Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Getting over Snow in April. and dealing with the indoor trainer.


Indoor training can be rough! 



Well its snowing again in CO. A lot. Its April 17th and we have a foot or so of the white stuff.
for folks training for early season races this is a big blow. you are mentally strained as it is,  packing in the volume and hard training. This is tough enough in nice weather never mind the bad weather.
what are you going to do.  Here are a few short and simple answers. They might not be the best, but it will have you NOT making mistakes and should keep your head from exploding.

One: 
First and foremost remember that it's a privilege to be doing what you do. worrying about what wheels to use, which type of intervals is trivial in the big picture. Monday at the Boston Marathon 2 bombs went off killing a few people. one of which an 8 year old boy who was waiting for his father to finish the race. As focused athletes we get tunnel vision. no one has been more guilty of this than yours truly in the late 90's. as frequent readers here know this is where "Chris" is from and his upbringing is less than pleasant.
Ok enough. head up. onward.

Two: 
Don't freak out about duration!  if you try and ride 3+ hours on the trainer you are most likely going to lose e it! I have talked about "Endurance Training" a lot.  its gone over here again in this webinar.  start 20-30' in for the Endurance training part we talk about the 90' mark, intensity as a tool you control and more.
you don't need to ride 3+ hours to achieve good endurance for long races.  well, OK long rides are key but this snow its going to last all summer and you have likely done some long rides. so go back look at your training log take confidence in ALL your training over the last several months and deal with the resources you have.

Three:
Ok so your on the trainer you realize that 90 minutes will do 90% of the job, but what are you going to do with the time?  a while back I came up with a selection of Hour Of Power trainer sessions.
https://home.trainingpeaks.com/training-and-nutrition-plans/exercise-libraries/purchase.aspx?libraryId=341902&af=trainingpeaks3
add a 15' warm up (or more) a 15' cool down and you are set!   these are workouts that are focused on a one task. VO2 int. endurance and strength, etc. and twisted a bit, be more fun and more engaging than your standard 4x10' at threshold. BORING!!!!
so why not pick one, and watch the training webinar while you ride. that's some multi tasking right there.

And while we are at it I'll plug our new program, 24-7 Coaching I hate training plans. they don't work. Why? because there is no rhyme or reason to them. so all of Ek Endurance Coaching plans are free. join 24-7 coaching for the year and you get a free plan. this plan will be 100% better than any other training plan you can by. Why, because you will get daily coach support in our private forums.