This is what you have been waiting and riding the trainer for all through the winter months….it’s April! Time to start riding outside again! The season will be about 7 months long. There will be plenty of lung bursting, leg breaking workouts ahead. That’s the stuff we all thrive on so be prepared.

Preparation is what March and April are all about. If you don’t prepare the body properly, you won’t be able to have all that  fun of fast hard riding during the summer months. Don’t rush it! Regular steady rides of 2 hours is what you should strive for, with the occasional 3-4 hour effort on the weekends. Gears should be held in check. Discipline yourself to be in the small chain ring for these early rides. Gears of 39 X 14 is probably the largest to use for now. Efforts should be easy and steady. This is the time of year to get out with some fellow riders and just spend time in the saddle. Agree beforehand that now one will lift the pace beyond what everyone can handle. No sprinting for signs or jamming up hills etc. If someone starts to get dropped, slow the ride down to their pace and keep everyone in their comfort zone. If someone insists on going harder…..let them go alone and keep to your plan. This is the time to get the back, neck, shoulders, arms and butt used to sitting on the saddle, bent over the handlebars. The knees and hips need to get used to working against a good resistance for thousands of repetitions as well. Give them all a chance to adapt before stressing them with high intensity work. Don’t neglect your rest. Sleep and rest is when the body does it’s adapting to the stresses you are putting on it during training. Without it you cannot progress the way you plan.

Speaking of a plan, do you have one for the season? If not you need to start planning now. Decide on some goals for the season. Be specific! A certain time over a particular distance, a certain placing in a particular race, a move up in category, a certain level of consistency are all valid. Be as specific as you can and try to describe an objective way of measuring your success. Above all put a date or time limit of when you want to accomplish said goal. Then you should start to work backward from that target and decide what steps or intermediate goals you need to hit to progress toward your goal and schedule. This should keep you interested in training and make you more efficient in using your training time instead of aimlessly riding without purpose and never attaining the level of fitness you require.

Intensity will start in late April if the weather holds and your training has been consistent. We will start structured workouts in May at the track and that is when your body needs to be ready for the heavy intense stresses that are necessary for racing. Be prepared!