Hamstrung

I had this great plan for last weekend.  Finally I had a weekend clear - no concerts to work, no concerts to attend, no races to officiate.  Just the bike club annual dinner that I could always skip if need be.  So the plan was to ride, a lot.  A nice 60-miler on Saturday and then drive out to KA for the Sunday ride.  Even the weather was willing to cooperate.  It was going to be a weekend of cycling indulgence that I seldom get.

Mid week training - check.  One visit to the gym.  Check.  Massage and chiropractic adjustment. Check.  An excellent schedule to lead up to the weekend.  But oh no, couldn't have that happen, nope, not an option.  By Friday the legs weren't doing all that well - especially my hamstrings.  My hamstrings tend to be tight - that's part of me.  I do yoga and stretch to try to keep them from getting too tight, but they have a will of their own.  So I went out for a lunch time run - at a very easy pace - to see if some movement wouldn't improve the situation.  It didn't seem to make things any worse but didn't improve matters either.

On to the massage... oh yeah, those hamstrings were not happy campers.  Lots of work to try to clear the congestion.  Off to the chiropractor...yup tight, tight, tight.  At least my midback was happy to pop back into alignment.

Saturday morning, things were not improved to speak of - the hammies were still complaining.  I went out and rode my bike anyway.  Never have I suffered as I did.  No time trial, no hilly road race, no crit, nothing, had ever had me hurting on the bike the way I was on Saturday.  It was manageable for the first 30 miles or so.  But then things started to get significantly worse.  Over the next 20 miles or so, I felt every muscle in my upper legs engage in an effort to compensate for the hamstrings until I reached a point where they all were worn out and sending pain signals.  Never before had my legs hurt so bad.  I dropped off the back of the ride - sometimes it's best to suffer alone.

I reached a point in that solo suffering where I was ready to be done with cycling in any way, shape or form.  Never would I lead a ride for the club, hell, I'd resign as treasurer.  Never would I train or race, ever again.  Had there been a dumpster in sight, it might have turned into a re-enactment of that scene from Karate Kid where Daniel (not yet Daniel-san) while cycling was run off the road by the bullies on their motor bikes  and battered and bruised as a result tossed his bike in the dumpster loudly professing his hate for the machine.

Then I moved beyond it ignored the physical pain, set aside the emotional pain,  rolled up to the stop sign where the rest of the group was waiting and sat on the front, pulling at the agreed pace for the last few miles of the ride.  The weekend's riding was done though - I knew there was no way my hamstrings would be recovered such as to tolerate a hilly ride out of KA the next day.  I was figuring that if I could once again touch my toes by sometime on Sunday, I'd be doing great.

The effort took so much out of me that I spent a lot more hours asleep than normal - both over night and taking a nap on Sunday.  The pain had mostly faded over night but walking seemed to be as much effort as my legs were interested in doing.  I didn't argue.  The recovery day did its job and I'm all better now.  The 4 mile run at lunch yesterday went without a hitch (though I think it's time for new running shoes) and yoga did its magic.  I guess the true test will be tonight on the bike, but I don't doubt that the legs will be fine, even happy to pedal. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I managed to push the mental barriers back a bit so that I'll be able to suffer more effectively in competition.

Flatlander in Western Maryland

It wasn't that far into today's ride out of Kelley Acres that I asked RB why it was that I'd traveled 75 miles to suffer such as I was suffering a climb up a narrow little gritty, damp road somewhere in Frederick or  Washington County.  It was really a rhetorical question, we both knew why we were cycling up the hill.  I do it because it supplies the element that is missing from my riding in Southern Maryland - long climbs.  It's not that our roads are truly flat down here - not like the Eastern Shore and Delaware.  But our hills (which are the product of streams cutting valleys while making their way to the river)  are short, measured in fractions of a mile, and steep, more often than not going into double digits on the percent grade.  So the long climbs that happen out West supply something that is missing from my training.  But the distance involved to get to that sort of riding means I don't do it all that often.  And so I end up feeling like a Dutchwoman cycling in Belgium.

 The downside is that because of that, I'm always last, well almost always, so I feel bad cause folks are always waiting for me or riding back a bit to check on me.  They're always nice about it, but it's gotta suck for 'em. 

Part of the problem today is that I was tired.  Today was my third ride in as many days, and I haven't ridden three days in a row since August.  Tough on the old body.  And of course it's not like I come home from rides and just sit around.  I've been busy with working on painting and cleaning up and fixing things up in the utility room.  As far as I've gotten looks great. 

So my days have been pretty much get up, ride, come home, lunch and clean up, spackle/sand/paint, make dinner,  then another round of spackle/sand/paint.  There's some cleaning involved too.  Toss in doing some laundry and cleaning up the bike and the days are long and tiring.  In all, pretty hard on the old body.  So tonight I'm taking it easy.  After the ride I got some lunch then stopped by the Container Store to get stuff to improve the storage situation in the utility room.  But I'm not putting it up tonight....or doing anything else.  Just watching the House marathon and blogging a bit.

Weathering the Weather

Hains Point is a really cool place at times.  Last night was one of those times.  Yes, that's right, while the lightweights, wannabes, and generally weather intimidated stayed home yesterday evening, I rode my bike at Hains Point.  It was totally awesome, because I had the place almost completely to myself.  While I was getting ready I saw a couple of cyclists, never saw them again.  One skater, but he didn't stick around too long.  At the time I pulled out of the parking lot on two wheels, a runner headed out the other direction.  I saw him a bit later... one lap and he jumped in his suv and took off.  He had appeared to be a more serious distance type runner than that... guess the wind was too much for him.

I layered up with all the good stuff - my addidas bib tights, my assos jacket, the cold weather gloves, booties, a nice wigwam knit hat to keep head and ears warm. Everything that is particularly good at blocking the wind. Pretty much the only part of me exposed to the wind chill was my face.  And I stayed warm.  My face got colder on the descents at Skyline a couple of weeks ago.  The wind was amazing.  There was only bits of tail wind, that was fun - look, 90 watts and I'm going 20mph!  Of course that was on the channel side.  Over on the river side, well, if you ever look at the trees on that side, you know the angle that the strongest winds blow from.  I didn't have any amazing watts numbers this ride, because I was spending a lot of energy controlling the bike.  Picture this - sit on your bike, straighten out your right arm, shift your body to the left of center and sort of hunch over your left arm and lean into the wind, really lean into it.  Then the bike mostly goes straight, only occasionally getting pushed toward the curb.  But remember, don't have a death grip on the bars...that just makes it worse when the gusts hit!  I played with the gears - spin with the tailwind, grind into the headwind, flip it next lap, forget about it the lap after that, just keep going.  Six laps - I told myself the first lap that if I did six, that would be good.  So 76 minutes and 6 laps and I called it done, enough was enough.

Maybe the watts numbers from my legs weren't impressive, but it was a rare total body workout on the bike.  I was having muscle spasms along my rib cage last night from the effort my core, and all my other upper body muscles, had to put out.  And it was good for my head.  There's something about going out and training when the weather is challenging to make you feel stronger and tougher mentally.  And it will give me lots of ammunition to toss at the guys when next I see them.  "I was here Tuesday, where were you? You let a little wind keep you inside?  Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy."  Probably won't be tonight when I see them, though, cause it's still a bit breezy and chilly.