Training in Ohio Winters

In November I took my bicycles into the basement, cleaned the dirt off them, cleaned the chains, let the air out of the tires and hung them up. It was a sad moment for me, it signaled the end of the riding season and that I wouldn't be riding for a couple months. I could have not been more wrong. Not only was I able to continue riding throughout the winter each bike would be upgraded or rebuilt.

The weather held out for a while to get some road miles in before the snow came so I was able to be on the road up through December. Thanksgiving came and I rode off my large dinner on my single speed, and on Christmas after the presents were open I took the fixed out again. Then the snow came and the ground froze and I got two rides in at Quails Hollow state park's mtb course. The runners were surprised to see me out in the 20 degree temps in the snow, but it was a great workout. 

Then the snow came and I spent two weeks indoors on the trainer, as the snow was two deep to try and get mountain biking in, trust me I tried, and the roads were too snow covered to take out my road bike. My other option is Ray's Indoor mountain bike park, which I can't speak highly enough. However, the snow has been bad that the hour trip was to unsafe to make. So the indoor trainer has gotten a lot of use. I like it because it's a controled workout, I can tailor my workout exactly how I want to. The problem is it becomes very boring, a ten minute tempo seems to drag on forever. 

The good news is my friend Mike Bloomhuff and I have both decided to really kick in our training at the same time. We'll do most of our training seperate with our own training plans and goals, but once a week we'll go up to Ray's and hammer out lap after lap. The XC loop at Ray's is made in a way that highlights my weakness, shortburts of maximal power, think power intervals.

 Also I want to give a shot out to one of my good friends Bob Myers, he is one of the main reasons for getting serious into the sport and pushing me to go that little extra. I finally got to run into him this weekend at Ray's. As I was leaving I saw a truck full of top of the line Trek bicycles and knew he couldn't be far behind. Low and behold he was there, I got to talk to him for a while. Till next time...