Anyone seen my form???

No seriously. I'm thinking about taking out one of those milk carton ads because it was no where to be found this last weekend at the Elkhorn Classic stage race. And, man, did it suck ass! I'm just not used to riding that poorly. I mean, I've had an "off" day or two over the years but nothing like this. Honestly, I wasn't expecting to be great. I'm one month out from hitting my rib cage against a cement wall at the end of a criterium and separating a couple of rib cartilages. I followed that up with a nasty cold and bronchitis. Lot's of pus coming out of my lungs for a couple of weeks and a seriously impaired ability to cough. For better or worse, I trained through it and was feeling fairly fit on the other end. I tried not to do too much the week before and felt good riding to the line Friday afternoon.

The first road race was about 70 miles with several climbs. The field was loaded with the usual 40+ Masters studs from Washington and Oregon, about 70 of them. The first crunch happened on the second climb of the day and I could tell that I was a little off. Not too bad, though, going over the top just a handful of seconds back from a group of about 20. We bridged back on after a few urgent minutes. This put us back together during a section of big rollers. The pace was high and the pack was constantly strung out. Good racing. Soon we were at the base of the final long climb of the day and selections were quickly made. I ended up with one other guy off the back of the second group. I was riding steadily actually keeping pace with the second group but 15 seconds in arrears. Frustrating that I couldn't just stay on and settle in when they did.

As we neared the top, I caught a lone chaser who was contending for the 40+B lead. They were racing the A's and B's together. One of my teammates was up the road about 15 seconds in a group of 3 with about 5 km to go. As I caught the lone chaser (a friend but on a different team) I apologized for not working but I was not going to drag him up to Marco. After he took a couple of pulls I realized that I should just attack him, bridge to Marco and try and help extend his lead. Seemed like the neighborly thing to do, right? So, as he pulled off I hit him hard and got the gap I needed. I kept the throttle wide open as we hit the final short decent to the run in to the finish and bridged with 3 km to go. We pulled within 20 seconds of the second group and 2:16 down on the two leaders that hit the gas over the top. The effort gave Marco a 17 second cushion going into the stage 2 time trial. 

So, that was a little bit of bike racing fun in the middle of the pack. Small consolation and it didn't go far in soothing the pain of the beat down I got the next morning during the TT. I actually didn't feel horrible but just didn't go fast. Finished in the middle of the pack and actually got thrashed by 4 of the top women! Gotta love getting old. Hair falls out, testosterone levels drop and girls start kicking your ass. Aging is not for pussies! I'm trying to take it like a man.

Anyway, we still had the crit in the afternoon, which, of course, is my favorite event. The race was short at 36 minutes but the pace was high to start. I featured in a few of the hopeless breaks up the road. A strong headwind up the finishing straight kept things in check. I stayed near the front and felt fine. After things settled down I was nose breathing for a lot of it. With a lap to go I was siting around 4th wheel. There were two guys just up the road a few seconds representing both of the big teams so there was no concerted chase. Things were decidedly tame on the back side of the course and I thought for a moment I had misread the lap counter. The furious acceleration finally happened, catching me out for a moment but I recovered and finished 6th.

I treated myself to the second massage of the weekend but the legs were definitely tired. The next morning dawned pouring rain and 45 degrees. Lovely. The 102 mile course is a big loop that finishes with an 8 mile climb not too far from town. We drove the van out of town so it would be closer to the finish and make the journey back to the hotel less painful. As we rode the 5 miles to the start I knew something was up. Yep, my were truly "legs of shit". Not good with 4 burly climbs ahead. Admittedly, I was a little defeated from the gun but got going anyway. A short little 2 km climb 20 miles in gave me an indication that it would be a struggle. I stayed on and waited for the first real climb 10 miles later. I was breathing hard as we eased into the hill but started struggling as the leaders dialed up the pace. Shooting backwards through the pack crushed the last of my hope and I simply stopped peddling. Demoralizing. So much baggage that goes with quitting.

I stewed about the decision for the first several miles riding back but with each little uphill and the shitty sensations in my legs as I tried to ride over them I knew there was little good that would've come from continuing. Of course, the struggle for me was trying to figure out how my legs got to that point in the first place . I ran it by Matthew at Restwise and he admitted that any number of variables could've conspired against me. I probably won't ever come up with a definitive answer but since every athlete eventually comes up against a performance wall like this at some point, I'll ponder the possibilities here.

Sorting out the variables

Let's break it down variable by variable, a la Matthew. First, it could've been just one of those random crappy day(s) that simply happen. Not worth worrying about them. You just hope they don't come at a key race. The thing is, I just don't have them very often, if at all so, as nice as it would be to simply throw the experience on this explanation, it doesn't sit well with me. Still a possibility, though.

Next is the training variable. This one is more complex but may hold some validity in my case. I certainly didn't over-train leading up to the race. Weather was too shitty and work was too busy. I can explain Friday's off-pace performance from this perspective but not Sunday's complete immolation. Related is the injury to my ribs and subsequent purulent (think "pus", here) bronchitis. Limiters like these are hard to quantify but certainly tax our bodies beyond the burden of training. The sensible simply go to bed. Me? Not so much. I added some rest days and decreased intensity and volume but never really got off the bike. Mistake? Maybe but my training performances during the recovery period were pretty good. I just didn't want to lose the fitness leading up to the big event. Bad timing.

How about diet? Now, here is where things get interesting as I was seriously screwing with this variable for weeks leading up to the event. First, a little background. My wife has Multiple Sclerosis. This is a nasty little degenerative neurological disease that can come out of no where and bitch slap you right into a wheel chair. Check out the link to find out more about it. Right now, things are pretty quiet for Dina and she's not really limited athletically. But you never stop thinking and worrying about it because MS is completely unpredictable. None of the interventions currently recommended by doctors and voodoo practitioners offer any guaranteed relief or even slowing of disease progression. One of the areas on which many MS sufferers focus is diet. The emphasis here is to avoid foods that trigger sensitivity or allergic reactions. It is also popular to avoid so-called "inflammatory" foods which are defined in different ways by different sources. Without getting into too much detail, one of the foods often avoided is wheat and other gluten-containing grains. 

Now "gluten free" is all the rage today in the food world in general. There'll soon be a post in these pages dealing specifically with this movement. Interested in the hype, I started toying with eating less bread and pasta as well as avoiding simple sugars except while actually training. I did this for two reasons. One was to satisfy my own curiosity about the trend. The other was to spare Dina the intoxicating smell of toast wafting upstairs from the kitchen each morning. You know, forbidden fruit for her, and all that. I think from a health and wellness standpoint this is a good thing and much of the obesity in this country would be cured with such a shift by affected individuals. But for an endurance athlete these carbohydrates are critical for maintaining training and competitive volume. There's nothing wrong with ridding one's diet of gluten since carbs can be obtained from other sources like rice, corn, fruits and vegetables. However, I fear that I eliminated a bunch of calories from my diet without adequately replacing them with those other sources in equal amounts. Not good. If this is the cause of my dismal performance last weekend then the lack of fuel finally caught up with me. This may explain the gradual worsening over the course of the weekend.

To add to the calorie problems I was guilty of missing several evening meals over the last few weeks. My schedule tends to be pretty full with work and training. Often the training ends at dark on several nights each week and dinner follows, sometimes as late as 10pm. In an effort to get more sleep this season, making and eating dinner became a problem and delayed getting my head to the pillow. So, I'd eat something light or make a recovery shake. Definitely less calories than my usual feast. The upside is that my morning weight was light but the downside was…well… perhaps what we're talking about here.

So, who really knows? I'm approaching this weekend's stage race with optimism. I'm trying to correct the nutritional issues by eating plenty. I rode for only an hour on Monday, two hours easy yesterday and I'll put in a couple of testing efforts today. The legs definitely felt like they were coming around yesterday. The road race on Saturday has a long climb so it'll be an appropriate test. The field is smaller but there should be some quality talent showing up from Colorado. I'll keep you posted. - Brian 

Comments

[steve]

Just saw the pic MFT posted of this weekends race--lookin' strong!