The last few weeks of training and racing have felt pretty solid. I've yet to feel particularly strong except on a few occasions so far this season. It may just be my sensations on particular days or during particular workouts, but most of the time I haven't felt exceptionally strong. I mostly just feel normal, even though I think that I've been getting somewhat stronger as time goes on.My biggest dilemma right now is that I want to maintain or increase my volume for the sake of maintaining or increasing my ability to ride strong day after day, especially in light of upcoming stage races. Yet, at the same time, I want to do what I can to increase the intensity of my harder workouts. And, I would appreciate a 3-5 lb drop in body weight for the sake of better climbing, acceleration and general efficiency, but at the same time, have a relatively hard time losing any significant amount of weight without feeling a loss of strength while trying to lose weight.
In the 3 weeks leading up to Mt Hood, I'm thinking that I will do one week of higher volume, while trying to maintain some solid intensity (though presumably not as high as would otherwise take place). With 2 weeks to go, I will do a more standard volume week (about 400 miles) with as high of an intensity as I feel my body can handle without inviting injury or seriously compromising the intensity of my workouts. With 1 week to go, I will probably do a slightly reduced volume week, but attempt to maintain a high degree of intensity... hopefully enough intensity to maintain or increase my race-readiness, but also not so much that my body is struggling to recover from whatever workouts I do.
Part of my trouble now is just that I would like to just train, lose weight and work on my top end speed, but I haven't felt 100% lately, and of course, I feel like I should be focusing on getting adequate recovery leading up to Hamilton and Hood. So, there's something of a conflict of interest between the things I would like to accomplish, but most likely I'll just aim for my intermediate goal of being as well prepared for Hood as I can manage.
