I need a 19 watt increase.....
- Thread starter 10kman
- Start date
Hey everyone,
Long overdue for an update, my apologies. I need some advice after some recent life issues have taken their toll on me. I'll try to stay short.
Basically this year has been rough on myself and my family. My grandpop passed away in January, and that left my brother and I (nearest family to the situation) to handle things with my grandmom, who we had to get into a facility to care for her. Couple that with the fact that my grandpop wasn't exactly one of those organized gonna make it easy on you when I die kinds of guys, and my brother and i have had quite an adventure. Things are stabilized with that, grandmom is doing better actually, she's eating a lot better to say the least.
Right when that got settled down, my dad passed away. He's been sick for a while and too many things failed, but we got to see him before he died and he was still with it to be able to actually recognize us, but sadly also knew what was happening.
So suffice it to say, that takes its toll on you especially with how this all happened. I'm sparing the details just because it's not necessary for this post.
Couple that with the fact that I had two very large projects going live at my job in June, and suffice it to say I'm fried mentally.
On June 2nd, there was a practice ride up Mt. Washington for Newton's Revenge, which I went to just to see how I was feeling, tested out a new bike and gearing selection, and just got some mental refreshers of the course. It was muggy and warm, even early in the morning, and even for New Hampshire, so that wasn't so fun. Top was 50+ MPH winds, and dense fog, I mean DENSE. I wasn't focused on time but my Garmin clocked me at 65 minutes on the money. I felt like it was just a tempo ride, I was focused on cadence and heart rate, more on that later.
Training through all of this has been rough. Getting stuck at work messed me up, mainly with having to compromise a full workout in exchange for getting to bed at a reasonable hour, or eating a real dinner, or having other life things to deal with (example, I developed a leak in my roof which I am focused on right now). Sometimes, the emotional side of all of it hits me and I don't want to train, not even go out for an hour, just don't feel like doing anything so I go to bed.
I've been better with that, but I did miss some days here and there with it, and have bagged some workouts basically because I get going and decide I'd rather NOT be doing it. it's not physical that I can tell, it's just as simple as I don't feel like doing it.
So I've come to terms with that and understand it's obviously a lot for someone to deal with, 2 deaths, work overload, not having a personal assistant to mow my lawn or fix my roof leak or keep the bikes tuned, etc. I've let some demons creep in and I've developed a concern for how things will go this summer with racing. I had made such great progress and felt good and now I feel sorta like I'm on a plateau and not motivated.
This weekend I took some time and did 2 longer rides, 3+ hours on both Saturday and today. I just wanted to clear my head and really just ride.
My numbers haven't really changed for workouts, my 2x20 efforts are in the 330-340 range, my VO2 numbers for 3 min intervals are still 420 ish watts, so nothing is really different. I don't know it they should be better (higher) or not.
Newton's revenge is July 6th. The other climb is August 17th.
Having all of this out there for details, what should I do to gather myself and have at least a chance at one good race? Should I rest and let myself recover from everything, approach Newton's as a practice ride and train through it more or less? Should I bag it and focus on the one in August? Should my workouts alter? I feel like all I want to do is just ride, which equates to zone 2 levels for hours. Work is back to normal for the most part, so I can have some time back for that and catching up on other stuff I've had to back burner.
Thanks again for anyone still reading. Happy father's day to the dads out there too.
-10k
Long overdue for an update, my apologies. I need some advice after some recent life issues have taken their toll on me. I'll try to stay short.
Basically this year has been rough on myself and my family. My grandpop passed away in January, and that left my brother and I (nearest family to the situation) to handle things with my grandmom, who we had to get into a facility to care for her. Couple that with the fact that my grandpop wasn't exactly one of those organized gonna make it easy on you when I die kinds of guys, and my brother and i have had quite an adventure. Things are stabilized with that, grandmom is doing better actually, she's eating a lot better to say the least.
Right when that got settled down, my dad passed away. He's been sick for a while and too many things failed, but we got to see him before he died and he was still with it to be able to actually recognize us, but sadly also knew what was happening.
So suffice it to say, that takes its toll on you especially with how this all happened. I'm sparing the details just because it's not necessary for this post.
Couple that with the fact that I had two very large projects going live at my job in June, and suffice it to say I'm fried mentally.
On June 2nd, there was a practice ride up Mt. Washington for Newton's Revenge, which I went to just to see how I was feeling, tested out a new bike and gearing selection, and just got some mental refreshers of the course. It was muggy and warm, even early in the morning, and even for New Hampshire, so that wasn't so fun. Top was 50+ MPH winds, and dense fog, I mean DENSE. I wasn't focused on time but my Garmin clocked me at 65 minutes on the money. I felt like it was just a tempo ride, I was focused on cadence and heart rate, more on that later.
Training through all of this has been rough. Getting stuck at work messed me up, mainly with having to compromise a full workout in exchange for getting to bed at a reasonable hour, or eating a real dinner, or having other life things to deal with (example, I developed a leak in my roof which I am focused on right now). Sometimes, the emotional side of all of it hits me and I don't want to train, not even go out for an hour, just don't feel like doing anything so I go to bed.
I've been better with that, but I did miss some days here and there with it, and have bagged some workouts basically because I get going and decide I'd rather NOT be doing it. it's not physical that I can tell, it's just as simple as I don't feel like doing it.
So I've come to terms with that and understand it's obviously a lot for someone to deal with, 2 deaths, work overload, not having a personal assistant to mow my lawn or fix my roof leak or keep the bikes tuned, etc. I've let some demons creep in and I've developed a concern for how things will go this summer with racing. I had made such great progress and felt good and now I feel sorta like I'm on a plateau and not motivated.
This weekend I took some time and did 2 longer rides, 3+ hours on both Saturday and today. I just wanted to clear my head and really just ride.
My numbers haven't really changed for workouts, my 2x20 efforts are in the 330-340 range, my VO2 numbers for 3 min intervals are still 420 ish watts, so nothing is really different. I don't know it they should be better (higher) or not.
Newton's revenge is July 6th. The other climb is August 17th.
Having all of this out there for details, what should I do to gather myself and have at least a chance at one good race? Should I rest and let myself recover from everything, approach Newton's as a practice ride and train through it more or less? Should I bag it and focus on the one in August? Should my workouts alter? I feel like all I want to do is just ride, which equates to zone 2 levels for hours. Work is back to normal for the most part, so I can have some time back for that and catching up on other stuff I've had to back burner.
Thanks again for anyone still reading. Happy father's day to the dads out there too.
-10k
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