I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed by the undertaking of creating a race schedule and training plan. It’s the classic, chaotic, overcommitted pattern I have, but I’m putting it out to the universe that I need help with the endeavor. That seems to be working in my favor because today while I was at physical therapy, I admitted that I’ve been slacking on my exercises. That isn’t typical of me, and I shared that things are feeling chaotic between work, a recent move, and the possibility of taking on more serious training for road races. My physical therapist, Mila at Summit PT, was excited for me and offered to rework my current exercises into a strength training format, then work on a progressive plan to help me build my muscular endurance over the next six months.
This fits so well into my training plan! The timing is serendipitous. What I’ve recently been reading about the base phase (five to six months) and training blocks (each 12 weeks) is putting me on course right now to train for my first “A” race at the end of May and my second “A” race at the end of August. I’ll only have five months to build a base rather than six, but I am coming off a strong summer of cycling, so my base isn’t zero.
I’m targeting the Green Mountain Stage Race for my end of August plunge. I need to read further into what sort of race would set me up for success leading into that training block. Should it be another stage race? What about a Gran Fondo? One piece of the puzzle that is eluding me is when the race calendar is released. It seems like the US Cycling site is in the doldrums of fall and it’s unclear when the next season’s dates will be released. My research here is to be continued…