Training vs. Racing

Skipped running yesterday.  The 4 hour nap I took told me maybe I was a little tired.  Almost went for a quick run last night but decided it would just be padding & streak chasing.  Got out this AM early, had to cut it short though since the rain was coming in.

Had an interesting thought while I was running.  Amber keeps asking what i'm training for.  Honestly don't know besides training.  That got me thinking about training vs. racing.  I used to be a huge believer in racing yourself into shape.  By shape I mean top end fitness.  Which for me takes about 13 weeks of training first.  Then I could cut back on the miles, be it running or riding, and race myself into top shape.  Now I lean towards racing gets in the way of training.  I like to race but I think I like training more.  Strange I know.

Another thought I had was about doping & training.  Doping has pretty much completely put me off on PRO cycling.  I don't get much enjoyment out of watching it any more since the cloud of doping is always there.  Suspensions are a joke since the suspended rider almost always comes back to racing.  The adaptation is made while on drugs.  You can't take that away from them by suspending them.  I would imagine most suspended riders train & recover.  If I was a suspend PRO racer I'd spend my suspension training huge volumes & focus on recovery for the whole suspension.  Then when I came back I'd have the benefit of the adaptation & racing I made while on the drugs & the benefit of all the quality training I was able to do while suspended.  Sounds crazy but I think this has become common practice.  Look at all the suspended riders that come back & win races straight out of the gate.

I think to remove Doping one of two things has to happen. Automatic life time bans or bans on training while suspended. Give the rider a two year suspension.  Ban training for the first year of the suspension.  The rider couldn't train for a year & would loose most if not all of the adaptation he made while training & racing on his drug of choice.  Then he'd have to train another year to get fit enough to maybe rejoin the peloton.  I'd say that go along way as a deterrent to using drugs.  Since right now a 2 year ban is a licence to train.

Neither of these will happen so PRO cycling will probably end up eating its self.