In my weight program I'm transitioning into the hypertrophy phase from adaptation. Ouch. The gym is a humbling experience because it made me realize how little muscular strength my beanpole body has. I walk up to a machine, such as the chest press, and move the weight peg from where the last guy left it at 250 lbs, to 20 lbs, and three reps of 'weenie weight' still hurts. Men are so much stronger than women.

The core work is already paying off because it makes me feel better. Because my core muscles are getting stronger, it is easier to hold myself upright and perform tasks that require strength.

My current riding volume is high and I still have tons of energy regardless (or because of?). The stress from school and freelance work hasn't zapped my energy, either.

This past summer I took most of two months off the bike, May and August, because I wasn't feeling well. I visited a bunch of doctors, hypothesized about thyroid problems (proven to be wrong), had ultrasounds, took antibiotics, had pap smears and blood tests, et-cet-er-ah. My ob/gyn put her finger right on the problem: stress from dealing with a destructive relationship. She warned me that I had better think hard about making bad choices or ELSE (she told me a few stories about patients of hers who developed irreversible symptoms due to high levels of stress). My stress load has been fairly significant since the fall of 2003 when I started going to graduate school at night, and I have not felt so badly for so long or had such inexplicably weird symptoms like I did this past summer. Thus, I learned a valuable lesson that stress from personal relationships can cause medical problems and illnesses. I denied that the two had any connection until I experienced this firsthand. Fortunately my symptoms disappeared, and I will be careful from now on to keep that part of my life healthy so that I will be in good health for riding my bike way too often.

Additionally, I think that periodization (a la Joe Friel) is going to help with the issue of overtraining when race season begins in the spring.

I'm already lean but I hope that by spring I will have increased my muscular mass. This will be the first time in my life that I have done this sort of thing. It will be interesting (and fun!).