What To Do When You Can’t Do The Bike…
Going into 2008 I had put in a lot of hours on the spin bike doing hard intervals in the basement to the point that the sump pump kicked on to vacate the sweat. Then the club rides began and it seemed everybody had improved a notch or two and had ambitions on strong racing results. As the season progressed, I found myself ranking in the top 10 in the state for my category for time trialing and top 20 for road racing. The rankings were even better (top 3 / top 10, respectively) if I selected out the under-40s I race against but no longer am a member of. Then I mentioned to my mates I was taking the family off for a 4-week holiday in which no cycling would take place — a full month without a single spin of the pedals.
They asked if I was depressed at the thought of losing all that hard-won form. I told them I accepted it as a worthwhile trade-off for a once-in-a-lifetime trip exploring Australia with the kids. The bike would be there when I got back.
Roll forward a month, and though I’d exercised while we traveled about, I’d not touched a bike, and came back 7 pounds heavier. Okay, so we didn’t exactly starve.
Anyway, my first bike outing was a little solo trip to the hills to test my form. Results: unsurprisingly, they’d worsened. My second outing was a 45-mile round trip route to go watch a crit race some of the team were participating in. Results: My slow, fat self needed to be pulled every mile there and back, and after the first few miles I got dropped from the wheel of my friend (whom I’m historically a bit strong than) any time we started to climb. I wheezed up hills like I hadn’t done in years.
But neither my sanity nor my morale were tested. When I’d taken the time off, I’d convinced myself this is what I should expect. And, in anticipation, I’d decided to make it into a bit of a game. I thought, let’s see just how much we’ll actually atrophy — then let’s see how quickly we can get it all back.
I’m back almost two weeks from the trip now and have chocked up more than 300 miles on the bike, including several days where the mileage was low but all of it was up and climbs as steep as 14%-16%, and in the past week I’ve gone from sucking wind just trying to sit in the middle of the pack on a tepid club ride, to joining the longer (40-50 mile) club rides and sitting in comfortably even when the pace gets more enthusiastic.
At the moment, I don’t think I can stop the clock and say I’ve fully offset my month off the bike — but I’m getting close enough to previous form that the difference really is subtle.
Next week, my family is headed out of state for another holiday (what can I say?), this time, not such an extended one, and my bike will be hanging dutifully from the back of the van. I expect to be able to get on it almost daily, continuing my “summer training camp” and hopefully setting me up for a second peak this season.
My point in telling all this, is that rather than looking at “down weeks” as major setbacks, you can take them in stride and make it a personal challenge to see how quickly you can blow the dust off once you’re back in the saddle. The pros often talk of peaking twice, or sometimes more often, during a season. No reason we amateurs can’t approach the season similarly.
Categories: Coaching and Training, Health, Hub, Rider Diaries, System6
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