Cycling Log: 11/8 Base 1 (3 weeks)

As I indicated a while ago (here) my cycling log will be a little sparse. It is the off-season now. During the racing season, I will write about cycling several times a week, what with the race reports and pre-race hopes and plans I hope to log. I currently base my training on Joe Friel's ideas (this and this). Next year I plan to get a coach, but for the last few years (and this year) I have been (am) self-coached. The basic training principle is based on cycles. Fitness is never static. It always increasing or decreasing. One cannot be at peak fitness for very long (more than 2 weeks or so). One reason for this is that to peak, involves getting to a high fitness level and being rested. When you are rested, your fitness is decreasing (but increasing because you aren't broken down). Also, training places a lot of stress on the body. You cannot maintain a very high level of fitness without overtraining, getting de-motivated, or just plain worn out.

Currently, Sunday will finish my "Preparation" period. The next cycle is known as "Base 1", in Mr Friel's parlance. Basically I will begin building endurance, which will increase through the next two cycles. At the same time, in the gym, I will be doing my (only!) MaxStrengh phase. Unlike in the preparation phase, no upper body work is done. Building strength on the upper body doesn't help at all, and any extra body mass is counter-productive. In this phase in the gym, I will be doing about 4-5 sets of heavy weights (3-8 repetitions after a warm up set (12-18 reps)). Time spent working out per week will start increasing to get my body to adapt itself to the workloads.