Spring is in the air?

February. By February I'm ready for the end of winter. I'm ready to be running outside in shorts and riding on snow free roads. I need more sleep during the winter and for whatever reason, its much harder for me to handle a solid training load. I feel teased by the warmer days and tormented by the snowstorms occuring the day after. I notice myself feeling a sense of urgency to be fit and train harder even though my body doesn't especially want to train harder. I feel the pressure of wanting to arrive at training camp, about 5wks from now, in good shape.

I'm noticing this push and pull most in my running. Running tends to be my strength and on most occasions I'm the hunter and not the prey. This season, after sticking my nose in both Hudson's and Fitzgerald's books I've been trying more and more to move away from heart rate zones and more toward pace zones. I think this has gotten me in a bit of trouble this winter and may be why my running just doesn't feel great right now. In the past I've had coaches that have relied on heart rate zones and perceived effort for my run training and I've gone with that for the last 10yrs or so in the sport. Now the reason I think this has gotten me in trouble this year is due to the fact most, if not all my running, is on icy, snowy roads, or the treddie. So, a run race or time trial on a clear road doesn't necessarily translate into the way I'm training. Treddie running and snow running is not road running and I just need to accept this. So, its back to what has worked in the past and that is just using the HR to keep me honest, patient, and most of all sane...ish.

Good Week. Bad Week.

One of my colleagues at our national sales meeting this week shared with me a quote from a book he was reading. Although I don't remember the exact quote it had to do with burying our head in the sand of what we wanted to believe vs. what was really happening or what we were actually doing. The timing couldn't have been any better because I just recently went over my training peaks account from last year. I always thought that I was pretty consistent especially with my running, but the numbers told somewhat of a different story. Although disappointing on some levels this was a great thing to see as there is a lot of upside. I do travel quite a bit so, daily or even weekly consistency is tough and looking at travel or big work weeks becomes a bummer. However, if I decrease the magnification and start looking at 4 week blocks I'm hoping to improve that consistency. Not getting upset with myself during these travel weeks and doing my best will go a long way to those consistent months and as we all know, consistency is key.