And base begins

With the beginning of February (soon) starts my one and only, one month long Base period. Back in October when I was laying out my plan I didn't want to pedal endlessly on the trainer for hours at a time. I opted for different approach of tempo and intervals over rides of less than an hour and a half. It's working as today's ride was a test of my 5 minute power and it ended up the highest (by 14 watts) that I've put out since starting my build up in mid-November. My 15 minute power is only now 10 watts off of my best during the last summer, 1 minute power is 20 watts off and 5 minute is now 22 off. 20 second power is where it gets weird, as I pulled off some stupid wattage during a single crit last year and can't get to within 200 (not a typo) watts of that!

Anyway in February is my time to ramp up the hours and build the endurance. These long rides will NOT be like the long rides of last year, as I plan to put plenty of tempo time in as well as short burst intervals.

Below is my schedule, subject to massive revision based on sickness, lifestyle or workload. I worked my butt off through the holidays and up until this week to try and bank enough money to slack a bit during February and catch up on sleep. But with my job the way it is, I could think it's going to be an easy day and by 9am people are calling to get emergencies out the door. Such is life, but I'm not about to change it.


Note that there are only 2 races on the schedule for February, one outdoor and one indoor time trial. The outdoor TT is going to be cold. Suck it up. My first "road race" of the year will be Mid-Ohio on March 1, held on a car/motorcycle race track near Mansfield. More of a circuit race, with each lap being 2.5 miles or so, but you get the jist.

March schedule in it's entirety looks like this:
1 Mid Ohio
2 neo Limits indoor tt
8 Colavita time trial
15 Hueston Woods (Team Columbus)
30 Hueston Woods again (OVR)

I'm ready for winter to be OVER.