Training and Racing Observations - week 4/18 to 4/25

Since most of you are interested in my musings on all things training and racing, I thought I would start a regular post discussing my previous week's efforts both preparing and performing, successes and failures and how I think I got there. Lot's of stuff goes through my head guiding my decisions on volume and intensity for any particular block. Perhaps writing my thought processes here will give others insight that could help their own progress.

I finished the 25 hour, 8-day endurance fest with a long drive over two days. I was not able to get on the bike for either of those days so last Monday and Tuesday were a bust for miles. Wednesday I decided to hit with all guns blazing. My Restwise score was 90 which indicated I was good to go. Turns out, I felt like I was good to go too! Did a bunch of hill repeats and had one of those sessions where you really can't go hard enough to hurt yourself. You ask more of your lungs and legs and they keep giving. I love that! When I'm feeling that "on" during a training session I make sure I take advantage of it and really give 'er. I did. Efforts were between 2 and 5 minutes. I did 7 or 8 of them. I ended up with about 2 hours for the session going and coming.

I had a race coming up on Sunday so I was scheming how to go into it with some good training but still rested enough to perform well. I decided to stack a couple of intensity days together and hit Thursday with some hill sprints. Now, these are only 20 second efforts and I don't actually do them at a full sprint but I am plenty loaded at the end. I try to stop just as my breathing gets hard and my legs are just short of exploding. Shutting it down right then definitely speeds up the recovery between efforts since the acid load is fairly small. I am also able to maintain a high quality effort by resting 4-5 minutes between each with easy spinning. I use a big gear so it's not unlike a weight training effort but very sport specific. Another 2.25 hours.

Speaking of weights, I wanted to get a gym session in since I had missed out on weights for two weeks due to racing and traveling. Wednesday was the plan but life got in the way. I knew I was going to be sore so I wanted at least 2 days to recover before the race. After my ride on Thursday I hit the gym getting several sets of heavy trap bar dead lifts in and some one-legged drop down squats. I had not done single leg work in a few months and I felt the squats in my VMO (vastus medialis oblique) big time.

After doing a significant amount of work the past two days including a gym session I expected to have some tired legs. My Recovery Score was 80 but I suspected that was a head fake. Sure enough, when I got out on the bike, legs of shit were the rule! Self-fulfilling prophecy? Perhaps, but I simply spun for 1.5 hours and called it good. Old habits die hard and, with a race approaching, recovery was the order of the day no matter how good my score was. I discussed this apparent contradiction with Matthew Weatherley-White, one of the developers of Restwise. He explained to me that the tool is not meant to predict any one performance but rather track trends in recovery. So, it is possible to have shitty legs on a day when, overall, you are absorbing and responding favorably to the workload. That explains my perception on Friday. Fair enough.

I headed to Boise, the site of the race, on Saturday and arrived in time to get a nice little ride in with Matthew and Nate. In spite of being at the forefront of the endurance world with the development of Restwise and coaching Rebecca Rusch, one of the top female endurance MTB'ers in the business, Matthew has little time to actually BE an endurance athlete. Talk about life getting in the way. So, it was nice to get him out on the bike for a little shake down prior to the race. We talked shop a lot but the kept the pace above a noodle. I smacked it once just to make sure the legs were open and felt pretty good. Seemed like I was on track.

A nice leisurely start time of 10:40 am allowed for a relaxed drive to the race after breakfast. It was cool but sunny with moderate wind on the higher parts of the course. We were doing 2 thirty mile laps with a short little climb, lots of false flat, some wind and the crux, a 5 minute section of loose dirt road. Multi-world and national masters champion, Richard Feldman, was in our field so we knew we were racing for second if he kept the air in his tires. Although he is 40 years old this year, he is stronger than most Cat 1 racers in this country. Something in the water up there in Sun Valley! Another former Sun Valley resident, Michael Tobin, was also in attendance. He has more world-class wins and performances in more sports than anyone on the planet. Pikes Peak, Powerman Duathlon, X-Terra, Eco Challenge, Primal Quest, Raid Gauloises...he has won them all. Now retired and certainly not in his best form, he nevertheless brought some serious horsepower to our field. 

Anyway, we hit the first climb with some pace and I was able to hold third wheel. I was nearly on the rivet and was disappointed to see about 8 others behind me as we crested the top. It's a short climb so some stragglers were able to rejoin on the descent. Nothing happened until the dirt section when Richard went to the front. I was third wheel going flat out, trying to keep straight and upright, swimming around in the gravel. About half way through, Richard simply rode away from us in a demoralizing display of power riding. He had about 15 seconds on us when we hit the pavement and started the second lap. That was closest we would get to him.

The second time up the hill and through the dirt again whittled our group to six. The race finishes on a super cool, 10-minute, switch back climb to the top of Old Freeze Out Pass. Michael was protecting a teammate on the run in to the climb so I just sat in most of the way to the base of the ascent. I could tell my legs were getting close to empty but the race for second was going to be decided right here. As we got into the climb I sagged a bit and dropped to the back and then off the back a few meters. I thought that might be it but, as usual, the others were feeling it too and could not hold the pace. I surged back to the front and held it for a few minutes and then the same thing happened. Michael rallied back, which was impressive since he had pulled for a full 10 minutes leading to the climb. The one kilometer to go sign came and things got more heated. I was able to stay in the group as it started to stretch out. The finish was just ahead and, with 250 meters to go, Michael and another guy punched it for the line. It was now or never. I stood up, walked through my block, caught Michael but came up short on the other guy. Third felt pretty good. 

Driving away, I wondered if I could have gotten second had I just attacked a little earlier. Remembering the wave of nausea I swallowed crossing the finish reassured me that I had timed it about as well as I could have. Never will know, I guess, but it was a good test for April. My Recovery Score on Monday was 60, telling me that I had, indeed, gone to the well to produce Sunday's result. Onward. - Brian