Over The Hill

Well, not quite in age -- though I ain't getting any younger. More like, over the hill in terms of fitness for the year; it's all downhill from here (or more like a month ago now).

Beginning in January, you start training, first riding long boring rides just to get a baseline fitness, then gradually throwing in some intervals and building intensity. Before you know it, summer rolls around and you're in damn good shape. Setting new records for power. Granted, this was the first year I was training with power, but still, seeing the improvement trend throughout the year was encouraging.

Looking back I'd say I peaked somewhere around mid-to-late August. Towards the end of August I was doing 10-14 hour weeks.

Yeah, that's not happening anymore.

This week as of this morning I've ridden a grand total of 2 hours. 2 stinking hours. Two one hour rides. The week prior was actually respectable and I did about 7-8 hours, and felt like I had some decent fitness. It's both shocking and depressing how quickly fitness fades. On my quick 20 mile ride on the road bike yesterday, while trying not to get blown off the bike completely from the 40+ MPH wind gusts, I realized that I had lost a chuck of fitness. I felt like crap, and was struggling to hold 250 watts. Just one week of reduced riding (or a couple in this case), and you've lost 30 watts off your FTP, and your resting heart rate is 15 bpm higher. It's nuts. All that hard work, all the pain you suffered through on hill repeats, the drudgery of 5 hour rides. All the fruit of that effort can just silently disappear through the comfort and quiet of inactivity.

But the thing is, it's necessary. I needed a break. Though with the daylight hours waning, it does definitely become more and more challenging to get-in rides during the week with an 8-5 office job, I have lights -- it can be done. I'm not using the season as an excuse. It's more just a mental thing: after working your ass off for months and months on the bike -- and while I do it because I enjoy it, you still can get sick of things you love -- one needs a break: both mentally and physically. So I suppose in the long-run a few lazy-ish weeks won't kill me. Actually it's probably a good thing. But man, it's humbling to go for that first ride after 3-4 days off and feel like you've lost a huge amount of strength. It kinda sucks.