Cracked up.

I cracked up at mile 45 of a 65 mile ride and spent the last 20 miles
granny gearing up the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains. My legs
were completely gone and my knees felt like they were going to blow
out. Long story, rode too fast early, ate too little, planned wrong,
and it was only supposed to be a 50 mile ride. Blah, blah, blah....

Ok, whoopee, who cares.

Well, after that I was off the bike for 3 weeks due to work, vacation,
family, etc... other than tooling around an island on a junky fixed
gear rental.

Now back on the bike I'm all fked up. What the hell is this? My
threshold for suffering is WAY WAY WAY down. I can't keep the same
pace or heart rate going for the same amount of suffering. I wouldn't
think 3 weeks off would explain that. And I have NO injuries at all.

It's like my brain starts subconciously remembering the traumatic
event and is amplifying the pain. I don't think it's physical because
I can get out of the saddle and crank away with little more pain. But
if I conservatively ride up a 5% grade for more than half a mile it's
like I'm about to crack.

I'm hoping this is somewhat common and that I can be enlightened as to
what's the best thing to do.

Thanks,
D

On Mon, 08 Aug 2005 21:15:38 -0400, D. Ferguson
wrote:

I cracked up at mile 45 of a 65 mile ride and spent the last 20 miles
granny gearing up the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains. My legs
were completely gone and my knees felt like they were going to blow
out. Long story, rode too fast early, ate too little, planned wrong,
and it was only supposed to be a 50 mile ride. Blah, blah, blah....

Ok, whoopee, who cares.

Well, after that I was off the bike for 3 weeks due to work, vacation,
family, etc... other than tooling around an island on a junky fixed
gear rental.

Now back on the bike I'm all fked up. What the hell is this? My
threshold for suffering is WAY WAY WAY down. I can't keep the same
pace or heart rate going for the same amount of suffering. I wouldn't
think 3 weeks off would explain that. And I have NO injuries at all.

It's like my brain starts subconciously remembering the traumatic
event and is amplifying the pain. I don't think it's physical because
I can get out of the saddle and crank away with little more pain. But
if I conservatively ride up a 5% grade for more than half a mile it's
like I'm about to crack.

I'm hoping this is somewhat common and that I can be enlightened as to
what's the best thing to do.

You hurt yourself and didn't build on it. Now your body thinks this is something
it can hide from.

It happens. Just build back up. Pretend it's February or March or something and
go through the motions of getting dialed back into the bike. It'll be faster
than after a winter off, but it'll be the same process. Get some nice happy
miles and hours in and get your body back into relaxing and rolling with the
bike. You'll get your mojo back.

Ron

D. Ferguson wrote:
Now back on the bike I'm all fked up. What the hell is this? My
threshold for suffering is WAY WAY WAY down. I can't keep the same
pace or heart rate going for the same amount of suffering. I wouldn't
think 3 weeks off would explain that. And I have NO injuries at all.

3 weeks is enough to hit your fitness base. If you stop training after a
terrific week or month, finish it strong, and come back after three
weeks of relative inactivity, you simply won't be as strong.

It's possible the "bad ride" affected you psychologically, but I'm not
aware of a physical component. It'll be interesting if someone points
one out.

Just build it back up.

--
--
Lynn Wallace http://www.xmission.com/~lawall

Conservative dictionary:
Judicial Activist: n. A judge who tends to rule against your wishes.

On Tue, 09 Aug 2005 02:38:49 GMT, RonSonic
wrote:

I'm hoping this is somewhat common and that I can be enlightened as to
what's the best thing to do.

You hurt yourself and didn't build on it. Now your body thinks this is something
it can hide from.

It happens. Just build back up. Pretend it's February or March or something and
go through the motions of getting dialed back into the bike. It'll be faster
than after a winter off, but it'll be the same process. Get some nice happy
miles and hours in and get your body back into relaxing and rolling with the
bike. You'll get your mojo back.

Ron

This is an interesting post. I'm wondering, Ron, if you've had experience
in something like this or if you're just offering good will. I'd like to
know the physiological basis for something like this. It sounds to me like
there was some kind of injury, perhaps related to glycogen depletion and
possibly liver damage, or other organ damage and not just something
psychological.

jj

"Jet" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 09 Aug 2005 02:38:49 GMT, RonSonic
wrote:

I'm hoping this is somewhat common and that I can be enlightened as
to
what's the best thing to do.

You hurt yourself and didn't build on it. Now your body thinks this is
something
it can hide from.

It happens. Just build back up. Pretend it's February or March or
something and
go through the motions of getting dialed back into the bike. It'll be
faster
than after a winter off, but it'll be the same process. Get some nice
happy
miles and hours in and get your body back into relaxing and rolling
with the
bike. You'll get your mojo back.

Ron

This is an interesting post. I'm wondering, Ron, if you've had
experience
in something like this or if you're just offering good will. I'd like
to
know the physiological basis for something like this. It sounds to me
like
there was some kind of injury, perhaps related to glycogen depletion
and
possibly liver damage, or other organ damage and not just something
psychological.

The book "Consistent Winning" is something I've been recommending a lot
lately - applies most to endurance activities like the bike but also
works for things like lifting weight. The theory, in a nutshell, is
that most people don't take enough time off then get forced to take time
off because they've overtrained. It points to a number of examples,
Joan Benoit's Olympic Marathon is but one, where people returning after
an extended layoff perform better than they did before. The trouble
with overtraining is that the time off tends to be time completely off,
and that's not best - what's needed is "active recovery", usually light
to moderate activity and a few more days off than usual.

Anyway, it's a good book, out of print now but still worth finding,
IMHO.

-S-


jj

On Tue, 9 Aug 2005 08:35:57 -0400, "Steve Freides"
wrote:

"Jet" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 09 Aug 2005 02:38:49 GMT, RonSonic
wrote:

I'm hoping this is somewhat common and that I can be enlightened as
to what's the best thing to do.

You hurt yourself and didn't build on it. Now your body thinks this is
something it can hide from.

It happens. Just build back up. Pretend it's February or March or
something and
go through the motions of getting dialed back into the bike. It'll be
faster
than after a winter off, but it'll be the same process. Get some nice
happy
miles and hours in and get your body back into relaxing and rolling
with the bike. You'll get your mojo back.

Ron

This is an interesting post. I'm wondering, Ron, if you've had
experience in something like this or if you're just offering good will.
I'd like to know the physiological basis for something like this. It sounds
to me like there was some kind of injury, perhaps related to glycogen
depletion and possibly liver damage, or other organ damage and not
just something psychological.

The book "Consistent Winning" is something I've been recommending a lot
lately - applies most to endurance activities like the bike but also
works for things like lifting weight. The theory, in a nutshell, is
that most people don't take enough time off then get forced to take time
off because they've overtrained. It points to a number of examples,
Joan Benoit's Olympic Marathon is but one, where people returning after
an extended layoff perform better than they did before. The trouble
with overtraining is that the time off tends to be time completely off,
and that's not best - what's needed is "active recovery", usually light
to moderate activity and a few more days off than usual.

Anyway, it's a good book, out of print now but still worth finding,
IMHO.

-S-

Huh? I don't see what this has to do with the topic. The guy didn't
overtrain, he overstressed his system.

I definitely agree with the concept of active recovery, and I think a lot
of people overtrain because they don't train consistently - not because
they train too hard - they try to cram all their training into the weekend.

Among those that do ride consistently the biggest problem seems to be
getting stale.

jj

On Tue, 09 Aug 2005 08:00:43 -0400, wrote:

On Tue, 09 Aug 2005 02:38:49 GMT, RonSonic
wrote:

I'm hoping this is somewhat common and that I can be enlightened as to
what's the best thing to do.

You hurt yourself and didn't build on it. Now your body thinks this is something
it can hide from.

It happens. Just build back up. Pretend it's February or March or something and
go through the motions of getting dialed back into the bike. It'll be faster
than after a winter off, but it'll be the same process. Get some nice happy
miles and hours in and get your body back into relaxing and rolling with the
bike. You'll get your mojo back.

Ron

This is an interesting post. I'm wondering, Ron, if you've had experience
in something like this or if you're just offering good will. I'd like to
know the physiological basis for something like this. It sounds to me like
there was some kind of injury, perhaps related to glycogen depletion and
possibly liver damage, or other organ damage and not just something
psychological.

I've been there, just a couple months ago. For me it was a couple of "epic"
mountain bike rides that went bad followed by a medical crisis in the family
that kept me off any bike for awhile. As for the rides I'd done over two hard
hours on Saturday finishing in a thunderstorm and about three on Sunday that
ended in many more miles of driving rain and hail. Normally, if I beat myself up
on a bike I'll treat it like a race or other super high intensity day and follow
up with a rest day and then use it as a building block. Unfortunately, I ended
up checking my dad into a hospital two days later and life preempts cycling.

Anyway. It took a few weeks of "starting over" to get back to where I was
before. Replicating base mileage worked for me. Then started working in high
intensity stuff after a few weeks. That just "felt" like what I needed to do.
There may be better, faster, easier ways to recover. After nearly a month off I
was also just as interested in having fun on a bike again, anyway.

Got a mechanism for it? I don't know squat about biochemistry, really. I do feel
that you can exhaust your metabolism and that ramping efforts up and down is
necessary to maintaining health. I know after a cruel effort returning can come
with the same sort of feelings that go with coming off an injury.

I would like to hear more myself from anyone who's met this.

Ron

D. Ferguson says...

I'm hoping this is somewhat common and that I can be enlightened as to
what's the best thing to do.

I'm afraid you're all washed up. Time to hang up your cleats.

Jet says...

Huh? I don't see what this has to do with the topic. The guy didn't
overtrain, he overstressed his system.

You don't think that overstressing your system is a component of overtraining?

D. Ferguson wrote:

Ok, whoopee, who cares.




Dumbass -

You are correct. No one cares.



thanks,

K. Gringioni.