It makes sense what you are saying. From the bit of research that I have done lately, many coaches seems to be more focused on their training methods, diets etc. and focusing less on the grey areas such as lactate threshold. Back to the basics. I think the whole lactate threshold thing can be a mental block to your performance. As for me, I am still mostly spinning during the week and only riding over weekends. Busy getting myself organised to train on the road in the mornings. Getting up at 4am in the winter to train till 8 and then go to work for 8hrs is quite a challenge, but I am getting there. I don?t want to use it as an excuse for not training on the road but interestingly enough, I noticed that some of my friends who get up early to train on the road during winter get sick more often than me. So over a long period of time I actually get more training done than them through spinning in the studio. It is my first winter as a cyclist so it might just be this winter that they are all getting the flu etc. not sure if this is the norm for people getting up to train early in the mornings during winter to get sick often? Maybe some hubbers can comment on this. I upped my spinning to work out on quite a high gear, fast pace and spin for a minimum of 2hrs every evening. I adjusted my position on the spinning bike to simulate my position on my real bike as close as I can. So now, I am spinning based on time/power and don?t really follow the spin class as such. It is the best I can do for now. I am keeping it long and intense. Very important, I immediately follow that up with the correct diet. I also made a few changes as to what/how/when I am drinking, eating during a race. All of this seemed to have made a big improvement in my cycling. I recently did the Magoebas 70km race with quite a tough climb at the start. (I hate these races where they put the tough climbs at the start and then make it down to the finish easy.) More uphill finishes please! I outclimbed a lot of the guys and then they chased me down on the descent heheh. Anyhow I finished in 7th place and beat a lot of my friends who have been cycling for years AEAEHhe! Austin, the Japan Tour sounds tough! How long is that hill TT? Do you have the profile for it? I thought the guys were very brave using a 34/23 for TDL, so I can just imagine how tough that TT is going to be. All the best!
