Inside a Month

Well, I am inside of a month for my departure to Deutschland. The anticipation is high. Doubts about current fitness gains were put to rest last Friday after my 10mi time trial on Hwy 36, also known as the Boulder TT course. Since I last took my fitness test in mid-November, I've increased my threshold wattage by 13%. The coolest thing is that I haven't done any "threshold specific" training yet. It all been strength and short VO2 efforts. Barring no unforseen injuries or sickness, I am approaching the start of the new season with my best January fitness ever. Strangely, I haven't really put any long weeks in yet, the most being 19hrs. So I'm not wearing myself down, only to peak in March which would be no bueno. I believe the combination of having one more year of racing and training in my legs along with a strict post-season strength training binge of core work, cross riding, downhill skiing, weight lifting, and skate skiing are the keys to my improvement. It takes a long time to fulfill your potential on the bike, and I'm really beginning to see the gains.

As far as the team situation, things are super well. I received a very supportive email from the team director along with his wife. So any worries that I am going into a bad situation of rats, leaking pipes and disease can be put to rest. I think I will be taking well care of lol. You can check out the team's press release about me on the team's website
http://activity-racing-team.de
Its obviously in German but you can use a Google Translator which I suggest adding to your toolbar so you can keep up to date with my team and my progress. If you add it to your toolbar as a tab, then you can just log onto the team homepage and click on the translate tab and whoolaa, you have a rough translation. You can also look at the sidebar and click the "TEAM" tab then the "Fahrer" tab. Then a drop down menu will allow you to see my profile.

What i just realized was that a member of the team, Leif Lampater. Leif is a pro track rider and the team leader. He just won 6 Days of Bremmen with the never-going-to-quit Erik Zabel, one of the most successful sprinters in the peloton in history, 6 Green Tour Jerseys. So kind of a big deal. So I will be riding and racing with some real world class talent. I can't wait!

On the non-riding front, Kristi and I hit up Summit County this weekend for two-beautiful blue bird days of downhill skiing at A-Basin and a 3hr skate session at the Frisco Nordic Center. I demo'd a $600 set of skis and boots at the nordic center. My technique for my first "real" day of skate skiing greatly improved. It's such a great sport for the entire family. Climbing is my nemesis but as soon as I improve my technique I'll be all over the place. Next year I'm going to get some private lessons which will allow me to keep pace with the uber fast Miss Wah Sun. A-Basin needed some serious snow but we got some nice turns on a few spots. Got some nice drop ins off some sick cornices. The Montezuma Bowl was horrendous. I felt like we were skiing on a rock quarry. Overall good day though. Finished up with a nice top-to-bottom Super G run. For the unknown, this is an all out run with big sweeping carves in tucked position the entire time. Super fun and great way to get that lactate burn that I love to feel when skiing.

Well its going to be low 60s today and tomorrow, so I will be getting some good training in.

Chow,
Matthew