2013!

     Like I said in my previous post regarding what was left of 2012, I had to postpone three weeks of training which was actually a significant loss especially because it's so early in the season. My Base 1 began on November 19 so I had a good month of base miles and a whole lot of cadence/pedalling economy work. When I got back, it felt like as if I had never trained as I suffered from really inefficient pedalling especially on steady climbs. That was alright though, because when I got back on the second week of January, I scheduled the following three weeks in the Base 2 period and did enough Tempo rides and Cadence Drills to get me to where I left off before I left After 3 make-up weeks of Base 2, I finally moved into Base 3 where I introduced more Hill Work and began doing short and steady sub-LT repeats. Before I had moved to Base 3 (towards the end of Base 2) I had noticed I was able to climb with less fatigue than usual. So as I started my hill/force workouts, I noticed I was able to hold speeds (I don't have a power meter yet) 10 or more BPM than usual! That being said, I need to re-do my LTHR test to re-establish my training zones. Furthermore, when I did my coastal/Pescader/Tunitas Creek ride, I climbed King's Mountain, OLH, and Tunitas Creek, faster but at 10-20 BPM lower than the last time I had done the ride! Hopefully I can continue to improve my climbing and force since 1) it's quite early in the season and  2) I haven't even began threshold or supertempo workouts on hills yet.

Anyways, that's where I stand this very day.

I should now mention the big change for this season--me joining a new team. If you've seen seen the side of my blog and the new color theme, then you probably can already tell that I'm a part of the new Leopard-Sapporo team! I'm excited to be racing on a team with such focused and motivated individuals. As a result, that has led to becoming more determined to achieving my goals and becoming a stronger rider overall. Stay tuned for more news with Leopard-Sapporo because I won't be racing with them until March!

Also, I'll be clear that I am still quite a straight edge, meaning I don't drink alcohol or do drugs or any of that stuff. So that includes beer. But I have no problem racing for a beer brand. My more mature and responsible teammates say that it's good stuff :)

--DB