power from those 90 days

On the bike I had alot of false starts with getting a good week or two in hear and their since November ( trying to peak in April )  but with the holidays and a few other road blocks I was thwarted in my efforts but finaly it stuck.  So for the first 4 weeks or so I just focused on staying in the small ring and adding time as I could, longer rides outside and no more that 90 min inside just focusing on basics, kinda like a subdued base period.  I used all 3 bikes road, TT, Track to vary things up and also went from rollers to stationary trainer for various workouts.  I don't like spin classes but see nothing wrong with them!

After the first block of training was done about 4 solid weeks I transitioned into adding what I call the green gorilla to my training once a week, basicly it is a rising succession of intervals of 5 min designed to bring me 50 watts over my current LTH and then 2 X 1 min sets just flat out with 5 min rest  I do a good warm up that varies from 10 min out to 30 min depending on my current state and a soliid 10-15 min cool down.  As the weeks pass I add one 1 min step up to each 5 min work set I call then jump ups so at the end of every 5 min work set I Jump Up 50 watts for 1 more min I also start to drop the recovery periods with the goal being to be able to go with my projected top LTH wattage for 18-20 min with no recovery period then it all starts over again just with new #s.  I also do longer endurance rides and recovery rides during the week I train 6 days a reek but I spinn wheels every day.

I also added Cross Fit:  Hallow Rocks, Turkish get ups, supermans, hand stand pushups all done AMRAP for 20 min at least 10 reps per this goes 2 X a week.

Diet isn't restricted but I eat healthy food and the training sheads the weight anyways.  At this point in time I am not using any suppliments just some protien powders to keep my body repairing it self

Goes without saying you need alot of rest but with this it seems to come natural.  I feel that my form is coming!

In the beginning

So after a year to 18 months of laying low I gota race again.  Its not like I have not done rides MS 150s we even did the Hincappie Gran Fondo which was awesome and I ride cuz I like to.  For the last 18 months I have not recorded a single watt RPM or MPH and honestly Icould not tell you what my morning heart rate has been.  Oh and the diet, I was on the See food diet I do not eat low quality foods as a general rule so good quality farm reserve cheese is ok on the see food diet!

So really I went from 161 race weight to a wopping 192 during my 90 day stint in the weight room.  This wasn't without some good gains in the gym squating 315 X 4 and a dead lift of 405 X 1 and all the other gains that come with a good program of progressive lifting, however during some heavy sets of 1200 leg presses I tore a oblique and so ended my weight lifting for a long time.  I supplimented walking and other things with Cross Fit Body Weight excercises, but I still had this nagging feeling that I just wasn't done with cycling and bike racing.  Owning a bike shop and being on staff and sitting on a board of some exciting cycling adventures just would not let the monkey die.

Last time I raced I had put all my soul into it and was thwarted by an infection and some fairly good damage to my right shoulder, not to mention having to refit my bike at the last min and the USAC mech had my seat sloped so far forward I spent most of the ride pushing myself back onto the seat, it was a last min change that I didn't catch untill I started riding and by that time it was too late!  But that was then good riders won and well folks thats bike racing lots of minor details and when one is off your race is off just the way it is.

So I just stopped riding nevermeking the road race the next morning due to fever and just went home despondent and depressed more than likely a inner mood I was in untill I started lifting a year later I closed up.  Athletes spend their whole lives pushing the limits of their body and mental capisity we reach for goals short and long but NO one covers what to do when one decides to hang it up, it is outright crushing, emotionaly, physicaly, mentaly and spirtualy and if you call it quits for all the wrong reasons those feelings manifest 100 times more intensily, so I was lost for a year which I will honestly admit I squandered emotionaly as I maintained my inner depressive pitty party going on. 

I did however have time to heal and get all the body maintainance done, and some critical issues of my TBI stablized.  I had some bad and some time serious events manifest which was sorta scary but I fought through.  I bought a business, travled a good bit, played some golf, watched daughter #1 make a dynamic entry into the body building fitness show rhelm  Daughter 2 gave me the cutest grand daughter (only girl) and daughter #3 graduated college and is now in a special Medical program as a LT in the Army.  There was allot of good stuff in there but there was no joy in here and that ate at me daily as I just was not satisfied nor joyful.

After some goading I was talked into riding in the Hincappie Fondo a fairly hard ride and the feeling came back not 100% there were plenty false starts but with each one came a renewed drive to reach top form again.  Finally in late Jan the tide broke my way and things are getting stronger each day.

So now I am concerned with watts, total watts, heart rate, TSS TSB and CL #s.  I wish I could tell you I am counting calories but usualy I do not I just eat good and allow the training to drop the Lbs.  So it is back in the saddle and very happy so.  There are new things on the horizion that are just too fantastic to leave on the table and I am excited!