DOMS

There's an acronym for everything. That one happens to be Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness. Oddly enough, no one actually knows what causes DOMS. Muscle soreness during and immediately after exercise is the result of lactic acid that is produced under anaerobic conditions. Basically, your breathing/circulation can't keep up with your muscles' oxygen demand. That lactic acid is cleared out of the muscles and surrounding tissue within a matter of hours though, so it can't be the cause, and no other plausible explanation has been offered for the soreness you feel the day after a hard workout. Which, by the way is the point of this little physiology lesson. I hurt.

I was okay when I woke up this morning. Until I tried to move. Luckily, hungry outweighed sore and got me downstairs for breakfast, and I managed to work the worst of the kinks out pretty easily. I rode into school a bit slower than usual, but not too bad. And then I had a 5.5 hour lab class on my feet the entire time. By the end my legs were aching so badly I could hardly walk.

So, I ate lunch after lab, then registered for my next term, and then what did I decide to do? Go to the gym. Yeah, I'm brilliant. One heavy lifting workout later, and I limped home on my bike and am now curled up in bed and planning to not move again all night. Can't wait to see how bad the hurt is in the morning. Maybe I'll take tomorrow off.

Learn Something

I remember talking with Neil before my first race back in February. He told me that my goal should be to "learn something." I also remember laughing about that later and deciding to add my own goals in too: Finish the race, and don't be last.

Well, things have changed and I'm beginning to appreciate the importance of "learn something." Tonight was a GVCC criterium (1 mile course, 30 minutes plus 5 laps). Last time I raced this course, it was 10 minutes shorter and I suffered miserably the whole time. This time I went into the race knowing that I would get dropped. There was no way around, so I decided to just put everything I had into hanging on for as long as possible, holding nothing back for the end. What does it matter if you've got energy left and you're sprinting for last anyway? So, with my goal being, "learn something" and my plan being, "Hang on for dear life and leave nothing in the tank," here's what I learned:

1. My maximum heart rate is actually 194. I figured that once I wore the monitor for a race I would discover a higher max HR.

2. It is physically possible for me to spend 20+ minutes with my HR over 170. It just hurts an awful lot.

3. A heart rate that high for that long will induce stomach heaves and retching, regardless of the fact that I am traveling at 25mph on a bike and so anaerobic that I can barely stay upright. Also, I can stay upright while my stomach tries, but thankfully fails, to spew Gatorade all over spectators.

4. A high cadence is the key to following people's moves. By keeping my cadence up, usually around 90-100, I was able to respond faster to accelerations, corners, and hills. Also, my muscles were burning less (though my lungs were burning just as much).

5. I've got the pure power to stay with the fast women, I just don't have the stamina. On the first lap, the group split in half. I managed to stay with the front half for almost a full lap. After they dropped me, I was still managing to work with the other chasers to help us all get back together and start moving up. Then we all started falling off the back one by one, and I was among the first to go.

6. Working with other people makes things much more interesting and fun. I spent almost half the race moving among the chasers, sometimes in the front few, sometimes dangling off the back, but there was always a goal with the others around. Find the wheel ahead of you and hang on until you can get around them. Then move up to the next wheel. It was the first time I've had the opportunity to do that and I really enjoyed it.

7. Spectators are a godsend. By the end of the race, I was suffering so badly that I couldn't even think. Every time I went past the finish line and heard people yelling, "Go get her wheel!" or "Move around her and catch the one in yellow!" I would realize that they were right, that's exactly what I should do, and I could do it. Without them telling me that, I would have been completely at a loss, since my brain had shut off. Also, a little bit of cowbell goes a long way.

9. I like crits. They're super fast, tricky, strategic, and basically sum up everything that I love about bike racing. Oh, and there are spectators. I really want to try a crit with a full-sized field of women at my level.

8. Perhaps the most important thing I learned tonight: I'm getting stronger. Compare this post with the one linked above. And then realize that this race was 10 minutes longer, fewer neutral laps, and everyone else is in much better racing condition than at the beginning of the season. I may have been dropped, and lapped, and I think I even finished last, but I'm still feeling pretty good about myself tonight.

So, that's what I learned. I'd say I reached, and possibly even surpassed my goal for the evening. Maybe next week I'll do it again and learn more.

The Pain Cave

A brief description of The Pain Cave by one of my favorite bloggers:

Sal and his cycling teammates talk about the “Pain Cave” a lot. It’s that place you go where you are enveloped by a complete and raw brand of pain. You reach it after feeling the seering inside of you and then ignoring it. You reach it when every voice inside of you has screamed for you to stop and you have silenced them all. The quiet of the pain cave is eerie and horrific.

It’s still but not calming. It’s excruciating and peaceful all at once. It’s simultaneously transcendent and brutally immediate. The agony is almost tangible.

It is the best and the worst feeling.

So, that's where I was for a much too short a time yesterday during the race. But I should start from the beginning. The group decided that since it was going to be the most daylight we'll have all year that the men would do 5 laps and the women would do 4. I'm sitting there thinking, "One lap almost killed me last time, how am I going to do 4?" But then they suggest that the first lap be neutral because there were enough new people that we didn't want anyone getting lost. So I think, "Okay, one lap will just be an easy warm up and then I can do the other three. No problem."

To put it bluntly, I was wrong. The neutral lap started off pretty easily, with the experienced racers showing the newbies how to ride a paceline. But once they got the paceline (sorta) down, things started to speed up just a little. Then a little more. Let's just say that our supposedly neutral lap averaged 18.5mph on an 9 mile course with 2500ft of climbing. That's pretty fast. I was starting to get left behind on the hills. So much for neutral.

As soon as we crossed the line to start lap #2, the experienced ladies just took off. I don't know how they can accelerate like that on hills, but all that mattered is that they could and I couldn't. I was completely and utterly shot off the back by the second hill. Which left me to do another individual time trial to try to catch back on. Someone else got dropped too, but she wasn't time trialling like I wanted to, so I passed her and did my best to keep the pack in sight. That's where I found my pain cave. Nothing hurts like chasing a group that's always just barely in sight. I couldn't gain any ground, but for about half a lap I didn't lose any ground either.

I did finally lose them when we hit the hilliest part of the course again. By then I had done some serious spelunking in my pain cave and was forced to back down because I knew the situation was hopeless and I really wanted to get in at least 3 laps. When I had almost finished lap #2 the other one that had been popped off on the hills caught me and we rode together for the third lap. I didn't have the energy or motivation to go for lap 4, especially because that would just force the other women to wait for us after they had finished.

So, it's time to do some even more serious goal revision. And some serious recovery. My legs are trashed.

Back to the races

Bernie and I had a nice ride on Sunday. We were both tired, but it was clearly affecting me more than it affected him, since after an hour he was dropping me on all the hills. I was very well behaved and didn't kill myself to keep up, even though it was awfully tempting. Luckily for me Bernie was a gentleman about it and waited for me whenever necessary. We did about 2 hours at an average of 17mph. That's pretty fast for me while tired, so I'm happy with it.

I'm going to race tomorrow night. No excuses this time, the weather looks good and I've got the zipcar already booked. The only potential problem is the course will be the same one that I DNFed on last time I raced. So, I set my goals nice and low: Finish the race. I'm throwing in an additional bonus goal: Stay with the pack for at least 1 full lap. I think I'm getting better at realistic goal setting. Neil would be so proud.

I was feeling some pretty serious leg fatigue today while just riding to school, and my resting heart rate is up about 10bpm (OMG it's over 60!). That means that I haven't recovered enough from the long hours of riding this weekend. I calculated over 10 hours on the bike since Thursday evening. That's a lot for me right now, so I'm going to make sure to get a lot of sleep tonight and take it very easy on the way to school tomorrow. On that note, I'm going to go shower and head to bed. Good night!

Lifting and some more plan

I've been in the gym every other day this week and it's been great. I am feeling stronger, having more energy, keeping my stress level manageable and generally loving it. I realize that a week of lifting has a much bigger psychological impact than physical impact, but at least I am getting my muscles used to this particular form of abuse again. I'm staying at high reps/light weights for at least two weeks and then will talk to Neil about increasing the weight depending on what my racing situation is at that point. I'm guessing the situation will still be trying hang onto the back of the pack as long as possible.

Speaking of racing, I took the week off. I've been rather busy and stressed, and the weather was nasty, so I decided to just rest. I think it was a good decision. I'll be racing again next week though.

The plan for the next little while is as follows:

Friday: Yoga class and interval workout
Saturday: ~3 hour ride (with UR team?)
Sunday: 1 hour tempo workout, lifting?
Monday: Recovery ride with Katherine from school
Tuesday: GVCC race
Wednesday: lift

Also, I have other exciting news. I'll be back in Portland during the break between semesters, and according to Neil, he can help me bring my bike for free. That means I can use some of my new found power on flat and windy courses at PIR! I'm very excited about this possibility...

Ouch

My ego got left somewhere along the side of the road tonight. The course was brutally hard, the other women are simply stronger and faster than me, and my stomach was cramping. Before the race started I was actually feeling pretty good, but I only managed to hang on for about 6 miles before the wind and hills completely overpowered me. I was the third to get dropped, so that's something at least. Sadly, I didn't finish the race. The stomach cramps turned nasty and I was choking back vomit on my last hill, so I decided that I had had enough. It was my first DNF, and hopefully my last.

I called Neil after I got home and he gave me some much needed encouragement. I'm revising my season goals from "podium placement" to "pack finish". I have to keep reminding myself that I'm racing way over my head with Cat 2 and 3's and they SHOULD be dropping me every race. At least I get a good workout on Tuesday nights. Oh, and one of the other women lives just down the street from me, so I now have a carpool to races. That alone almost makes tonight seem like a success.

My First Crit, or, How to Improve Your Cornering

I was very nervous for my first GVCC race. What if they're all faster than me? What if I don't like anyone? What if I make a fool of myself? Many bad scenarios got replayed in my head over and over again.

When I arrived I realized my first big mistake. I had hardly eaten anything since noon. It was now 6 and my body was used to eating every 3-4 hours. This was a big problem, but there wasn't much I could do about it. We rode around the course several times to warm up. It was a 0.6 mile loop, with only two real corners. One half was slightly downhill and the other half was slightly uphill and into a headwind. Within a lap or two I realized my second big mistake. My legs were toasted from the ride on Monday. Maybe that has something to do with the crazy headwinds, but I bet it also had to do with going out dancing and only getting 7 hours of sleep before my insane first day of class. Just maybe.

I did my best to work the kinks out of my legs, but they were having none of it. The muscles were sluggish and already burning on the uphill. The race was going to be 20 minutes plus 5 laps. We started with a few neutral laps, which were nice to continue trying to coax my legs into good behavior. It didn't work. Then the racing started. At first I was fine, in the middle of our small pack (only 10 women) and breathing hard but not dying. I lost some ground on the uphill each lap, but I always do. The difference this time is that I couldn't make it up on the the downhill. After about 3 laps I was dangling off the back, gasping for air. After 5 laps, the pack was barely even in sight around the corners.

There are few things more demoralizing than putting every ounce of energy you have into just clinging to the back of the pack, and then getting dropped anyway. But, I have the voice of Neil in my head telling me over and over again, "If you get dropped, it's still good training. Just keep riding." So I kept riding. For a little while I made futile efforts to get back to the pack, but I never gained any ground. At one point someone else got dropped and I spent the rest of the race chasing her. I never caught her, but I never let her gain ground on me either. I owe her a lot of thanks, because having someone visible in front of me was just enough motivation to keep me going.

Throughout the race I also got to practice high-speed cornering. Cornering and I are not comfortable with each other yet, but I figured I might as well make the best use of my solo training race and practice. I started out taking the corners at about 19-20mph, and by the end I was pretty confidently taking them at 25mph. I call that good practice.

At some point along the way I got lapped. That was about the point that my energy reserve kicked in. Or maybe I was just mad about being lapped. Either way, my speed picked up significantly. There were only a few laps to go by then, though, so it hardly mattered. Shana ended up winning the race, and I was shocked to find out that I hadn't actually finished last. Someone else who was racing a crit for the first time had been dropped before me. That was also when I found out that in the pack had been three Cat 3's and a Cat 2. I felt a little better after that.

That race wasn't fun. There's no way to twist it around and make it seem fun. I got shelled off the back, heartily embarrassed, and was suffering badly the whole time. Luckily, I was stubborn enough to keep riding. I think I earned some respect for that, even if my bad judgment and lack of fitness were blatantly obvious. Next week it's a regular road race, and my goal will be very simple and very modest: Finish with pack.

Recon

The day before a race I always try to ride. It's my "blood volume" ride, and it seems to actually work. Basically, by riding I tell my body to maintain or increase its blood volume, rather than allowing it to drop. These increases and drops happen within a span of 24 hours, so without riding I would lose blood volume before the race. That has ll kinds of negative impacts on my racing form, so it's best to just ride the day before.

With that in mind, I decided to combine my BV ride with a little bit of reconnaissance. I checked out another of the GVCC race courses (actually, the course for next week). I rode for about 2 hours 15 minutes, for a total of almost 35 miles. Headwind all the way out there, tailwind all the way back. I don't think it's ever NOT windy in this place. Anyway, like the other one, this course is mostly flat to rolling with a couple of little bumps that I can power over easily. It'll be great for me. Any course that doesn't involve real climbing (real climbing = sustained for 1 mile or more) should work to my advantage. So far the two courses I've seen look like Cherry Pie, without the uphill finish. Note: Before that uphill finish I was in 5th or 6th place at Cherry Pie.

I realize that by saying all of this in a public forum, although not read by very many people, I will almost certainly get a severely bruised ego after racing these courses. But that's okay, I can handle some bruising, as long as it's dished out by women that are actually faster and stronger than me. Tomorrow is the first test. I've got a ride to the race, done all the training I could, and hopefully will not make a fool of myself. If only I were better at cornering...