Sunday, February 1, 2009

Tested

I know I say it all the time, but I've still got a lot to learn about training. Yesterday I did the second time trial since I've been on my training program. The last one, which was three weeks ago, didn't seem that bad. I came in about where I expected to and I figured this one was going to be considerably better.

So, yesterday, as I was sweating like crazy and cursing Coach Troy, I was envisioning my results with a smile on my face. When I finished and looked at my computer, I was stunned. I actually did worse on this one than the first one. It wasn't much worse. The difference was negligible, but I had not improved like I thought I would. I had one of those moments where I thought "why am I busting my butt out here if it isn't even doing anything."

My husband then told me, very politely, that I had only been training for six weeks, this wasn't going to happen overnight, it was only three weeks since the last time I did it, yada, yada, yada. Then he said "besides, you're just base building right now."

In my head I know all the base building is going to be very useful to me one of these days and those long, long rides are going to help me when I'm doing endurance races this year. And I will stick to it if it kills me, but this test was definitely a blow to my longing for instant gratification.

Today I'm going to do one of those long, slow rides and with the temperature already feeling balmy at 32 degrees, I have a feeling it's going to be outside.

2 comments:

Jake said...

Don't feel bad like Chris said it has only been 6 wks. My numbers have been all over the place the last few wks too. I am going to do another field test the end of Feb. but I don't expect to see a huge change in anything yet. Just keep it up and you will notice a difference out on the trail this spring.

Unknown said...

Your TT should not improve much in the base phase and the slight decrease in performance could be from a lot of factors. Rest, food, tire pressure, stress, could all play a roll. Just keep at your program and you will be fine in the spring. Reading about your training keeps me motivated with mine.