Week 2 of 42, On the Road to RAAM 2015
I felt pretty tired during Week 2 of 42 of my training for the Race Across America (RAAM), feeling physically fatigued and unusually tired.
Waking up was a real struggle – I just felt exhausted. And to make matters worse, I slept around midnight on Tuesday, Friday & Saturday. (My ideal bed time is between 8:30p — 9:30p.)
Sleeping later also meant waking up later. And by waking up late, my total mileage dropped. I was only able to accumulate 291 miles total over 5 days, compared to the 445 miles over 6 days the week before – that’s a difference of 154 miles, and 1 day less of training.
The tragedy of a poor sleeping schedule is two-fold:
- Insufficient recovery time, forcing me to train at a lesser intensity to avoid injury, and also causing me to feel fatigued during my workouts.
- Less overall time for training, leading to a drop in total mileage.
But I think my lackluster physical performance was also due in part to the heavy 445-mile training load in the week prior.
The lessons to be learned from Week 2 of 42 can be summed up with these two mantras: “sleep well to feel well” and “optimize rest to maximize your best”.
The last mantra is a bit of a stretch, but this is what I mean by it: I only have a finite amount of time to train – 42 weeks – and in order to maximize my training results during this finite amount of time, I have to optimize my rest, my sleep, my nutrition, and my training intensity. Sure, it won’t be the end of the world if I don’t optimize these things, it will just mean that I miss out on my fullest potential. But by exercising discipline and focus, I can attain my fitness objectives.
Lastly, I had the opportunity to chat with Lee Kreider, live on The Ohio RAAM Show, this Wednesday. The recorded interview footage should be released this coming Wednesday, September 10th – so stay tuned!
Training Notes
Monday – Today was Labor Day, so it was only fitting that I did some bicycle laboring ☺
Unfortunately, I woke up late for the second day in a row, so I was only able to get in 3.5 hours on the trainer. My body felt unusually fatigued—must be the accumulation of the 450+ miles of training last week.
To maintain discipline—and as punishment for waking up late—I decided to bicycle to the BBQ party that my family and I were invited to for the Labor Day celebrations. It was a short 14-mile ride with one moderate climb, and a super sweet descent.
Afterward, I relaxed, ate some BBQ chicken, played Telestrations with some friends, and even ended up dozing off with a nap! It was a hot day outside so the nap was fitting.
But when I woke up, I was feeling pretty exhausted and definitely not in the natural mood to bicycle 14 miles back home—in the heat! But I knew it was one of those defining moments in my training, to push through and to “cross the great divide.”
Needless to say, the ride back was a bit of a blur, as I was feeling similar symptoms to sleep deprivation. Well, good training, that’s for sure! But, boy, were my legs tired climbing up the Silver Creek hill. Nevertheless, I gave my best effort to crest all the climbs, powering over to the descents.
Close to 100 miles for Labor Day. What a way to celebrate! ☺
Tuesday – My workout today was a challenge. Waking up, I already didn’t feel 100%. And last night, I had to get a massage (courtesy of my mother) because my legs have been pretty exhausted since the 450+ miles of training last week.
Waking up late for the 3rd day in a row, I was only able to get in a 45-minute warmup ride on the trainer, in preparation for the fast club ride around noon. Given the shorter warm-up duration, I decided to ride at a higher cadence (more revolutions per minute), but in hindsight, I don’t think that was a good idea. Already feeling fatigued, the higher cadence warmup ride just depleted my legs’ energy stores further.
Starting the club ride today, I could immediately feel that it wasn’t going to be an easy ride—my legs were simply tired.
Then, on one of the early attacks, I found myself not being able to gap the runaway group (about 6 guys) after exerting a considerable amount of energy. Instead, I wound up pulling the main peloton (about 25 guys).
Turning onto the next straightaway, the winds began to pummel me and nobody seemed to want to rescue me (sad face).
Finally, a couple guys pulled forward and I was able to rest momentarily, but as the ride progressed, the fatigue in my legs began to set in. By the final climb, on the backside of the Carneal loop, I was clenching my teeth as I desperately tried to close the gap with the main peloton – no luck.
After getting dropped, however, I was able to settle into a more comfortable pace for myself (22–24 mph), allowing me to still have a strong TT finish to the end.
There seems to be a strange discomfort now in the tendon connecting my left hamstring and calf – I will have to be on the alert to avoid an injury.
After today’s fatigued ride, and the past two days of waking up late feeling unusually tired, I am wondering if I might need to pull back for a few days to fully recover from last week’s training. Otherwise, if I keep hammering it without sufficient downtime, I may end up over-training and getting injured, or excessively fatigued.
As an ultra-endurance bicyclist, I know the importance of proper pacing. Patience, in other words. This is only Week 2 of 42 of my training for the Race Across America, so a couple days of necessary rest won’t do me any harm. We shall see what unfolds as the journey continues…
Wednesday – Today, I had a solid double trainer workout (5 hours total). But once again, waking up was a real struggle.
On a more positive note, I had the opportunity today to chat with Lee Kreider, live on The Ohio RAAM Show. The recorded interview footage should be released this coming Wednesday, September 10th – so stay tuned!
Thursday – Today was bitter sweet.
Bitter because I woke up late, for the millionth time in a row, and was only able to get a 35 minute warm-up ride before the noon club ride.
But today was also kind of sweet because I had a solid noon club ride with the Cycletrons on the Altamont/Patterson Pass route.
For starters, I stuck on the front of the pack, pulling my fair share through Altamont Pass. But as we approached Patterson Pass, I inadvertently dropped the pack on one of the bumps in the road. I attempted to wait for the group to catch up, but they didn’t seem to be in a hurry.
Thankfully, Dat – one of the strong riders and good climbers – caught up to me, so we were able to pace each other through most of Patterson Pass until “Religion.” I’m really thankful to have had Dat with me to push me because I was definitely not feeling 100% and was tempted to drop my riding intensity.
Once we hit “Religion,” Dat fell off slightly and one of the really good riders (and climbers) passed me up, and I just didn’t have the physical or mental strength to stick with him. I ended up arriving second to the top of OMG – an improvement from last week where I arrived third.
I made the mistake of not hopping on with the four lead guys as they began the descent, so I ended up Time Trialing it back to the Lab.
Friday – I was really excited, and anxious, for today’s fast noon club ride. Last week, I was able to stick with the A group all the way to the finish for the first time – a great achievement from my perspective. So I was eager to see if I’d be able to pull it off for a second week in a row.
I started out strong on the front of the pack, and remained there through the Carneal Loop.
There wasn’t much support on the climbs, so I ended up pulling the pack up the hills, mostly solo. And before the first descent, some guys decided to attack.
Great… I thought to myself.
Thankfully, it wasn’t too much work to stick with the peloton as they pulled ahead. However, because we were descending, I could not maneuver from the back of the pack into a good position for the next climb.
I started the last of the two climbs at the very end of the pack. And it wasn’t until 3/4 of the way up that I was able to sprint to the front of the pack, albeit dangerously since I had to use the oncoming traffic lane.
Cresting over the hill, I proceeded to pull the pack down the descent. And I thought I was in a good position (duh, first place) going into the left turn onto the last climb, but the pack quickly sprinted past me. I was able to stick with them over the hill, but when the sharp right turn onto a straightaway came, I was left in the dust.
My technical turning abilities aren’t the best, so coming out of the turn, there was a considerable gap between the pack and I. And my engine just couldn’t generate enough power to keep up with the acceleration of the pack.
I had a solid time trial back to the Lab, but I can’t deny feeling a bit disappointed since I was not able to stick with the group all the way. Lord willing, vengeance will be mine next week. I’ll be back…
Saturday – I woke up superrr late today – 11am. Wow! I can’t believe how tired I was feeling.
It was definitely a much needed rest, but disappointing since I was not able to get in any bicycling for the day before filming a wedding in Napa.
I did, however, get in a solid 30 minute strength training workout, which is something I need to be adding to my routine again anyway.
Sunday – Today was a total rest day – phew! With two days in a row of rest, I hope I will feel energized for the new week ahead!
(I also plan on taking a more scientific approach to my training starting next week. Learning what’s important as I go along…)
