Have you seen my Mojo?

58 days before my A race and I'm feeling tired and out of shape. My FTP on the tri bike has dropped from an all time high in April (road bike) but seems to be holding steady for now. My VDOT has stayed the same pretty much all season but for good reason. I pulled my hamstring early on and any speed work really aggravated it so I stayed at the same level and recently dropped the pace by 10 seconds/mile and have been OK. The swim is getting better but will always be my weakest link.

It seems as though I go through this every season with April being my peak month and then I slowly slide down hill from there. This was definitely true when I was just road racing and appears to be the same now that I've switched to triathlons.

For the past 4 years, my training has always started the first week in January. After 12 weeks of intense workouts, I'm flying going into April/May and has me wondering do I really need a 38 week HIM plan or could I get away with a 16 or 20 week plan, made up of my outseason and race prep. One other note, is that I always respond well to V02 work, especially when I do it before the longer FTP intervals. I did V02 intervals for the first 2 months of my 2008 season and then added FTP intervals and saw the biggest FTP gains to date. In addition, I was able to maintain the high FTP throughout the entire season. This season, I started with a different plan that had me doing FTP intervals for 9 weeks and then added V02 for 5 weeks and I was again flying after the 5 weeks of V02.

My plan for the next few weeks incorporates a day of V02 intervals a week so hopefully this will jump start my mojo as I'm not feeling it right now.