Five months to BCBR

Well it's that time again.... time to get back into a training routine in anticipation of the BC Bike Race.  When I did it in 2012 I managed to finish every day before the cut off (just barely on day 5... note to self, eat more on long days) and that was doing the challenge (shorter) course.  For 2014 I've signed up for the epic (full) course and will be doing in as a team of two with my fabulous pal Christina.  It's worth noting that Christina is a professional hockey player in her spare time, and in the past few months has been juggling her day job managing an outdoors shop with volunteering with marine search and rescue, and coaching several youth hockey teams.... oh and flying overseas to play in the European Champions Cup.  She's also almost 20 years younger than me.  In other words, I'd better get off my duff and train like crazy or she's going to leave me in the dust!

My training program for the next four weeks consists of M/W/F cardio sessions, combined with T/Th resistance (aka weights) training.  Luckily I've got a program that views resistance training as something that I can do with the mini-gym that I have set up at home.  I've learned that going to a sweaty gym in town is not very motivating for me and as such means that I often skip those workouts.

See how big my smile is even when there's hardly any snow?

The best part of the next month is that it leaves weekends open for "cross training" (no Keps, don't get excited, I'm not starting cyclocross).  In my heart I'm a snow person and this winter has been heartbreaking for me - our local alps have near next to no snow this year; Mount Cain has yet to open and Mt Washington is holding on by the skin of its teeth as this warm air aloft is not-so-slowly eating away at their meager base.  Still, on weekends I tend to be away from home in the mountains somewhere so this type of training plan should in theory work well for me.  

Also, Andy's agreed to participate and Natasha's going to be pushing hard into her spring rowing season so I figure those are bonuses in the motivation box.

How this is all going to coordinate with my new instructing gig starting in March or even the week long avalanche course I'm taking in two weeks is yet to be seen but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.  For now I'm focusing this week on developing an exercise routine without blowing up by pushing myself too hard.