Well, I did a totally bad thing at the first of the year...I went riding too hard when I shouldn't have. The main thing...you get the idea, I went too hard too much too early. When I was supposed to do base training, I wanted to cheat a little bit, I did sprints and intervals all of January and February, then by the end of February, I was all burnt. I tried to go on rides, my legs, mostly the quads, hurt. Even after I try to not ride and rest for 3-4 days, I just couldn't recover, my legs were still in pain, and I've lost interest in biking. On my ride on the 1st weekend of March, I stopped and said, "that's it, no more riding for a while". I'm talking weeks. That night, I've read some information on the internet about overreaching and overtraining. Usually, to recover, it takes 1-9 weeks to feel good again. I was hoping this was going to take me at least a couple weeks. After 2 weeks, I wasn't fully at it yet but I went to Moab anyway and did a couple rides, actually, I felt pretty good and felt rested so I rode really good. I was surprised. Then now I haven't ridden since then, except a few easy spin rides, and I got a race this Saturday and I think I am ready. I am doing two laps this time, total 15 miles. This should be good because right now, all I feel like is riding. I haven't really done any hard rides all of March except two little rides in Moab last week which turned out really good. I hope for the same this weekend at the race. Next year, I hope I don't make the same mistake like I did this year. I should be doing just endurance riding in Jan., Feb., and some of March, then do hard intervals. Last year, winter of '09 and '10, I did it right. I did base training for a couple of months and lifted weights at the same time, then I felt refreshed by March for some hard efforts. I did have a good season last year, except I should have tapered down in the middle of the summer and built it back up. But all well, I learn every day. That's life I guess. I've learned in the past few years, nobody can have a perfect training season, there's always ups and downs. That's good, because those kind of things can give you challenges to live for. 
