Intro to the 2015 Assault on the Carolinas
Training Update
2015 AOTC Recap
As you have read in the intro entry, I have my work cut out when it comes to training for the Assault on the Carolinas after 10 months of being off of the bike. As I had indicated in that opening entry, I was going to be leaning heavily on my indoor trainer to get my riding legs back, and drop some serious weight in preparation for climbing Caesar's Head, a category 1 climb! When I signed up for the AOTC in November, I had only been back on the bike about two months. I was at a still slightly heavy 189 lbs from a high of 205 lbs in that time. When I rode in 2013, I was at around 183 lbs which was pretty close to my current weight. The difference was that I was a much more seasoned cyclist with some very powerful legs in 2013.
In order to compensate for some amount of atrophy in my legs, I decided that I was going to try and whittle some more weight off so that moving my mass up the mountain would be less strenuous. My plan was to log some serious time on the indoor trainer. That is easier said than done though. For anyone who has spent any time on one of these contraptions, you already know the volumes of excuses that you can readily come up with so as not to get on a stationary bike and pedal going nowhere. I was motivated in November, and I knew that I would be able to stick with a training routine for a while, but for how long I wasn't sure. I was hoping to drop down to about 180 lbs, which was less than 10 more from where I was already.
As you can see from these screen captures, I have stuck with a training program that is pretty much six out of seven days a week. On occasion, there are a couple of rest days in a row, but those usually correspond with long road rides. There are two different 100 mile rides represented here. Each of the black entries are rides, and the yellow ones are scheduled workouts (Fat Frying Interval Program). The green mark in April is the AOTC, so you can see how close I am getting to that date. As of the writing of this entry though, I have completed 144 rides covering 189 hours and 40 minutes, most of which has been inside. I have increased my power output while conditioning my heart and lungs to be in better shape than before, and even losing quite a bit of weight in the process.
In the little bit of riding that I have done on the road though, I know that my climbing ability is worlds apart from where it was in 2013. Where I used to just spin up an incline with a high cadence/low gear, I am now able to sustain a lower tempo cadence in a higher gear for much faster speeds. I'm blowing my previous climbing records out of the water these days. While the short climbs around here don't compare at all to a cat 1 climb, I know that my legs have more strength and endurance in them than ever before. I'm actually looking forward to Caesar's Head this year. My only concern is that I go in too confident and blow up before I finish the climb. I really think that it won't be a problem at all though, and memories of passing many a rider to the top in 2013 still makes me smile. If I could do that then, I have no doubt I can do it again.
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