Madness

Planning, planning, planning... That's the name of the game. Tonight I sat down and carved out the next 4 weeks of training - the last of the big volume. And if there's a phase this year that begins to break me down, it's going to be this one.

I'll be soaking up the last of my recovery days this week and then starting up a week of about 15 hours of training. That number will grow over the two subsequent weeks and top out at 19 hours of training. You can rest assured I'll be posting a celebratory post after this block is complete.

During this time, I'll be transitioning to the higher intensity workouts as well. As part of this, I'll be doing some good training races on the road bike with these boys. I wouldn't claim to be anywhere near road-racing shape for this time of the year, particularly given the huge focus I've put on base-building, but it should be great to get out there and dice it up regardless.

As a regular feature to Triathlete Magazine Online, there is a great regular column by Kelly Guest on his life and training that I enjoy following. In his latest post, he commented on his plan to do a local, low-key race event, with a goal of hitting it strictly for training. Well, like all of us, he got caught up in the rush and ended up pushing things... And regretting it. He had this to say:

Had I run that race the way I had planned I would have run strong and got a good workout in while finishing with something left in the tank and the optimistic feeling of, “This is great! When I start the speed phase of my training I will be flying!” That would have been the confidence boost I talked about earlier.

Instead, I let my ego take over, and it told me to show everyone watching how fast I can run and how well my training is going. Don’t get me wrong, my training is going fantastic -- for February.

The key to early-season races is developing a race-day plan based on what you are doing now -- not based on where you would like to be or where you ended last season. Use these lower-priority events as stepping stones to chart your progress and build confidence.

That's an important take-away... And one I'll strive to remember in these upcoming weeks while doing these early, pre-season races. As far as day-to-day happenings go, I noticed the birds were actually chirping on my way to work early this morning. Literally. And the sun was out until 6:07 tonight. Sweetness.

Keep it easy.