Monday: Got back to the gym today and finally got in a full weight session. It felt great, and my energy levels we there which was refreshing. I still felt a little weak but felt that I've regained about 90% of my strength from the two weeks or so of being sick. Overall was good and hoping that I can get my training back in order.
Tuesday: I actually went out for a ride today which was quite interesting. Went to an area that has pretty low elevation and has a good amount of sand in hopes that it would be rideable. People have been snowshoeing and riding the trails all winter which had caused a real firm snow pack on the trails. Although the majority of the snow in the woods was gone there was a nice sheet of ice on the trails. Rode around for about an hour which was fun. Surprisingly the trails had pretty decent traction, just had to be careful in the corners. I went down a few times. Training wise I probably would have been better off going to the gym and doing intervals, but it felt great to get out on the bike.
Wednesday: I've decided to mix my training up a little bit, and tone down the strength training a bit. I will still be doing a full strength training on Monday and Friday, but my session on Wednesday is going to be reduced considerably. In place I am going to start doing Yoga. I did my first ever Yoga class today. It was tough, but I was able to do everything in the class. I definitely see how it will help in my riding, and overall strength/fitness, and there were some areas where I definitely found some weak points. My hip flexors were definitely a bit tight which I noticed right from the start. As well I found that I was getting some knee pain when my legs were contracted for long period of time. The pain wasn't unbearable in any situation but it was there. I'm hoping that the yoga will help resolve this. After the yoga I did a strength training session that I came up with based on exercise in James program.
Thursday: It's a beautiful day here and I really didn't want to go and train indoors. I decided to go outside and do hill sprints on the DH bike. Although it was nice and sunny out it was still a bit chilly and windy. I rode around two for 5-10 minutes just to get my legs and lungs warm and then went to a hill right next to my apartment. When sprinting I would say the hill is about 25-30 seconds. Now I don't know if it was the cold weather, or just the difference in doing sprints on an actual bike but I didn't last long. I got 3 sprints in. I would go up the hill, and then slowly carve back down the hill so I got adequate rest. In 3 sprints my legs felt like jello, my heart felt like it was going to blow out of my chest, and I had an enormous amount of pressure built up in my ears. I feel like I still have small remnants of this damn head cold and it was definitely a problem to some extent today. Regardless, I feel like this really showed the difference between the in the gym intervals and actually doing them on the bike. Another note, something that probably really sapped my power and energy was the fact the I did them straight up on the DH bike, low pressure in the tires, and soft suspension. I'm sure this sapped a lot of my power compared to do the intervals on the stationary bike and the rowing machine, but I think it is important to do this kind of training on the DH bike, as that is what I am racing on.
I will say as a note that my eating as been great and I think I am continuing to lose weight. Last week I decided that I wasn't going to diet anymore and restrict myself, and just concentrate on portion control and eating healthy. I been eating small "bad" things here and there but not feeling guilt about it, and overall I feel great and look leaner then ever. My weight has hardly been fluctuating at all, it has been staying between 184.5 and 186.5 Going to try and get two more hard days of training in this week, and then some good training in next week, and hopefully get out for a trail ride next weekend if the weather continues to be nice. Cheers.
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