"The week before a big event is tricky. It's easy to do too much."
by Alison Powers, ALP Cycles Coaching
In February ALP Coach, Alison Powers, announced that she had signed up for SBT GRVL, a 141-mile race with 100 miles on dirt/gravel roads in Steamboat, Colorado. With race day approaching, she’s been blogging every day leading up to the race. She blogs about the specifics of her training, her preparation, headspace, etc. All the things that lead up to race day that not everyone gets to see or understand.
6 days to go - Monday, August 12th
An early ski coach of mine used to always say, “at the end of the day, you are your own best coach”. I didn’t understand that. Did that mean he was a bad coach, or I needed to learn how to be a ski coach? I’ve come to learn that coaches are unique. Each coach has his/her own coaching philosophy, style, way to communicate, teach, etc. At the end of the day, I needed to learn how to filter out what helps me best (and get rid of the rest) and use that to help me. At the end of the day, I am responsible for myself, for my training, and for my results.
Today felt like Ground Hog day of last Monday. While my legs didn’t feel like 100 lb weights, I did sleep in and felt like I could have kept sleeping. I was/am tired. Again, it was disappointing to be tired after 3 days of really easy activity or rest. I don’t know if last week was too hard, or it’s hormone-related (all I have been wanting to eat the last 4 days has been chocolate/dessert, so that’s my first guess), or a crazy bike racer headspace. But, I'm glad I have the experience to know that my body will come around. So, again, I reminded myself the most disappointing thing would be to wake up on race day with tired legs.
The week before a big event is tricky. It is so easy to do too much. One too many workouts can wreck months of preparation. I can race a criterium with fatigue in my body, but I can not race a 141 mile gravel race with fatigue in my body. So, I will rest and have trust in the process and my body.
