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I completed a 3 week cycle of 12.5,15.5,17.5 and then for my recovery I took way too much time as I was doing catch up on house work other work related things.

The great news I completed a full work schedule as well, soon I will have a new web site rolling along well.

Now I am going to move on to a Base 2 period, though keeping the hours the same as at the end of 17.5 hrs I am not quite as energic as I like. If all goes well base 2 and 3 will be just as good. The key will make sure I slowly introduce the high intensity stuff.

My cat became sick and died in December which pretty much halted my training for December. Maybe I averaged 10 hrs per week for December. Now it is January and I tried the first 2 weeks of a base cycle and did not increase my sodium intake. Which caused some problems, my muscles tightened up and combined with a fast run all most resulted in a sprained ankle. After 3 days rest the ankle is feeling much better and flexibility is returning.

Now for the good news, I am well recovered from last year and work is going well. Two new web sites are soon to be released. Hopefully my next attempt at a cycle well work out well.

Things I am going to watch out for are
1. diet
2. intensity of runs
3. time management / planning ahead

Saturday and Sunday I sleep very poorly, along with a poor diet on Saturday lead to not getting any work out in on Sunday and I did not feel recovered tell Tuesday. Now it is Wednesday and I went out for a short run.

It is very easy to delay recovery when I don’t get my sleep.

Last week I got 14 hrs in and between poor sleep, diet and to top it off going way way too hard on Saturday lead to not getting my hours in. Though it felt like I did.

This week so far my recovery has gone well. I feel that the past week have been a bit of a shock to the system due to not doing much for the previous 3 months. It is nice that I will do this same cycle over the next 4 weeks as then I should be able to get into more of a routine after 2 months.

Things to watch out for in the future, avoid getting overconfident near the end of a long week and over doing the intensity. After 3 weeks with little recovery I feel better then I usually am.

Last week I got 15 hrs in and rather then taking a break on Monday I wanted to commute into town to goto the 22 minutes show. This left me feeling beat tell about Wednesday evening.

This is the long week, 17.5 hrs planned. Right now I feel pretty good and have 7 hrs into the week. With 3 days left I just might make the 17.5 hr mark. Saturday sounds like a good day to do a century.

Today I got in one climb up vinegar hill to to start preparing for strength training. My ankle had no problems with it.

My cleats are worn out again, I need to get yet another pair. They seam to wear out after 5000 or so kilometers and then the muscles on the inner sides of my legs hurt. Last year I did not replace them for 7 or 8000 km and it hurt to walk for a few months. The only visible wear on the cleats is that one side seams to be worn down more then the other.

I believe the last time I replaced them was at 8500 km for the bike, it is 13231 now and there was 1500 to 2000 km where I drove with no magnet on my wheels. So I might have close to 6000 on these cleats. It drives me nuts having to replace something that does not look wore, though for the past 3 times when I replaced them the pain went away…

Today so far biked 1 hr 40 min and ran 20 mins. Going to do some ball work then get on the trainer for the rest of my work out. Hopefully to finish off at 3 hr 40 min today. Now if I released that I need to replace the cleats earlier on today I would of just went to the shop today then it would of been easy to get in my 3 hrs 40 mins.

My planed hours this week are
M 1:30
W 3:40
T 2:40
F 1:10
S 4
S 2:50

Last week I got my 12.5 hours in though sunday and monday I had sleeping problems due to cleaning my bedroom which put lots of dust in the air.

My yearly plans for exercise has not been so easy to follow though I believe I been on par about 90%. In the last year I have done 550 hours and I had planned 600 hours. Starting from this week I am hopping to get 650 hours in over the next year.

Last year I had a few months where my totals where 55 hrs in a month due to not taking enough time off on my break weeks. 12 to 14 hrs rather then 9 hrs. Hey, they where easy hours…

Last year I did not have any major spills yet I managed to sprain my right ankle. This year I would avoid any spills or injuries completely. Which requires more intense checking for problems and continuing my skill improvements on bike handling.

The extra hundred hours this year will not be the most difficult thing to handle this year, it is the increase work load that I intend to take on. A keen eye is needed on my schedule to insure I get my business goals and sport goals accomplished this year.

I have around 20 hours a week for a margin of error. Assuming I reserve 12 hrs for sleep, rest and doing nothing. ie tv, movies. That is 84 hours in a week. Assuming I work 45 hours a week and exercises takes 20 hrs a week. That remains 19 hours for unplanned time.

I see lots of people over cook their food and under chew it. A large part of digestion is done in your mouth.

If your food is burnt, over boiled, over steamed or left out too long it will loose much of its value. Some vitamins can be lost easily during cooking or how they are stored. Which means that the less processing you do will on average produce a better result.

On the under done side, it is easy when you delayed you dinner too long to over eat and eat too fast. If you do not chew enough, some say up to 20 times, your intestines will not be able to extract every thing you need. Why eat it if your body can not use it ?

To help prevent rushing of food preparation and eating I always have left overs ready to eat or snacks. Snacks are good so long as they are healthy and contain real food.

Getting good sleep can very difficult when living with lots of distractions. Children, Parties, Late night tv, social events, pre race anxiety and the list goes on. Some simple tips.

1. Go to sleep at the same time every night, after a little while of doing this I start to feel sleep instantly around the standard time. When it comes times to race it is much easier to fall asleep and get over my bad pre race anxiety.
2. Make your room completely dark, buy or make heavy curtains that do not let light threw then make sure they are tight against the wall so no light gets threw.
3. Turn off the phone ringer.
4. If possible, make strong boundaries with other people living with you to not wake you up. This may require some help from your parter or spouse. There is a possibility that this can not be done, some times interruptions are part of life.
5. Do something that clams you before you goto sleep, stretch, read, warm bath, music etc.

To win you must take care of your body and mind. This might sound obvious, though often many people do not follow this simple advice. Some do not as they believe they are strong enough to make it threw it, other it is something to be proud of.

Get good food,sleep and avoid stresses on your life for max performance..