Somehow Someway I made it through and my first semester of law school is in the books. Now all I can do is wait for the grades… However while Im waiting most of my attention has turned to cycling (with a little attention on finding an internship this summer) and the upcoming season.
As I said on my last blog before going off the grid to prepare for finals, this upcoming season is all about the road. The Carolina Cycling Association put out the race schedule for this upcoming season and it looks like its going to be a great year. I haven’t put a schedule together yet for the full year but it looks like the season will begin with the Triangle Velo Winter Speedway Series on January 28th. This has been an increasingly popular race with collegiate racers who begin their season a week or two later and is held at the orange county speedway north of Durham, NC. This should be a great way to get in race mode and give the legs a bit of intensity before the collegiate season starts up on February 11th at Nc State. That race will begin a stretch of four straight weekends of ACCC racing lasting through the first of March. Campbell will be hosting the second weekend, followed by Duke and Wake Forest. Following that stretch of racing the schedule is wide open. There are a few races ill definitely have on my calendar, such as the NC Championship races, and a few more iv got my eye on.
So whats going on in the mean time before the race season starts? Preparation.
First and foremost is training. Since the end of mtb season my training hasn’t been much to talk about. I had a good plan. I knew my time would be limited so I started running because I could get out and do 3-6 miles in under an hour and get some really good cross training. However that was not a wise decision, not the running but the amount. I ran upwards of 15-20 miles a week for about 3-4 weeks before my foot gave out. One day I took a step, heard a pop and almost hit the ground. At first I thought it was a stress fracture and was in a boot for a little over a week before thankfully the pain began to subside. I then decided to give up running for the year and got in one good week of riding before final preparation began. For about three weeks now I have had hardly any physical activity. 14-15 hour days at the library..but thankfully now its over.
However, now is the time. Iv got a month off, the wife is at work all day and my priority number one is to put some big hours in the saddle before school starts back. Problem is I havnt made up my mind what to do. As of now I have about a month and a half before my first race and right at two months before my first actual race. However that sentence describes my real problem. I have trouble grading priotiy races or planning my season around peaking for one race. I want to do well at all of them. That first race should be a no priority race where I go just to get back into the swing of things and train right through the day before the race. However I cant help but want to be in peak race condition for it. However my real goals for this year are this summer with the state championship races and maybe a multiday race. Im trying to convince myself now that going into collegiate season with a big aerobic base but lacking that snap is ok because you cant be at peak performance for 6 months.
So the current plan is…I have no plan. Right now Im going to try and put in the long zone 2 and 3 miles but when ill start actually building I haven’t decided. Iv just got to decide what is more important the collegiate season this spring or the public season this summer. TBD.
The next thing is working on some stuff from a race promoter/organizer standpoint. First is Campbell’s ACCC race. We have to get the paperwork in for than in the next week or so so that is a pretty high priority. Also Ill be taking the class in the next month or two to become a USA Cycling official. I decided to do this to save Campbell cycling some money and trouble of finding an official, but also for my personal benefit. Im trying to start promoting my own races for the public here in Raleigh and being able to officiate a small crit, say as part of a summer series, myself would save me some expense. So a lot going on in cycling off the bike as well.
Overall Im excited to be able to ride again and think about something other than law school for a while. Ill try and update as to how my training is going and the (possible) acquisition of some new ccling gadgets after Christmas.
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