With fall colors on the trees (in some parts they're gone!) and the cool smell of winter lingering in the breeze, it's time to prepare for a changing of seasons-even as we are currently experiencing changes all around us. Last weekend my wife and I headed over to Theodore Wirth park to watch part of a cyclocross race with our little Bambino. The race was a blast to watch and we saw many a familiar face including folks from Freewheel Bike, and even a neighbor of ours that we'd only recently met. Trampsing through the leaves and kicking a bit of dirt up as we strove to our destination, I felt that race-atmosphere in the air. One of my co-workers came riding down a hill we were ascending, and didn't even notice us-his game face was on! All shapes and sizes of riders were present. Some had donned advertisment-laden duds and others had dirt-stained training outfits. A few riders had bikes that would likely pay double a down payment on my house, and others had make-shift cyclocross bikes, or better yet-mountain bikes. Cyclocross, for those that are not familiar with it, is a sort of off-road derby type bicycling style. Racers ride on a road bike style set-up with slightly knobby tires and more beefy brakes...riding on an off-road mountainbike couse and hopping off their bicycles to hop over 12 inch-hurdles that are set-up at various places throughout the course as obstacles. A hodge-podge of road racing, mountain bicycling, and duathlon-tendency could be a fair assessment of the discipline. All this to say, even our endurance sport community is in a changing of seasons and somewhat confused whether to cling to the few last days of warm or to embrace head-on the shivers of the pending cold. I am choosing to do a bit of both.
I have been approached by several athletes recently, asking about coaching services for the 2010-2011 triathlon season... I am delightfully surprised at how many people realize that now is the time to start making plans for next spring and summer. If it takes 30 days or some say 6 weeks to establish a habit, then now is a great time of year to start experimenting with what kinds of habits ones' life will accomodate, and which types of habits one needs to incorporate to shed pound, tone-up, or manage dietary proclivities. I recently started experimenting with some habits myself. I have started to exercise in a very systematic way.
Secrets aside, I am training for the Birkebiener ski race which is some time in late February. Although I trained and competed as an elite skier when I was in high school, I imagine there will be some things that might take a while to come back to me. Either way, I have rekindled my winter sport to try and look at the "off season" from a different vantage point. The way I have been getting back into ski shape is through 1 hour of training before noon, Monday-Friday. This typically takes the form of calisthenics 2-3 days a week and circuits and some lite endurance work 2-3 days a week. The endurance work includes running (road), trail running, trail hiking, nordic walking, cycling, spinning, swimming, and some rollerskiing. The calisthenics are somewhat complex and include TRX-style strength, pull-ups, dips, sit-ups, some xc ski dryland drills, and other related things. I have been able to stick with my new routine-roughly-for about a month now, and I have hopes that it's gonna stay.
The goal I have for this intermediate transition/dryland season is to keep the HR low, build a solid strength base, trim up my body to handle larger distance and intensity loads, and to work on ski-specific technique drills. I welcome all to join me on this new adventure through the autumn/winter months. I hope to start some group training sessions at Theo Wirth park sometime in the next month. For more info about group training or small group training sessions contact us at triathloncoachk (at) gmail .com
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