The Best Advice I Never Followed.

In response to Friday's post, Stuart Lynne posted this comment:
Follow the one true Zwift Racing Training Plan. It is as easy is checking the Event Module for when the next race starts, join the event, warm up, then race. Cool down optional but recommended. Repeat 4-5 days a week. You will get stronger.

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I'm at least 40% certain that Stuart is not a French porn-bot or living in a Micronesian hut, so as such this puts him in the same category as unicorns and non-controversial Trump cabinet picks. That is to say, he's a rarity- an actual, no-kidding, bike-racing blog reader. I mean, bike racers are scarce. Ones that can read, almost unheard of. Ones that read blogs, a communication form as dead as Samaritan Aramaic? I can think of no better practical example of the infinite possibilities within the universe.
 
Taking this into consideration, his comments must be treated with a certain dignity which is a considerable stretch for this blog.
 
However, his comments indicate he vastly overestimates my engine and capacity for recovery. I've watched the training races and group rides whiz by on Zwift. I've jumped in on rare occasions when my schedule aligned. Four or five times a week? Even if I could find a way to make it happen time-wise, I would be burnt out after a week and a half.  I have trouble recovering during a four-day stage race.
 
It probably would make me stronger, and then it would break me. Then I would get sick. Then I would flail around for weeks at a time trying to get back to where I started. Then I would get sick again. By the time road season came around, I would barely be able to turn over the pedals. You know, kinda like last season.
 
Nope, this year I'm playing it safe and doing the structure thing. Macro and micro cycles. A slow build towards the race season instead of a dramatic crash right before it starts. I'm not sure if my body will still respond the same way that it used to, but I need to give it an honest shot. Hammering until failure then rinsing and repeating doesn't seem to work for me like it does for some people.
 
Maybe it's because I'm so dainty.

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