It's time to get serious.......

Now that the calendar has rolled over to December and the temperature has dropped below 45 on a consistent basis it is time to get serious about training for next year's season. I am sure, in fact positive, that I am starting much later than a vast majority of the folks out there but as mentioned in my earlier posting I do not have too many expectations going into this season. I just completed a very informal "Prep" stage and am moving into 3 weeks of "Base 1". I am slated for about 8-10 hours/week of bike time during this phase with some additional time spent in the gym doing various strength building, flexibility, and core work. I also am planning ("aren't we always" of seriously attacking the diet. I have my own internal goal of dropping about 25 pounds between now and the beginning of the racing season, while at the same time increasing my power to have a significant impact on my power/weight ratio.

This is a bit of a stretch goal but I am under some self pressure to meet it since the new bike that I promised myself (and more importantly was agreed to by my wife) upon reaching that goal has already been procured........ooops. (see picture above)

Unfortunately the only real significant area of "useless" calories that can be eliminated from my current habits are those that come from the bottles of Chimay and Leffe that are commonly present in my fridge. To make sure I did not have any temptations once the real training started I took it upon myself to remove those items from the fridge over the weekend. Don't worry, they were disposed of properly...meaning that I used the appropriate shaped glass to enjoy each and every one.

Now it is time to get down to some serious training that was further motivated by our team training session yesterday morning where we learned some great stretches and some excellent core workouts, but most importantly I was in a room full of skinny guys that left me with a strong desire to be one of them.

Wish me luck, I will need it.

Off to the weight room.......

Getting my feet wet.....

This is really my first venture into the wonderful world of blogging. Most of my stuff here will be cycling related or just general musings as they materialize.

I have started my training for what will be my third year with Evolution Cycling. I am very hopeful that I will be able to finally acheive some of my goals during the 2008 season. I am being completely realistic in my goals as 2008 will be my first true year of racing.

2006 started and ended with a shoulder injury that severly limited my back handling and ability to actually race, so I spent the year attending races simply to watch and learn and prepare for 2007.

The 2007 season came to a severe halt when I was "transferred" to Toronto for 9 months. On a positive note, my training greatly improved as I had a lot of down time since the family was still in VA. I was able to work with my coach, joined a gym, got a trainer and nutrionist and got things underway on a very positive note. I did not get the chance to do any races in the States during the 2007 because I didn't think it would be the best idea to spend one of my 3 days home a month at a bike race. That would have been quite hard to justify to the wife and son.

So now I find myself at the beginning of another training cycle for the upcoming season. At this point I am really hopeful that things will work out and I will be able to have a pretty full schedule. My primary goal for the season is to get into the mix and support my teammates in any way I can. I am not expecting too many results for myself but it would be great to be part of putting a teammate on the podium.

That's pretty much it for now. Stay tuned for more later.