Real Progress

I'm making real progress on the knee. Ever since we started focusing on the IT band at PT (and at home), it seems like my knee has made significant improvement every day.

This weekend was a pretty good test. I rode the trainer on Saturday since it rained most of the day. I did the bulk of the ride at a Zone 2 pace without any problems. On Sunday, I spent most of the morning cutting up the tree that fell in our backyard, and clearing out the vines and brush that fell with it. Immediately after that, I rode my mountain bike for a while over at Waterford Oaks. I probably rode harder than I should have, but my knee still felt OK on the bike. I noticed it felt a little tired after I stopped, but that feeling went away quickly.

I picked up a new book last week, The Knee Crisis Handbook. It hasn't been quite what I expected, but it's pretty decent. I just read through the section on stretching and made an interesting observation. Recall that I'd been working pretty hard over the Winter and early Spring on improving my flexibility. I saw that I'd been doing every stretch in the book, except one, the IT band stretch. I'd also been self-massaging most of the muscles acting on the knee, except the IT band. So, my new theory is that, by regularly stretching the other muscles acting on the knee, my IT band became relatively tight and started pulling my knee out of whack. I think that's why my knee has responded so quickly to the PT work to massage and stretch the IT band.

Knee Test

I went back to PT last night. He had taped my knee the previous session to try to move my kneecap a bit, and it caused me some new pain while riding. Based on that result, he worked on my IT band quite a bit (ouch!). He also wanted me to give my knee a good "test" on the bike.

I was a little skeptical about riding harder, but I decided that that's why I went to him instead of someone else who might not push me. So, I got up this morning, rolled my IT band (more ouch!) and hopped on the bike. I warmed up for about 10 minutes and then ramped it up. I didn't push super hard, but I went a lot harder than I've gone in the last 2 months, more like a low-end tempo pace. Anyway, I did that for about half an hour, then cooled down. No problems! (Except that I felt out-of-shape.)

Honestly, I'm pretty surprised at how it went; even yesterday morning I was still feeling pretty achey. I don't know if the improvement was from loosening up the IT band or something else, but I'll take it. If nothing else this has given me some encouragment that I may not be that far away from resuming a more "normal" riding schedule.

Knee Story

So, I went to see a phyiscal therapist last week for my knee. I saw Clint Verran, who is also a serious runner and fast cyclist. I actually raced against him in cyclocross last year. I figured that he would "get it".

Anyway, like my doctor, after checking some other things, he also focused in pretty quickly on my meniscus. With two qualified people now telling me the same thing, I think it's probably a pretty safe bet that I have a meniscus tear. Given that I'm not having problems with the knee locking, giving out, etc, it seems like I shouldn't need surgery for it, so that's good.

I did some research on meniscus tears after I got home, trying to figure out how I might have done it. While mowing the lawn yesterday, I sort of pieced together how it might have all gone down.

Way back at the end of 2004, I remember going for a run in cold weather (maybe it was around Thanksgiving?). I probably hadn't been running for a while, and I doubt that I warmed up (that's sort of how I did things back then). I remember that my legs (calves?) eventually got really tight, and that I felt a little pop when I was stretching after I got home. Probably I was still cold while stretching. I remember some pain at the time, but I don't think it lasted long at all, so I sort of discounted it. I think that's probably when I tore it though. I also don't remember ever having knee problems before then. According to my limited training logs from that time, it looks like I struggled with some nagging pain off and on for about 4 months!

Over the next several years, I would occasionally have issues with my left knee, usually when I would try to do something out of the ordinary. I documented a few of them (Vail hike , MCB run). It seemed that I'd finally gotten rid of the issue when I tweaked my position on the bike a little, and I also started being more careful about building up to unusual (for me) activities (like hiking at Yosemite last year).

Fast forward to the Spring of 2010. I'd been working hard on improving my flexibility and eliminating muscle imbalances, and it had been a long time since I'd had left knee issues, which I'd come to call "bad old days" pain. I'd become a little less cautious about protecting my left knee. So, as I'm increasing intensity lifting weights, and adding volume on the bike (there's probably at least a minor training error in there), I also added a new flexibility exercise. This exercise called for assuming a deep squat position with feet straight ahead; knees a little wide because the arms were touching the floor in front...

If you look up typical causes for meniscus tears, you usually find something like: "knee joint is bent while the knee is twisted". Pretty much exactly what I was doing. Probably (I hope) I didn't introduce a new tear, since I didn't feel any pain while doing it, but I think that's the culprit for this re-aggravation. I ran this by Clint and he agreed that it could have caused my problem.

The bad news is, based on my past experience and my current rate of progress, I may still be out of commission for a while. But I think the good news is that I've done this before and I have recovered before, so I feel like I can do it again. Now that I know (and accept) what is wrong, I think I can probably successfully work around it once I'm recovered.

Brighton Stage Race

This weekend was the Brighton Stage Race. At the beginning of the year, I'd planned that this would be my first race, but, obviously, it hasn't worked out that way. The Rhinos were the sponsoring club this year, so I decided to go out and help.

I ended up marshalling one of the first corners on the TT course, where it came out onto the road. It was pretty uneventful: only two cars went through over the whole 2+ hours I was there. But, you need someone there, just in case.

It was kind of interesting to watch the entire field go through. I mean, I watch other racers when I'm at races, but not every single person! It was a pretty non-technical corner; the only thing that made it a little tricky was that there was a little sand at the edge of the road, and then the road itself was a little loose. After watching a few people go through, it became clear that the best line was to start wide and turn late, getting most of your turning done in the dirt, and then go more-or-less straight through the sand and onto the road. Something about the trail visually sucked you to an inside line though. Nobody crashed, but quite a few people were surprised at the lack of grip in the road.

Anyway, I'd say almost all of the Elite racers took the correct line, about 75% of the Expert racers did, less than 50% of the Sport riders did, and almost no Beginners got it right. Although, by the time you got to the slower Sport and Beginner riders, they were going slow enough that the line really didn't matter. For the record, I probably would have ridden the corner wrong if I'd been racing.

Near the end of the race, a racer rode up to my spot and started waiting for his kid to come by. A bunch of kids had just passed a few minutes earlier, so we figured that he missed him. Anyway, it got me thinking that, hopefully, I'll still be racing in another 10-15 years. In that context, missing a season because of injury isn't such a big deal, just a bump in the road.

Getting Better, Again

Looks like I'm overdue for an update. The knee is getting better, again. I took a week almost completely off, then resumed my super-easy rides. The last couple days, my knee has been quite good, almost no pain/discomfort, but I think it will still be awhile before it's "normal" again.

I will be out volunteering at the Brighton Stage Race this weekend. I had targeted this as my first race of the year, so it's a little disappointing to see it here while I'm nowhere close to racing. But, it will be fun to be at the race. And I know that I will get better, eventually.

Otherwise, things are good. The new baby is keeping us busy. He's approaching 6 weeks old, supposedly the peak of fussiness. He'd definitely fussier than he was, but he's still pretty content most of the time.

Frustration

Now we're in May, and still no riding. It's one thing not to be riding when the weather is crummy, but it's much more frustrating when it's nice out...

On the other hand, Sarah and I have discussed that even if I wasn't hurt, with the new baby, I'd probably still be frustrated because I still wouldn't be able to ride as much as I wanted to. Or maybe I'd be sick by now after having run myself into the ground.

Basically, the doctor confirmed yesterday that I don't have any "structural" issues with my knee. I would have been surprised, but it's gone on long enough that I wanted to start checking other things off the list.

While I was waiting around in the office, I started thinking about why I am so frustrated. Certainly, part of it is not being able to ride, and knowing that my mountain bike season is slipping away. But I think the bigger part of it is that I made a conscious effort to be careful about training to avoid injury this year, and I still got hurt. In hindsight, in some ways, I wasn't careful enough. I think I recognize those issues now and can fix them in the future. In my defense though, the onset of this injury was very different than any of my past injuries. It never really hurt on the bike, it just got a little tight at times. It wasn't until I got off the bike that I experienced real pain, and by then, it was probably too late. Anyway, I need to try to not beat myself up about that.

So, I've mostly been resting my knee, just keeping up with a little light activity. I'm also trying to keep my leg mostly straight while I'm sitting at work. That has helped a lot. So, it's actually feeling pretty good right now, but I can tell it's still not right.

Setback

So, it's been a little while since I posted. Last week was going well, for a while. My knee felt very good early in the week and I was starting to pedal just a little harder (like, easing it up to 13mph...). Bad idea. The knee pain is back, and maybe even a little worse than before.

Between the re-emergence of pain, and, like I wrote before, the fact that this injury seems so different than others I've had, I'm headed to the doctor this week. I'm not optimistic that I'll get much good information, but I'm hoping he can at least help me rule some things out.

When in doubt...

"When in doubt, it's never a bad idea to train like a fighter."

I read that somewhere and thought it was cool, and it sort of leads into my post.

So, my knee feels basically back to normal now. That is, I don't have any pain / discomfort doing anything anymore. Of course, I know it's still not back to normal yet, so I'll have to continue to be careful with it for a while. At least I can start the process of ramping back up to a normal training level.

I rode Saturday and this morning (4:30am wake up time again! It's going reasonably well so far, but it is pretty darn early.) and felt good on the bike both times. I'm still riding in a very easy gear, and I'll probably stay there for the rest of this week, just to be sure. Hopefully I've learned all of the right lessons from this injury; clearly I missed at least one last year.

I did a bodyweight upper body and core session yesterday (I'm not going to do any leg strength work, except rehab-type exercises for a while). I finished it off with a few rounds of shadow boxing. I tried shadow boxing a few years ago and I guess I just didn't "get it". I didn't find it particularly interesting or effective at the time. After reading an article that Ross posted, I decided to try it again. This time, I did it in front of one of the doorwalls in my basement. Since it was dark outside, I could see my reflection in the mirror pretty clearly. That made it a lot more fun! Per the article, I also tried to really keep moving the whole time, which made it more effective. I was a little surprised at how tired it made my legs yesterday, but I guess I shouldn't have been, I've hardly been working them for a month or so.

Breakthrough!

The knee wasn't as great as I'd hoped for yesterday, but still not too bad. I had a funny feeling before I went to bed though that I was on the verge of a breakthrough. I got up early this morning and rode on the trainer (more on that in a minute), and, sure enough, the knee felt really good. It has been great all morning too!

This injury has been strange for me. In the past, when I've had problems, my knees would hurt while riding (or doing other activity), but they would stop hurting when I stopped moving. With this one, it feels better to do activity, and it gets achey when I don't move for long enough. It's also taken me much longer to get to the no-pain stage this time; hopefully, I've made it now though.

I've decided that, for the time being, I probably need to get my workout in before work instead of after. Everybody else is going to bed earlier than me now, so I tend to wake them up when I'm getting ready for bed. Waking a sleepy mom and baby is definitely a bad move! It means a really early wakeup time (4:30am today) for me, but I think I can make it to the basement without waking anyone else up. Then I can go to bed (early) at about the same time as everyone else. After one day, it seems to be working fine, but the first day is always easy...

Also, since I'm sure people are dying to know, my saddle sore is also much better. That's good, because riding easy on a stationary trainer is pretty miserable with a saddle sore.

Give Me a Break!

Seriously, how do you get a saddle sore when you're riding as little as I am? Actually, I know the answer, but c'mon, give me a break! Hopefully it will clear up quickly.

The knee is feeling really good again today. I'm going to do another super-easy ride tonight and see how it goes. I think I'm getting closer...

Probably a little more sleep would go a long way to resolving my knee issue, but that's just not going to happen. The little one has actually been sleeping really well at night, but the older one has been getting up early. She was up at 5am today and ready to go! Dad wasn't quite as ready to go but I managed to get the job done.

Mixed Results

I had some mixed progress with my knee over the weekend. At the end of last week, it had been feeling quite good, but still not perfect. On Saturday morning, I mowed the lawn for the first time this year. It was pretty cold on Saturday; cold enough that it was snowing a little while I mowed! Between that activity and the cold, it was enough to make my knee pretty sore for the rest of the day.

On Sunday, the knee was much better again. I rode the trainer briefly Sunday night at a super-easy pace. Once again, the knee felt fine on the bike.

Today, it actually feels really good; almost perfect, but not quite. If I can string together a few days like this, I'll think about riding a bit more. Otherwise, I just need to be patient. The only thing you get by rushing is a chance to start over again...

Revenge

The knee is definitely getting better. I still get some occasional soreness, but it's mostly all gone now. I'm back doing some super-easy rides on the bike. Generally, I feel better after I'm done riding than I did when I started, so that's a good sign. Still, it will probably be a while before I can get back to proper training.

I went back through my training log to try to figure out why I've had problems the past two years in the Spring. I think the answer is that I didn't ride enough over the Winter. Here are my average bike hours for January and February over the past several years:

2006 - 3.4 hrs/week
2007 - 2.8
2008 - 2.1
2009 - 1.2 (injured in March)
2010 - 1.5 (injured in March)

So, for next year, I'm going to try to average about 3 hours per week (riding) over the Winter. The change from 2008 to 2009 was basically that I added more cross-training at the expense of riding. I think this means that I'm relatively strong when I start riding more in March, but the cycling-specific muscle/tendon strength is not there which leaves me vulnerable to injury. I would still prefer not to ride any more than I have to in Jan-Feb though.


Last night, I spent some time working on cleaning up a tree that had fallen in my backyard. There's a huge vine in that area of the yard that knocked it down. So, as part of my cleanup, I'm also trying to kill and clear out this vine. I thought I had found the root over the Winter, but Sarah found a different (and much bigger) root. When I cut through it last night, a bunch of water started dripping, almost pouring, out. I found it very satisfying...

Not So Fast!

Well, it seems like I was a little too quick to pronounce my knee healed (or, I was too quick to get back to pushing on the pedals). It never really bothered me on the bike, but it does bother me off the bike, and it started getting a little worse again. So, for most of this week I haven't done much exercise, just lots of stretching and icing. That seems to have made things feel much better. This time, I'll wait until I get to zero pain before resuming training; otherwise, I probably just get to start over again.

It would have been tough to do much training this week anyway. Nathan has been pretty easy so far (knock on wood), but it's still been a tiring week taking care of two kids. I'm sort of looking forward to going back to work tomorrow to get back to a normal routine.

I took Cora to the Rhino Training Race at Waterford Hills yesterday; we watched the "B" race. Even though it was a cool, windy day, she had a good time. At one point I commented that the race was a little boring; she said, "This race is fine."

Short Ride with Cora

So, I asked Cora if she wanted to go for a bike ride on Monday night. "Yeah! We can go fast! Go ride bikes!" Cool. I got ready and got Cora ready. I told Sarah that we'd ride for as long as Cora wanted, then come back. I figured it would be at least 15-20 minutes, like we'd done last week. Certainly not a great ride for me, but I thought it would be good to at least ride a little. Besides, it's fun to pull Cora around.

I had made it only to the end of the driveway when I heard, "Go back home!" I asked if she was sure, and did a couple laps in the driveway. Nothing doing. "Go home! Go home!" OK. Sarah was surprised to see us again so soon.

She told me to go ahead and ride for a little while anyway. So I rode about 40 minutes; still not great, but it was good to get out. I popped over to Waterford Oaks and got a little dirt under my tires.

New Addition

Well, after teasing us for a few days, my son Nathan decided to arrive on Saturday. Everything went pretty well. Sarah opted for a more natural birth this time around and really did great. Us bike racers like to talk about pain, but I think a bike race is nothing compared to labor.

So far, my son has been a great sleeper; even better than my daughter, who was also very good. But, it's only been a few days, so we'll see what happens.

A few pictures...

I'm home for the week; hopefully I can get in a little training. So far, I haven't done anything except stretch and sleep. Maybe I'll pull Cora around in the bike trailer a little bit this afternoon...

Back in Business

Still waiting for the new baby... should be any day now.

I seem to have nursed my knee back to health quickly, although I'll still take it kind of easy for a while. Mostly I rested, stretched and iced. I got back on the bike last night for a relatively short spin and everything felt pretty good. I didn't have any discomfort later in the night or this morning, so that's a good sign. The weather is supposed to get nice this week; I told Sarah that if it gets over 70F, I'm going to go ride outside.

There was a nice article at Cyclocross Magazine recently. Sort of nicely sums up why we race and train.

My Dad raced Barry-Roubaix this weekend. (Picture here.) Unfortunately, he had a crash just a few miles in and ended up breaking his arm. He didn't know it, so he finished the race! Riding for 20-some miles on gravel roads with a broken arm sounds pretty rough to me... Anyway, so he's in a cast up past his elbow now. So, he'll still be in a cast for the inevitable pictures when my son is born; I'm looking forward to telling that story. ("See your grandpa's cast? He broke his arm in a bike race.")

Hill Ball

Still nursing a sore knee today. I had thought about riding a bit today, but I decided against it. Lots of stretching and icing today.

I was a little bummed about not being able to ride, especially since some of my peers are racing at Waterford and Barry-Roubaix today. It's been a sunny day, so I decided to get outside and play "hill ball" (I just invented it today). Hill ball goes like this: take a medicine ball and chuck it up a hill for a couple minutes, rest, and repeat. I decided to throw it up the hill so I didn't have to chase after it (easy on the knee that way). Although, as it turned out, catching a 12lb medicine ball rolling at full speed wasn't always so easy. Anyway, it was fun, hard, nice to get outside, and I felt better afterward.

Maybe if this whole bike-racing thing doesn't work out, I can take up throwing stuff... probably not...

Knees, Karma

So, I did something last weekend to aggravate my knee. I'm hoping it was some new off-the-bike movements I was working on. I'm going to stop doing them, and we'll see what happens. I've been pretty careful about ramping things up on the bike this year, so I'll be disappointed if I hurt myself doing something off it.

I've been practicing my Gene drills pretty diligently. I'm getting excited to ride out on the trails and see how much I've improved. Tonight, I got a little bound up in my switchback drill; because I ended up leaned over so much, my foot closest to the ground came out of the pedal, and then I was able to pop my other foot out and run out of the crash. I started thinking about how great I was and everything,, and then I finished my practice.

So, I picked up my cones to go back in, hopped back on my bike (with the front tire in the soft grass), clipped one foot in, and went nowhere... then I tipped over in slow-motion. Nice. Karma strikes back... at least I fell in the grass instead of the driveway.

Sushi Rice Bars

I rode the trainer for two hours today, which is pretty close to my limit for trainer time. The weather was cold and crappy today, so I wasn't at all tempted to go out. I'm still healthy, so the plan to not ride outside until the baby is born is working so far...

I watched the movie Pro while I was riding. It had been a while since I'd watched it; still one of my favorites. I get something different out of it every time.

I also made a batch of sushi rice bars today. I started making these last year, just to get a little more variety into the food I eat when I'm out riding, and they've always been pretty good. I think this batch is my best one yet though. They're also considerably less expensive than commercial energy bars, although probably not as calorie-dense.

(A full pan. It tastes better than it looks...)

The recipe can be found here. I've always made them with prosciutto rather than bacon. I found that it helps to cut the prosciutto up into really small pieces; you need a sharp knife for this. Also, it seems to help to put the prosciutto in with the eggs before they're quite done cooking.

(A bar, unwrapped. They stay together pretty well.)

The only downside to these bars is that you can't expect them to keep as well as a commercial energy bar. If you take a couple out with you on a Summer day, you need to eat them all, or throw away what you don't eat, because they won't be good later. Also, they don't last more than a couple weeks in the fridge (Sarah would no doubt claim they shouldn't last that long either!). I'm freezing half of them this time, so we'll see how that works out.

(Wrapped up and ready to go!)

Water Heater

So, in place of my regularly scheduled workout tonight, I got to clean up a basement full of water. As a special bonus, I get to take an icy-cold shower tomorrow morning... sweet.

(The enemy...)

New Bars

So, I mentioned that I bought a few new things for my mountain bike. One of them was a set of 26" wide riser bars.




I'd cut down my old flat bars to about 21". I've ridden on a setup like that for years. (Why? I'm not completely sure... I think I read somewhere once that your handlebars should be as wide as your shoulders. Besides, lots of XC racers use bars like this.) When Gene saw my setup, he was like, "Dude, your bars are so narrow. How can you ride like that?"

Well, part of the answer was that I couldn't ride well like that, which was the reason I was at his camp. So, on his advice, I got some wider bars. Actually, he recommended at least 27" wide, but it's pretty hard to find reasonably light bars that wide. As it is, going from 21 to 26 inches feels like a huge change... makes me feel like I should go huck off something... OK, not really.

The trails are still thawing, so I haven't been out on them yet, but I already notice a huge difference when I practice my figure-8 drill. I'm just much, much more confident leaning the bike over at speed. I think it comes down to how the bike responds to your inputs (the input being movement of the hands, not force at the hands). Basically, small movements at the hands translates into relatively small angle changes with wide bars, whereas with narrow bars, the angle change is bigger. So, reduced "twitchiness". That said, the wide bars also make me afraid for the health of my knuckles once I hit the trail and start squeezing between trees, so we'll see how that goes.

Riding, A Little

I've been riding the bike a little, still on the trainer. I ended up adding an extra day on the bike last week. I had a weird shoulder pain on Wednesday; my best guess is that I slept on it in a strange way and somehow tweaked it. It was very painful on Wednesday, but completely gone on Thursday. Anyway, since my scheduled strength workout had a decent amount of overhead lifting, I decided that I shouldn't do it, and I put in a pretty easy hour on the bike instead.

I rode some both days this weekend too. I'm starting to feel a little better on the bike, but respectability still seems far away. I'm pretty happy with the position tweaks I made over the Winter. I moved my saddle back a little, and I've been working on keeping my back straight. At first, I felt like I had to sit very upright to be comfortable in this position, but now, I actually find that it's more comfortable to be lower. It seems like my position is getting closer to one that I've admired in other people.

The big event this weekend was my daughter's second birthday party. It was fun, but kind of crazy to have 6 kids in the house. I made a sheep cake for her, so if this whole engineering thing doesn't work out... kidding. So far, I seem to have made it through without getting sick (nothing like a toddler's birthday party for making you sick!), so I feel like I have a good chance of avoiding getting sick before the new baby comes.

Good Bounces

I played hockey again last night and got some good bounces. I ended up with one goal and two assists. Not bad for only playing about every other week. I had gotten my skates sharpened, so that helped. I did a strength workout earlier in the day too, which also always seems to help, even though my legs felt pretty worked over by the time I was done skating.

Sarah got me a book about "The Zone" for Valentine's Day. It took me a while to get to it, but I finally finished it and tried to apply a few of the principles last night. The one that seemed most immediately applicable was trying to just focus on the next shift while sititng on the bench. I tried to just let go of whatever mistakes I might have made on the previous shift and tried to think about making the next shift my best one. I also tried to relax a bit more on the bench. It seemed to help.

One of the other suggestions that the book makes is to keep a dream journal. I find this idea more than a little strange, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. What I can say so far: it's surprising how much detail I can remember from my dreams later if I write them down as soon as I wake up (even if I didn't originally write down the detail), and the things I dream about (and write down) are not what I expected.

(That's so me, dude...)

I rode the trainer again on Saturday, even though it was beautiful outside. In my effort to stay healthy, I've decided to not ride outside until after the baby is born. It's hard to describe the way I feel on the bike right now. I actually feel reasonably strong in general, and not totally out of shape, but I still don't feel like I'm strong or fit on the bike. It's like there's a lot of raw physical ability that I just need to tap into. I'm not really concerned about it, it's only March, and I've just started riding, so things will come around.

Pain Management

In preparation for the coming baby, Sarah and I practiced some pain management techniques last night. She has been doing some practice on her own, but last night was the first time I tried it too. (We've been doing some other practice for labor positions together.) So, one of her books suggested holding an ice cube while you practice. After holding that ice cube for our first 1 minute "contraction", I decided that Sarah was way tougher than I was; I started checking my watch after 30 seconds! The subsequent ones weren't quite so bad.


We practiced three techniques: focused breathing, non-focused awareness, and "edges of pain". It was kind of interesting, they all sort of worked differently. The first two kind of make you not notice the pain as much (and after a little while, that ice cube really burned!). With the "edges of pain", you focus on the pain, how it actually feels, what the details are, etc. With that one, you certainly notice it, but you also realize that it's not actually as bad as you think it is. I can understand how having a variety of techniques might be nice.

It was also interesting that Sarah and I had different experiences with each technique. Some worked better for her than for me, and vice versa. We also tried a few variations on most of them, again, some working better than others.

Totally unrelated: I also finished building my mountain bike back up last night. I've got a bunch of new bits this year (bars, stem, brakes, chainrings, etc), it almost feels new! I rode it around a little bit in my driveway, practicing some of Gene's drills. It got me all fired up to really get out and ride! But, it will be awhile before the trails have thawed and dried out enough to ride on...

Base Building

Well, this week "officially" marks my return to the bike. I've done a few, relatively short (1 hour) easy trainer rides. It's kind of funny how crappy my legs feel after so much time off; I've only been riding about 1-2 times per week up until now.

I decided to stop going to the indoor training session at the shop after last week; they're going just a little too hard for me right now. I don't think my ego could tolerate riding easy when everyone else is going hard either. This time of year, I'm a little out-of-sync with most other racers. A lot of people will start racing later this month or in April, so they need to be thinking about going hard, but I'm not planning to race until May.

So, the first step is to just get the legs used to being on the bike again and prepare them for the harder work to come. I always think that I should try to maintain this level over the winter, but when the time actually comes, I'm happier staying off the bike (and off the trainer!). Once that's done, I want to focus on developing threshold power a bit more this year. It was something that I didn't do until late last year, and it ended up being a weakness in the races. Bike handling skills will also continue to be a big focus for the year.

This next month or so will be a good test of how deliberate I have become about my training. It was about this time last year when I effectively threw away three months of good training by riding too hard too soon, and with a too low saddle.

Weak Points

Grey Cook has a comment in his book that goes something like "Training is the time to work on your weaknesses, not your favorite movements." I've had my best successes and breakthroughs by stepping back and evaluating where my training program is weak, and then correcting it.

Lately, I think my weaknesses have nothing to do with training per se, but some of the rest of my lifestyle. One is that, for sure, I'm not sleeping enough. I'm getting away with it now because I'm not training very intensely or at a high volume, but once I start ramping up the training, I know it will become a problem. The new baby surely won't improve my sleep situation, but I can try to control some of the other factors.

The other weakness seems to be my diet/nutrition. I've been sticking with the Paleo Diet for Athletes plan, but I seem to have drifted away from some of the details that seem to make a difference. So, I'm going to try to do a better job of keeping track of what I'm eating and making sure it fits the plan; at least until I feel like my habits have been adjusted.

FMS - Passed!

I finally passed the simplified Functional Movement Screen today. It took me about two months of consistent work to pass all of the movements. I thought I'd quickly share my comments on them.

Deep Squat: Even at the beginning, I had no real problems with this movement. As a result, I've not done any of the breakdown exercises. Now, that I've done the exercises for most of the others, this one doesn't feel quite as solid as the other movements. So, I'll probably work on it at some point. Especially now that I look at the picture, I see that I could improve my shoulder mobility.

Hurdle Step: (I set up the picture without the tape "barrier" to step over.) This was another one that was pretty solid for me right off the bat. I just needed to work on keeping my back straight when I stepped forward.

In-line Lunge: Here's where I started to have trouble... the first few times I did this test, I thought that, surely, the description must have been written incorrectly. I just didn't see how you could do it and keep your hands behind the doorframe. I eventually realized that you could do it if you kept your back straight. Once I corrected that, I had to work a little more on doing the move without wobbling.

Straight-leg Raise: I couldn't pass this one the first time either. I had (wrongly) assumed this exercise was about hamstring flexibility. Really, it's mostly about getting your muscles to fire correctly. With just a little work, I was able to pass this one. (Note my state-of-the art craft room / movement testing training facility! It has a good doorway, what can I say?)

Seated Rotation: Working on passing this test took the longest for me. I think that it hit a number of points where I had trouble. First was hip mobility. You have to be reasonably comfortable in that cross-legged position, otherwise, the rest just isn't going to happen. The second part was mobility of the trunk. I'd never realized this was a weak point for me until I started working on it. This was also one of the few areas where I had pretty a significant left/right difference.

Anyway, this whole experience has been very positive for me. I definitely notice a difference in my flexibility and in my ability to control my movements. The best way I can describe it is that my athleticism is just better now. I haven't really been riding enough to see if it will make a difference on the bike, but I should find out soon enough.

Stupid Hockey

I don't think I've blogged about it before, but I've had a theory for a long time that if you don't do something for a while, the first time you do it again, it will be surprisingly good. However, the next few times you do it, it goes kind of badly, more like you'd expect considering the time off. I call that first time the "stupid" time. Stupid-running, stupid-playing (for my trumpet), etc. It's like your body is in shock over what it's doing, so it stupidly lets you do more than you should (or, you stupidly do more than you really should).

I found out last night that the same applies to hockey. The last time I played, things went surprisingly well (stupid-hockey), but things were rough last night. I didn't skate well, I didn't play the puck well, my legs felt like crap, you name it... For whatever reason, a lot of the other guys seemed to be struggling too, so I don't know what the deal was.

I'm getting so close to passing my FMS test. The movements are all getting so solid, but I still can't quite get the seated rotation far enough without my form breaking down a little. Looking back, I feel like the progress I've made over the past two months is pretty remarkable. Some of the tests that at first seemed impossible I can do easily now. (I wish I'd taken some before/after pictures.) My goal was to pass all of the tests by the end of this month; I still think that this is achievable. Even if I don't quite make it by my target date though, I feel like I'm close enough that I have very little concern about moving forward to add some strength and endurance.

Getting Low

We got a pretty decent amount of snow last night, so I decided to skip the indoor training ride and yoga at the shop. I did the same type of drills on my trainer at home and did yoga on my own afterward; definitely not quite the same.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, I've been working on my position and posture on the bike. I mostly sat upright last night, but at the end, I tried a couple of lower positions. One with my hands on the drops and a bigger bend in my arms, and the other with my hands in the drops. I noticed two things: one is that my core muscles got tired pretty quickly in these positions. Like I said before, I think that these lower positions require some enhanced core strength. Two, it seemed like my thighs were bouncing off my stomach... not too comfortable.

While I was in these lower positions, I let myself bend at the waist a few times (essentially, my old posture), just to feel the difference. Bending at the waist pulled my stomach away from my legs enough that the bouncing went away; maybe that's why most people gravitate to that position?

(Reminder picture from Joe Friel's blog . You can see that the rider on the left still has some space between his leg and stomach.)

I think the bouncing issue could be resolved by some position tweaks. Raising the saddle would eventually fix it, but I don't really want to do that. My current saddle height has worked really well for my knee health. It seems like moving the saddle forward a bit might also help, but I'm not sure what negatives might be associated with that.

On the other hand, for the kind of racing I do, getting low and aero isn't too important unless it's windy. So, maybe I just won't do anything for awhile.

Connecting the Dots

I watched a really interesting video over the weekend on James Wilson's website. In it, he links up some of the Functional Movement stuff I've been working on to movements and skills on the bike. The best moment for me was when he was explaining how, when you're riding with level pedals, your feet are essentially in a short lunge position. As he's standing there with his feet like that, I'm thinking "of course", but I never made that connection until he said it.

Speaking of the lunge position, I've been working on some of the alternate jump rope positions in "Athletic Body in Balance". One of the new ones to me is a very short lunge stance. I can do it pretty easily with my left foot forward, but I have more trouble with my right foot forward. I have more trouble keeping my hips square with my right foot forward and also more trouble keeping my feet in line. Relative to the point above about the level pedal position, this is interesting, because I'm also much more comfortable riding with my left foot forward.

Getting Closer

I made good progress this week on the ol' FMS. If I wasn't grading myself hard, I could make an argument that I passed all of the tests on Sunday. But I am grading myself hard: I'm still just a little wobbly on the inline lunge and I have to strain quite a bit to pass the seated rotation, so I don't consider those as passing. Still, I'm getting very close now.

I rode my trainer on Saturday morning. Usually I like to get outside to do something on Saturdays (hike, ski, work on cutting up the tree that fell in my backyard, etc), but I decided it was just too cold! So, I hopped on the trainer for about 45 minutes instead. It was the first time I've ridden at home this year!

Sarah came down at some point and immediately asked if I was practicing sitting up taller (what we work on Tuesday nights). She said that the difference was obvious. I immediately settled into a pretty smooth spin at a (relatively) high cadence for my ride; I'll credit Tuesday nights for that. I did notice that my smoothness and body position started to get worse as I got tired. 45 minutes was really all I could handle; I'd forgotten how boring riding the trainer can be!

Kind of an interesting picture that Sarah took. My back is definitely straight, but this is a very upright position. I guess step 1 is achieving the position, and step 2 is working to bring the chest down without rounding the back. I think this takes a different kind of core strength...

I've also been working on tearing down, cleaning, and rebuilding my mountain bike. I used to be able to do it in an afternoon. Now, I'm having to do it a 20-30 minutes at a time. Cora was "helping" me this weekend. She kept picking up the smaller parts and saying "Little parts. I just love little parts!" Fortunately, nothing has been lost yet.

Yoga

I guess I haven't written about it, but I've been attending the yoga class after our Tuesday night training sessions at the shop. It's been interesting. I feel like I do OK in some of the positions, but others need a lot of work! It compliments my FMS work pretty nicely. The yoga gives me an alternate way to find and improve my tight spots.

Anyway, the FMS tests didn't go much better this week than last week, but yoga seemed noticeably better this week. That's sort of how this whole flexibility/movement thing seems to have gone for me... a lot of fits and starts. Some weeks, it seems like I see very little improvement, but then the next week, I see big improvements. Anyway, I guess it's good as long as I continue to progress.

First Skate of 2010

Last night was my first skate of 2010, and, in fact, the first time I've played hockey in about 9 months! It actually went much better than I expected.

For sure, my hockey skills weren't great, and my skating wasn't great, and my "hockey fitness" wasn't great, but somehow, I actually felt somewhat decent. It's hard to put my finger on it, but I felt like I was able to make better athletic moves than I remember being able to before. Things like stopping faster, changing directions faster, reaching farther, leaning farther, etc. You know what I'm going to attribute these changes to...

I also did my weekly FMS test yesterday before hockey. I really wasn't expecting much, since I didn't make much improvement last week. I expected a slow slog toward passing my remaining tests, so I was pleasantly surprised to see big improvements in my weakest tests. I am very close to passing the inline lunge. The first couple times I did this test, I thought that there was surely an error in the test description in the book because I couldn't see how you could lean back enough to pass (actually, you stay upright... I was leaning forward before). Now, I don't have much problem keeping my upper body straight, but I'm still a little wobbly (wobbly = fail).

I also improved a lot on my worst test, the seated rotation. According to the book, this test will demonstrate how tightness in the body can severely reduce range of motion. For me, it seems to be tightness in the hips and low back that are the problem. Like I said, I didn't improve much on this movement last week, I needed about 3 inches more rotation to pass, which is about where I started. Last night though, I'd dropped it down to 1/2-3/4 of an inch!

Anyway, it was nice to see progress in the tests, but it was also nice to have some validation that it really influences sports performance. My expectation is that the changes may be more subtle on the bike, since riding doesn't require such a wide variety of movements, but maybe I'll be surprised again?

Patience

"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."
- Leo Tolstoy

Patience is going to be the name of the game this year. Things will take as long as they take. Lack of patience is definitely part of the reason I got hurt early last year, and may have contributed to my flame-out during cross season. This year might have required some extra patience anyway. We've got a new baby coming in a few months, and I'm going to move up to Expert for mountain bike racing (sounds like a great combination!).

As I wrote earlier , I've been spending a lot of time working on my basic movement and flexibility. It's been pretty interesting to learn which parts of my body are reasonably flexible and which parts are definitely not. Progress in some areas has been pretty rapid, but other areas have been pretty slow. It's my goal to be able to pass all of the FMS tests by mid-February, but like I said, if it takes longer, it takes longer, and I'll keep working on it and maybe delay some other things.

Interesting aside, as part of working on this basic stuff, I've been keeping my posture in mind throughout the day. I went to the doctor's this week and they happened to measure my height; the physician's assistant was quite surprised to see that I had "grown" a quarter of an inch over the past year! I don't think she quite believed me when I said I'd been working on my posture.

One of my questions when I started working on this was if it would help me ride my bike better. After a month or so of doing this work, I definitely feel better; I feel like I move more freely (and, apparently, I'm also taller!). Last night, I got on my bike to practice trackstands, slow riding and basic body position in the garage. It was the first time I'd done this in quite a while, so I assumed I might be a little rusty. I was surprised to find that it actually went really well. It seemed like my range of motion on the bike was larger (and easier to access), so I was able to comfortably stay on the bike even when it was leaned to larger angles. Very interesting...

The last thing that had me thinking about patience was an article Joe Friel wrote about "aerobic de-coupling". Essentially, he says that you are aerobically fit when, on a ride of an appropriate length, your heart rate and power (or speed, on a flat / not windy course) are coupled together. If you're not fit, your HR will drift up for a constant power/speed, or, for constant HR, your power/speed will drift down. The idea is that you stay in the Base phase until you see the appropriate coupling... however long it takes.

Skiing at Independence Oaks

I took advantage of the snow we got this week and went skiing at Independence Oaks this morning. Since it was pretty cold today, I dressed warmly. As it turned out, I had on at least one too many layers. The sun was out, and with the heat generated from skiing, I was a little overdressed.

I ran into Tom Payn in the parking lot. Tom was one of my regular adversaries during the 'cross season; in particular, we had good battles at Munson and Lower Huron. So, we decided to ski together today. We also saw a few other bike racers out there.

Snow conditions ended up being just about perfect. I'm thinking I may go back again tomorrow. Might as well take advantage of the snow while we have it!

Does it say "PRO" or not?

It's been a quick week. I've felt a little off the past couple days. We're moving my daughter into a new bedroom, and the adjustment has meant a little less sleep for us. Still, it's going better than I expected.

We finally got a little snow yesterday. It should stick around for awhile, so I'm hoping to get out tomorrow and do some cross-country skiing. Hopefully it won't be too cold.

A couple of random links:

- Joe Friel's comments on pelvis position on the bike. I ran across this a long time ago, and didn't get too far with it at the time. Jeff has also been encouraging me to change the way I sit on the bike. So, I've been working on that, and my posture in general.

- Xtranormal video about a bike racer's Thanksgiving plans. Pretty funny.

Movement

So, it's back to reality. I started working again, and I resumed training last week. The break was nice; I got a lot of stuff done around the house (although there's more to do!), but I was ready for things to get back to normal.

My training is pretty light right now. I'm trying to ride at least once a week, but otherwise, I'm mostly doing stuff off the bike. My latest fascination is working on basic movement. There's a guy named Gray Cook whose theory is that basic movements form the foundation of your athletic ability. If you can't perform basic movements correctly (due to tightness, using the wrong muscles, etc), then you won't be able to perform at your highest level, and you will be at a higher risk for injury.

He's a big proponent of training only what you can test. So, a foundation of his program involves a "functional movement screen". He provides a simplified version in his book, Athletic Body in Balance. The first time I tried it, I failed 3 out of the 5 tests! Kind of humbling. After working diligently for a week on improving one of the movements, I easily (and I mean, easily!) passed it the second time. I think passing some of the other tests will take a bit more time.

One of the benefits of working on these movements so far is that I've gotten better at paying attention to what my body is doing. I'm noticing which muscles I'm using to do something, where I'm tight, etc. It remains to be seen whether this will make me faster on the bike, but it certainly can't hurt anything...

Skiing

I hadn't really planned to go skiing this morning, but, if you want to ski around here, you've got to go when you get the chance. It snowed most of yesterday and a little more overnight, so I got out first thing this morning.

I skied over at the nature center in my neighborhood. The trails aren't great, but it was fun to get out. It turned out that there was just barely enough snow to ski on.

A few random pictures from my phone...

Bike-shaped bike racks outside a restaurant in Baltimore.


Cora and Sarah watching some ducks.


Seoul, Korea.

Log Hopping

It's been a while since I've posted; I've been busy doing family Christmas stuff. Our last guests left this morning, so things should be getting back to normal.

I did manage to ride my bike a little yesterday. I rode on the trainer for about 45 minutes, mostly just easy spinning and working on pedaling technique. I also pulled my mountain bike out and practiced some stuff in the backyard, since our snow has melted.

I spent some time practicing the log-hopping technique that Gene taught us with a 4x4. This is sort of a low/medium speed technique where you set the front wheel on the obstacle and then lift the rear to land on or clear the obstacle. Setting the front wheel on the obstacle is important for progressing to bigger logs. Anyway, placing the front wheel properly usually isn't a big deal for me, so I was mostly thinking about lifting the rear.

Then, on one pass, I messed it up... I set the front wheel down in front of the 4x4, and then, because I was already into my "sequence", I lifted the rear anyway. Well, with all my weight on the front wheel in front of the 4x4, and the back of my bike already coming up, I did a beautiful low-speed endo over the 4x4! My bike landed right on top of me... nice. I was fine, but I'm a little sore today. I always wonder if the neighbors see me doing stuff like that... they probably already think I'm crazy.

Resting

So far, I've been enjoying my off-season. I hadn't realized how much pressure I was putting myself under near the end of the season; that probably also contributed to my results. In general, I'm a little surprised at how I feel so far. Physically, I definitely needed a break, so that's been good. Based on my comment above, I suppose I needed a mental break too, but I'm still really fired up about racing and training. I feel like I could start tomorrow again if I had to. Kind of strange, usually, I don't want to have anything to do with the bike for a few weeks after the season's over.

Anyway, I spent most of my evenings last week doing battle with the cars in a cold garage. I put the snow tires on the cars and I had some stubborn lug nuts and flat tires to deal with. It took quite a bit longer than I would have liked.

Friday afternoon, I came down with a cold, probably thanks to my nights in the garage. I haven't really felt too bad, but my throat has been sore and my nose has been running like crazy. I felt good enough that I went on Saturday night and rode my bike with some other Rhinos in the Clarkston Christmas Parade. It was pretty fun, and not too cold...

The mountain bike racing schedule for next year is out. I'm not really thrilled with how the first half of the season lines up with my tentative training plan. All the races in June would require some travel, and I'm not sure that I see that happening. I'm also going to be out of town for the Pontiac Lake XC race, which is kind of a bummer.

2009 Season Review

Now that the season's over, it's a good time to think about how the year went. I'll start forgetting stuff soon as I transition back to being a "normal" person for a while.

The mountain bike season got off to an unspectacular start. I managed to hurt my knee early this Spring, due to a position issue and probably doing too much too soon. That definitely set me back from a fitness perspective, but it did open the door for me to work on some riding skills.

My first couple of mountain bike races weren't so hot. It's hard to compete with the guys who have been training and doing the early season races when you effectively started training in May. As my fitness built up and my confidence in my skills improved, I started getting faster. By the end of the season, I had a nice 3rd place finish at the Pontiac Lake XC race and a 4th at Addison Oaks. I felt like I ended the mountain bike season in the best shape I've ever been in for mountain bike racing.

One of my goals for the year was to get good enough results and lap times to feel confident about moving up to Expert next year. With the exception of a couple early races this year, I feel like I accomplished that, so I'll be moving up for next year.

It was kind of an interesting year in terms of training. I rode less than I have in years past. The result was improved training consistency and better "balance" with the other things in my life. The balance thing is key, it's no good being out on a training ride feeling guilty because you're not spending enough time with your family. I also spent a lot more time working on my bike handling.

The cyclocross season seemed to be sort of the opposite of the mountain bike season. I got off to a fast start with top 10 finishes in each of my first 5 races. Then I got sick for a couple weeks in October and I never seemed to get back to the same level after that. The other interesting thing about this year's cyclocross season was that, even though I raced more than I have before (11 races), my motivation stayed pretty high the whole season. In past years, I've usually felt a bit burned out at some point. Maybe that's also attributable to training a bit less?

I had hoped to perform well enough at the 'cross races to also consider moving up for next year (admittedly, I hadn't looked at lap times before I had this idea), but I'm not really close right now. Even at the beginning of the season, I wasn't close. I would have had to improve from where I started (which I've done every year except this one!). So, it looks like another year of the B's for me.

So, there are a few key things that I learned this year that I'm going to try to carry over.

1. Even though I didn't like the cause, I sort of liked starting the season a little late. I think I'm going to start later next year too, maybe not worry too much about getting on the bike until the end of March / early April. It means that I have no chance to get ready for the early mountain bike races, but I'm OK with that. I figure that maybe I'll start racing in June again. It also sets me up nicely for cyclocross...

2. I really need to listen to myself! On the infamous ride where I got hurt this Spring, I knew that I should stop and go home, but I didn't. Before I got sick in October, I knew that I was pushing my limits in terms of training and sleep, but I just kept going. Training consistency is so much more important than trying to squeeze in that little bit extra.

3. I kind of hinted at it, but didn't come out and say it above. Especially during the mountain bike season, I think I was faster than in past years simply because I could handle my bike better. It's been a gradual process, but I think that, especially with what I learned at Gene's camp, I should continue to get better... and I still have a lot of room for improvement.

Cross Fall-off

So, in every year I've raced 'cross, up until this one, I've gotten faster as the season went on. This year, I started pretty fast, and then got slower. I can say that, for sure, it is more fun to get faster...

I've spent some time thinking about what happened, mostly so I can avoid doing the same thing next year. The key event was that I got sick just after I came back from Virginia and it took me a while to recover. I was sick from Oct 12 - 28. I definitely extended my illness by trying to resume training too quickly.

From October 28 until the end of the season was only about 5.5 weeks. Not much time to rebuild after being mostly down for over two weeks.

My illness was predictable though, and I could have taken some steps to prevent it. I think that a major contributor had to do with the way I structured my year. Due to my early-season knee problem, I sort of got off to a late start. But once I got going, I didn't stop. I trained with no significant break (Transition-type phase) from early May until October! About 22 weeks! I think I would have been better off taking a break at some point and re-loading a bit. I guess I was thinking I didn't need to since I started late. I also was treating my trip to Yosemite as a break, but, given all the hiking we did, it really wasn't. From May 11 until the end of cyclocross season would have been about 30 weeks... so, I think my illness was just a matter of time. Even if I hadn't gotten sick, it seems like I probably couldn't have held my fitness through the whole 'cross season.

I'll be keeping this in mind as I start to plan out my schedule for next year. For now though, I'll be taking a much-needed break!

Cora went to the race on Sunday with my parents. One of her new favorite phrases is, "Dad fall down in the mud." She seemed to think that was pretty funny...

Springfield Oaks CX - 2009

My last race of 2009 is now in the books. It was a tough day. The weather was pretty cold, around 30F, and there was a little wind. The course was fun, but the conditions changed quite a bit throughout the day. During my test laps before the C race, a lot of the course was frozen and there wasn't too much mud. I was able to ride everything without too much trouble. I went back out after the C race to see how things had changed. The little sidehill ride had gotten pretty chewed up and was now difficult to ride. I also fell hard on a downhill left-hander that had given me no trouble earlier. I had to twist one shifter back into position and tweak my derailleur hanger a bit after that crash. So, I started the race with my left side already covered in mud.

The race sort of went like Bloomer did, I just felt like I wasn't able to generate any power. I had recognized that this was a possibility beforehand, so I kept a better attitude about it this time and just kept riding. The other difference was that I crashed four or five times.

The course conditions continued to change during the race. It turned out that even running the sidehill section was tricky, I slipped and fell a couple times. That downhill left-hander also got muddier and continued to give me problems. I eventually just decided to take it with my inside foot unclipped every lap. That actually resulted in my most painful crash. On one lap, my bike started to slide, so I put my foot down, but the bike kept sliding, so I ended up kind of doing the splits and landing on my butt. I'm still feeling that one today!

I rode near fellow Rhinos Richard and Chris for the middle part of the race. I really thought I'd be able to hang on to them, but I just couldn't quite do it. (I also noticed that I didn't seem to have the motivation to suffer like I needed to for this race.)

I ended up riding the last couple laps with a guy from the Racing Greyhounds. I was just ahead of him going into the last stretch of grass. I took the corner entering the grass too hot and slid out; since he was right behind me, he ran into me and went down too. I figured that since I took him out, I'd wait up a bit so we could have a fair finish (if he'd have fallen on his own, I wouldn't have waited). Anyway, it took him a while, but he caught up and we had a good sprint. He ended up nipping me at the line, probably by just a couple inches. (This actually generated a little discussion on the MMBA forums...)

I ended up 15th out of 26. Again, not a particularly competitive race on my part, but I don't know that there was much I could've done differently. One thing I do want to take a look at for next year is how I warm up and do my pre-race routine on these colder days. I wasn't cold while racing (after the first lap anyway), but my muscles never really got feeling good and warm either.

States Prep

So, the last race of the season this Sunday. I've been doing what I can do to prepare for it. I've mostly been resting a lot, but I've gotten in a couple short hard workouts to keep the body primed. I feel like my fitness is a question mark for this weekend, but 'cross isn't all about fitness. If I ride smart and corner aggressively, maybe I can still do pretty well.

I am looking forward to some time off the bike and I'm starting to think about next year. I've been working on a little post-mortem about what happened this 'cross season. It's been an interesting process, but I don't want to post it just yet. I'm trying to stay positive and focused on the Sunday race.


Couple of interesting random things. One is a link to "Iron and the Soul", by Henry Rollins (courtesy of Ross)... pretty cool.

The second is a comment that Sarah made the other day. I was half-watching Transition 2 while I was doing some work in the basement. She watched part of it and commented that the (Pro) racers in that movie were mostly all pretty muscular, whereas at our local races, the guys are "just skinny". In particular, I think she was referring to us "B" racers. It got me thinking a little bit; I remember when I first saw Jon Page at our UCI race, I was surprised that he has a fairly muscular build, for a cyclist anyway. I'm not exactly sure what my point is...

Field Test

I did a threshold power "field test" this afternoon. I've been pretty lax about testing this year. I'll blame dead computer batteries (that I didn't replace all year). The only other one I did was in the Spring, just before I got hurt.

I wasn't too sure what to expect. I know that my fitness has dropped off a bit from the late Summer / early Fall, but I didn't know how much. I also did the test on my 'cross bike, in the garage, with a not-so-true rear wheel, and not on a rest week. It all makes the test variation a bit higher... maybe a lot higher.

Anyway, despite not having tested for a while, I actually put in a nicely-measured effort. I held back a bit the first 10 minutes or so, then the next 10 were getting pretty hard, and then the last 10 minutes were miserable. So, just about right. My only complaint was that I needed a gear in between the two that I was riding in. In one, I was spinning just a little too fast, but the next one down was just a little too hard and was burning up my legs. By the end, I was switching between the two every couple minutes, just trying to hang on.

The good news was that I tied my second best ever threshold power number (set Spring 2008) and I beat my number from this Spring. The bad news, I guess, is that you'd always like to see a higher number!

I've actually only tested one other time at the end of the season (way back in 2006!). It is nice to have that number for the following Spring. Kind of gives you some idea what happened over the Winter.

New Blog

I ran across a new (to me) blog the other day. This one is written by Sam Krieg. A couple of good posts here and here.


The more I think about how I felt at Bloomer and during the days leading up to it, the more I'm convinced that I was just too tired. I still don't think that I was training too much, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't resting enough. I felt fatigued to start some of my workouts last week (and the previous week), but I just pushed through it. I think that you can do that for a while, but not too long before it catches up with you.

Bloomer CX - 2009

“It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.”

- Vince Lombardi

Probably the best thing about this race was that I hung in there and finished...

I woke up to a foggy morning on Sunday. When I looked outside, I was hoping that the fog meant it was a little warm, but it wasn't. It was cold enough that the fog made you even colder. Good 'cross weather I suppose.

My legs felt a little flat during my warmup, but not bad, so I figured I should be OK. The course was pretty fun again; a good mix of fast open corners and some tighter ones. We also went back through the woods for a while.

After questioning my effort just a bit last week, I planned to try for a faster start this week. Apparently, that was everyone else's plan too. So, even though I was going hard at the start, it felt like the whole field swarmed by me. Before the end of the first lap, I was well out of the top 10, and I felt like crap.

I continued to lose ground on the second and third laps, getting passed by people that I felt I "should" beat (didn't they know they were just supposed to follow me around?). After getting taken into the course tape, I was about ready to just stop. There were enough people cheering for me though that I felt like I had to keep going. I started trying to be a little more positive, "Hey, those guys started too fast, hang in there, they'll come back to you." Doing that, I suffered through the rest of the race. Finally, on the last lap, a few people did start coming back to me. I ended up passing maybe 3-4 guys on that last lap.

(Nice head position on this corner! Photo by Hans Nyberg.)

Still, I ended up finishing a disappointing 16th out of 25. For whatever reason, I was just physically way off the pace. Probably my attitude in the middle laps didn't help me either.

So what happened? I think that it was a combination of the following:

• As I wrote last week, I haven't been sleeping quite enough. Friday night was actually pretty bad. I just woke up at 2am for no particular reason and never really got soundly back to sleep. I watched my daughter all day on Saturday, which was fun, but tiring. Anyway, by the end of the day Saturday, I was pretty wiped out.
• I also wonder about my training. At this point in the year, the few training rides I'm doing are relatively short and intense. I think this is the right formula, but I wonder if I should have gone a bit harder? I also did some longer (15 minute) intervals on Wednesday night; maybe that left me a little flat?
• I felt like I was starting to get a little sick this week. Nothing ever came of it, but maybe it did mess me up a little.

I think it helps to have a short memory and be a little bit delusional if you're a bike racer. You have to somehow really believe that next weekend you can line up against the same guys and perform better. So, that's what I'll try to do in two weeks for the last race. I think I've still got a bit of fitness, I just need to let it show.

Sleep

I'm pretty sure I'd be faster if I could get just a little more sleep. Actually, I've been able to get a pretty decent amount lately, but just another hour or so a night would do wonders I think. Ah well, that's how it goes.

Not much to blog about lately. Our basement has been all torn up for the past month or so from water damage, so I've had to do my riding on the trainer in the garage. It's not been as bad as I thought, but it's still pretty bad (cold and dull). Training rides in the garage just don't provide much blog material...

It's hard to believe that there's just a little over two weeks left in my season. I'm still pretty motivated to race, but I'm also looking forward to being done and doing "normal" things at home for awhile.

I'm racing this Sunday at Bloomer. I've been having trouble remembering what that course is usually like; I went back through my race results and noticed that I've actually only done the CX race there twice! One of those times was back in 2005, my very first cyclocross race!

(Bloomer 2005!)

Stony Creek CX - 2009

Last Sunday was the Stony Creek cyclocross race. We had beautiful weather on Saturday (sunny and 70F); I was out raking leaves in a T-shirt and jeans. So, I was thinking that we wouldn't have "good" cyclocross weather for Sunday. As it turned out, Sunday was cooler (around 50F) and overcast, there was a cold wind blowing off the lake at the park and it was spitting rain. Good cyclocross weather after all!

I've had a couple good weeks of training and I'm totally over my cold, so, physically, I felt like I should do well. Mentally, for whatever reason, I just wasn't fired up for this race. It wasn't like I didn't want to race, but I just wasn't particularly excited about it.

After pre-riding the course, it looked like the start might be a little dicey. The course quickly funneled down onto a relatively narrow bike path with some curbs on the side at the transition. I wanted to make sure I got a clear shot at it. Otherwise, the course was pretty fun. It was a little more open and flowing than some of the other courses we've raced on this year. We also had the traditional long ride/run across the beach... good for getting the legs burning!

So, I ended up getting a spot on the front row and got off to a good start. I was probably in 6th or so heading on to the bike path, so that was no problem. I didn't try too hard to hang with the front group, since that usually leads to me massively blowing up. My legs felt pretty good for most of the race. It seemed like I could pedal pretty hard up the hills and I was looking for harder gears as soon as I got out of slow sections.

(Photo by Hans Nyberg)

After the first couple laps, things had pretty well thinned out and I found myself around the usual suspects. Fellow Rhino Gary Olson was right with me once again. On the second to last lap, I heard Gary slide out on a corner behind me. I didn't attack, but I didn't slow down either. It turned out to be too much of a gap for Gary to close though.

On the last lap, I saw a couple guys up ahead that were slowing, but I didn't have enough in the tank to catch and pass them. I ended up 11th out of 24. Again, about where I usually finish, although it's been a while since I've beaten Gary.

After the race, I locked my keys in the car. I had put my bike away, but I hadn't gotten dressed yet, so with the cold and wind, that was pretty sweet. Fortunately, Jan let me borrow some extra clothes until Sarah showed up with the extra keys. He definitely saved the day!

(Jan makes the blog for his generosity! Photo by Hans Nyberg.)

It's been a little hard for me to evaluate this race. I felt pretty good physically, but since I wasn't too fired up for the race, I wonder if I could have pushed a little harder. I had expected to get back into the top 10, so I was a little disappointed I didn't quite get there. That said, there were 3 guys that finished less than 20s ahead of me, so I wasn't that far off. My percentage calculation also didn't look so hot, 7.7% off the leader's pace; exactly what I did on Vets Park - Day 2, which was not a good race for me.

On the other hand, my initial reaction after I finished was that I'd had a pretty good race. So I want to make sure that this isn't a case where a less-than-ideal result wrecks an otherwise good race. That's part of the problem with my percentage evaluation scheme; if I improve and the race-winner also improves, it doesn't show up in the percentage.

Sunday Ride

We had some uncharacteristically beautiful weather this weekend. Temps were in the high 50's / low 60's both days and the sky was clear. Pretty crazy for November in Michigan.

I went to the Michigan football game on Saturday, so I was relegated to the trainer when I got home on Saturday night.

On Sunday, I went to the group ride that Mark W organized. The plan was to ride the dirt roads around Clarkston (we used the normal Thursday night route); do a good warmup, get in some intensity, and then cool back down.

I didn't do any of the Thursday rides this year, but last year, I never made it through without getting dropped. So, my plan for Sunday was to ride smart, stay out of the wind, and keep my effort pretty steady (and try to stay with the group!).

Things ended up going pretty well for me, although I'm not sure that we went quite as fast as I've gone before on Thursdays. We stopped to regroup a few times, but the group didn't have to wait for me. I got through my usual breaking point, Horton Rd (about halfway through the ride), with no problem. I felt pretty good on the hills coming back toward Clarkston, which was a first. And when Mark (and someone else) turned the screws a bit on the last stretch of dirt road into town, I put in a good chase. Not enough to catch Mark and companion (until they sat up), but enough to gap the rest of the group.

Anyway, it was a good ride, and a nice change of pace from what I've been doing lately (short intervals on the trainer). I'm feeling like my fitness is pretty reasonable again after those couple weeks I was sick. We'll see on Sunday how much ground I've made up...

Good Training

I've gotten in a pretty good week of training so far. I did some pretty hard intervals on the trainer on Tuesday night. Last night I went out to Waterford Oaks right after work and did a little 'cross ride.

I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to do a ride like last night. I left right after I got home from work, only rode an hour, and still was happy to have my lights as I rode home. I guess that's how it goes...

Anyway, I felt much better on the bike both days than I did over the weekend, so I'm optimistic that I'll be going pretty well by the next race at Stony.

Veterans Park CX - 2009

Wow, quite a weekend of racing!

It had rained pretty much all day on Friday, so Veteran's Park was still pretty wet on Saturday. Temperatures weren't too bad, mid 40's, but we had some serious winds to deal with. Vet's Park is always a hilly course, but usually you can recover a bit on the flatter sections. With the wind and the soft/muddy ground, there was no place to recover.

After two warmup laps, my legs were already hurting, so I wasn't too optimistic about how I'd feel in the race. Because of that and the tough conditions, I started a little more conservatively than I usually do. A lot of people passed me on the first lap, but the course started taking it's toll on some of them, and they came back to me in the later laps.

I felt pretty terrible the whole race, but I ended up riding around the same people I usually do. Most of the day, it seemed like the group ahead of me was just a few seconds ahead, but I just couldn't get up to them. I was noticeably faster than the other guys around me on some of the corners and on the hills, but, on the flat sections, they would take back whatever advantage I had gained.

One thing that I'll credit Gene for was my confidence on some of the faster slippery corners. There was one downhill, muddy, off-camber corner. On one lap, I had the bike leaned over and I was nicely balanced over the bottom bracket. Both tires were sliding, but I just stayed calm in my balanced position and rode it out... no big deal. It was pretty cool. Maybe not fast, but cool.

It's been a long time since I've done a bike race with mud, so I was curious about how my shoes and pedals would work. My Time ATAC pedals worked flawlessly the whole day, even though my shoes were caked in mud. There were a few times I wished that I'd put my toe spikes in though. My Challenge Fango tires also worked reasonably well in the short muddy stretches.

Anyway, I finished just a couple spots back from where I usually do, 13 out of 28. My pace was off though, about 37s per lap slower than the winner (7%).

The weather was much nicer on Sunday. Temperature was about the same, but there was no wind and the sun was out. The course had dried out a bit and I thought the layout was a little easier too.

Photo by Bruce LeBlanc

I was cautiously optimistic that I'd feel a bit better on Sunday. I did feel a little better, but it didn't really translate into an improved performance. Otherwise, the race went about like it did on Saturday. I ended up 14th out of 27 on Sunday, about 36s per lap slower than the winner (8%). Looking at my lap times, you can see that I was totally cooked by the end of the race; my last couple laps were about 30s slower than my first one. Usually I'm much more consistent than that. Although, I noticed that most of the guys that finished around me followed the same pattern.

Photo by Bruce LeBlanc

In general, my fitness just wasn't there this weekend, but, with being sick, that's really no surprise. I've got two weeks to get ready for the next race at Stony Creek; I think that should be enough time to have rebuilt a bit. Hopefully I can at least get back to my baseline 4% at that race.

One more interesting thing: during my "rehearsal" on Friday for the race, I noticed that I pause a little after I jump back on the bike before I start trying to find the pedal with my right foot. There's really no reason to do it, and it costs me a little momentum. So, I made an effort all weekend to eliminate that pause and get my right foot in the pedal as quickly as possible. I thought it seemed to help; I felt like I was able to accelerate out of the barriers a little more quickly. So many little things...