Today I read this article, which confirms what I've just figured out the past couple days. If I'm trying to lose weight it's going to affect my ultimate performance. It's much harder for your body to convert fat (and unfortunately muscle too) into energy than it is to get it from a drink or gel or something. So it'll happen at a slower rate. I'm still trying to get a grasp on the whole glycogen storage and nutrition thing, but parts of it are starting to make sense.

I'm going through my days running a calorie deficit. Probably somewhere between 500-1000 if I'm lucky. At least that's the plan, now that I've decided to spend some time five days a week. So to get the energy I need for this, I'll obviously be burning fat. It's going to be harder for my body to do that, so I won't have as much energy as someone who is getting their energy from something they eat or drink. Plus it will be much harder to recover from a hard ride, since I won't be taking enough carbs to replenish. It won't be easy.

Another thing that I'm starting to realize is that I need to spend a lot more time in a fat burning zone when I'm working out. The two spinning days a week aren't really enough, especially since they're deep into the lactate threshold. If I keep up with the Saturday rides that'll be pretty good, but I definitely need to spend the rest of my time in the fat burning zone.

So for now I'm thinking the schedule should be something like this:

Monday - 30 minutes @ 150ish bpm
Tuesday - spinning class @ 160-175 bpm
Wednesday - 30 minutes @ 150ish bpm
Thursday - road drill class @ 165-180 bpm
Friday - off
Saturday - long ride (3hr+) @ 145ish bpm
Sunday - off

I figure I'll probably work myself as hard as I can at the road drill class on Thursday to warrant having the Friday off to recover. Sunday will be a recovery day too, unless I make the long ride on Sunday instead. In that case I'll do a 30 minute session on Saturday and take the Monday off instead.

Right now I think I should be concentrating more on dropping some pounds before I start running. I think it's biting a bit more off than I can chew if I try to start with it now. It gives me something to look forward to too. Hopefully I should be better sized in the fall, so I might be able to start running in the winter.

I'm not quite so sure where weight training will fit in all of this yet. Definitely in the fall I'll be concentrating on that, since I'm sure I'll be tired of riding by then. But I think it's going to be important to do at least something. Hopefully that'll prevent my body from eating all the muscle I have now. That's something I'll discuss with my trainer.

My plan of attack is nearly complete!