The days are bleeding one into the next lately, but I am happy to report that training has picked up substantially, and the body is responding well to the increased load. With my sights set on racing Oceanside 70.3 in late March, and then tackling Ironman St. George in early May, it’s been important to ramp things up and get in good mileage. The beauty of training and racing at this stage in my life is that I come back each year with some benefit from the previous season, and the mind is more finely tuned with the accumulated experience. I will say that the volume of the training load has numbed my brain a little over the past month, but I’m finally coming up for air on an easier week and beginning to see some of the benefits from the miles I’ve logged.
Reflecting on the month of February, I can say without a doubt that I am ahead of where I was last year, and although I am not feeling particularly honed for racing just yet, I have been doing the necessary work from which I will gain that top end. The weather in Tucson has been absolute perfection this winter, with hardly any rain, and very few days below 65 degrees. I’ve had time to explore some new rides, including a favorite that made my list for three straight weeks. Arivaca is easily one of the best rides around, with gradual climbs and absolutely dead empty roads that cross the barren desert south of Tucson. It’s funny because every time I would come back into town from the 130 mile loop, I would start getting a little agro about traffic, but only because it seemed so intense after seeing just a handful of cars for the 4 hours prior. I also managed several assaults on Mt. Lemmon, including an epic day with The Cycling House crew where we tackled the backside: 102 miles round trip with somewhere near 8,000 feet of climbing and 30 miles of fairly rough dirt roads. Another highlight was a quick two day trip to Sierra Vista, where Brendan, Linsey, Drew, and I all rode through the higher elevation roads around Bisbee, Tombstone, and Sonoita. I’ll definitely look to get back there soon. Finally, SRAM had a dealer event here in Tucson, so I jumped in for a nice spin out west with the crew… Always great when the sponsors come to you!
But riding isn’t the only thing I’ve been up to. Running has been the area where I see the most potential for improvement right now, so I’ve been working hard on the new approach: speed differentiation and proper form for efficiency and injury prevention. Although I’ve got a long way to go, I can see the changes, and with an injection of new trails, plenty of laps on the Santa Cruz River path, and some video analysis, I’m getting faster all the time.
Finally, I’ve been hitting the pool hard, managing solid yards with the Ford Aquatics Masters group at U of A, smashing myself for long swims on Sunday afternoons with Dolphins of the Desert, doing stroke work with Sean in the evenings, and hitting the stretch cords and light weights at home. I’ve come a long way even from the end of last year, and things weren’t too shabby back then… Outlook is good!
After a slightly milder week, I’m back at it, upping the intensity some for Oceanside, but keeping my eye on the prize for St. George. Looking forward to the next big block, and the return to Boulder after the first two big races of the year. Full gas!