I got a lot of responses from my last post, many people thought I was giving up cycling for good, but I still pray at the altar de velo. Since 2001, I've always felt burnt out by this time of year. I don't understand why it happened this year. I took several weeks off after RAAM to let my ribs heal, that should have been the recovery I needed to refresh the spirit. My riding for the past two weeks has been just to take Q and RJ to Q's dance class. I've gotten all ready to do Crista's weekend centuries, packing my gear, etc, but when the alarm went off, I stayed in bed. So basically, I've taken another couple of weeks off and I'm starting to feel de-trained, but the will to ride is slowly coming back.

I've been thinking about RAAM 2007 a lot lately, as opposed to two weeks ago when I thought I would never go back, I'm starting to make plans. I signed up for PACTour's Brevet week. Its 1500 Km (200 km, 300 km, 400 km, and 600 km) of riding just 3 weeks before RAAM 2007. That'll give me 943 miles of riding in one week and two weeks to recover before RAAM. More importantly, I'll have nothing to do for that week except ride, eat, and sleep. I'm also planning on doing some of PACTour's desert camps, but I haven't built my training plan for next year. Last year, I wanted to get in the gym, but I didn't have the cash. I also wanted an oxygen tent, but didn't have the cash. So, I'll be switching some priorities around this year and changing up my training to better prepare for RAAM next year. My first impression is that I'll need to add much more speedwork/intervals. The pace started out high and stayed there. Also, being able to sustain a higher pace will be easier on my crew.