George's Weblog

I thought I would write a bit about my intentions to perform better during next year's season as a way to remind myself of what my goals are. You see, I'll be racing Masters 55+ next year for the first time. That means I'm at the bottom of the age group again instead of the top. Not that the racing gets any easier,  and of course everyone else is also getting older and I can expect to see some familiar faces in the field I'm sure.

I made a good effort back in 2012 and was satisfied with my season overall. A total of about 26 races and ended up about 25th overall for Cat 4 in Pennsylvania for Road Race and slightly lower for Criterium. Not too bad for an old man. The beginning of the 2012 season I raced Cat 5 even though I probably could have gone straight to Cat 4 because of my previous racing experience in my younger days. Moving up to Cat 4 was eventually needed so that I could race Masters races, most of which are restricted to Cat 4 and above.

The last two years I have not raced as much, although I have still enjoyed the sport immensely. I had hernia surgery which affected my 2013 season quite a bit and then ended up breaking my collar bone in July. Although I was back on the bike quickly, there wasn't too much hard racing for me. Last year I did a few road races and a few local crits just to keep myself in touch with the racing community. I had fun but no great results. Still managed to keep my place in the crowd though. Looking at my age group I'm in the middle of the pack.

On club rides during the 2013 season I noticed that I struggled more on climbs than I think I should. Despite riding plenty of miles and training hard my climbing was my weak spot. In my younger days I was a great climber and used that as a strength so it is a bit disappointing to know that I can't do that anymore. But what has really changed since back then? Sure, my VO2 max and recovery are less than they used to be just due to aging. But the main thing is that I'm carrying extra weight up the hills. It's not as much of a problem on the flats or downhills but every extra pound I carry on an incline is painful.

Since my 2012 season I've become a bit lax with my diet. I think the main thing is that I train at dinnertime and then I'm famished when I get home so I eat a lot of food and certainly not the healthiest foods. Then I go to bed. Not a good combination. So the first change I am making is to try to eat a while before training and then be more moderate afterwards. I'm still hungry when I get home but I really watch what I eat. I try to stick to fruit and protein mostly.

As far as my diet goes, I have a strategy that I will lose weight over the holidays which is more of an off-season and then not have to restrict my calories quite as much for training before the season next year. So far that's been going quite well, I've dropped about 24 pounds from October to the beginning of December. I'm probably going to level things out now and keep the caloric deficit more reasonable (maybe 500 kCal per day) and let my body adjust to the new weight.

Meanwhile, I'm putting together a good off-season training program. I've got my Kurt Kinetic trainer with the inRide power module hooked up. I've also signed up for TrainerRoad. I'm hoping that I can spring for a Yahoo KICKR if there ends up being extra money over the holidays. That would be a great way to simulate being outdoors. I still get out and ride but I have to admit that I'm riding less outside this year. I'm not sure I'm getting quite the workout inside since there are no real hills (just simulated) but I still feel the muscle burn after a hard trainer session so I guess I'm getting benefit. I also find it's easier to breathe inside with the warmer air so don't mind doing intervals quite as much. But one thing I've noticed is that I can more easily get my heart rate up outside than working on the trainer. I'm not sure exactly why that is but it just doesn't seem as painful to do it outside. Maybe it's just psychological. I'm certainly motivated by moving faster and you can see your progress when you are riding on the road.

The other tactic that I hope to use is to develop more muscle mass in my quads and thighs. In my youger years I had bigger legs, mostly from doing touring type rides with a heavy bike. I would slog up the hills for many miles a day. It didn't do much for my leg speed but it did get me strong and that strength meant that I could turn bigger gears and go faster overall. So I need a way to simulate that on the trainer or maybe even load up a bike with some weight and ride hills around here. The trainer would certainly be easier but I'm not sure I can completely capture the muscle movements without actually climbing since it involves body posture quite a bit.

So that's about it for now, we'll check in later when I've got my strength training underway. See you on the road.