...And Looking Forward to the 2015 Season (April Edition)

Needless to say, while I've got the opportunity, I'm going all-in on 2015. I've hired a well renowned coach that I've been working with since the start of the year and although I don't feel fast yet (and it'd be a mistake if I did), I feel much more well rounded at this point than I ever have.  In addition, I've got an incredible new track bike heading my way shortly that should add some 'free' watts to my efforts during the year. If I'm giving it one all-out shot, I want to make sure I'm doing it right.

My primary goals for 2015 surround competing as well as possible at National Track Calendar events throughout the summer and the National Track Championships in August. But I don't want to get too ahead of myself, so I'll take it one month at a time here. The month of April will consist of local and regional road racing in an effort to get faster for the track season. In addition, I'm heading out to Boulder for a team training camp for a week next week to ride with some really fast guys which should be a great experience, especially since I've never ridden in Boulder. I've ridden several times out in the middle mountains of Colorado and anticipate the climbs to be similar in design, but riding them at the intensity with which this group will hit them will make this a completely new experience - plus I'm not a great ascender for whatever reason, so there's that...

So my April looks like:

• April 4: Lincoln Park Criterium (Chicago, IL)
• April 4-11: WIDC Team Training Camp (Boulder, CO)
• April 12: Boulder-Roubaix (Boulder, CO)
• April 23-26: Joe Martin Stage Race (Fayettesville, AR)

Hopefully our team can find some success at our home race at Lincoln Park this weekend. We'll have a ton of guys in the field and a few pretty strong guys that could get a result. At the end of the training camp in Boulder, we'll race Boulder-Roubaix as a team, so that should be fun seeing my average heart rate for that race above my non-altitude max. And at the end of the month I'll be using the Joe Martin Stage race as a really good training block while working for my teammates that have a shot of doing well while trying my best not to get time cut.

Had a nice active recovery (AR) ride yesterday on a divvy bike along the lakefront path in 60 degree weather - the best kind of training, even picked up Katie from work and divvy'd home together. 

So yeah, hooray for good weather ahead, the rest week I'm currently on, and the exciting month of training and racing ahead.