Warmer weather on the horizon

After a respite earlier this week, it looks like the winter weather is going to give us another break this weekend, with temperatures in or near the 40s for both Saturday's and Sunday's rides.

I, for one, am pretty excited to get a lot of miles in while it's warm(er) out. We're well into base-building season now, and I'm looking forward to racing my way into shape in just a few weeks, meaning that I'll be wrapping up my super long-mileage weeks in the relatively near future, and replacing them with shorter, more intense workouts designed to build speed.

As a cyclist, I'd rather do the 20-minute intervals I've been doing thus far this winter any day than shorter, more intense intervals, which tend to be quite a bit more painful and harder to recover from, for me. But, the goal is to win bike races, and you can't do that without high speed intensity. Just ask Mark Renshaw.

To get ready for big miles this weekend I put in some cadence work on the rollers tonight (if you're looking for a thrill ride of a good time, try keeping your bike rolling smoothly on Kreitlers at 150RPM), and will hopefully get out for a relaxing lunch ride tomorrow, in warmer (but not yet warm) temperatures.

Yup, there's lots to look forward on the bike in the next few days.

Side note: Off the bike, this winter I've skipped the weight routine from last year, which I hated and which produced no measurable results, and instead have been working out with a Swiss ball at home. Doing simple exercises like push ups, crunches and planks on the ball forces your core and stabilization muscles to work hard, efficiently toning your muscles (gotta look good!), and, I think, improving balance.