Early April training

Early April has had some solid training and a few good road races (Copperopolis and Sea Otter). I was happy to ride Diablo at a solid pace with Justin and Lucas the day after Copperopolis, but I feel a need to work in some more intense intervals (2-4 minutes) for better aerobic capacity and lactate management.

I've had some good mixed intensity workouts and group rides, but some structured intervals will probably be more effective in gaining the race fitness I am looking for. Right now, I feel like I'm gaining some good race fitness through racing and some hard training rides, but a mix of personal and racing obligations has made me lose some of my good habits of including an LT workout and VO2 max workout each week. I definitely include those intensities throughout the week, but it's less structured and probably lower volumes of that kind of work than I would prefer.

The good weather will make hydration a bit harder now, and more than anything, I'm hoping not to get tempted to ride too hard in the warm weather and/or get a sore throat from the dry air. Otherwise, I'm looking forward to intense warm-weather workouts and hopefully losing an extra couple of pounds this next month for the coming summer races (like Hood and Nationals).

March racing

March was a good month in a lot of respects. There was some solid training at various points throughout the month, and I have felt some strength gains at the higher end intensities that I hope will continue to develop as I head into the parts of the season that start to matter more, both to me personally and insofar as there are some bigger races.

I was pleased to do well at Madera, but had hoped to win the uphill TT and ride faster in the flat TT, but my times were still solid, even if I feel I can do better. The crit was fine and the RR enjoyable. I'm still working on gaining some fitness and the confidence that comes with it, but I'm sure that 3rd place in the GC behind Ben Jacques-Maynes and Scott Zwisanski is nothing to be ashamed of.

San Dimas was a race I had hoped to do well at, and I was pleased with my performance in the TT, in spite of developing a deep-throat cough in the days before the race. By Sunday's crit, my throat felt fairly raw and my legs didn't have very good snap, so I pulled out of the crit. Still, I was reassured that if I'm feeling well, I will be able to race alright against a good field.

Now I'm working on trying to lose a couple of pounds, improve my acceleration, and get more prepared for hilly road races. In may, I will again focus on time-trial workouts, which I hope will help me at Mt Hood.