Planning for the 2010 season (already)

After the least successful racing season since I moved to England, I think the time has come to re-evaluate my off-season training programme.  In particular, I'd like to be a bit more successful next season, as both members of Team Grumpy will be 50 (thus making 2010 the "Team Grumpy Centenery") and it would be nice to make a mark.

Over the last few years, my out of season training programme has changed from a highly disciplined and progressive training programme (based on Pete Read's excellent "Black Book") to the more loosely controlled, and far less successful, approach. This hasn't been as a result of any intention on my part, more it's been a reflection of the demands of other parts of my life, and principally my working life.

This winter I hope to restore a bit more focus to my training. As I write, I have one event left in my 2009 calendar, the Duo Normand (20th September), and when I return from France, I will embark on the build up to the 2010 season. I'll be planning this as a month by month progression, with October being quite easy training work.

As usual the bulk of the training will be on the turbo, a by now rather rusty affair, with an equally rusty old road bike mounted on it. In an attempt to inject a bit more freshness into my training, I have bought a Polar CS600X computer, with the power meter add-on. While I have my doubts about using Power measurement as the principal means of regulating training intensity (of which more in a later blog article) I think it's going to be very useful in assessing progress through the off-season.