Tentative race schedule:

Arizona Training Camp 3/1/20 to 3/8/20
Georgia Training Camp 4/10/20 to 4/19/20
USAT Cross Championships 5/17/20
Shawnee Camp (Weekend of 5/31?)
Motus Illinois Wilds 6/13/20
Maumee Bay Sprint 6/21/20
Xterra Dino North 7/25/20
Alum Creek Sprint 8/2/20
Motus Dino South 8/8/20
Portage Lake Sprint 9/13/20
Xterra Utah Pan American Championships 9/26/20
USAT Long Course Championships 11/15/20

Ramble Ramble - What I'm doing now January 2020

I've started a base training plan from Cody Waite, I bought it last fall and went through it loosely once but now I'm serious about every workout.  The only issue I have is that I'll be unable to swim for another week or so because of the tattoo I got.  See the tattoo post here.

I'm doing most of my bike workouts at the Lexus Velodrome unless I have to do them on Zwift or on the road and my run workouts are on the treadmill, Livonia Rec Center track or on the running track outside of the Velodrome.

The plan has strength training built into it, I've not done strength training since 2004 so I'm doing exactly what it says to do.  Cody Waite has a spreadsheet for the plan and videos showing how to do everything.  Strength training can be done at LRC or the Velodrome.

Ramble Ramble about the end of 2019

Things that have happened to me at the end of last season.

I hurt my left hamstring, to the point I sought professional help.  I've not gone that far before so it was a big learning experience.  Fortunately I have a friend that is a physical therapist and she was able to see me the day after I stopped running due to the injury.

Four weeks into therapy I was doing really well.  Pain was gone, I finished my racing season and thought I was on track to train for Long Course Nationals again but I hurt it again.  After that setback I let go of my interest in LCN and just went for recovery.

Along with that I was tired.  I had a difficult time getting my HR up for any workout, I knew I needed time off but never took it.  The hamstring injury presented a good time to get that time off.

I had started training for 2019 Triple T back in November with a lot of running.  I quickly got up to 45 miles per week, peaked at 50 and then went back to 40 when I added my bike training in January. 

I went to a training camp in Arizona with HFP and rode well, not at peak form but good for that time of year.  I then went to Georgia camp in mid April and rode well there.  Everything was going well but I was getting tired, by the time I got to Triple T camp I was beyond peak and on a downswing. 

I did well at Triple T but could have done better.  I was really gassed on the bike and run in the last race but still wound up winning the AG.  There were 2 to 3 people there that should have beat me but they had issues on Saturday that affected their Sunday race and 1 that I was able to out-run on Sunday.

After Triple T I raced a Sprint in each of the next two weekends.  I felt I did well in both of them but in reality I should have taken that time off.  Everything else went downhill from there.  I never ran well again, I was just tired all of the time.

By late August I got the hamstring injury and forced time off.

So what did I learn from this:

From looking at my training data, I have it all the way back from 2010 thanks to Garmin Connect, I noticed that I'm able to put 20 to 24 weeks of good training and then I need a break.  For several years I've had a good spring race, decent summer races and then the fall races were hit or miss.

The good fall seasons had 2 weeks of downtime in the summer which I think let me rest and rebuild up for the fall.

Also, when I noticed a twinge in my hamstrings it probably already too late to rehab and keep racing.  I need to keep them strong with strengthening and stretching.  I'm going to keep up that routine throughout my training schedule.