Just Not There Yet

Well, another disappointing weekend. I thought I would have a good race this weekend in Baraboo considering the size of the climbs and the relative ease with which I've been climbing of late, but I guess I'm just not ready yet to hang with the big boys. I was actually able to hang with the group on the first big climb but after the second medium size roller I got swung off the back when a rider lost the wheel of the guy in front of him and then I had to sprint around him to get back to the group. More guys started to drop and I had to keep sprinting around them and eventually I lost the group on a right hand turn when I couldn't sprint anymore. My lungs felt good but I couldn't overcome the lactic acid that would build up pretty quickly in my legs after every sprint effort. I've only been riding my bike for 5 months after a 3 year layoff so the last thing to come will probably be the power and lactate threshold that is needed to do those kinds of efforts time after time during a race. I was following a good program of tempo work, steady state efforts and muscle tension intervals earlier in the year before the Madison race but since then I've been doing more group rides that although they can sometimes be difficult don't really follow a structure. I'm not really building a power base and lactate threshold during these rides and as much as I'd miss the group riding I may have to stop doing those for a couple of weeks so that I can get back on my program. If I had been racing and riding the last few years it wouldn't be a big deal but since I've been away for so long I really need to work on my power and get back to building up my efforts over time. Basically that means more steady state intervals, tempo work and some climbing repeats. My results have been declining every week for the last 3 weeks so it's time to change up my training starting tomorrow. Tonight is a normally scheduled rest day so I'll just clean up the bike, wash the bike clothes, clean the water bottles and keep the legs on the couch after that. Tomorrow would normally be a day of intervals but I'm going to do an easy ride of about 1.5 - 2 hours to just clean out the legs and let the body recover. Wednesday will also be an easy 2 hour ride and then Thursday will be a 2 hour ride with Tempo work of about 60 minutes. Friday will be an easy day with a few sprints thrown in to open up the legs. Saturday will be the Muskego race, and hopefully some better results. Here is a picture of the course profile from Saturday, it was as tough as it looks......