I guess I should start off by saying that this is my 200th blog post. It started in 2009 and has become a great way for me to vent and to help keep me on track. It's great being able to go back and read the analysis of past races or what I was thinking at certain times in my training and racing history.
Every October we take a trip somewhere for our anniversary and I plan my training around that trip. Most years, I use that week as a divider between one racing season and the next. I stop doing major efforts and start rebuilding my foundation for next year, especially as it gets cooler and windier out.
This year it's a little different in terms of planning because I had started my training for next season back in May because of my long training break in March and April.
The problem now is that I had the double-whammy of being sick when we got back. I spent all of last weekend laying on the couch doing nothing and I worked from home on Monday and barely moved the whole day.
I've been gradually adding training back each day since, starting really easy on Tuesday and doing a double, even if it was a pretty easy one, on Thursday. I still don't feel quite right yet, but at least I'm back on the bike a little.
I'm hoping that in another few days I'll be back to full strength... right in time for the temperatures to get below 50 degrees for my lunch time rides. Have I mentioned that I'm a bit of a wimp in the cold?
It's always hard mentally when there's a break in training. No matter how much I know that my body needs a break and no matter how much I plan for it, the training-addicted part of my brain is always screaming for me not to lose fitness.
I'm sure that almost two weeks off the bike has set my fitness back a little. I'm just hoping that the break pays off in the long run. Just 33 weeks until the state TT next year...
