Jonathan's Race Rehearsal
Hello All,
So my race rehearsal was scheduled for Saturday… Well that did not happen since I was not feeling to swift Saturday morning… Belly issues and I thought it would not be a good idea to ride and have to stop every 15 to 20 minutes. I am pretty sure that I really need to practice my day before eating habits. (Lesson 1)
Since I was a train wreck all Saturday, I moved my race rehearsal to Sunday. So my race rehearsal was a little modified since I was not able to make it to the pool because of time constrains. (Brunch plans and the pool did not open until 7:00) Thus my plan was to ride the full 56 miles and run 6 miles.
Nutrition for the day: Usual race morning breakfast (oatmeal with honey and peanut butter and bottle of perform), gel every 30 minutes and a bottle of perform every hour on the bike, then a gel every 20 to 25 minutes on the run with a bottle of cold perform on my back…
Goal for the ride:
Keep around 145 to 155 watts the whole ride. (more about these crappy number of watts) The ride on the way out was ok. Nothing too important to speak of, other than the new arm rest extensions are an amazing addition to the bike. Both, my shoulders and my back held up great and I did not have any issues with my pinched nerve. UNTIL!!!!
On my way back at about mile 29, I hit a massive pothole patch will going about 28 miles an hour. This caused my new arm rest extension and arm rest to fly off the bike and a bottle to be lost (did not realize it was missing until many miles later). I found the arm rest and the extension but I could not find the spacer/raiser. So keep in mind, I am 27 miles away from home, I have one arm rest that is off the bike, and I am scratching my head… WTF do I do now???
The good news is that this exact spot has been carnage for many other cyclists because I found a nice rusty multi-tool in the grass next to my arm rest. So I screwed on the arm rest as much as I could, it was still a little wobbly because the spacer is missing and the screws where too long without the spacer.
I get back on my bike and start to ride again. The remainder of the ride is in the horns and no more aero for me. BLAST, my back, shoulders, and hands hurt like a freaking bear half way through. At this point, I realize that my third bottle of Perform is GONE!!! This was also favorite water bottle (Last years IM Lake Placid). BLAST…. Ok, so I change up my nutrition and decided to take a gel every 20 to 25 minutes instead of every 30 minutes to help fuel me.
The fatal error: I took a different way home. I have never taken this way home before on my bike, I drive it every day. Well, this “Path” was bumpy, pothole covered, over grown with trees, sand and gravel covered, and just in crappy shape the last 7 miles. Yes, I could have road on the road but it would not have been safe. Too many crazy drivers, too many blind turns, and people just not obeying the speed limits. It was not worth it. So by the end of the 7 miles, my arms are SHOT and my hands and wrists are killing me. This also killed my watts, average speed, and my over all time:
My “RUN”:
Once I dropped off my bike, I hit up the bathroom…. Yup, I was there long enough for my legs and back to cramp. So I headed out for my run reluctantly. I got a mile out and said, “Yup, I am done.” My hips, back, arms, and wrists where just in pain and I thought it would be best just to chuck in the hat and call it a day.
My decision was stemmed from, I AM OUT OF SHAPE!!! Honestly, I have been slacking for the last two months and I just have not been getting in the bike workouts. Is there an excuse? YES, tons of them. But they are all excuses and not valid reasons. So I have to learn from this and just start from square one by getting my behind in the saddle. The good news is that this all happened on a race rehearsal and not during the race. So I have learned how crappy I am doing with regards to my training.
Comments
Hi Jonathan,
It does look like you learned a lot yesterday and that's good. One thing I notice is that your normalized power was a lot higher than your average power which tells me that your VI was probably way over 1.0. If you can smooth that out it will help a lot during the run and will smooth out the course. The max power looks high too, but that can be misleading since it could be that high for a second, but if you're spiking like that for long you're burning matches and that will kill your legs and set up a bad run. I don't know what the roads were like that you're using but if there are a lot of stops and starts it will be harder to keep the max power and the VI down.
I agree that your nutrition the day before the RR is important. I didn't follow my usual race prep nutrition for my first RR because we had just gotten our first box of organic vegetables for the season the day before and I pigged out on them for dinner. I knew I would pay for it during the ride the next day but I didn't care. I spent more than a few minutes in the bathroom on the ride. The second RR I did follow pre-race protocols and did fine during the RR.
Take care and happy training.