“Love my bike” rides

Hello readers!

I have started my off-season training. Which means running, weight lifting, endurance rides on the road bike, and general overhaul of training. This means figuring out what I did right, wrong, not enough of, or too much of during my 2009 season with the hopes of having a great 2010 season. Being a sprinter, one of my biggest challenges is climbing and putting in sustained efforts on the bike for extended periods of time in a race. To be honest, I love crits and wish all my races were super technical and under 30 miles. Ahhh, life would be sweet. But reality is, being on a team means I have to do things out of my comfort zone in support of my teammates. So while I work on my strengths in the off-season, I try and work on my weaknesses as well so I am able to participate in those hilly races, or those long road races.

Yep. I have officially headed back into the gym, focusing more on good form and less on the weights at first. I usually try and jump right in, because I am usually impatient or think I am strong enough to handle more (big mistake. “Settle down, grasshopper” is what I usually hear when I over do it). This thinking usually lands me in some considerable muscle pain for a few days. Get out that Arnica gel! Anywho, this year, I am going to do this right. i have not started to increase the weight and monitor how I am doing closely so I don’t get injured. I have also been upping the miles in my running as well, paying attention to my knees, which have each experienced torn menisci within the last 2 years.

Onto the bike part of my off-season. To kick start this after a fun cross season, I went on two endurance rides this weekend. One with hills and one that was just rolling. Both were great and with women immersed in the Philly racing scene. That meant lots of time to chat, have fun on the bike and enjoy the great weather. We constantly reminded ourselves what a true endurance ride really is: easy up the hills, pedal fast on the down hill. A good friend of mine, and a local coach, taught us this last year. So we were pretty good at making this ride a true endurance ride. I didn’t want to go inside on such a beautiful day, so I rode with a friend directly after my training ride and rode for a bit more. Made for a nice long day on the bike. Ahh, I really like these “Love your bike” rides. They remind me that I enjoy my bike and that I am not just riding it to train for my road season all the time (well not the ENTIRE reason) . Yep, why I got into riding in the first place.

In addition, I have also started to take multi-vitimin’s. Now dont go falling off your chair, friends. Most people who know me know that I am not good at taking vitamins. But it was recommended that I take vitamins, Emergen-C, a folic acid pill, tumaric, and a fish oil pill. Ok, that last one is nasty, but it has omega-3 fatty acids and should help cardiovascular health and a whole slew of other things. We’ll see how this keeps up.