Not even halfway through Carmichael's time crunched training system, and I'm seeing gains like I've never seen before.

Just posted my fastest 70 miler ever. Close to a 20 mph average, regularly cruising at 22-23 mph on a windy day, lots of crosswinds. Granted I was in a paceline at least 50% of the time, but I took plenty of pulls and some long ones, too... practically solo'ed the last 1/3 of the ride. Most importantly, I finished strong instead of pootling 10 mph across the finish line with my head down. Link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/285626860

Riders in my group who killed me last year, were the same riders huffing and puffing to stay with me this year. Not trying to brag, but talk about role reversal! And those guys put in more miles than I do.

Would love to see where the 2nd half of the training regimen would take me, but I have to say, this s**t really works! And I'm not shilling for Carmichael, as I won't make a dime by making this post.

Not only am I stronger now, but I'm also a smarter rider. I used to try to keep up with the fast guys early on, sometimes trying to be a hero with my pulls, and end up getting my butt kicked. Now, I do keep up with the fast guys, but I don't try to be a hero... I pay more attention to my HR than my speed, and if I see my HR creeping up too high, I pull back a bit and get out of the wind, recover a bit, and conserve energy for at least the 2nd half of the ride.