Spring Training?

Of course, most people think of baseball when it comes to Spring Training, especially this time of year, but as a long suffering NY Mets fan, the old adage, "hope springs eternal" does not likely apply to us this year, or most! Realistically, I think the best 3 things a Met fan can hope for this year are as follows; Luis Castillo being released (done), Oliver Perez being released, (imminent?), The Wilpon's selling the team (one can only hope). We did have an early glimpse of true Spring weather here in the NYC metro area recently, with temps up into the upper 70's, but the cruel winds of March resurfaced today, and the temps plummeted by 40 degrees.  

I had hoped to have taken delivery of my new Gunner Randonneur bike this week, and would have posted a picture, but the building process remains ongoing, so hopefully this week. As I mentioned in my first ever blog post, this is my second year as a Randonneur, and after really enjoying all of the brevets last year and completing the SR circuit, I mentally committed to entering The Shenandoah 1200k late last Fall, after the end of summer cycling season blahs had faded away. Making that mental commitment has really helped me to more seriously train for this event in a few ways. I started road cycling about 12 years ago, and like Forrest Gump, basically have not stopped. Although I certainly do a lot of "competitive" road riding, with a few teams or clubs, I have never raced much here in N.J., as I don't really enjoy the Crit. races, and those races I entered years ago, I did not do very well. I will mention that I did race Cyclocross this Fall, as a few of my friends who compete thought that I might enjoy the experience, and I really loved it, totally different vibe & culture than the road scene here in N.J. & I would imagine most places as well. That said, in order to hopefully complete a 1200k, I knew I would have to train differently in 2011.

Thus far, I have been able to keep my weight down during the winter, better than any winter since I have been riding. I have been fortunate to have taken several cycling trips in the mountains of Italy & Spain, so in some respects, I know what lies ahead of me. I have always left for those trips at 165 lbs, and for the 1200K, I plan to be at 160 lbs, and I am already just about there. I am also lucky to live in a relatively "hilly" area of N.J., which will help with my training. Two years ago, I whimsically purchased a Powertap, and I did download the data, looked at it..., but never really did anything with the data or information. For me, it turned out to be overkill. I am happy to have given the Powertap to my 16 year old son, who is a Jr. racer with some potential?, and I know he will & is already benefiting from the information that it can provide to him in his development. That leads to my next training point, although I have ridden a basic trainer in my basement during the winter for many years, often following a "Spinervals" tape, I found that boring, and I don't know what real benefit I derived? At the suggestion of my son's primary coach, Dan Coleman, Colavita-Baci U-19 (great youth cycling program here in N.J.) we purchased a Computrainer in the Fall, and what a difference in riding/training with this system. I started using it a bit too late in the winter, but I feel it has made a very significant early season difference, and I am going to start using it much earlier next off-season. Another thing that I feel has really helped me the past 2 winters has been swimming once a week at our local Y, which I think has really helped with my cardio. Lastly, I have downloaded a few of coach John's Hugh's e book's from the Road Biker website, and I plan to follow along some of his suggested training methods for longer brevets, which I think will give my riding some structure between brevets as i move towards the 1200k event.

Of course, there remain the basic weekend training rides, and this past weekend was a good one, with a nice 50 mile ride on Saturday, and a 75 mile ride to Princeton with my Liberty Cycle team.

       
N.J.'s Round Valley Reservoir, a hidden gem within North-Central N.J., from Saturday ride.  

Until next time, Keep on Truckin' and thanks for reading!