[JEP Coaching Scholarship] Report for Week 02 (ending 2011-12-25)

Hello everyone. I've been fighting off illness for most of the week. There is a balance between doing training and recovering from a cold, even a minor one. A minor head cold is not a dealbreaker for many training rides. Of course, training too hard in cold weather can divert energy away from the immune system, complicating a simple cold. I do not enjoy being sick.

Workouts:

12-19 Monday
Prescribed: 45-60 minute recovery ride.
Actual: Easy spin to work, along the usual Central Expressway route.

12-20 Tuesday
Prescribed: Crossfit workout in the morning, followed by on-bike sprints session.
Actual: As prescribed. Crossfit was good, with a challenging workout of the day (WOD) involving box jumps and kettle bell swings. Dan sometimes prescribes sprints just after Crossfit to take advantage of neuromuscular training. The sprints were the best I've done in a while, with a max wattage of just over 1400W. Someone my size ought to generate more wattage than that in a sprint; this is one of my training goals.

12-21 Wednesday
Prescribed: Unstructured ~60 minute ride with stretching session.
Actual: I woke up with a sore throat this morning. I did a loop ride (defined as a ride on Alpine, Portola, and Sand Hill roads) around lunchtime, which may not have been a great idea. I cannot recall if I managed to get the stretching in, which means I likely did not.

12-22 Thursday
Prescribed: Crossfit workout in the morning, plus 1 hour ride with some tempo efforts.
Actual: No workout. Woke up feeling less well. Stayed off the bike and ended up leaving work early due to not feeling well. Tried to do some stretching in the evening, but decided against since I really was not feeling well.

12-23 Friday
Prescribed: 2-3h tempo combo ride with stretching session.
Actual: As prescribed. I was feeling a little better this morning. I waited until the warmest part of the day to ride. The ride itself was very good: I felt stronger than I have in a while. Stretched after the ride.

12-24 Saturday
Prescribed: 3h30m ride with two 20+min climbs, doing 90min sitting 60sec standing on climbs, plus stretching session.
Actual: No workout. I woke up this morning to green mucus, signs of a possible chest cold. Blech. Tried to recover as best as I could.

12-25 Sunday
Prescribed: 90 minute endurance ride with some 10min Z3 efforts, plus stretching session.
Actual: As prescribed. I was feeling somewhat better today. I rode up and down Canada Road once the weather got "warm" (around 8C, or 48F). Merry Christmas!

Weekly summary:
Time: 8h16m
Distance: 103.73 mi
TSS: 462.4

(Distance and TSS only incorporate rides for which I have power data.)

I've copied this report to my blog at http://bikefleet.blogspot.com/, where you can also find past updates, race reports, and more!

Thanks for reading.

--Jose