Training is an art and a science. Data and “feel” matter, especially when you’re coaching yourself. For self-coached athletes, there’s many variables that complicate the coach/athlete (these truly are two different parts) relationship, and while I’ve found over the years that training intuitively is a must, I’ve also come to appreciate how data can really move the needle. Though I’ve grown to appreciate data more than ever, as a coach, I’ve always recognized the importance of the connection piece between coach and athlete. The great cycling coach Larry Foss, recently told me, “The human connection with the athletes is far more important than the data. That being said the understanding of the data is a big part of connecting.”
So, the big question is, how do you strike this balance between data and “feel” when crafting your own plan for a bountiful 2023. For me, this means remaining adaptable, each month, each week, each day, while remaining consistent and steady.
On a typical year, I’d take November as a rest month—not entirely, as I’d still be in the weight room and in the pool, keeping my body and mind moving, but once the snow flies (which is often in October, and certainly by early November in our corner of the globe), I’d give myself a break from the trainer and wouldn’t generally start getting back into training mode until December. As a rule, I generally ease my way back onto the trainer in December and really start hitting it around the first of the year, which gives me a solid five months of training before the outdoor riding and racing really kicks off.
There are a couple reasons for this. One, I don’t love riding indoors and two, I find the static nature of an indoor trainer (in my case, a Concept 2 BikeErg), to be rather hard on the body, the knees and joints and a recipe for overuse injuries and tendinopathies, if not really careful.
For the better part of two years, my family had navigated COVID without getting sick, and then on the second Friday in August—one week after the Long Bridge Swim and the day we were supposed to leave for the Breck Epic (a mountain bike stage race), I got hit like a truck with flu like symptoms and tested positive for COVID-19.
Only four days into a thoracic spine injury (nothing that was keeping me off the bike, but something that was keeping me out of the weight room and pool), I tested positive, which made for a rough couple weeks. I ultimately got diagnosed with a condition called costochondritis—inflammation of the cartilage, where the sternum and the ribs connect. Costochondritis is a stubborn and painful condition that’s known for sticking around; I’m five months post diagnosis and still dealing with the fallout, but I’ve been hitting the base training hard.
Heading the caution of my doctors, both locally and down at the University of Utah, I pulled the plug on the rest of my racing season and gradually worked my way back, first with long walks and hikes with the wife and dog, and then by early September, I was clipping in and getting back on the bike. September was gradual, low and slow, I’m talking Zone 1, for 60 to 90 minutes max, on pavement and dirt roads. By October I was itching to get some long rides in and living in Montana, you never know when the weather is going to shift, so I took it one week at a time and one week led right into the next, and I was back to riding ten+ hours a week for the entire month of October. I even got a couple long dirt rides in and a memorable, endurance ride on the closed roads in Yellowstone National Park, the day before snow flew.
When the calendar struck November 2nd and winter crashed down with a vengeance, I had a decision to make: take my normal November break or keep pushing the pedals. After two weeks of inactivity in August following COVID and then a slow rebound in September, I had a good block on the bike in October, so I decided that with a big race calendar in 2023, I’d let October be the start of my 2023 base season.
So, I started my base build early this season. I put in a good block on the trainer in November and December, including some high intensity work in December—testing the waters of building that Vo2 max engine early on, and then coming back to it in the spring, before the big summer season, in hopes that the December work would prime the engine and make that system more responsive and receptible to the high intensity work when I bring it back come mid-spring.
The idea in endurance training is that it takes far less time to prime the higher end anaerobic system than it does building that steady zone 2 aerobic engine. Trevor Connor from Fast Talk Labs theorizes that it takes 10-14 weeks to see gains in that base building aerobic system, and we know that it takes years to truly build zone 2 system, and ultimately, the biological durability we seek as age-group athletes, whereas we can see gains doing Vo2max or aerobic capacity work in as little as six to eight weeks.
On a personal level, I’ve learned two important lessons regarding the latter style of training. One, if I hit that higher end, aerobic capacity work too often, for too long, I’m treading into dangerous waters and flirting with overuse injuries. And second, I’ve found that my system seems to respond rather quickly (in that six-to-eight-week range) to this higher end work, and then it tends to plateau, stagnate, and even start a rather quick decline. My decision to start the season with some really high end, above threshold work was out of curiosity, and perhaps to break of the monotony of five days a week of spinning in Z2 for 90 minutes a session.
The downside to starting my base work on the bike so early this season is that I felt fried and over the indoor training during much of December, and I’ve got a long season of indoor training ahead living in Bozeman, Montana, as I’m not able to start riding outside here until April in a normal year. Knowing I’ve got some big rides on the calendar in 2023, with two mountain bike stage races (one seven days and one three), it helps to keep the motivation up, even when the mood is down. Some of the demotivation stems from still being out of the water—while I’m back in the weight room, that stretch and pull of the pool is still flaring up the chest—so I’m spending 8-10 hours on an indoor bike, which for months on end, can just feel like a grind, how Rose Grant has pulled it off winter after winter, I don’t know.
With that said, having a big, long, solo ride on the calendar for mid-March helps me keep pushing the pedals indoors, knowing that it’s a bold and audacious endeavor, trying to go from trainer to a long, all-day ride on the mountain bike, and I better keep spinning consistently, if I don’t want to get stranded in the desert.
Ultimately, I believe that’s the key my friends. If we’re not at the pointy end of the pack, or racing for a living, and it’s more about longevity, being healthy, being able to compete (for whatever reason that is for each individual), I really think it’s less about the plan, or any given workout, and more about the consistency and sustainability of what we’re doing. Whatever this looks like for you, just keep that body moving and get that heart rate up early and often.
Whatever is driving or motivating you in 2023, I just wanted to give you all a glimpse into my winter training thus far as I bounce forward into 2023. Whether you’re coming back from an injury, just signed up for some big races for the summer (tis the season), or are thinking about a stronger, healthier and more adventurous 2023, I hope you all bounce forward in good form and keep working towards becoming your strongest and truest self in the year ahead.
Head up, eyes forward, feet moving.
With nothin’ but love, mwl