Blueprint for success?
The 2011 training season officially came to a close 11 days ago, so I am now just over 2/3rds of the way through my 15 days away from the bike. I view the time off as a necessary evil -- my body needed a break and I'll be super-charged once the 2012 training season starts on Nov 7th. However, I'm feeling like a alcoholic who was sentenced to jail for some minor infraction. Each day that goes by, my withdrawals grow stronger and more and more I become consumed with that first beer I'll down upon my release from jail.
I'm hoping that first "beer" is just as delicious as those that I downed by the dozen in 2011, and I've started to give some thought as to what I can do in order to make 2012 as successful, if not more so. Those of you who are regular Trainer Confessions readers know that I spend a lot of time pondering and speculating about the myriad of reasons that a given race didn't turn out as I had expected, with the hope being that I'll find one or two things that I might try differently the next time around. But every so often I need to flip the process around and take a look at what went well, identify why things went well, and then figure out how to repeat those things into the future.
By all accounts 2011 was a resounding success for me; lots of new experiences, memorable adventures, and I got my Cat 3 upgrade. I don't think I need to delve into the things I need to repeat to continue chalking up new experiences and memorable adventures -- just keep on riding the bike, and minimize the time spent perched on my trainer and holed up in my office.
The recipe for the Cat 3 upgrade isn't so simple though. What follows is an attempt to outline some of the main ingredients used in my recipe, though I can't say for sure whether or not mixing them up again will result in another large batch of hand crafted deep flavored beer for 2012.
Just more of the same
It's possible that there was nothing specific that I did in 2011 that I can point to as the secret ingredient to my special sauce. It might be just a matter of good things come to those who wait. My journey towards my Cat 3 upgrade took place over the course of three full seasons racing as a Cat 4. In my first season I generally found myself finishing mid-pack; last year I was consistently finishing in the top quarter or top third, and this year I advanced just enough to cobble up enough top ten finishes to qualify for an upgrade (only nabbing the last required top ten on my very last event of the season!).
I ended each season with legs slightly more covered with veins than had been visible through the hair on my slightly stronger legs ( I still refuse to shave my legs, and only shave my face slightly more frequently ); feeling slightly smarter about what to do and what not to do while inches away from dozens of other riders racing through a tight corner on a crit, and just a little more stable perched upon my bike while being buffeted by cross-winds and pot holes heading down the hills of New England. I guess if I just keep on plugging away at this thing called bicycle racing for long enough, it might just have been inevitable that I would become just strong enough, smart enough, and stable enough to sneak my way up to the front.
Equipment Upgrades
I'm sure if I sought out the latest and greatest aero and feather weight technological advances and opened up my wallet, my path to success would have been shortened. However, I'm not really a gadget guy and a bike to me is just a tool, a means to an end, and not something to be worshipped. So it should be a surprise that nearly all of my attention has been applied to improving the "engine" (me) that powers that tool.
That said, I came to the conclusion after nearly being beaten down by hills like the infamous Devil's Kitchen in 2010 that my success in such races as the Tour of the Catskills could be greatly enhanced if I invested in a compact crank to replace the standard crank that originally came with my bike. That was my lone upgrade in equipment last year. I have to say that had I not made the change, I might still be a Cat 4 right now. Had I still been running the standard crank at the Tour of the Catskills, odds are that I would have fallen a few spots in both stage 2 and stage 3, which would have meant my top 10 count for the year would have fallen short of the 10 required for the Cat 3 upgrade.
Bike Handling Skills
This year I barrelled down steep mountain descents with more confidence, felt more relaxed when my bike rattled beneath me as I traversed over pot-holed dirt roads, and cut the gap between me and the wheel in front of me by a few extra inches. In the process I conserved energy and had more Watts in the tank ready to match moves when the competition got fierce.
I have to imagine that my big step forward in bike handling skills played a role in my Upgrade, and I am certain that those skills were enhanced because of the time I spent during the off-season on climbing and descending a collection of nearby hilly dirt roads. And those skills were further enhanced with my hours on the trainer being displaced by hours balancing on the rollers (that is, those hours spent on the rollers after my first few weeks where I fell so often I seriously contemplated wearing a helmet!).
Coaching
2011 was my first year training with a coach, and it was also the year I upgraded. Coincidence? I think not! While I was very proficient at finding ways to thrash my legs without a coach, I found myself in 2010 focusing on parts of my "engine" that I had given short change to in the past, and in the process I built a proper base that kept me strong right through the end of the successful season.
Unfortunately the scientist in me can't exactly quantify any specific end result that could be tied back to the training plan the coach had me followed. The target set by my coach was more or less framed as "doing better", and I find it hard to assail such a vague target. But I'm a numbers guy and I get jazzed by an audacious & concrete goal like "improve my 20 minute max power by 25 Watts". It might not end up with better race results, but because I enjoy training nearly as much (or more?) as I enjoy racing, I've opted to try out a new coach for 2012.
Weight
In 2009, my weight hovered between 150 and 155 lbs. Two years ago, I raced at weights ranging from 140 to 147. And in my most successful year, 2011, I weighed as much as 137 but by the end of the season I was down to 129. Think there's any correlation between my weight and my racing success, especially given my affinity for hilly road races?
The bad news though is that further race improvements stemming from further reductions in weight will be tougher to come by. All of the weight loss thus far can be attributed to improved eating/drinking habits while cranking out the miles.
In order to drop any more weight, I'll actually have to start dieting. I'm not sure if I want to cross that bridge. I don't mind suffering on the bike for hours and hours, but the prospects of suffering at the dinner table don't have me very motivated. It would also result in a further encroachment of cycling on family life ("daddy can't go out to dinner with us because he has to stay at home and eat his special diet food"), so I'm not sure if I'm ready to cross that line in 2012.
Work/Life/Cycling Balance
I find it hard to believe that 2011's race results would have shown even the tiniest of progression if it were not for the near ideal work/life/cycling balance I was able to strike. Work was a disaster for me for the first five months of the year, where I found myself more and more under utilized to the point where I was told to go looking for a new gig. Yet that work disaster allowed for a cycling boon-doggle, where I could plan my work hours around my cycling training hours. While most folks had to choose between family time and cycling time when deciding if and how to increase training duration, I had the luxury for a majority of my 2011 training to choose between work time and cycling time. Any guesses as to who won that decision?
Add to the mix a wife and family that fully supported my quest to upgrade, and toss in a few "family" vacations in locations ideal for a mountain goats and hill climbers, and you end up with about the perfect amount of miles and hours in the saddle required to score a Cat 3 upgrade, and in a way that didn't seem to intrude on the other important parts of life.
Summary
I admit that the title of this blog is a tad bit misleading. I doubt the ingredients outlined in my recipe above could be followed by someone else and end up with the same results. I didn't even specify the measurements to use when adding in the indegredients, so I doubt you could even call this a recipe -- just a list of ingredients. Furthermore, those that are genetically more gifted than me likely can get by a far simpler recipe, perhaps one of those quick dinners that only require 4 ingredients or less.
Heck, I don't even know if I can follow the recipe again (e.g. I can't easily control work/life/cycling balance now that work has picked up), nor do I know if the same recipe used for a Cat 3 upgrade would translate into success riding as a Cat 3. But I'm excited to give it a try and start cooking up a successful 2012 as training will begin in about 91 hours!
