As a life long recreational cyclist, I downloaded the MAX Workouts right after the Thanksgiving to improve my overall fitness level. After the first workout I was hooked and shortly after that I decided I wanted to do a Cyclocross bicycle race weekend at the end of January. This allowed me a little over 7 weeks to prepare.

Due to the limited day light and work commitments, the only thing that fit in my weekday schedule was the 90 MAX Workouts routine. The bike races in my category are timed for 30 minutes of high intensity riding (mud, sand, grass), running, and climbing (carrying the bike on your shoulder) so the MAX Workouts routine closely matched the race conditions (if you don't count the mud).

January 29th, 2011 was my first planned race. I had ridden over a thousand miles over the summer, but I had been off the bike for months except for 30 minutes on a couple Saturdays. I knew my maximum heart rate had been right about 161 beats/minute over the summer so that was going to be my gage during the race.

So the gun goes off for the first race and I intentionally started slow and made a few technical mistakes, but feel great overall and finish 12 of 16. I was tired, but felt good knowing there was another race the next day. During the race the next day I was not sore and went out more confident, rode harder, and finished 7 out of 14.

When I got back home from the race I down loaded the heart rate data from my bike computer. I was shocked to see I ran most of the race at close to 96% of my old max heart race and had hit some at 106% of the old maximum. It was the end of January and had been off the bike for four months and I was way stronger. The other big benefit was after a weekend of racing I wasn't sore (usually have some stiffness in lower back and shoulders).

MAX Workouts is not magic. You have to do the work, but after less than two months it made me a better cyclist and strengthened my body overall.