Rest Day #1

Hello people! First off, I'd like to wish everyone a happy 2013. I hope the holiday season treated you as well as it did me. Lisa and I really enjoyed visiting our families. It is always nice to spend time with family, especially during such a joyous time of year. We spent time in both Minnesota and Wisconsin and were able to see immediate and extended family. We had numerous holiday celebrations and plenty of good food! For about two weeks, Lisa ran in her yak trax, and I rode as "Scuba Alien" wearing my ski googles, lobster gloves, and winter ride clothing. We love the Midwest, but the winter can undoubtedly be tough!

Now that it's 2013 though, it means it is time to start the new cycling season. We flew back to Girona on January 6th, a few days before my training camp. It gave us time to get things in order there, find a little routine, and have a few days to feel at home. Getting settled is never easy because something is always not working properly, but we have been at war for a week now trying to get everything in order. The quick list: Lisa's phone, Lisa's suitcase, our car window smashed with a rock, stolen GPS from car, car battery went bad after a few days... hopefully we're done! It has been stressful and difficult to say the least, but I guess that is just part of the fun of living this life. If we didn't have some new obstacle to overcome, it would just be boring! We're ready for a break though.

I am at training camp now, while Lisa is enjoying the company of a college friend who is visiting for the next couple weeks. Camp has been pretty routine. We will have three training blocks of three days during this camp. We have two training groups usually: the classics group and the stage race group. The classics group seems to be doing a little more intensity than the stage race group, which I am in. Our first three days have been 4, 4.5, and 5 hours. We have done a few exercises but nothing too specific. I had a rough start to training with bad sensations (and related numbers) on the second day of training. I'm not sure what to attribute it to, bad condition, jet lag, etc., but I made a conscious decision not to push myself past where I felt I should be. There is no point to dig myself a hole in the first block and be unable to properly do the last two blocks, which are more important. I ended that training session feeling pretty bad about myself because I wasn't sure what was going on, and I've never really been "unable" to do what I was asked to do or at least try. I felt disappointed in myself, and I was of course worried about what the team and my teammates would think. The next day however, my sensations seemed to be more in line, so I was left feeling much better and ready to carry on with the rest of the training camp at 100%.

Today was the first rest day, so I tried to rest! I rode my tt bike a bit just to see what it feels like again. I wasn't able to ride in the tt bars too much though because of the rolling, twisty terrain, and the wind was blowing me all over the place. I'm confident it will be ok though. I will probably ride it on the next rest day, too. I'm not sure the exact schedule for the next block of training, but I suspect it will be a bit more difficult. We will likely have a few more hours of volume with a bit more intensity. I hope to be feeling normal and able to complete the exercises in good order.

Oh, random point of interest is that we have the team chef here, so he is cooking us good food everyday. He bakes delicious bread every meal, and his main courses are quite tasty. I hope he has something good in store for Maxime's birthday meal/cake tonight! Time to go see :)

The "Scuba Alien"