The SUN.

New life begins for me at the summer solstice. I'm a dead ringer for a Leo and that means a solar powered psyche. Jess and I got married the first saturday after the summer solstice, my son born just before and my birthday is on July 30,1969....summer of love. whatever. so my point is that July is for the taking. I'll be turning 39 which is nice because I'm not yet 40. That's important because I always told myself, at least since I started AG racing (and that 35-39 is the supposedly the toughest) that I would try to breakout and be ready to take advantage of my freshman status with the rest of the mid-o-lifers. It's too soon to tell if it's realistic since I'll be expectedly racing that AG starting this January. I'd like to put that out there as my intention.

My point is that July is my month and I've got some low key but firm goals for the month. We've settled into a rocky rhythm around the house, barely discernable, but at least it's not total chaos. With this varying degree of predictability and some personal sacrifices that don't include my family, I've found myself with a little time on my hands. My intention is to really get some frequency back with my workouts. I've been consistently managing two to three runs and two to three rides per week but duration and intensity have not been in the plan. But even though frequency and consistency may sound synonymous they are not. I've just been having fun, beating the stress and snacking on 50-90 minute workouts (granted the trainer duration f(x) ~ 1.5) So all in all I think its safe, in terms of preventing injury, to start throwing some intensity into a more consistent, I mean frequent schedule. I'm not really worried about endurance or aerobic training at this point, that's what Nov-Feb is mapped out for. It's for piece of mind and gives me a better shot at stabbing a sprint or fall TT in the belly fat.

Speaking of fat. I got on the scale this morning to get some metrics...168-7.1% not too flabby for being off training schedule for 3 months. I raced at 162 last year. I'd still like to see those numbers like at 155-158 @ 4-5% by spring but for now I'm shooting for 163 by the end of July (my birthday). Since the next best thing to being fit is looking fit, right? (visualize the fat ex-polo players (no-offense guys) two lanes up that are faster than hell, but still fat? yeesh) Having said that, any drop in weight will mostly be to help boost run economy, strength to weight, W/kg. It's also a pretty simple goal since the only major change in diet will be avoiding the late nite cereal(damn it's good. two types of granola over raspberry mueslix with handfull of frozen berries, vanilla protein powder and rice milk till it floats) and passing on the pasta. I'll really miss this while settling into dvr action of "le tour".


Another firm goal is to get my run tempo TT down from 25:37 to sub 24. This is a big gain but considering where my pace/training is now, I can expect that kind of bump. The tempo TT is one of Friel's run fitness tests that entails just three miles at 9-11 bpm below lowest Z5a HR(155bpm). bla bla.

The point is to pick a test that is easily repeatable and one that allows me to run faster.

There are some other good theories out there but to run at 141 bpm for 5 miles requires me to run too slow at this point(especially by mile 5), not to mention it's god awful boring. I am not a good runner and constantly need to focus on technique. At 9:15-9:30 pace, my current Z1 this is miles away from good running technique. ie lean, elbow swing, breath control, etc.

So the plan is to target the run speed now and worry about base fitness later when I'm lighter and faster. It makes perfect sense to me for all these reasons but most importantly because it's what I want to do. From time to time I'll talk about balance here, this is an attempt to try to recreate some of this for myself, now. Training plans are a ways off and this is a way to get out amongst 'em without taking anything too seriously. Finally I'll have something fun to write about, without getting into the hectic details of my other life.