I'm a pretty lazy cyclists in some ways. I don't think training huge miles all the time is necessary, I don't feel like I'm wasting away if I take a week off. My race results are surprising to me for this reason, I've had success with less hard training than many other riders. Racing is the priority, not training. I love racing and believe you should show up ready to go all in (early season sharpening and stage racing are exceptions). Because of this laid-back approach I have often considered myself safe from the perils of the 'O' word. It's not a word I bandy about, I think often people use it prematurely, at the first signs: elevated heart rate, sleepiness, lack of focus. Well, I think I'm there, or on the edge, of Oh-Oh-Overtraining.
Reviewing my journal it's pretty clear that things are out of whack. It's hard to resist doing crazy amounts of work when you're feeling good, and that's exactly what happened. After my rest week in early December I was on top of the world. The first week back is silly: six hours of intensity, including one cross race, three track sessions and three low-rep/high-weight lifting sessions. 15 total hours of training that week, so over one third of work was high intensity. I'm almost laughing at myself as I write this...
The comedy continues. Writing about my body the following Wednesday I wrote only, "Ehh..." And that was after a day with 30 minutes of recovery pace riding. That weekend - back-to-back cross races in freezing temperatures. Total training volume: 16 hours
Well, it's one week later, I trained seven hours in the past week, and I'm tired. My limbs are heavy, I get kind of sore from riding two hours. My sleep is irregular - five hours one night, 11 the next, four hour naps. So, now two full days of rest and I'll do a trial ride, probably another couple days off, time to get lazy. I'll call cross a wrap. I'm interested to see how this early intensity effect my road training. So long as I can start doing road base work fairly soon I think I will come off this very strong. If this persists...
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When your body is tired that means you should go harder because it's getting lazy. Punish it by doing five or six 35-hour weeks back to back. 3 minute Intervals and tempo work only. Then you'll be smokin fast!!
Come train in NM with Chris and I in April. Gila.
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