The beginning of the off-season draws a line under the previous years racing and gives everyone an opportunity to start from fresh. Poor winter preparation is the excuse I hear most frequently advanced for sub optimal 'in season' performance.
A solid winter is the basis upon which success can be built upon as the summer approaches. For most Irish based cyclists' their top priority race will be the eight day An Post Ras, starting at the end of May.
Base training has been described to me using the analogy of a pyramid. The wider one builds the base of the structure, ie the amount of base miles logged in the legs, the higher the potential peak. A good winter training does not guarantee success later in the season; it merely facilitates it. One must increase the specificity of the sessions as ones top priority race approaches. My template for the coming season will resemble that of last season. The early part of my season will focus on road racing while the latter part will become more track specific.
I recently completed a performance review for last season. One of the areas which I feel I can make big strides in is nutrition. My nutrition last season followed no structured plan. I ate whatever was convenient with little thought to the nutritional quality of the food I was ingesting.
This season I have starting working with the guys from The Edge Fitness (www.theedgeclontarf.com) on a new nutrition plan. The plan has at its core fresh produce. I have started eating large quantities of nutrient dense, alkalising foods. The difference it has made to my strength and overall well-being is immense. By eating wholesome foods I am hunger less often, have less cravings for sugary snacks and have increased energy.
I have realised the stress placed on the body from cycling is significant. The body seems unable to distinguish between mental stress (work concerns etc), physical stress (produced from training) and nutritional stress (produced from eating bad foods). By eating foods that require little or no work to digest I am able to remove nutritional stress from the equation. The absence of nutritional stress has the effect of speeding up my recovery as the blood required to aid recovery in my legs is not diverted to my stomach to help digest a bulky processed meal.
Reduced recovery time invariably means improved quality in the upcoming session. By focusing on small details I am hoping to make big strides for the coming season.
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