Starting over. Back to the beginning. Reboot.
There are lots of ways to describe where I'm at on the bike right now, but all of them boil down to me not being anywhere near racing shape right now.
To give it some numbers:
Racing weight: 164 pounds
Current weight: 180 pounds
Racing Threshold Power: 290 watts (on the road bike)
Current Threshold Power: 220 watts
Racing Weekly Training Volume: 10 to 12 hours (up to 15 hours on some weeks)
Current Weekly Training Volume: 5 to 6 hours
For those who train with power.... my ATL was at a low of 5... yes, five. My CTL is usually 105 to 110 when I'm building up to a race. It was down to 31.
So.... I'm not racing this year :-)
About two weeks ago, I was able to get back on the bike with some regularity, getting a little time on the trainer before work a couple days and riding at lunch a couple days each week. The guys at work are really enjoying beating me on almost every climb we hit. Even just riding 6 hours a week completely wiped me out, so I've got a long way to go.
On the plus side, at least I'm back on the bike now. For the next few months, I'll be gradually building up my training volume, trying to get into the 8 to 10 hour range so I can get a decent foundation and start to burn off some of the weight I've gained.
I don't have any real performance targets for this year, at least not yet. With the races I'd be interested in ending in late July, there's no chance that I'll have enough fitness to bother going to them. That's 10 weeks and there are limits to how fast you can gain fitness.
I'm considering doing a doing something like I did in my 2012 year, where I didn't start training seriously until really late in the year (that year was July when I started). That led into my 2013 season, which is the best performance I've ever had.
So, we'll see how it goes!
