Zombie
I'm now nearly complete with my first month of training for the 2012 racing season. The two week hiatus I took from all forms of exercise back at the end of October is fast becoming just a speck in my rear view mirror. And were it not for the evidence documented here on this blog, the Awesome Autumn Adventures I Announced (and for the most part completed) could easily be dismissed now as a figment of my imagination. I'm back to the normal training regimen, well, perhaps back to a new normal.
Unlike last year's start to the training season, my work-out schedule now needs to revolve around my work schedule. In no way am I complaining as I still have it pretty good in terms of work/life/cycling balance, but I now need to assess my work Outlook calendar when planning my training, whereas last year I had the luxury to mostly just look at the Weather Channel to pencil in my training time.
As a result, most of my training over the last month has been done in the wee hours of the morning, either armed with lights outside or perched upon the trainer or rollers, often as early as 4:45 AM (and earlier on some days!). And to maximize the time I can ride without infringing upon breakfast with Mrs D and the girls, I'm often on the bike within 10 minutes of shutting off the alarm clock. No time for a pre-ride coffee, so instead, I've begun filling up my 24 oz water bottle to get my first dose of caffiene while I'm riding on the bike.
With the early wake-up calls and my uber-efficiencient time between bed exit and when I mount the bike I am guessing that last week I registered about 12 of the 19 hours of training before the girls even began to rub the crust from their eyes and notice that I was gone. But as a consequence, I now feel like a member of the walking dead.
The New Normal
While my official start with my new coach doesn't kick off until next week Monday, I have been following a high-level four week training cycle that he shared with me back in October. According to that plan, I'm now in what should be considered a "rest" week. It is a week in which I had hoped to exit my Zombie-like state, perhaps have the dark circles under my eyes become slightly less resembling of a racoon, and maybe by the end of the rest week lose the urge to take a nap as early at lunchtime.
Unfortunately for me the zombie-like state persisted into day two of the rest week, and I began to question the plan that the new coach had me using. While riding time is way down for this week, he still has me going to the gym and busting my butt (and my legs). I had suspected that perhaps this guidance was given to me in error -- afterall, what I had was only a very high-level overview with general recommendations (I haven't started paying him yet, so I was getting the "free" version of the plan), so it seemed plausible that it might have contained an error, or that I might have misinterpreted what he wrote.
So before heading off for the gym once again (commuting by bike of course!) while the girls slept soundly at home, I fired off a quick email seeking clarification. "Are you *really* sure I should be heading to the gym during a rest week?"
Amazingly I got a response to my question while I was still at the gym (talk about fast turn-around!). When I glanced quickly at my cell and saw that I had a response in my inbox, my thoughts jumped to the possibilty that he'd say "Go home and back to bed Dennis. No gym work-outs this week!". Instead, I got a message that included this text: "Only the riding is easy on your winter rest weeks, which is what makes this time of year so difficult on your muscular system. Your heart is resting but you'll be consistently sore until you take an actual rest week in February."
So there it is. I'm going to be a zombie right through February. My "new" normal I guess.
