'TIS THE SEASON

Ah, December. Winter in Montana, and time to be doing almost anything but biking or training, right? Well, I guess that depends on your situation and upcoming season goals. Some hardy MT racers are still going hard, with sites set on Cyclocross Nationals next weekend in Bend, Or. I had hoped to be one of the hardcore racers still grunting out intervals in December to prepare for battle at Nats, but, as always seems to be the case, life got in the way and my cyclocross season came to an unplanned early end. Other racers out there have been taking it easy for a while, recovering and recharging the batteries after a long season. Even though it is the dead of winter, they are probably itching to get back on the bike, or a least back to some sorta training regimen.

Really, a training regimen in December when the first races aren't until early April? Well, like I said, that depends and situations are different for each individual racer. For me, I raced and trained pretty hard up 'til about a month ago. Once I realized 'cross season was over for me, I decided to take a bit of a break. I took three weeks totally off the bike. I didn't even think about cycling or racing at all. I just hung out, did some hiking and hunting, and took some time to do other things that get neglected while training, and enjoyed life. Being the cycling junkie that I am, after three weeks off the bike I was ready to ride and start thinking about next season. As a CAT 2 racer with some lofty goals, crazy strong competition, and a strong team to try and support, starting serious training in December is pretty much a necessity. Even though the training is serious, it's starts out fairly relaxed with some easy riding, a bit of weight training, and hopefully plenty of cross training in the form of running, skate skiing, and hiking to try and minimize the time spent on the trainer or rollers. That said, I still spend the vat majority of my available training time on the bike. All the other activities are great, and will help build endurance, but if I want to excel at bike racing, I gotta spend time on the bike, even if that means riding the rollers for a couple months.

I have been doing this for a few years now, and I know from experience that I am mentally strong enough to handle a training schedule like this. Others may not be able to, and if they start to early, they may lose motivation and fizzle out before the races even get here. When to start and how hard to train are very individualized situations. If you are an experienced cyclist with lofty goals like myself, time is a wasting and you had better start thinking about what those goals are and how you are going to achieve them NOW. It'll be time to toe the line again before you know it, be sure you are ready. Newer racers may want to wait a bit to get serious, but as I said that is dependant upon the individual. No matter what your situation there really is no off season. Even if you aren't training seriously yet, it's always good to remain as active as you can and enjoy unstructured aerobic activities to help maintain fitness throughout the year.

So, enjoy your winter. Whether it's climbing ice, hitting the slopes, skate skiing, or even riding the trainer in a basement like I will be doing, you gotta stay active and start thinking about next season now. The first thing you need to be doing is coming up with some goals for next season. More on that later. Until then, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Training Year. I hope it's a great one.