With the Oct rides added in, 2010 and 2011 show virtually the same total, right around 800hrs (800.2 and 788.5hrs, respectively):
Basically I hovered right around 450-500hrs for my first three years before increasing my volume 26% to 565hrs in 2009 and then a pretty massive 42% increase to 800hrs for 2010 and '11.
While I started riding more seriously in 2005, 2006 was the first year I had any idea what I was doing and working off of a properly structured training plan. Luckily it was also the year I started using a power meter so I have comprehensive data from basically the very beginning. In the fall of '05 I was doing a Marine Bio internship-type-thing on San Juan Island and found myself a lot more psyched for the bike riding part of my day than the field or lab work parts. So I decided I should probably just ride bikes instead of going to grad school. I found a swing-shift job assembling bikes at REI so I could spend my morning training and then go to work and get paid to learn how to work on bikes.
In '06 I did my first NRCs and raced on Recycled Cycles with a legit group of guys. In 07 I rode for PruDog's AxleyUSA.COM team and did more NRCs. I got destroyed pretty thoroughly at these new NRCs but had better rides at smaller races and was confident I could keep improving and reach a higher level. I managed to get a spot on HB Elite for 08 and was looking forward to stepping it up another notch. Unfortunately I hurt my knee in April at Walla Walla and never got back to full fitness after that, so it was a forgettable season for the most part.
Preparing for '09 I knew I had to make some big changes and step it up for real. I quit my bike shop job and switched to concentrate on coaching, which I had been doing since 2006 and which gave me more flexible hours during which to train. I trained more and I raced a lot more, including my first 10 days straight of racing at TOAD aka "Christmas in June in the form of a bike race every day". I didn't win any races in 09 but I placed 2nd approximately 1,000 times and made a lot of progress.
At the end of the year I broke my collarbone while out on an HB team ride the day before I was supposed to get on a plane for the Tour of Southland in New Zealand. I had surgery, got a plate put in over the shattered bone (flew to Kona to watch Rhae do that triathlon tournament), took the minimum recovery time, then started training again for the next year. 2010 and 2011 were pretty similar. I broke my collarbone before the 2011 season too. I worked less, traveled more and raced more. I trained more and harder than I thought possible. Before this year I trained even more and even harder than I did last year, moving to California for January and February where it slightly less taxing to put in those 90-hour months without having to worry about crappy weather. I had my best year ever this year, with my best performances at the NRC climbing stage races and winning more races than ever. I started racing early (Jan 31) and extended the season as long as I could (Oct 3 this year, Nov 4 last year) racing as much as I could (70-90+ days) while balancing peak performance at the races that mattered.
The obvious correlation is that bigger hours make you faster, but it's important to understand that training composition is more important than just a weekly volume number. I increased my volume significantly in the winter training season (Nov-Feb) of '10 and '11 but everything I did was focused high-intensity work. Like I said I trained way more and much harder than I had ever thought was possible, and frankly I would be surprised if very many of my colleagues could survive such a regimen... especially Kennett, he definitely couldn't survive it. Additionally, the winter training season accounts for only about a quarter of total annual volume, so the increase in racing days is responsible for much of the annual volume increase from '06-'08 to '09-'11. Particularly, extending the racing season into September and October as much as possible, which I started doing in 2009 and did to a greater extreme in '10 and '11 resulted in a big jump in additional hours. Of course, racing has a training effect, so you do have to consider the longer season in some ways resulting in a higher level of fitness for the following year.
It would be easy to wish with hindsight that I had started piling on earlier but I don't think I was ready for it. I injured myself pretty badly in '08 as a result of a bike fit/biomechanical issue that definitely would have been a lot worse if I had been trying to pile on the miles. Once I got that straightened out I was ready to step things up and I made a reasonable progression from there to where I am now. Who knows, maybe I would be a pro already if I'd started doing 90-hr training months in 07, but I think there's an equal or greater chance I would have wrecked my knee and forced to leave the sport. It was actually pretty drastic as it was and it's a little surprising I was able to make those kinds of jumps without destroying myself. I've never had a problem with motivation but to the extent that burnout is as much a biochemical process as an emotional one I consider myself lucky to have had the good fortune to work with coaches who put me on the right path from the beginning and kept me away from the EuroPRO voodoo folklore tradition that currently constitutes the bike racing training canon.
So, how many hours did you do this year? It's a good time to look back at what you did, where you are, where you want to be, and what you need to do to get there.
0 comments:
Post a Comment