Is that inspiration or what?
Stuart put me onto Joe Friel's "Cyclist's Training Bible" saying that he followed it religiously and the results followed. Naively, I had visions of me being super strong by the start of the season in 2010! Little was I to know that this was the start of an incredible journey of learning about training, physiology, applying my engineering background and nutrition. Perfect.
Stuart also recommended Chris Carmichael's "Time Crunched Cyclist". I started reading the training bible and then moved onto the TCC book. I found both texts to be highly informative and I learned a tremendous amount from each. What stuck out in my mind and resonated after the humiliation of my first criterium (see: Monkey in the deep-end) was that competitive cycling is one of the hardest disciplines to train for because there are so many dimensions to the sport and demands on competitors vary greatly from race variant to needing different strengths during the race. Hardly overt on the surface.
Ultimately I chose the TCC method because
1. I felt that it fitted in with both my upcoming schedule as well as getting me prepared for my first big race in Cape Town, South Africa. I will post a race report on this first mass start later on. I had accepted an assignment from work that would have me in India (Mumbai) from October through November next year with a schedule that had me in Mumbai 3 weeks and then back in Chicago (or South Africa) for 1-2 weeks. The wreaked havoc with my training schedule dictating that almost 100% of my training would be indoors on the trainer in my hotel room in Mumbai. Hence, I felt like a human hamster...later to be the human humidifier!
2. It targeted anerobic strength which, after the crit in Chicago, led me to believe that coping with 60-80 surges during a crit was my weakness. It had a strong prescription of Power Intervals (all out 2-3 minute intervals) to raise power at VO2max and to increase power at Lactate Threshold (LT).
TCC more of less ignores building a large aerobic base in the winter (which most other elite programs prescribe). And I assumed that I had a decent aerobic base from all my group riding of the previous season. I think that it started off that way, but as you'll see, I think I didn't have as big a base as I thought....all part of learning.
My perceived base came from about 2 seasons and 7,000 miles of fairly long distance riding with a relatively strong group out of the North Shore of Chicago - the Plaza Riders. We would religiously do around 60 miles on a Saturday and 80 on a Sunday. We average about 21 mph so we were going at a very respectable pace. I took this base with me on several road trips to a fast group ride in Dallas and twice out to Monterey and never felt out-gunned with any of the groups. Racing is an entirely different matter all together.
So, late October saw me in Mumbai and by the end of November I was on the TCC program following it down to every last detail. I will describe that process more in a later post but I just wanted to give everyone some background on where I was coming from.
Until later...ride on.
This is where I spend all of my training time: on the faithful Ritchey overlooking the Arabian Sea
