Dear readers,
Another month in 2018 has passed. My U17 training group and I have covered a lot of kilometers again. Strictly speaking, it was almost 1000 km. However, in my opinion, February is not the best month to ride a bike because you have to deal with cold temperatures outside. It doesn't matter whether it's the feet or the hands, frozen through can both be quite uncomfortable. Even with two pairs of gloves, the cold has no mercy. That's why the anticipation of Plusgrade is huge at the moment.
February was divided into different stress weeks for us. The GA training (basic endurance training) and the KB training for regeneration alternated. One week of mountain training was brand new for us this month. This was really tough, because we had to drive up the same mountain a whopping 10x in two days. That was not only boring, but also damn exhausting. It was always the same beautiful view, but that didn't really matter to my burning thighs. Yes, that's also part of cycling training if you don't want to be turned off in the mountain bike race. All in all, we had a lot of training sessions together on the bike again this month and we had a lot of fun doing it.
On February 23rd we should see whether the training was worth it, because we went to the KLD (strength-performance diagnostics) in Erfurt. The KLD proceeds as follows: first, blood is taken from us, then a body fat analysis is carried out. We are weighed and our height is measured. After all these measurements, the stress test begins. We ride on an ergometer according to a predefined performance profile. It starts at 100 watts and increases by 20 watts every three minutes.
During the test, our heart rate is measured and our lactate level is determined every three minutes by taking blood from the ear. These measurements are taken to determine how we are doing with each wattage. As you kick and kick, the wattage and heart rate increase, your legs get heavier from step to step and the sweat pours out. At some point you get to the point where you just can't get the pedals around anymore. At this point the KLD is over and you can have a refreshing shower. I'm satisfied with my results and can therefore start the season highly motivated.
My training group and I are looking forward to the new season, hoping for lots of success and lots of fun.