Who is taking time off this year? - Page 2

I'm not taking any time off from exercise this year.

But October is going to be a month of free-form "training". I plan on running a little, mountain biking (the trails here in Korea are great and the trees look awesome then), and doing a couple group tours that are long but pretty slow. The views on some of the roads here can be spectacular, and it will be nice to get out there and look around instead of being hunched over in a lactate-induced trance.

I'd also like to break out the stability ball and make doing some core exercises a habit. I swore I'd do it this year on my recovery days, but I chose to sleep in a little more and only do my recovery rides.

Pendejo, I didn't see a 9-hour block of work in that schedule. Oh how I envy you!

after finishing the Deathride back in July I think I've only ridden the bike twice on the rollers. My back wheel is still trashed (the back tire just stays on there - which made for some interesting decents at 50+mph LOL) from the Deathride and I just haven't felt well enough to do anything on the bike. A rather saddening gain in weigh means that I'll have to do something about the wheel and starting riding again.

No time off here as well....I'll do some CX races for "fun", nothing serious, just stay in touch with friends and change it up a bit. I tend to ride my MTB more as it gets colder... warmer in the woods during the cold months. I'll commute to work on my fixie for a change (42X16 keeps the legs spinning)... I'll start doing stuctured training starting around mid-Nov (L2-L4 work). I feel that if I take any significant time off... it's hard to get motivated to train again.

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Very apropos as I did my last road race (that I actually care about) yesterday and today begins my official end of racing season rest period, which will probably be about 10 days long.

I've been running on "E" mentally for a couple of weeks now so I need this time off. I timed my training to give me good fitness this month and it worked really well. When I start piling on the L5 and L6 to bring on a peak, I have to be very careful otherwise I get mentally fried to some degree (this is why I keep telling people to go easy on the L5 intervals). I'm still determining my limits and I overcooked it a little last month. I produced some record NP numbers this month but emotionally I could have been better. Unfortunately some of the races I wanted to do were canceled or just sucked for reasons out of my control. This made it harder to get through this month. C'est la vie.

Even if I wasn't a little crispy around the edges, I always plan take a post-road-racing season break and a mid-season break as well, each about a week long. This year my mid-summer break came a few weeks earlier than planned when I was hit by a car on May 29th and took a week off to get my act together again. I was chomping at the bit for training and racing in July and August though and I give some of the credit to the break.

I think it's a little different for people doing a lot of races (with lots of travel, etc.) as opposed to a lot of you guys who are striving for good FTP and CTL and all that. Both are worthy goals, IMO, I just think that all the ancillary stress of racing can add up a lot more. I can't imagine keeping up with Tyson's schedule even if it was applied to my needs.

Once I get back on a bike, It's going to be a few weeks before I do some structred stuff. I've got a few things to do around here (painting bits of the house, finish building my new 'cross bike, making sure that I don't get fired from my job , etc.) I'm going to do some running this fall, some cyclo-cross later on (using it as a sneaky way to get some threshold time in November and December), some hikes in the mountains, etc. Structured training will begin in November or December.

Here are some articles written by Adam Myerson about taking breaks:

http://cycle-smart.com/articles/find.php?search=9

http://cycle-smart.com/articles/find.php?search=43

I have been racing at least 2x a week since january, and training between 16 and 24 hrs a week since November. Estimate a good 20,000km ridden, of which about 8,000km were competitive. (numbers right off the top of my head)

I have just finished my last race of the year (a tasty 12th place in a cobblestone crit - not bad for a 68kg anti-sprinter) and I am now planning a month without any dedicated cycling training.

I am more tired than I ever thought possible; always sore, sleeping 10hrs a night and still can't get up, irritable, hungry all day etc. but more noticeable than that is mental fatigue - getting motivated to race has been so hard recently, and the temptation to go drinking alcohol, eating crap, staying up late was getting so strong.

My team has big plans for next year - UCI 1.2 races, stage races etc. and to build for that I am going to need a lot of volume over the winter. The only way I can realistically achieve that is to get enough time off the bike in the autumn that the hunger and motivation come back stronger than ever. Get all the drinking and partying out of my system, rest and recover and then actually look forward to base training in November and December....at the moment I am dreading it, but with each day of rest (and each hangover) I am feeling more like it will be possible to start building for an exciting new season.

Sure, it's scary to take whole weeks off without training - but you take rest days every week, rest weeks every month - why not a rest month per year? It makes sense, right?

No time off. Time off is for suckers! Just kiddin', of course ...I'll be getting on the boards at this time of year.

I will lower the intensity for a couple weeks...alright, I'll be honest - maybe a couple days. Thankfully we cyclists in the lower mainland of British Columbia have the Burnaby Velodrome (indoor 200m 47 degree banks) at our disposal so weather is no excuse for not getting your racing on...well, there is 'cross but that's not option for a fairweather racer like me...

In your case...ABSOLUTELY and for that matter anyone putting in these kind of hours training and more important ridden competitively.

I stress the word CASE...

-js

I'm planning to take off the month of December. I took 4 weeks off the bike in July this year, and it did not have as big of an impact on fitness as I thought it would. I hit a peak CTL of about 102 in June, then dropped to 48 in July, back up to 80+ by the end of august, and I'm planning to hit 100+ before the start of cx season. I'm hitting some of my best ever power numbers following a heavily periodized approach of time off, L2/L3 base, and then L4/5/6/7 intensity. Much easier to stay motivated.
Even with a low CTL I found I was still able to compete well in crits and TTs of about ~1hr, and come within a few % of my best power numbers before the layoff. I don't think high CTL is really a requirement for those type of races. I did however get very tired near the end of a 2 hour mountain bike race, and 3+ hour L2 rides.

Just could not intentionally take time off as I would suffer withdrawal symptoms. Plan to do at least 1 L4 workout per week throughout the winter - I love em! Hand me the power!! Tyson

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I can totally feel you on this one. Unintentional time off the bike (i.e. 4 weeks due to a broken hand and concussion this past January sustained in velordrome crash) is one thing, but I couldn't do it intentionally as I too would experience withdrawal. I just don't get the same "high" with any other cardiovascular exercise...

Furthermore, that unintentional 4 weeks off pretty much cost me the first half of my outdoor racing season. In fact, it's actually only been in the last couple months that I've re-gained the fitness/form (had to lose the 15lbs I gained during the time off as well) I had prior to the wreck.

It's day two of my "vacation" and ...brace yourself....I don't miss it... yet.

Actually I really wanted to hit the CX season hard this year and my CTL is at about 101 right now but yesterday I had a set back. I never did a CX race so I had a friend of mine give me a little course what it would be like and I was feeling pretty confident as I have been doing so much riding in sand and dirt that I felt I could handle it pretty easy.

Well he showed me for sure! He taught how to get on the bike running and dismount running. The dismount was not so bad swinging my right foot over and foward and than in one motion unclip the left leg and pick up the bike and run three steps and jump back on. The jump back on I thought was going to be difficult but than he showed me how you jump on saddle but not in the middle just before your private parts and just jump a little to get into position and pedal and clip in.

Damn did I learn a hard lesson today!! I must have not been doing it right because my hamstring (I think) muscle from groin to knee is in pain!! It started this morning light so I still did my ride on an ERG 90 minutes like 240 watts AP and the funny thing walking and riding do not really hurt but I move my leg from side to side forget it! Also I do not have the strength to even lift my right knee into my stomach...getting my pants on was fun!

Also the best part of my story, he showed me how to hop over sidewalk gutters...well me be the guy I am thinking I do this all the time in NYC, I come down the end of a hill as he wants me to take this sidewalk and I think I just hop over without listening to him. I hit the sidewalk at the wrong angle!! The bike stops! I go about 5-10 feet into the grass! My brain must have gone into automatic as I did a small tumble and landed on my left shoulder. I thought for sure that would kill me today but it is perfect.

I wonder how long this pain will last and if I can keep riding? I guess my muscle will tell me by end of day or tomorrow morning. I just can not tell me wife or I am screwed! May have to make up story...

Now I understand when people talk about the sweet pain of CX...man trying to hop on the bike on a hill is just insane hard.

-js

You might want to look at this for technique, though nothing beats actually doing it yourself.

I'm about as uncoordinated as they come. It took me half of my first season to get the remount sort of right (no dreaded double hop) and even then it was messy. I'm much smoother now but it's taken years. I have to relearn evey fall too.

The "sweet pain" is not due to groin injuries! It comes from the average intensity being basically a TT or L4 effort with lots of full on/ full off/ full on/ full off, getting on and off the bike, etc. to make it that much harder. You either love or hate it, and sometimes you will experience both.

Luckily the pain stops right before the groin! But I get your idea about the "sweet pain".

It will take some learning. I called my friend and he believes it is because I am using muscles that I may never really use all that much and I also think it comes from poor flexibility. If I had better flexibility the hopping on and off would come much easier.

Thanks for the article and I hope I fall into the category of loving it. But carrying a bike uphill definitely generates more hate atleast for now.

-js

I think your right. I think it has to do with the "shock" of using different muscles (running, leaping, pulling), as well as the jolting of the terrain...my back is killing me just thinking about it. There are 2 ways to go over barriers...the conventional way...and Matt White's way....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYiEg...eature=related

Enjoy...and have fun!! Cross is a blast!

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Do the work...'cause cheeters never win