Sir Yes Sir!!

So I haven't had a coach since I was senior in high school running cross country and track. My entire cycling career has been self coached, taking what I knew from running and tryijng to translate it to cycling. This was all done with mediocre results at best. Fast forward 15 years to June 2008, and I finally decided to have a real training plan set up for the remainder of the season. To help with the coaching I have enlisted Brian Conant, a top local cross racer, and a very energetic guy and cross race promoter. He has coached several local racers to some great results, including a collegiate national title.

My reasoning for enlisting Brian was that the last couple of years I really felt like I had no real way of telling if my training was helping. Yeah, I could look at my power #'s and see changes, but the minuitia in the training was something I didn't have the time or desire to understand. For instance, this week I was scheduled to do LT intervals. After the workout I sent the info to Brian, and he quickly pointed out that my wattage was all over the place, and not consistent. This casued my last two intervals to be lower in power than it should have been. This is something I never would have picked up on my own, but on Sunday the same workout was done at a much more consistent pace, and I was able to complete the workout within the correct power ranges, getting the full benefit of the ride

Another benefit is that with all the traveling I have been doing the last month it has been great to have a coach to help set up my training around my schedule. It makes it much easier to stay in shape when I don't have to worry about coming up with workouts, but just doing the work on the bike. So over the next several months I will be providing updates on my training and hopefully the improvements in my performance.