\n\tIf many of you are looking over this list and wondering if I'm being overly critical….you'd be exactly right.  Just to make myself (and you) feel better, I'll list off the good points that came out of this ride:\n<\/p>\n

\n
• \n\t\tCompleted all the climbing on the route (including several very steep climbs) without bonking, injury or significant cramping.\n\t<\/li>\n
• \n\t\tCompleted a number of dirt\/gravel sections (in atrocious weather, among other things) with no significant bike handling issues.\n\t<\/li>\n
• \n\t\tWas able to maintain a relatively high Normalized Power and a consistently high Average Power throughout the course of the ride.\n\t<\/li>\n
• \n\t\tWas able to close down several gaps of 2-3 minutes while riding solo.\n\t<\/li>\n
• \n\t\tWas able to stay at the front of the group most of the day without significant fatigue.\n\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  \n\tSo now I've been honest with myself.  I've seen what went wrong and what went right.  I can revel in the good stuff and I can analyze what I wasn't happy with.  The biggest question is what do I do with that kind of information?\n<\/p>\n

  \n\tHow Does it Help You?
  \n<\/h3>\n

  \n\t\n<\/p>\n

  \n\tAs a coach, I can look at that list and I can tell myself where I need to improve and where I'm currently strong.  The same should go for you.  In this case, I'll look at my training schedule\/plan and ensure that it includes the following:\n<\/p>\n

  \n
  • \n\t\tContinued building of muscular endurance.  You should have about 25% more muscular endurance capability than you need for your stated goal.\n\t<\/li>\n
  • \n\t\tIncrease VO2 max sustainability through specific interval training.  This may mean adding more VO2 max work or working at the top end of Zone 5.\n\t<\/li>\n
  • \n\t\tClimb more!  Get outside and practice techniques concurrently with building VO2 max and raising threshold.\n\t<\/li>\n
  • \n\t\tAdd "power intervals" or short, sharp bursts of power in order to train for sharp rises in terrain.\n\t<\/li>\n
  • \n\t\tContinue to build on flexibility through off-the-bike work.\n\t<\/li>\n
  • \n\t\tPractice riding on dirt\/gravel roads and practice proper breathing techniques throughout all workouts.\n\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    \n\tIt's simple to look at a ride and say "Yeah, I beat those guys up that climb" or "I dropped them on that flat section."  Really, that's not a bad thing for you to notice either, because it gives you motivation, it tells you that the work you've been putting in is paying off, and it's just a great confidence booster.  What's much harder is being critical of your performance and tearing it down, dissecting it to the core and really facing your weaknesses.  In the long run, taking the time to determine those issues will give you valuable information to direct your training path in the future.  It will force you to train your weaknesses while maintaining your strengths, and that's the key to making you stronger and faster.\n<\/p>\n

    \n\tSo go ahead, be honest with yourself.\n<\/p>\n

    \n\tQuestions?  Comments?  Leave them below and start the discussion about YOUR rides.\n<\/p>\n

    \n\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

     Here in the northeast, we've been blessed with about 10 days of "good" weather; "good" being in quotes because good winter weather is essentially anything that isn't snow, ice or hail and temperatures above 38 degrees (the point at which I prefer to sit on the trainer in front of the TV.)  While the sun hasn't shone often and the roads aren't often dry, warmer temperatures create the itch to imbibe fresh air and feel the road slip by under 23mm tires. Since motivation is high on these rare gems of days, it's only right that we get out, rain or shine.  And let's be honest, when it's 45 degrees and you've HTFUed (Hardened The F*** Up, for the uninitiated, or see rule 5) you're not going to do a 10 mile round trip to the coffee shop and then call it a day.  No, you'll seek out climbs, descents and (if you're anything like the classics lover that I am) dirt and gravel roads.  Basically, the gnarlier and more "Belgian" the route (and the weather) the harder you'll push yourself. There's only one problem with that line of thinking….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,50,21,38],"tags":[175,172,60,68],"yst_prominent_words":[2595,790,396,2597,2593,2590,2598,288,1753,276,737,377,1099,2591,2589,2594,2596,268,225,2592],"wppr_data":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10949,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions\/10949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2072"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}