3.5 weeks til we’re off!

Hello, it’s time for a second update for the month of march. At the beginning of the month I was looking forward to ending an 8-week class I was teaching and just continuing on the 16-week course so I could give training more of my time and attention. Typically I would get outside more in january, february, and early March but I only got outside about four times to train. Most all training was indoors on zwift. Well, the few times I did get out I was in Tucson training and it was absolutely amazing. I was much tronger than I was last year riding with the same group. And then, my ride outside a couple days ago was at a much higher pace than previous with two strong riders. My 5x5s and we’re all in the red zone as well which is another good sign. We have three and a half weeks until we leave to Europe for World Cups two and three. Really hoping things continue to progress and my confidence builds. That’s nice to be outside and feel the road and see the numbers. In addition I am lucky enough to have people here to ride and train with that have more function than me and challenge me. The goal is to get a medal in each World Cup event. It’s going to be more difficult this year as I believe one person who I’ve never beat will be racing in Italy and one person who beats me part of the time will be in both Belgium and Italy I think. Regardless, I want to do  my best and roll up onto that podium.

The last 6 weeks of the semester or the introduction to exercise science course that I’m finishing up. Two of the weeks I should be teaching I will be gone. I will do my best too not have to work while I’m away. Of course I will have to check emails but best to not work without racing to be distracted. The location in Italy is new for us. It is 2 hours East of Rome on the Adriatic Sea. It looks like a really neat small town and very touristy. I also had my right grip that I use cycling adjusted a little bit and it was a good move. I’m able to pull harder and more repetitively without fatigue it seems. I’ve only ridden outside once with the grip adjustment so I’ll do it a couple other times to make sure. It’s not always easy to justify the changes indoors on the cycling trainer. Other than that, I will check back in before going to Europe on April 24th.