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Downers Grove: A complete failure.

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Downers Grove: A complete failure.

Old 08-17-08, 10:04 PM
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Downers Grove: A complete failure.

I think I can explain my results quickly and simply, but I don't know, really.

The race was 50min+1, at 9:00am. Every one of my races before this had been 75min+, and 90% of those after 3pm.

I haven't raced before noon since April 2007. Maybe half a dozen rides before noon since then, too.

Quite simply, I couldn't get my heart rate up enough to hurt myself. I took one flyer off the front, reached the break, and then I was toast. Utter and complete toast. The type of effort I did to reach the break I can usually hold for 3-4 minutes; today, about a minute. I was never in pain. I simply couldn't move fast enough. I felt as if there was a vacuum sucking the blood/glycogen out of my muscles. Completely helpless.

The weird thing is that I haven't felt bad in training lately; I've had a decent/normal amount of sleep, I'm producing good power, and my weight is steady.

So, I guess my question is this...has my season up to this point limited my ability to prepare myself for early races like this?

I'm searching for something to explain why I felt so terrible on one of the most important days of my season.
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Old 08-17-08, 10:17 PM
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You wanted your body to do something you have not trained it to do. I don't train before noon, but I have a buddy that likes to. Whenever I ride with him I am the biggest pile of fail on the road, it's not uncommon for me to take an hour or 2 to get warmed up. I do alright in races that start before 10, but most of my races are 2-3 hours away so I generally have 3-5 hours to wake up and get my body alert and ready to go. Try waking up really early next time you have a 9AM.
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Old 08-17-08, 10:27 PM
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Originally Posted by Duke of Kent
So, I guess my question is this...has my season up to this point limited my ability to prepare myself for early races like this?

I'm searching for something to explain why I felt so terrible on one of the most important days of my season.
No.

You have your good days and your bad days- even if you do everything right.
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Old 08-18-08, 12:20 AM
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Originally Posted by obra3
You have your good days and your bad days- even if you do everything right.
This is where having a PM comes in handy in looking to see if you went too hard on the bridge. Probably not, but if this was your "A" race with an extra shot of adrenaline...can be a fine line there.

Time of day issue...unlikely.

Good opener the day prior?

Feeding time and type prior to the race?

Change in your warm up?

Sliding off your peak?

All this is assuming you didn't roll out of bed 10 minutes before your start time.

But Obra is right, bad days happen. Awful when they come at a big race.

Sorry to hear it didn't go well.
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Old 08-18-08, 06:49 AM
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I dont quite understand your concern as the most critical info is missing from your post - what happened after you reached the early breakaway? If I'm decoding correctly, you say you didnt feel good and had low HR during power levels that shouldnt be an issue for you, but what happened next is what matters most. Sometimes after a big effort or feeling poorly something snaps and all of a sudden I'm fast, other times, not so much.

Bad days usually have a reason, when folks cant figure it out, they just say the ubiquitous "bad day". Could be just about anything, fatigue, which could be indicated by low HR (you've done lots of crits lately iirc, this takes a toll and eventually your body is going to slide off the top form); could be that you're getting a cold/sick (myself right now, horrible feeling and low Ws on last tuesday a.m. workout, sick by the p.m.); maybe you psyched yourself out since you were placing high priorty on this race? Maybe you were just in over your head. I highly doubt it's because you had to get out of bed and race earlier than normal - we're talking 9 a.m., not exactly the middle of the night.
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Old 08-18-08, 07:25 AM
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Well, I went and took a look at my training journal (excel spreadsheet). I generally just note what I did and how I was feeling, in addition to the standard date/time/duration of ride.

Two of the last three morning rides have left me feeling like this; one of them ended in a full-blown bonk only two hours into a three hour ride. So bad that I had to get off my bike for 30min, eat a LOT of convenience store food, and still barely made it home.

So, I'm thinking there is something to this. Maybe I'm not eating the right things before morning races/rides, maybe I'm not eating enough, maybe I'm not sleeping enough (only got 6hrs of sleep Saturday night, but I've been fine on less before), etc.

And, really, this race was probably one of the easiest races I've done this year...Cat2-only crit. Before the race I felt/knew that I was capable of rolling with any move that went up the road. Felt like a top-5 result was definitely possible.

Something in my pre-race preparation just flat out failed me Sunday. I'm not happy about what happened, and I'm going to do more morning rides on the weekends this fall/winter to see if I can diagnose the problem and prevent this from happening in the future.
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Old 08-18-08, 08:01 AM
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i find that if you never train, you're equally prepared for everyrace... it seems like that has been my strategy lately!
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Old 08-18-08, 08:28 AM
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Yeah, I'm leaning towards thinking it's either diet related, you're getting sick, or placebo morning drag.
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Old 08-18-08, 09:02 AM
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Doing a little rethink...the lowered HR is probably your best indicator. That's a chronic or acute fatigue indicator, or evidence of a lack of warmup.

Unless you had a full or partially full stomach from eating too much too close to the race, I'd pull feeding off the list. Meltdown came too early in the race.

I end up doing a lot of early morning races, I make it a point to get up three hours ahead to eat and just wake up. And I find that the further I am along in my peak, it takes harder warmups to have me ready to go; my resting HR gets pretty stoopid.

Be interested to hear how this week's training/recovery rides go.
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Old 08-18-08, 09:17 AM
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Originally Posted by Racer Ex
Doing a little rethink...the lowered HR is probably your best indicator. That's a chronic or acute fatigue indicator, or evidence of a lack of warmup.

Unless you had a full or partially full stomach from eating too much too close to the race, I'd pull feeding off the list. Meltdown came too early in the race.

I end up doing a lot of early morning races, I make it a point to get up three hours ahead to eat and just wake up. And I find that the further I am along in my peak, it takes harder warmups to have me ready to go; my resting HR gets pretty stoopid.

Be interested to hear how this week's training/recovery rides go.
+1.

All the symptoms Duke mentions would, for me, indicate an inadequate warmup.

With a good warmup I've done races where I spent over 60 minutes in Zone 5 and finished strong.

With a not-so-good warmup I've done races where I spent 6 minutes in Zone 5 and ended up blowing up and getting dropped.

But, of course, that's just me. We're all different.

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Old 08-18-08, 10:02 AM
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Get up early.
Hot shower.
Eat.
Ride for 60-90' w/plenty of effort, or 40' on trainer with solid efforts.
Another hot shower.
More eats.
Get to race.
Roll around for 10-15'.
9am - Race hard.

This is what I do for any race in the morning. You are so used to racing in the afternoons after a full day of "living", that morning rides mean blocked for you.
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Old 08-18-08, 10:22 AM
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I think you also hit on something when you said your last few morning rides have been poor. Imagine waking up at 8AM for a 4PM race. Sit on the couch watching TV all day without eating or drinking anything. Then line up to race.

That's basically what you're doing when you sleep. Its apparently good training to allow yourself to become calorie deficient but I imagine for a race, not so much...
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Old 08-18-08, 11:36 AM
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Hot Shower?

I never thought of that but it sounds like a great idea. Is the thought that the hot water softens up the muscles a bit?

I also had a bad day at DG but it was fun.
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Old 08-18-08, 01:14 PM
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Originally Posted by Mayonnaise
Hot Shower?

I never thought of that but it sounds like a great idea. Is the thought that the hot water softens up the muscles a bit?
More for a clean, refreshed feeling and to help limber up stiff muscles. Nothing like a good stretch in a hot shower. Plus the undercarriage is ripe for bad things in chamois. Seriously.

Please trolls, no comments!
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Old 08-18-08, 06:25 PM
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DoK,

Do you monitor your resting HR? By that I mean do you wake up and immediately take your HR before you sling one foot out of bed? If so, what did you find?

I agree with the lack of warm up/change in routine theory as the most likely culprit thus far.

Having said that I've had great races when my routine was broken and poor results when I did everything else right.

IIRC your racing volume is up as of late, non? Could it be that there are no more cookies in the jar?

As Ex mentioned earlier, your recovery will reveal all.
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Old 08-18-08, 10:41 PM
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My racing volume has actually decreased of late.

After doing nine 100km crits at SuperWeek, I took a super easy week and rested up. Rode Elk Grove in support of a teammate. Moderate week after that, two easy races at Grayslake and Glencoe, only 75min+2L for both of those, and once the break was established, I got a free ride aside from the last 20min or so.

Today, my training ride was fine. Semi-recovery day, pretty easy but not really tooling around. Low-end tempo, I guess. No soreness, no fatigue, no shortness of breath nor any trouble with the drained feeling I experienced yesterday. I do have some enlarged lymph nodes on my neck that are a bit sensitive to pressure, but I don't have any symptoms of any cold/flu/AIDS at the moment.

I don't regularly monitor my resting heart rate, but I'll try to remember for the next couple of mornings. As I type, it's 22 beats in 30 seconds, or 44bpm. That sounds a little TOO low for me; usually it's in the low 50s or high 40s. Does this mean (in conjunction with the lymph nodes being swollen) I need to step back for a bit? I've never had a problem with overtraining or overdoing the intensity of my workouts or races, and I don't FEEL tired or sick right now, so I'm clueless.
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Old 08-19-08, 12:04 AM
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Coming off the heels of 900km of crit racing you might be a bit cooked. That's a lot of intensity, and equivalent to two shorter stage races. Without getting deeper into your schedule and metrics it's a bit of shooting in the dark, but a week of easy probably won't be enough to recharge, especially if you're jumping right back into things.

For me I usually see my performance getting erratic right before the wheels come off. One day you'll feel great, then the next you can't pedal. Mentally I get fried too. Everyone's different, but that's a lot of hard racing in a short period...
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Old 08-19-08, 08:27 AM
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Originally Posted by Duke of Kent
My racing volume has actually decreased of late.

After doing nine 100km crits at SuperWeek, I took a super easy week and rested up. Rode Elk Grove in support of a teammate. Moderate week after that, two easy races at Grayslake and Glencoe, only 75min+2L for both of those, and once the break was established, I got a free ride aside from the last 20min or so.

Today, my training ride was fine. Semi-recovery day, pretty easy but not really tooling around. Low-end tempo, I guess. No soreness, no fatigue, no shortness of breath nor any trouble with the drained feeling I experienced yesterday. I do have some enlarged lymph nodes on my neck that are a bit sensitive to pressure, but I don't have any symptoms of any cold/flu/AIDS at the moment.

I don't regularly monitor my resting heart rate, but I'll try to remember for the next couple of mornings. As I type, it's 22 beats in 30 seconds, or 44bpm. That sounds a little TOO low for me; usually it's in the low 50s or high 40s. Does this mean (in conjunction with the lymph nodes being swollen) I need to step back for a bit? I've never had a problem with overtraining or overdoing the intensity of my workouts or races, and I don't FEEL tired or sick right now, so I'm clueless.
Other than finding that humorous, I have nothing constructive to add.
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Old 08-19-08, 12:13 PM
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Duke, have you measured your max-power lately and/or throughout the season? I've found that as the season progresses, my max-power drops 25-40%. It's not that big of a deal as you don't need much power to sit in a pack. But jumps, catching breaks and sprints are all affected by it. And I've found that later on in the season, to do the same efforts, I have to work at a higher-percentage of my current max-power and end up getting toasted easier.
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Old 08-19-08, 01:15 PM
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YMCA, don't give bad advice. Every true euro knows that showers fill your legs with water and make you slow. Come on!
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