The racing season is just two weeks away and I'm doing my final preparations for it.
Looking at the first four races, all four are completely flat. The first three are short, around 17 to 18 minutes. The fourth is a little longer, probably around 30 to 32 minutes. Give the time of year and the proximity to the ocean, I expect all four to be cool and windy.
The courses for the second group of four are much harder. The first one is a 5.5 mile hill climb with grades up to 18%. The next one is a technical 9.9 mile course with steeply rolling hills. After that is a17.8 mile course that is completely flat and straight, and just focusing to maintain speed is the challenge. Wrapping it up is another steeply rolling 11-mile course.
My fitness is coming along nicely. I've corrected the mistakes in my training that I mentioned last time, but I'm only beginning to see a change. It takes time to change performance!!
My weight is a little high. I'm currently 4 pounds over my target weight (currently 171, with a target of 167). My weight has been slowly drifting downward, at about a pound a month instead of my targeted 3 pounds a month. Once the racing starts, I don't know that I'll be able to lose more weight since I'll be training very intensely and need to maintain the incoming fuel.
My motivation and confidence are not at their best. I missed the power targets in my last two tests. I'm struggling to finish long intervals more due to mental focus and drive issues than problems with my legs and lungs. I think the problem stems from the pressure of doing so well last season and feeling the need to live up to that.
My biggest concern is going to be continuing to improve my fitness once the season starts. With races on 8 weekends in a row, all of them part of the series, I need to race as well or better on the later races as I do on the early ones. While I've spent a lot of time figuring out how to make that training as efficient and effective as possible, the time to put it into practice is almost here.
