Less than 2 days until the Front Range 50. I am feeling pretty distraught at the moment. My legs have felt like total hell for the entire week, despite a few days of good recovery rides. I tried to open back up today, and nothing would open and my HR would not go up. I have seemingly been on this rollercoaster for a couple weeks. I felt almost like this leading up to the Whiskey 50 and still somehow pulled out a 3rd there, so I am crossing my fingers that things will start to look up for me Saturday. Cycling is one of those sports where your body is always changing and it’s always a challenge to know if you are doing the right things.
They ARE predicting light rain and cooler temps Saturday, so that might work to my advantage…we’ll see.
On the bright side (pun intended!), it has been sunny and warm here. I really love the mountains. I just want to roll around in the soil and grass, and then lay by the cool stream.
I took 2 shots of FRS concentrate today after my ride, hoping it’s super antioxidant magical powers will get me going again. I have faith, I really do.
I also finally got some Skins Recovery compression tights! Tons of people swear by these.
(minus the crotch pouch!!)
I bought a pair last year, but they were too big and didn’t compress like they are supposed to. Now I need to find someone to trade me for the right size…. at least I have a new pair that is the correct size 🙂
Time to go eat and go do the Avery Brewery Ergon Mountain Bike Klinik!! 7 PM. Be there or be square… and half off pints!
Skins rule! Especially on long drives/plane rides. Make sure you get ’em tight enough to push all your blood to your head.
I gots me some dead legs so I’m doublin’ up on FRS and offering up some blood to the Leg Gods in hopes of having a decent race this Saturday.
Good luck on FR50!
Hey Sonya.
You need to try Fluid.
http://www.livefluid.com
Hmmm… maybe I will try it. Do you use it??
Brian- YEAH!!! Are you doing FR50 too?
Good luck on the Front Range 50, I predict you will do good.
Good luck this weekend!! Kick some tail!!!
Sonya..do you think it’s over training? I don’t race but I ride a lot and I’ve been feeling similar things that you describe in your blog, mostly my legs feel dead and I’m slower than I normally am, energy low too. This winter was warm, I rode a lot, maybe too much. But I like to hear how you’re trying to figure out what’s going on with your own body as I’m doing the same and what seems to work in recovery.
Hi Carey,
I don’t think it’s overtraining (it could be..) – me and that word know each other FAAAR too well. I got so overtrained last year that I spent the season with anemia which is no good for results or riding fast! My coach, Rick Crawford, has done a great job being conservative with my training to make sure that I don’t get overtrained. It is probably fatigue from stress and travel as far as I know.
It’s ok to ride a lot in the winter time – in fact it’s great for building a base. The secret about the winter is it is imperative to keep the intensity LOW. Like Zone 2 or lower. If you were doing intensity, chances are that you will start the year tired and get overtrained (that is what happened to me last year).
Another thing that helps with recovery (supposedly) is taking glutamine supplements. People swear by them – I have not decided yet if they help, but it is an amino acid that aids with protein synthesis and muscle building (like lean muscle tissue in endurance sports).
Let me know if you have any other questions! 🙂
Thanks Sonya, that’s all very helpful. I don’t train per say just ride a lot and mostly on dirt. I don’t monitor my HR or know what zone I’m in typically. I think you’re right about stress taking its toll on your body, it wears on your mind as well. I’ll look into the glutamine too, I’m also thinking of getting a foam roller to help post rides. It’s just frustrating to feel this way now that summer is right around the corner and all I’m gonna want to do is ride strong. I enjoy following your blog!
Carey – YES! Foam rollers are great tools. Another awesome tool is “The Stick” http://thestick.com/products/sticksbyfirmness.cfm . I need to buy a new one – the super stiff one! You can train without a HR monitor, and just go based on perceived effort, on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being hardest. Winter rides should be 5 or less.
Rest up! I know it’s super hard to be patient. I would suggest doing easy 1 hour spins for a week, then try to do some short hard efforts and see if your body responds. If not, rest a little more. You’ll come around!
Probably to late for a race tomorrow, but I stumbled across an article when I was having this problem a couple of weeks ago (can’t find the link now). Basically it said when you can’t seem to recover, temporarily increase your workout intensity for a day or two. This should force your system to go into recovery. I tried it, and it really hurt and sucked, but I was feeling fine by day 3. What I found was that after forcing the intensity issue, I needed to nap almost immediately after my workout. Then I also slept like a log at night. The second day I was feeling better but not great, and by day three my legs felt fresh, in which case I did an easy ride. After that I was back to a normal workouts. Seemed to work for me, not sure about the science behind it…
Thanks for the info! I think that may be similar to the idea of doing “openers.” It pushes out the bad stuff. I think that is what coach has me doing. Yesterday was a tough today, today I will have to do some more, and hopefully by tomorrow I’ll be A+! 🙂 Great story, thanks for sharing
I’m a retired Pro Mountain Biker and this is pretty common. It could be emotional burn-out, another form of mental anxiety, who knows…..It’s fun and interesting what your mind goes through before a race. Sometimes you would rather have a martini and not race, but when it’s over you are glad you did. Try to take pressure off yourself, which you might be doing with this post. I don’t believe in gadgets, just training and listening to your body. Have fun, it’s mountain biking!! We will still read your blog if it takes you 9 days, 15 hours, and 34.4 seconds to finish. 🙂
Saw you at the parking lot, rang my bell! good luck tomorrow, I was trying to recover from my club ride last night and doing some openers for the race tomorrow, the shorter Battle of the Bear, good luck!
Oddly I bought the crotch pouch but not the legs. Hmmm.
Seriously not a bad idea. I suffered from some DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis AKA a blood clot) in my leg last year. Apparently it’s not that freakish for athletes such as cyclists with low HRs to get. I now travel with compression stockings. I alternate between feeling like a school girl and a 90 year old Floridian.
Good luck at the FR50
Thanks guys! You rock, thanks! Sven!!! Thanks for ringing da bell. C ya tomorrow! 🙂
Hey Sonya.
I do use Fluid, they are one of Evomo’s team sponsors. it really works.