Early Season Assessment 2007
For the sake of looking back at this and deciding how 2008 might go, here is my assessment of how things have played out so far in the 2007 season, in grade form because who doesn't like grades? The season actually began at the end of 2006 when I crossed the finish line at the All-A-Moochy race. So we'll take it from there in parts.
Transition
I didn't transition. Normally you come off the final race and take a load off. Well I had a few beers that night for sure. But I was on vacation the following week and was on the bike a lot after that. I hadn't "killed it" in 2006 so I wasn't in need of a break.
Grade: incomplete
Offseason
I had 2 goals this offseason, to lose weight and to build up more of a base with SST (sweet spot training). I spent a lot of time in the saddle, made major gains on my fitness, and saw 182 on the scale one day. So it was really successful.
Looking forward to next season I don't know if I would change a thing. I might split it up into SST and then high-end next year. It really depends what this years turns out as.
Grade: A
Preseason
My preseason was basically a transition from SST to high-end L5 work. I don't know if I really had the base to pull off the L5 blocks in hindsight. The theory goes that you need to raise your threshold power to get the most from the L5 work. I may have wasted some time there because basically I don't feel now that my high-end is that much more developed heading into June. So I may have been better served with more SST or moving into threshold work.
Grade: C
Early Season
Given that I cramped up at Granogue I obviously did not use my preseason efficiently. I backed off all block work entirely and went with a LeMond mix of workouts. This is really just a general workout scheme which mixes all different elements together.
I think there were 2 main problems here, which can be summarized in one statement. I didn't do enough race-like efforts leading up to the race. This got me in 2 ways. First off my fitness was probably a little lacking in terms of "race fitness". At the very least I needed a few more long-efforts on the harder side of the fence. I put in some solid efforts to be sure. But I needed some more big ones in there.
Secondly it got me in terms of food, nutrition, hydration, and what I needed to do in order to have it all together. So on race day things just didn't come naturally. My breakfast was not right, I was dehydrated, and the temps made my lack of electrolytes compounded. In reality had the weather not been hot I likely would not have had a problem. But it probably works out better this way, since I can now plan better for the heat.
So I won't kill myself on that one. A few more race efforts in there would have probably helped. Hopefully the nutrition angle never gets me again.
Grade: B-
Overall
Overall I think things are good. I learned something at Granogue so it was a good experience. Maybe I shake up the preseason and early season next year since I now have more experience with everything. But overall I'm fairly happy with everything.
Overall Grade: B
Transition
I didn't transition. Normally you come off the final race and take a load off. Well I had a few beers that night for sure. But I was on vacation the following week and was on the bike a lot after that. I hadn't "killed it" in 2006 so I wasn't in need of a break.
Grade: incomplete
Offseason
I had 2 goals this offseason, to lose weight and to build up more of a base with SST (sweet spot training). I spent a lot of time in the saddle, made major gains on my fitness, and saw 182 on the scale one day. So it was really successful.
Looking forward to next season I don't know if I would change a thing. I might split it up into SST and then high-end next year. It really depends what this years turns out as.
Grade: A
Preseason
My preseason was basically a transition from SST to high-end L5 work. I don't know if I really had the base to pull off the L5 blocks in hindsight. The theory goes that you need to raise your threshold power to get the most from the L5 work. I may have wasted some time there because basically I don't feel now that my high-end is that much more developed heading into June. So I may have been better served with more SST or moving into threshold work.
Grade: C
Early Season
Given that I cramped up at Granogue I obviously did not use my preseason efficiently. I backed off all block work entirely and went with a LeMond mix of workouts. This is really just a general workout scheme which mixes all different elements together.
I think there were 2 main problems here, which can be summarized in one statement. I didn't do enough race-like efforts leading up to the race. This got me in 2 ways. First off my fitness was probably a little lacking in terms of "race fitness". At the very least I needed a few more long-efforts on the harder side of the fence. I put in some solid efforts to be sure. But I needed some more big ones in there.
Secondly it got me in terms of food, nutrition, hydration, and what I needed to do in order to have it all together. So on race day things just didn't come naturally. My breakfast was not right, I was dehydrated, and the temps made my lack of electrolytes compounded. In reality had the weather not been hot I likely would not have had a problem. But it probably works out better this way, since I can now plan better for the heat.
So I won't kill myself on that one. A few more race efforts in there would have probably helped. Hopefully the nutrition angle never gets me again.
Grade: B-
Overall
Overall I think things are good. I learned something at Granogue so it was a good experience. Maybe I shake up the preseason and early season next year since I now have more experience with everything. But overall I'm fairly happy with everything.
Overall Grade: B
Labels: assessment, mountain bike
