The Agony and the Ecstasy

This week was the start of life more or less back to normal: going back to the office after several weeks away, getting back into a morning riding routine, and going to the gym at lunch three days a week.

Being back into a routine, I can get my diet back on track more easly. It's hard to do when every day is different.

I've been riding as consistently as I could, so the riding was no big deal, but I haven't been lifting much at all since Thanksgiving. And of course, me being me, I didn't start out very easy.

I decided to start over with lighter weights for the first month, not wanting to risk aggravating my shoulder again and at least trying to give my body a chance to adjust to lifting again.

My first day back in the gym was Monday. On Tuesday, I could barely walk because my legs were so sore. By Wednesday, I was hurting even worse and by then my arms and shoulders were sore too. I still went to the gym and managed to get in something resembling a decent workout. I actually felt a little better afterwards. By Friday, most of the soreness was gone and I was able to get in a complete workout.

For the first month, I'm planning to do the same 8-lift routine that I was doing before that works pretty much my entire body. I'm not looking to gain muscle this month, just get some of my strength and durability back.

My weight is starting to drift back down. Right after Christmas, I was up to 175 pounds. I'm down to 174.2 now. I'm nowhere near the 165 that I wanted to be, but at least I'm moving in the right direction now.

Now that I'm riding more regularly, my power numbers are starting to improve. Not by a lot, just a few watts here and there, but at least I'm improving now.

Not Exactly at my Best

My fitness is kind of bottoming out right now.

My weight is up to 175 pounds and my body fat is at 18.5%. My goals set back in October were to be down to 165 pounds and 12% body fat, so I'm not even close.

I'll be honest: I did not eat well over the holidays. I ate every cookie and candy in sight.

My threshold power is at 245 watts on my road bike. Keeping in mind that my power output on the time trial bike is about 90% of what I can do on the road bike, my peak threshold on my TT bike last year was 260 watts (which equals about 285 on the road bike).  In order to hit my target goal for this year, I need to reach about 280 watts on the TT bike (equal to about 310 watts on the road bike). So I'm about 65 watts below where I need to be, pretty much requiring a 20% gain. Ouch.


My training has been pretty sporadic with lots of other things going on in life. I've been able to maintain the fitness that I had in mid-October, but in years past I've been making major gains this time of year. That's not the case this year.

The good news is that with the holidays over, I should be able to regain the consistency that's necessary to start improving, but I may have too far to go to reach my original goals. This may not be a big racing year for me.