A week as a bike racer (In winter)

Bike racing is a lot of work. Here is a quick rundown of what a regular week in Winter may look like for an average bike racer.

Monday
Resting is just as important as riding. If you ride and don't recover, then you will never progress. To recover better and faster, many cyclists take one day a week completely off. My day off is Monday. A typical Monday for me is going to school, getting home, going to work, and then relaxing until homework time. I also try to go to bed early on Mondays.
Tuesday
After a nice rest day, I work hard on Tuesdays. Every Tuesday in winter the local bike shop and local riding club get together and host a trainer session. For those that do not know, a trainer is basically a stationary bike. On the trainer, we do intervals. We work very hard for about an hour. Unluckily for me, the leader of the session is a riding buddy of mine. Since he knows me, he likes to give me extra intervals. At the time, I'm silently cursing him, but in the long run, that extra work will make me faster.
Wednesday
On Wednesday, it's time to recover again. I generally grab my mountain bike and go out for an easy hour long ride to get the lactic acid flushed out of my legs. I also do a strength workout on Wednesdays. I generally do weighted back squats, lunges, leg lifts, and some other core and leg workouts.
Thursday
On Thursday, it's time to go hard again. I do another set of intervals on Thursday, but at home this time. I use a virtual riding program that I hook up to my computer that makes the session a little more enjoyable, but it still sucks.
Friday
By Friday, I'm usually pretty worn out. My legs and arms are sore from the strength session, and my body is worn from the intervals. I am also generally pretty sick of riding inside. On Friday, it's time for another recovery trail ride. I also do another strength session of Friday.
Saturday
On Saturday, it's finally time to ride outside. I usually go out with just my dad, or both my dad and our friend Eric. We usually ride for around an hour and a half or two hours. We don't go super hard on Saturdays, we usually just do some tempo, which is basically right in between easy and hard, with some hard efforts mixed in. I have to wake up around 7 on most Saturdays, since I go to work at 12.
Sunday
On Sunday, I usually go on a long, hard ride. The key part about Sunday rides is that there all very fun. I never really get bored and we usually ride with a big group. The rides are pretty fast paced but definitely manageable.

Revisions for 2016

2016 will be very different for me. Not only have I moved up two categories, but I also have taken up road biking. I recently bought a road bike and I am planning on racing road this year as well as mountain. I've never done a road race but I've been dying to try one. This year I am also going to try to be strict about how I train. Last year, I was lucky to be able to win without a strict and structured plan but this year will be much different. I have already created my plan and I am working hard to stick to it. So far, I have been able to work hard consistently and the only thing that makes me stop is bad conditions. For example, this past week, the trails were covered in snow. The huge amount of snow caused me to ride my mountain bike on the narrow roads, which was a little sketchy at times. I could only complete half of the time that I set out for. I am hoping for some good results this year on mountain, cross, and possibly even road.