I Love It...

... when a plan comes together.

I'm feeling really good about my training this week. I had a very good ride last night, I worked on single leg pedaling on the trainer. I didn't used to like the Speed Skill work, but I've gotten to where it's one of my favorites. Maybe because it's relatively easy?

I woke up early this morning (4:45am) and did my strength workout. I don't know if it's the extra motivation from doing something new or what, but I'm feeling really good about my strength workouts. I know that a big part of it is that I have confidence in my plan and I'm going after it with some intensity. To paraphrase a saying in the fitness world, you'll get better results with a bad plan that's well-executed than a good plan that's poorly executed.

I brought cycling clothes to work with me and my bike is in the car, so I can ride immediately after work tonight. Tonight is just a basic aerobic workout. Sunday, I'm doing my first official "hill" workout of the year. If the weather allows (and if I have a mountain bike put together) I'd really like to do this on the trail, but it's a long shot, the ground is still pretty soupy here. I'll most likely do it on the road.

Looking back to my training plan for 2006, I see that I literally only had 4 hill training workouts scheduled for the whole year! I'd have to check my training diary, but I bet I skipped or changed some of those too. I'm sure my thinking was, "Hey, I'm a good climber, I don't need to work on that stuff." It seems like 4 can't possibly be enough though. This year, I'm not going to skimp on the hill work, and I suspect I'll see a big improvement because of it. It makes me feel more confident about making up my 9 minutes!