Group ride and revision of goals

Today I had another ride for fun. 60km, AVP 208, NP228,IF 0.77,TSS 94 (Endurance zone). The weather was good, and this was basically my first group ride with a group from Belgium. They were cruising on 32 km/h which was just fine. I chatted with someone most of the ride which was nice. He did 12 times L'Alpe D'Huez in 24 hours. Not bad ;), especially not considering his age (mid 50).

I never do grouprides, but from an endurance point of view it does not need to be that bad. Especially not if you do for example 40km yourself and then 60km with a group (which of course rides at such a speed which makes it endurance zone training). The other also holds when you want to do a hard training. First go hard yourself for a while and then intervals by riding at the end of the group. At every corner you can get out of the saddle and there you go.

I am still kind of struggling with my training schedule towards the end of 2013 and full 2014. Apart from exact dates of cyclosportives/races I find it hard to find good input on the internet to actually make a good planning. End of the day I am also a time crunched cyclist, but if I read stuff about Carmichael, I basically get interval, VO2max efforts. That did work for me last year, but with a cyclosportive of 8 hours that won't do the job. Wrt planning trainingcycles is still something I have to dig in a bit more given the time periods I want to peak. I've read you can peak for two periods a season and that's about it.

Basically I also have to adjust -or better- improve my goalsetting. Its not very specific. It does not say anything if I want to ride Trois Ballons in 7.45h. What if the weather conditions are bad, etc. I can better state the goal in something like, be in the first 300, or do all climbs with at least an average power of 260 watts. I will follow Sir Bradley Wiggins strategy which is based on saying: I will hold X watts for 1.05 hours. In my case I want to ride all the climbs with an average power of 260watts. What it will mean in terms of hours of riding: I have no clue!

In races I cannot use the ''I want X watts on average'' strategy since more factors are at place. So I will keep it on being first.

So here an other attempt for my goals (SMARTER now I guess):

* Saterday 7th June: Trois Ballons, all climbs average 260 watts
* Sunday 25th May: Time trial, average 345 watts over approx. 20km
* Saterday 26th July: Local Championship, first
* Saturday 30th August: Calfven, first

First moral pusher came in: my new Castelli Gabby Jersey! For those 'fun' rides in the winter.....;)

Next one will be going to see a Pinarello show with 2014 morals. Seeing but not buying?? Show me the Dogma's!!!!!