Too much of a good thing: compression tights.
June 22, 2009, Bike Related I admit, I've slowly been building quite a tolerance for wearing my compression tights. First, I wore them a few times at night before races or after hard workouts. It really felt like they helped. Then I started wearing them in the morning before races and then afterward. Yep, the results were promising. And then I would bike to work and wear them underneath my work clothes - no one the wiser unless they noticed the bright turquoise flat stitching near my ankles! I mean, isn't that where these tights originated - anti-embolism tights for people who sat all day, like on planes? So tonight was the final frontier. I wore them in a race. Just the weekly training race at Portland International Raceway. They looked pretty normal underneath my bibs, although I've never had anything come between me and my chamois except for chamois cream. First I wore them on the bike ride home before the race, just to make sure it wasn't too weird. A tiny bit weird, but it seemed to feel pretty good. Good for recovery, maybe good for racing. NO. NOT GOOD FOR RACING. Maybe it was due to something else, but I started cramping very early in the race. I found myself in a solid four-man break after a few laps - two guys from the same team, then me and one other guy. The teammates were riding hard. Pace was good - fast but not totally killing it. And then the soreness and cramping started after a lap of being away. I started skipping pulls. The teammates were my buddies, and there was no way I would sit on while these guys worked and then sprint them for the hot spot. Hot spots go three deep. Four of us. So rather than waste what few matches I seemed to have just hanging on, I drifted back to the pack. And it didn't get better as the race went on. I felt like I had done some hard weightlifting. As is my curse, I stayed near the front and held position for the rest of the race. But the big power was missing and at the end I just rode in behind the sprint. Too bad, I think it would have been a decent sprint for me based on how it played out. Lesson learned - my legs need more blood flow during hard efforts than compression tights allow. I knew that was a possibility, but I figure you have to roll the dice now and again. I wasn't expecting Fabian Cancellara results all of a sudden because of some tight tights, but racing is all about the margins. One small improvement may not do much unless there is a lot of time for its benefits to accumulate. However, add up a bunch of marginal energy savings and it can be the difference between having the energy at the end of a race for 5th, 3rd or 1st in a sprint. Or making that breakaway last just long enough. Things have been on an uptick, so I won't get too upset that this wasn't the ticket. Hope my legs recover for Wednesday, though. So what should I do? Wear the tights to recover from wearing the tights? Very tempting. Just a little bit should help, right? Criterium Season is Here!
June 18, 2009, Bike Related My last blog sought to find some positives in what has been a tough season. Well, I've got some straight-up good news since then: Two top-5 finishes! Why? How? The criteriums have started. I'm the worst 135-lb. climber I know, but a decent sprinter for my weight. If the sprint is pretty open and it's not a long dragstrip, that is. Being smaller (and of a more cautious sensibility), it's tough to fight for position against the big guys and I don't have a long, high-speed sprint. Give me 150 meters and a slight uphill or headwind! My first good finish was the Mississippi Criterium. 4th. This year they took the race up a notch and had some great primes and prizes (thanks especially to Rapha, www.rapha.cc - so nice). Our field was about 60 guys or so and they shortened the course by a block. Eight turns, maybe 1k for the loop. It made for some tight, hectic racing. My teammate was an absolute rock star, keeping me in good position and putting in huge attacks to keep the other guys working. I think I could have even managed a place or two higher if I had picked a smaller gear coming out of the final corner. No complaints, though! Just two days later was Monday PIR. It's the weekly racing series out at our local raceway. 1.9-mile flat oval with a chicane on one end and a sweeping 180 on the other. Two long straights connecting them. It's a points race with intermediate sprint laps. Put 60-100 guys out there all lots of horsepower, and it's an amazing workout. Just sitting in all race at 28-30 mph is good motorpacing! Anyway, I had been working all race for another buddy, but to no avail. The race that night was too slow with unpredictable accelerations and I found myself on the wrong side or too far back when things actually happened. I was cramping by the end, but found myself near the front going into the final sprint. Luckily, my buddy was right in front of me and had a good sprint for 4th. And I managed to stay behind him for 5th. I guess that means all the work I've done is starting to pay off. Don't want to read too much into it, though. Being a sprinter is always a roll of the dice. Good sprinters often find themselves way out of the contention due to last minute surges and re-shuffling. Having a teammate who knows how to help makes dealing with those variables exponentially easier! Anyway, just thought I'd share the good news. I hope your racing and riding is going well, and that I've got more good news to come! Perspective: Blogs, Bike Racing and Business
June 8, 2009, Bike Related The best-laid blogging plans so often go awry - blogging is so easy, but now it's like carving hieroglyphics in stone compared to facebook and twitter one-liners. Communication seams to be more and more refined sugar and less roasted meat (or protein substitute, as the case may be). Sugar is just so quick and easy. Tastes great, instantly accessible and you never feel full. It takes time and planning for a roast. And you aren't jumping off the couch afterwards - you've got to let it sit a while. No, I'm not saying that my blog is some deep, complex thought-roast. But believe it or not, I take time to write. I re-read and proofread. Rarely do you see the first thing I actually wrote. I'm not trying to hide anything - just the more interesting and honest thoughts seem to come after the initial sentences have marinated a bit. Now we can leave this rationalization for sporadic blogging and the strained metaphor... So, how's my season going? If we look at the scorecard, not so good. Top 5 results? Zero. Top 10 results? Zero. Is there anything good to take away from the prior period of racing and training? Well, I do think there are a few good things: (1) I've been doing 20-minute TT-level intervals pretty consistently now. I get bored or cave in easily during extended efforts - I'd rather sprint for 30 seconds. But, I committed to these long intervals as part of my plan and I've been able to stay focused for more and more of the efforts. (2) Those long intervals should help keep me fresher at the end of a race, but they don't help me with the hard, repeated surging the 3k leading up to the final sprint. I've got a decent sprint, but often I'm wasted from the pre-finale surging. So, I've been doing workouts winding up in a big gear, then staying in it seated and then winding up again out of the saddle, repeating for a number of rotations. I'm pretty wiped at the end, but they are getting easier. Well see if it helps. (3) I feel really good about the help I've been giving my teammates. It's been awesome to race with team tactics and cooperation instead of a bunch of guys with the same jersey riding "not against" each other. I mean full-on lead-out trains and setting up attacks for counterattacks, and blocking. The lead-outs have been great workouts - often harder than sprinting for the line. And my teammates have been delivered into the points. Such an awesome feeling. Almost makes up for my own lack of upgrade success. Almost. Current thoughts going into the next phase of my racing schedule? Well, I hurt my lower back and hip and have pretty much been off the bike for over a week. I'm pretty much ok now, but it was definitely a bit of a mental and physical setback. I hope that I'll get back up to speed quickly and all the other stuff I've been doing translates into some good results in the upcoming criterium races. Yep, positive thinking continues! And now some perspective on CycloSportif. I love this stuff. Bikes, bike racing culture, fashion, clothing, and Belgian waffles with Nutella. I keep putting off the next steps to get this little business really anchored, even though I've received such positive feedback and great support. Time to burn some midnight oil and see how viable this is. And, if you're still reading, I have a request: let me know, goad me, heckle me to continue. I'm an extrovert by nature, which means the presence of others gives me energy. I think you'll like the return on your small investment. Cheers, Joshua/CycloSportif |
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