What's working? What's not?

[GinnySellars]

Hey Gang

Great to see everyone up at Silver Star yesterday. What an awesome day to be in the snow!

One conversation I wanted to continue is what success our crew is having in their training. In the past couple of weeks I've tested a few of you, and I'm seeing AWESOME results. You guys are getting ridiculously fit!

I'll list what is working and not working for myself. If you feel like sharing what you are doing, let me know.

Nov/Dec goals:
1. ankle/foot strength, to lead to increased running
2. coordination 'flow' on the bike
3. fast breathing

1. With a mix of xc skiing, snowshoeing, and lots of walks, my achilles is finally getting stronger, and heel pain is pretty seldom now. I'm now building the walk/jog up slowly.
2. I've had a few longer bricks with easy spin time on the bike. I'm finally getting back that feeling where I can spin with no awareness.
3. I haven't worked on spiro, but have had some hard skis at Silver Star with hard breathing. With racing in a couple of months, I'm finally motivated to ramp up breathing practice.

My training has not been very scheduled or structured, but I've been meeting another goal...to really have fun at Silver Star, get in a ton of DH skiing, spend more time with my extended family, and enjoy the final year before school starts for Madeline. I think all the play has all contributed to stronger feet, and a happy heart. I also think I've avoided getting sick the entire winter with plenty of sleep and changing plans when I'm tired. I'm now hungry to ramp it up, and get more powerful for bike racing. If I want to keep up with my amazing team mates, it's time!

[Shawn Wenger]

What's working? Doing what I'm told is working. I've never been very good a long, slow distance over the winter since trainer riding has never been my favourite. But I'm feeling much better about it now that I feel so much fitter. And the testing last week proved how well it's working.

The other thing that's helping me a lot right now, since a big goal this winter is weight loss, is logging my food and fitness on Livestrong.com. A good friend of mine is a nutritionist and she's always harassed me about eating too little, but I can finally see some results from being consistent with a 300-500 calorie deficit every day. Imagine... consistency once again being the key!

I'm looking forward to riding with you all in the spring. I feel a little out of touch way out here in Kamloops, so can't wait till the roads get dry an the days get long.