dang, march is almost here!
 

alright, i was trying to plan out my events for this season and suddenly realized that the first races start in 3 weeks!! sickness and cold weather really made me lose track of time. anyone plan on racing in march? how's the training coming along? i gotta get my butt in gear.

I'm with you. First race of the season is March 6th. December was wiped out due to illness. January I spent trying to get back. This month is seeing me just getting steady with base training and some interval stuff thrown in! Haven't had a chance to even get outside yet. It sucks. I'm going to get shelled on the 6th, but hey ... you gotta give it a go!

I'm working myself into some shape and won't race until June or July if at all. If my conditioning is right, I'm doing a century at the end of May and will go from there. Weight loss has been clockwork so far. Have upped my mileage to forty miles a ride. Hopefully by mid to late March, I'll be able to up the intensity and begin to add some speed and power work. This'll be my first season of racing.

The weather has been great in general. Work is another matter...

i'm still working on my base. my rides are typically 2 hours 3-4 times a week (on a good week). i'm slowly throwing in some short intervals but my body isn't ready yet. i just need long steady miles without distraction.

That's the key. Work is getting in the way. That and my wife and two children, mortgage, ... :mad:

You cyclists must really enjoy getting fat over the winter and then trying to shed it for spring! Seriously, no thanks. Sounds like torture to me.

Actually I've lost 30 pounds this winter, why wait until Spring to lose it?

My first race is April 3rd, I can't wait to see how much better I feel compared to how I felt last year. I was supposed to do a race a couple of weeks ago unfortunately the flu made sure that I stayed on the couch instead.

That's great, LowCel. Sometimes I get the impression that cyclists let themselves get overweight in the winter. Glad to hear it isn't the case with you.

Nope....it was the case for me last Winter and Spring. Not letting it happen again though. I felt terrible last year, every race was a struggle, not a struggle to do well either, a struggle to finish!

How much do you weigh now?

I let myself go for two years. 40 damned lbs! That on top of another 20 or so from five years prior. This is my first disciplined regimen since high school ('91). Gunning to make it my first season of racing too. Hit 239 last year and decided enough was enough. I'm down to 223, 16 lbs. since the beginning of last December. Been fun falling in love with the bike and getting into shape.

I won't let gravity clutch me like that again. Ever.

i have an ultra high metbolism, and can't gain weight no matter what i do. sorry guys...i'm sure you didn't want to hear that. :) i lose a lot of endurance and strength over the winter though. i turn back into a pencil necked geek for three months.

Right now I am down to 187. I'm hoping to be at 175 by April 3rd.

Congrats on the weight loss guys. Keep it up.

I weigh 235 pounds but I'm at about 9% bodyfat right now.

So far I have gone from 23% body fat to 19%. I still have a way to go but I'm shooting for 10% to 12%.....eventually.

Devil, for some reason I thought you raced?

Nope, I don't race. I do ride occasionally, but only when it fits into my training. I'm not a cyclist which I guess is kind of weird, considering my love of the sport. I'm strictly a fan of the sport.

The race season here is already three weeks old. I raced a fun, fast crit last Sunday. We started with 75 and ended with 35. Yep, early season races sure do show where everyone's ftness levels are. I have a three day stage race starting this Friday. Should be fun.

Depends on who you're talking about. Most racers race at a weight that isn't "natural" - you should know that. Most fighters of all colours don't weigh the same 1 day after the weigh-in even and sure don't maintain their fight weight all the time between bouts. Racers are no different except they generally keep their race weight for a long period of time and add a few pounds during winter. I'm not talking about recreational cyclists here. Maintaining 165 isn't very natural for me, but that's what i try to get down to for the season. I don't consider going up to 175 during the off-season "overweight"!

yeah, you guys in CA are in a different world out there. a nice warm sunny world. we'll get there soon enough, i hope. good luck with the stage race...that does sound fun.

Hell yeah...I'm ready for this winter crap to be over!

My first race is on the 26th of this month. Can't wait!!

I'm the same, finished last season with 175 lbs. (in November), stayed at the same weight until the first week of January and been slowly working myself down to 165 lbs. now... I'd like to keep 160 - 165 lbs. racing weight throughout this season (and that's around 7-9% body fat for me)

I think that in a way it is sort of necessary, a mental break. If you are training really hard over the winter, even if you are not doing a lot of intensity, it is mentally tough. the miles have to be cut sometime, and its really hard to adjust the calories taken in to the reduced activity level.

and btw, I did gain weight this winter...I managed to mess up my knee so I was out the whole month of december...disasterous, I was almost 190 by the time I went back to school on the 10th of january. I'm back down to about 177, with a bit more muscle then before.

anyway, My first race is March 5, the crit at the naval academy. I'm starting my intensity tomorrow with a practice crit that my club is putting on. I think I'm going to mostly try to race myself into shape, since its my first real season racing, I think the additional experience will help out more then the missed weekend interval sessions will hurt me. what do you guys think? I'm going to try to race just about every weekend, and probably do some LT threshold intervals int he middle of the weekend, then do some long, fairly easy distance the day after, then tape for the weekend. do you guys think thats enough? too much?

1st races are not until Apr 16/23 they are pretty short training crits. My real season starts May 1 with my major goals in the last week July. My training going Ok with a lot of low intensity base Km's. it's actually a bit of a chore to reign myself in at times. I'm ready to burn a little bit!! Bring it on..

'Rasher

March 5 at Rutgers...solo in the A's...Shifting to more tempo now, LT stuff in a 2-3 weeks. Fitchburg and Green Mountain are a long ways away.