The Week Ahead

Just got back to my apartment after a great time out with some friends. On a great ride with one of my teammates from Team Wisconsin this morning, I was made aware that a mutual friend of ours was celebrating his girlfriend's birthday, and I got the invitation to join up. Super glad I did. Turns out that the bar we went to was awesome, and I have every intention of returning there to actually try out the drink menu sometime. Unfortunately, with a huge week in front of me, I wasn't able to indulge much tonight, but had a couple of great conversations regarding bike racing, the Packers (who lost due to horrible offensive line play), and how pelvic X-rays tend to reveal much more than pelvic bones....

Anyway, like I said, this week is going to be hellacious. I've got three exams next week, Monday-Wednesday. I also just got an email message from my grad-student/independant research mentor informing me that we will be switching projects once again - Though, we'll be going back to one in which we have already invested a significant amount of background research time. On top of this, my off-season training plan is going to kick in this week.

Phew - tired already! I sense that coffee, sleep, and childhood memories of The Little Engine That Could will be my most valuable assets in the days to come.

Since this is mostly a blog intended to entertain/self-motivate, and inform about cycling pursuits and the two-wheeled life I live, I'll post my early stage for this year's off season training. This stage will last for the next three weeks. I'll probably start cycling-specific training again in November. For now, it's time for a break from training on ride, and a focus on relaxing fall spins.

I'm cutting back the time in the pool, but increasing intensity a bit. The swim workouts I do will need to fit into time I have before classes - usually between 7 and 8 in the morning. I'm planning on doing pyramid sets like this:

Warmup
300 yds free/breast (easy)

Pyramid
2x50
2x100
2x150
2x200
2x150
2x100
2x50

Kick/Pull Drills
200 yds

Warm Down
150 yds easy free

I should be able to squeeze that in. I hope.

To this I'll be adding 3x weekly lifting sessions on Mon, Tues, and Thurs. Back, Chest, Legs, respectively.

I'll squeeze in rides when I have the time, hopefully about 150-200 miles a week.