HighPowerCoaching

Happy New Year and Happy Cycling!

2012-01-02T06:37:00.001-08:00

Wow!, 2011 has come and gone in the blink of an eye. So many things I wanted to do got left behind. Seems there is only so much time in the day to work, train, eat, and sleep. How did you do? How will you do this year? I can help answer the how will you do in 2012. But a lot depends on what you do now to prepare for the upcoming race season and what you have done for the past few months. Don't slack off and wait until March or April to start frantically training, trying to catch up your fitness to match all of your buddies. I hope you have been riding the past few months, keeping fitness, working on your weaknesses, planning for the new year. If not, then now it is critical to start getting on your bike at least 5 days per week. You must build a base of solid ground before you start zone 5, 6 and 7 efforts. The base needs to be built of steel, the kind of steel you get from loads of Tempo and Sweet Spot Training (SST). Sure we need the long zone 2 Endurance ride, but not as much as you think right now if you are playing catch up. We can work together to formulate a plan to get you back on track and have you rocking and rolling by May or June. Your 2012 season will be very rewarding if you are patient, do the work that MUST be done now to build a strong foundation, and follow the plan as we move along toward the race season. Best of luck in 2012!

Paul Ozier can be contatced at www.HighPowerCoaching.com or
via e-mail at paul at peakscoachinggroup dot com

Fall 2011 and Your Priorities

2011-12-16T09:08:00.001-08:00

It is almost winter and I would like to know how you are doing with your fall/winter training plan. As a full time Nissan parts manager, an avid road and mountain bike racer, and a coach, I keep a very "full time" schedule. On top of that I run the Nissan parts website www.nissanpartsnow.com for all of our worldwide Nissan customers. Sometimes it is a challenge to juggle everything I do. So getting to the point of this article, how are your priorities arranged? First, most of us work full time jobs and that is probably close to the top of your list. But, besides family and work, how are your cycling priorities arranged? What is most important for you with cycling right now? Is it a new bike, a bike fit, simply settng aside time to train, or being lazy and chilling this winter? What we do now will be crucial to our 2012 season goals. Decide what you need to do over the next 3 or 4 months so your 2012 season is a success. Get off that couch if you chose the last option as your fall and winter training plan. Something I do around November is to write down all my season goals, my strengths and weaknesses, race dates that are already published (or ones that typically run the same weekend every year), and my current weight (and a goal weight if I need to add or lose pounds). Let's get ready for a great 2012 season with some time set aside now to lay out a success plan. Then get out there and train smart.
Best of luck in 2012!

The "OFF" Season

2011-08-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

The "OFF" Season
By Paul Ozier
Peaks Coaching Group Elite Coach

Most think of part of fall and all of winter as a time to kick back, chill out, maybe eat a little too much and lose fitness. Been there, done that! Come spring time the body is weak, the fitness is gone, but your mind says let’s go out on this beautiful spring day and ride 40 miles at warp speed. A few miles in to the ride your legs are screaming, your lungs are bursting and you have that painful burn in the upper chest. What happened? Looks like you under did it this past winter and over did it today. Some thoughts may run though your head. Why can’t I move up to the next race category? Why am I a career Cat 3 or Cat 4 rider? Why do all my buddies drop me like a bad habit in March on what normally is a fun ride later in the year; they seem to be rolling along so smoothly and not working hard? How can we avoid this scenario year after year?

For the competitive cyclist wanting to get better each year there should be no “off” season. We need to change the language from “off” season to “build a base of steel” season. Base to most sounds like a zillion miles at low watts and low heart rate. The fact is we need to realize we all have strengths and weaknesses. We need to address both areas over the period from when racing ends to when the action picks up again in roughly three or four months. We will do those laid back base miles. We will also focus our energies on tempo, and move into threshold work as the “off” season moves along. We will do a lot of sweet spot work later in this off season that will go miles towards attaining that new personal best FTP. The work we do at this time of the season needs to be absolutely correct so we do not do too little or too much too soon.

The goal is here to work what needs to be worked to build that strong base fitness. When we move closer to spring the intensity will pick up a bit. The goal is to be ready to go full throttle when you’re “A” races roll around on the calendar next summer. A rider cannot expect to take it easy and slack off during the off season and come out with a fighting chance. It is no fun to start over each spring weaker than you left off last season. Let’s build on where we left off versus going backwards. With proper training, focus, discipline, and patience, you will come into race fitness at the right time so you can maximize your abilities and reach your goals.

A well planned out training load will allow plenty of time to chill and relax after a hard season. The plan will give you enough of a training load to build on your strengths you developed last season without trashing your body. Did you have a weak 20 minute power, but can kill it for 2 or 3 minutes. The plan will help you work on that weakness more and still touch on the strength when the time is right so you maintain that ability. All without making you think it is summer racing season. The time for the higher intensity will come soon enough, after your foundation is certified as hard core steel.

Next season can be different; it can be your best ever!
Contact Paul Ozier at Peaks Coaching Group
Learn more about Paul's background and coaching here.

Wow! Winter base and SST workouts kick butt!

2011-03-12T13:54:00.000-08:00

Just a quick blog today. Winter base built a strong foundation. SST (Sweet Spot training) and FTP work for two weeks solidified all the winter work I did. I am 46 years old. I just tested my 20min power at 301 watts! My best ever in all my years of training with power. My previous best was a test of 292 watts, but I weighed 7 lbs more. So now I am lighter and stronger meaning my watts per kg is higher. I couldn't be happier. All that hard work is paying off. Now I am starting spring training with my "foundation of stone". I can now build off of the foundation with confidence.

The importance of a year round training program can not be stressed enough. Don't you want to build off of last years fitness though the winter with a sensible base program, then come out in spring just as strong as when you ended race season and build to a new personal best? Now you can start VO2 Max and Anaerobic Capacity, more FTP work and be ready for a strong season. We can find any weak areas and fill the holes in your fitness with targeted workouts to make you a strong all around rider.

Happy riding. Train smart, work hard, it pays off.

paul@peakscoachinggroup.com

Base, base, and more base.

2011-03-07T07:18:00.000-08:00

Wow! I am finishing up on a seriously tough 15 weeks of mostly base work. A lot of riders think of base work as just putting in tons of miles at endurance pace. That is not what the base period is all about. The long endurance rides are just that, long endurance rides and are necessary to keep your endurance fitness. When I speak of base I am talking about a lot of zone 3(tempo) and 4(threshold) workouts of 60 to 75 minutes on the indoor trainer. These workouts do not put you into the red zone, but instead reinforce the fitness gains you made last season. Basically it keeps you fit, strong and gets you ready to increase your performance above where you finished last season. If you skip this crucial winter training you will simply be starting over from zero and having to work yourself into shape without what I call, "a foundation of stone". Do your base work! It is critical if you desire to make improvements on the bike.

Contact me at paul@peakscoachinggroup.com
My Bio at Peaks Coaching Group

Spring has sprung!

2010-04-30T10:34:00.001-07:00

Hopefully everyone had a great winter training season. I did! We are now hot into the racing season. I am looking forward to kicking some butt myself.

May 1st will find me racing the DirtySpokes 6 Hour MTB race at Fort Yargo, Winder, GA. On Sunday May 2nd, you can find me at the Dawsonville Century, www.themacride.com. Now we are talking about 70+ miles on the mountain bike Saturday and 100 on the road, in the mountains on Sunday. I call this my insane endurance weekend!

I'll report back later how things went.

Good luck in 2010.

112 Miles!

2010-01-23T04:34:00.001-08:00

I am writing as I anticipate 112 miles at a semi-blistering pace today. OK, 20-21mph is not really blistering, but to hold a steady 20+ mph pace for nearly 6 hours will feel like a hell of a lot of work. The weather looks like it will hold out and not rain for once, and temps in the high 40s to low 50s seems just right for this training ride/race. yes there are two sprints during the firt 72 miles and then a final attack zone of 9 miles at the end. I am sure the 9 miles will fly by really quickly.

Preparing in the off season for such an event takes a lot of consistent and quality work. Hundreds of endurance miles, tempo sessions, LT work, etc all add up to a strong fitness level that can handle such rides of great endurance.

I must run and put the final touches on packing my car for the drive to Athens.

Check out more on www.highpowercoaching.com

Also see the www.winterbikeleague.com pages.