Switching Up the Focus of Spring Training and Racing

Just three short weeks ago, I was all-systems-go for training for long endurance off-road biking competitions starting as early as April. I even already signed up for the Rattling 50 mountain bike race in Weiser State forest to assure I start training in plenty of time (and take advantage of discounted registration fees). I had three, maybe four biking-related endurance races on the schedule: the Tour MonTour (75 mile road), the Rattling 50 Mountain bike, and the Ironcross cyclocross. The Adventure tris are another story - they start in September and continue throughout October.


Last week, I signed up for the Tough Mudder, a 7-mile run with 17 obstacles. Yesterday, I ran my little heart out up hills, down hills, around hills, and then did it again - over and over and over. In other words, I did hill repeats after a 5 or so hilly mile run and oh it was painful. All the while I was thinking, how can I train hard and allow for recovery for a good hilly running competition with obstacles, AND do long bike rides. It may be too taxing for my 50-year old bones - they need a little longer to recover. So I think I'm going to change my focus for the next 7 weeks and do mostly running and when the Tough Mudder is over, I'll switch it up to the long rides to prepare for the endurance events starting in August. It makes perfect sense -- run now to lose some weight, ride later when the trails are sure to be dried out. So the early spring long stuff is off the schedule. In fact, the only thing on the schedule this spring is the Tough Mudder and a long hiatus after that to prep for the Rattling 50.