Lost the spark

 

I can't get no satisfaction
I can't get no satisfaction
'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can't get no, I can't get no

satisfaction

The Rolling Stones "Satisfaction"

 

Although it's not over yet, it's been a tough year. How tough? Well, here's an early "year in review":

• Started the year off with several DNF's on 200K permanents as I tried to ramp up the miles in preparation for the Kansas City flèche team event. Never did finish one prior to the event.
• 17 April - Quad Cities 200K
• 25 April - Successfully completed the flèche anyway
• 1 May - QC 300K DNS (back) 
• 11 May - 400K pre-ride DNF (back)
  
• 15 May - 300K DNS (back) rode Fennimore 200K permanent
  
• 22 May - Quad Cities 200K
  
• 29 May - Quad Cities 400K DNF (back)
  
• 30 May - Quad Cities 200K
• 5 June - Nowhere but Norwalk 200K
• 11 June - Tour of the Driftless DNF (heat)
  
• 19 June - Fennimore 200K
• 12 July - High Country 1200K DNS (back)
  
• 30 July - Successfully completed the Minnesota Randonneurs flèche
• 7 August - Driftless 400K pre-ride DNF (back)

See a trend here? Not a lot of success for any distance beyond 300K, mostly due to my back. Since I've written a lot about my back woes I'll be more specific as to what's going on.

From mid-June 2020 when I herniated the disc at the S1 through surgery in late August and recovery through October I did as little bending, twisting or lifting as possible. The obvious consequence of this is a significant loss of core strength. After several months of trying to make progress on my own I started physical therapy in early July and verified what I already knew plus learned a few things:

1. My core muscles were incredibly weak. I couldn't do a single sit-up without someone holding my feet i.e., I couldn't stabilize my core as I lifted myself up.
2. My left calf is significantly weaker than my right.
3. I had significant numbness in my left forefoot which could be made worse through exertion.
4. I had periodic shooting pain down the outside of my left leg and left hip. My gluteus minimus was essentially in spasm causing referred pain down the leg. 

After the PT visit I commenced a series of prescribed exercises while continuing to try to ride long distances with little to no success. Progress has been slow. It's been a month and I am still unable to complete the full suite of exercises and I'm not able to do them every day. The core exercises make my back hurt and the calf exercise causes significant Achilles strain. I persist though, typically I do them every other day but frequently do less than the prescribed number of repetitions.

The season is not over yet, but I've decided that I'm done with long brevets for the year. I've withdrawn from the Northern Virginia 1200K in mid-September and will not go to the Cracker Swamp 1200K in November (assuming it's held - Covid on the upswing in Florida) nor will I do the Driftless 400K and 600K on 14 August and 4 September, respectively. 

Why am I (not) doing this? Two main reasons:

1. Trying to do long rides and rebuild simultaneously just isn't working. 
2. The desire is gone.

The first is hopefully fixable by continuing the strength training. The second reason is a little more problematic. I've established via the success with the flèche rides that I'm able to ride nearly 400K and it should be noted that both routes were hilly so it wasn't as though they were softballs that I could knock out of the park. The difference (I think) is that a flèche is generally more relaxed than a normal brevet - you're going to ride for 24 hours regardless so there's not much emphasis on riding fast.

But right now I'm just tired of beating my head against the wall on longer brevets with zero success. I've done a number of very hard 400K+ brevets in my randonneuring career, some of which were far from "fun" but the common element, and what kept me at it, was the satisfaction of successfully meeting a challenge. There hasn't been a lot of that in the past two years.

An obvious question is why don't I just try a 400K and ride more slowly since I've got 27 hours to finish. Quite simply it's because that's not how I want to ride. For multi-day events (600K and above) I decided long ago that if I couldn't ride fast enough to get decent sleep (4 hours minimum) it was a sign I was done and at this point that appears to be where I'm at. I've no desire to finish a 400K just under the time limit and even less to do longer events that way.

So I'm done with events longer than 300K. Certainly for this year and maybe for good. This introduces at least one second order question: If I'm not doing long brevets (1200K's) I don't need longer brevets e.g., a Super Randonneur series as qualifying rides and I can just as easily satisfy any desire I have to do 300K or less via permanents that I can ride at a time and venue of my own choosing. If I'm not able or not interested in doing a Series or longer brevets should I continue as RBA? 

I need to submit a 2022 schedule for both regions by the end of September so there is some deadline pressure to make a decision. This decision isn't knife edged. I could for example just do the minimum (RUSA requires RBA's to hold at least a 200K and 300K brevet) in 2022 and then make a decision for 2023 as to whether I continue.

But running both regions is a lot of work even with an abbreviated schedule. Running a full series in both regions ties me down running brevets for virtually every weekend between mid-April through June and then again in the fall then there's the ancillary work of previewing routes, running the web sites, etc. It's a big time commitment.

Much to think about.

I still love riding my bike. I averaged 10K miles/year for a long time before I did my first brevet so I know there are lots of ways to enjoy riding without doing long brevets. I'm certain I'll continue to ride, and ride distances that most people think are "crazy" but perhaps I'm done with those longer than 300K.

Stay tuned!

My favorite randonneuring ride

I think I can safely say I've done at least one of every type of allure libre (as opposed to Audax) brevets there are with distances ranging from 100K populaires to 1500K grande randonnées. Although they each have their charms and challenges, my favorite is the flèche velocio. 

Briefly, this is generally a point to point ride (flèche means "arrow" in French so a traditional route would resemble an arrow pointed straight at the target) consisting of a team with 3 riders minimum, 5 maximum where the team rides for 24 hours and a minimum distance of 360 Km (about 223 miles), 25 Km of which must be ridden in the last 2 hours. A minimum of 3 riders must complete the event in order for any of them to receive credit. For those who are interested, a complete set of rules can be found here.

Why is it my favorite? Several reasons:

1. The team aspect. A well chosen team is important since you're going to be riding together for 24 hours. In addition to the obvious need for harmonious personality types it's helpful if everyone is relatively evenly matched in terms of pace, desire to stop, etc.
2. There's little to no incentive to ride fast (more on this later) - you're going to ride for 24 hours no matter what so relax and enjoy. This obviously is less true if you challenge yourself with a route that has an egregious amount of climbing or is significantly over the minimum distance.
3. Although night riding is part and parcel of the longer brevets, unless the brevet has a night start ala Paris Brest Paris it's pretty unusual to ride through the night whereas this is mandatory as part of the flèche. There's something about riding through the night and to still be riding when the sun comes up that's just a magical, borderline spiritual experience.

I've done a number of flèches in the past but all have been loop routes so not in the "true" spirit of the ride. I decided for this outing that I wanted to do a point to point route in the traditional style and the surest way of making that happen was to captain a team. The captain develops the route and generally plays a role (small or large, depending on the team) in making sure the team as a whole is successful.

The route

The destination for the flèche was set by the Minnesota Randonneurs (the organizing club) as Woodbury Minnesota with a start time of 16:00. I went through a number of iterations using online mapping tools (ridewithgps and satellite views) in order to put together a route that looked like it would meet all the requirements and be fun to ride. The biggest challenge I would face is that a lot of the roads in rural Minnesota are unpaved and although gravel riding and racing are very popular they're a risky choice for a flèche for several reasons:

1. You're slower on gravel.
2. If it rains you could be in real trouble - riding through thick mud is definitely going to cause problems.
3. The less than smooth surface is hard on the body parts over a long ride.
4. A higher likelihood of flats.

Because of this, I spent a lot of time on my preliminary route trying to identify and eliminate as many gravel segments as I could. My initial route had us starting in Prairie du Chien but with the reroutes around gravel roads this proved to be unacceptably far so I moved the start to Monona Iowa. 

Since we would be riding through a lot of small towns I wanted the team to have a good meal early in the ride before we had to resort to the usual convenience store fare. Since not all of the team members knew each other I also wanted to have an opportunity for everyone to get acquainted off the bike. I therefore routed us through Decorah Iowa with a planned stop at Toppling Goliath brewery. This was a bit problematic because getting there required a couple of miles on IA-9 which at that point has very high speed traffic and no shoulder. I resolved that by setting a control at the Casey's near IA-9 then shuttling the team up to Toppling Goliath in cars (our support crew of Marcia and Kathy did a superb job through the whole ride!) then rejoining the route at the point from which we left after dinner. This worked out very well and cost us very little time.

Enjoying dinner early in the ride

My wife and I previewed the portion of the route from the start to Decorah to make sure we'd have enough time for dinner and to double check my estimated speed for that segment. As is my wont, I'd developed a ride plan that accounted for the amount of climbing in each segment to predict arrival times. I was within a few minutes of the predicted time so all was good (more on this later!).

After previewing that portion of the route on the bike, my wife and I drove the remainder of the route over a couple of days. To my dismay I discovered that a lot of the roads that looked as though they were paved in the satellite view were in fact gravel and some of it was really nasty gravel - deep, sandy, etc., that would really be hard to ride on. We zig-zagged back and forth trying to find reasonable alternatives that linked together without adding an egregious amount of distance. I took a lot of notes so I could redo the route when we got home.

After a lot of work using my notes, satellite view, ridewithgps I had what I thought was a good route for the ride and that's what I submitted as our official route. The route was 378 Km versus the required 360 with just under 10K feet of climbing.

The route

The Team Name

One of the hardest things to do is come up with a name for the team. This is generally the first effort at team collaboration and is usually done via email exchanges. My instructions to the team were simple: come up with a name that was so cool that the other teams would hang their heads in shame over the lame team name they came up with (just kidding!).

We went through a number of iterations homing in on two general themes: we're all somewhat partial to F.C.A.B's (Frosty Carbonated Alcoholic Beverages) and the majority of the team ride in the Driftless region. After a number of false starts Dawn proposed "The Draft Commission" which I countered with "The Driftless Draft Commission" and so we were.

The ride

As mentioned previously, I developed a ride plan that gave estimated ride times for each of the segments and allocated time for each of the stops. It factors in the amount of climbing but it doesn't take things like wind or road conditions into account. This would prove to be significant, especially on the second day. 

The plan

The forecast for the ride looked quite favorable: relatively mild temperatures and little to no chance of rain. It looked as though we'd have a bit of a push until our sleep stop in Rochester then the winds would switch to Westerly and then Northerly so we'd have a strong headwind into the finish. This obviously wasn't ideal since that was when we'd be tired but as Mark Twain famously said "everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it!" so since we couldn't do anything about it, off we went.

The wind forecast

We started the ride in a light rain. Wait! Where did this come from? There was a 9% chance of rain forecast! Other than the rain, our first segment into Decorah went off without a hitch, we arrived about 10 minutes ahead of the predicted time. This section included a three mile stretch of gravel and I was a bit worried about how it would be after the rain but it was fine. Here's a photo of the team at the start and a few from that gravel stretch:

The Team at the start

Dawn

Spencer

Bill

Heading off

After dinner at Toppling Goliath we headed off toward our next stop in Cresco, IA. As is generally the case when I ride with him, Bill started having trouble with his Garmin at that point and they persisted despite him frantically pushing buttons, doing resets, etc. This would be a theme for a considerable portion of the ride. 

We arrived in Cresco just under 30 minutes behind our plan but this wasn't really a big concern at that point. Our next segment was to Chatfield and included a few stretches of gravel and a lengthy stretch on the Root River trail. I'd done a number of route changes on the Cresco->Chatfield segment. My initial version had us on secondary roads between Fountain and Chatfield but as the route grew longer with other changes further on to avoid gravel I decided instead to route us up US-52 reasoning that at the time we'd be on it there would be little to no traffic and it has a wide shoulder protected by alligator strips. This would prove to be a good decision as it allowed us to make good time on that stretch.

We needed that little speed boost because we had a hard time finding the entrance to the trail. We were riding on a fairly rugged stretch of gravel and the GPS said "turn left" but there was nothing there! We rolled on a little bit thinking perhaps the cue was misplaced but there wasn't anything to the left. We retraced our route and I took my backup light out of its holder and used it to light up the side of the road which was heavily overgrown. Sure enough, after a bit I was able to see a trail over there. Spencer and Eric crawled through the weeds onto the trail but the rest of us continued back along the route reasoning that there must be an entrance somewhere and there was! It was about 3 feet wide and almost impossible to see in the dark - no problem at all when my wife and I previewed the route at 1:30 PM!

We ended up getting to Chatfield only 8 minutes behind our plan so the stretch on US-52 paid big dividends. This was our "middle of the night" control and Dawn pretty much says it all:

Yep, we're crazy

We still had a tailwind from Chatfield to Rochester and made pretty good time through the night, arriving at our next control about 25 minutes behind schedule. This was mostly due to navigating the various bike paths and construction through Rochester. We hit the control then dropped down the hill to our hotel for a brief sleep stop. After an all too short time horizontal we were all hungry so we went back to the control (yet another Kwik Trip) and had breakfast. This put us well behind schedule.

Why yes, there was a bit of gravel! (Photo Dawn)

We rode hard to our next stop in Zumbrota, arriving roughly 1:12 behind plan. The next leg to Hastings also had some very lengthy gravel stretches and now we were running into the forecast headwind. The net result was despite riding hard and making a relatively short stop at Zumbrota we got to Hastings almost 2 hours behind. Fortunately as you see in the ride plan above, I'd allocated a little over 2 hours to spend at the Hastings control so we were not in a whole lot of danger of failing to complete the ride (although a few flats or other mechanical difficulties would have changed that!).

Ruh Oh!

Hastings was our "25 K in the last two hours" stop so we took a photo and got a receipt then headed on to the finish at Woodbury. One minor mishap between us and the finish: Eric entered a crosswalk and got a couple of bike lengths into it before realizing it was the wrong way so he stopped. Bill was behind him and stopped also. I was halfway off the curb when Bill stopped suddenly and couldn't get unclipped so I fell over while still clipped in landing hard on my left hip. Fortunately this wasn't serious (and more importantly, the bike was fine!) and only resulted in a large bruise - this was the only crash on the ride and it was less than a mile from the finish.

But we got it done. Spencer had gotten separated from the rest of the group on the run into Woodbury so he stopped at 16:00 and took a photo as documentation then took a brief nap under a tree. Here's a shot of the rest of the team at the finish:

All done!

And here's a shot of Spencer:

Spencer at the finish

And of course, having successfully completed the ride and despite being awake for 30+ hours we all had to celebrate with a post ride meal and beverage!

Celebrate!

Finally, many thanks are due to Marcia and Kathy for their outstanding support during the ride. They handled the shuttle up to Toppling Goliath flawlessly, checked us in to our sleep stop in Rochester, met us at a few points with much needed water and scouted a route around a detour.

Best Crew Ever!

The team worked together very well, no major melt downs or mechanical issues, everyone rode really strongly throughout and other than a fair amount of mostly good nature ribbing about all the gravel everyone seemed to enjoy the route and the ride.

The flèche is still my favorite randonneuring event.

At a crossroads

 I didn't finish the West Union 400K yesterday. To recap the past month's brevets:

• On May 11, I DNF'd a 300K pre-ride. Back sore.
• On May 15, I was planning on doing the 300K but decided to do the Fennimore 200K instead. I finished that.
• On May 22, I pre-rode the West Union 200K. I finished that.
• On May 26, I rode the West Union 300K. I finished that.
• On May 29, I DNF'd the West Union 400K. Back really hurt.

On the aborted May 29 400K, my back was still sore from riding the 300K three days prior. Experience (and lots of it) suggests that when I start a ride with a sore back it doesn't end well and that was the case here. It started to hurt at about 15 miles but I was determined to keep going. 

My back got progressively worse over the course of the day and I was riding slow AF on the climbs to avoid overtaxing it too much. My moving average for the ride was 12.7 MPH as opposed to 14.1 MPH the last time I did the same route.  

When I got to a photo control at 135 miles it was at a point in the route where I could just drop down the hill, coast 5 miles and I'd be home. I was determined I wasn't going to quit there - just too easy. I rode another 13 miles then pulled over and took stock.

Here's what I pondered:

• my back really hurt but based on previous experience I felt like I could finish without doing permanent damage. This probably seems a rather bizarre criterion for making a decision (sort of like "well, I won't die") but there you go. Having said that, I have a demonstrated ability to "push through the pain" with catastrophic results so I didn't have anything to prove to myself on that front and wanted to avoid it again.
• I was looking at a very late finish, likely 04:00-05:00
• I felt very fatigued overall. I'd eaten a PB&J at the mile 135 control since I know that if I'm calorie depleted it usually manifests itself as general tiredness.

But the bottom line really is that although I'd make the time cutoff of 09:00 I just didn't want to. 

So I decided to quit and rode home, 156 miles total with just under 10K feet of climbing. I'll add that I couldn't sleep despite feeling very tired because my back was hurting.

People of my vintage occasionally discuss when they'll stop randonneuring. Obviously if they lose interest or are physically unable that's a decision that makes itself but what about if the desire is there and they're more or less still physically able? For me the answer is simple and invariable: when I'm slow enough that I'm having a hard time making control close times or am not able to get 4 hours sleep per night on a multi-day ride that means I'm done.

I've seen a number of people that do an entire 1200K on 4 hours sleep total. While I admire the perseverance and determination I never want to be that person - ever.

So where does that leave me? 

Well, I need to regain lost speed. I've not been doing any hard, "slobber on the top tube" kind of training mostly because I didn't want to push my back too much and have been focused more on building a good base of long distance rides. It's time to dial back the distance and dial up the speed work. It remains to be seen how well my back will tolerate it. I'm going to start off relatively conservatively and see how it goes.

But it might just be that I'm done with riding long brevets. This would be very disappointing to me as I would miss both the challenge and camaraderie of the longer rides. 

Alternatively, it might just be that 2021 is a "rebuilding" year and I just haven't regained enough strength and consequent fitness to be able to do a longer ride at the pace I'm accustomed to. While better than the first alternative, this would also be a disappointment as longer rides are "coming online" here in the States (international is another story) and I've plans to do several and have been looking forward to them. The clock is ticking though and they're drawing closer without me having the requisite speed and fitness to do them in the manner I'd like.

And to end on a more positive note. 

Normally when I go ride I start out with an idea of where I'm going to go. My wife's last question before I go out the door is "where are you headed" and I'll respond with some specifics. A few weeks ago, I rode a bike I've not ridden for a while and when she asked I answered "I don't know".

I headed out with no specific plan, rode on some roads I'd not been on in a very long time. No controls, no brevet card, no hurry, just enjoying the day. I ended up riding a little over 60 miles and it was probably the best ride I've had this year.

So if I can still do that, I'm OK and consider myself lucky.

Stay tuned!

Do you want the good news or the bad news?

Things were going pretty well but then my world came crashing down...

Admittedly, this post is off to a melodramatic start but it's true.

Riding had been going very well. I've been ramping up the mileage very gradually, interspersing a block of harder/longer weeks with an easy week or weeks:

Miles per day is perhaps a little more informative:

Note that the week of Feb 20 is when we were caught in "snowmageddon" in Central Texas then the drive home. On the riding front, I'd also done my longest ride in two years during the Audax KC flèche during which I rode 225 miles with 16K feet of climbing with no negative after effects. Sure, my back was sore but the soreness was proportional to that in my legs and elsewhere and I recovered well.

So I was very encouraged.

As noted in my previous two blog posts, I've also been dieting. I've followed the strategy outlined there and have been eating somewhere in the range of 1400 calories per day. This combined with the increased riding has had the expected positive effect on my weight:

Pretty good huh? I went from 200 pounds (90.7 kilos) on Feb 20 to 174.5 pounds (79.1 kilos) this morning. Coincidentally, I hit my highest weight this year during the week long layoff from riding during snowmageddon - funny how that works!

Dieting has been hard - really hard - and I'm approaching the limits of my willpower. I'm not quite at the "ideal" weight I gave in my last blog post but I am at the "a little heavier than I'd like, but I can live with it" weight. My plan was to stick it out until I'd gotten below 170 lbs (77 kilos).

But then everything went to hell.

A couple of days ago my left hamstring started hurting. Started with what I'd characterize as a muscle strain. Gradually got worse. Yesterday it spread to my calf and my toes were tingling more than usual. I was planning on pre-riding a 300K this morning so I went for a short (14 mile) ride yesterday. I could feel the leg during the ride but nothing debilitating and it didn't seem any worse afterwards so I planned to go ahead with the pre-ride.

Got up in the middle of the night and my whole left leg from my butt down to my toes *really* hurt, to the point that I nearly fell and could barely hobble to the bathroom. I decided right then the 300K wasn't a good idea and turned off the alarm. I slept fitfully for the rest of the night.

On waking this morning, I can barely walk. Leg hurts all the way down.

So now the questioning begins. Simple muscle strain or sciatica? I know that I've been fooled in the past. Recall my post from last year where I thought I had "severe soleus strain" that turned out to be my back? I also recall a number of times pre-surgery where one or more of my hamstring, back, butt or calf hurt really badly and this turned out to be sciatica.

I've been doing more both on and off the bike. Was there a specific activity or ride that caused it? Cumulative effect? As noted above, I did my longest ride in 2 years 11 days ago. Since then I've:

• brush cut for a few hours on the farmette. A lot of this was side-hill which causes me to use my legs to brace myself against the hill and obviously I'm bouncing around a lot while bent sideways.
• worked on a bike for several hours (SRAM gripshift sucks!). Most of this was seated on a low mechanics stool reaching forward to work on the bike.
• did a 100K on a really windy day (gusts over 40 MPH/64 KPH) 4 days ago, my back was sore after.

All of the above? Some of the above? A specific event? Who knows? 

And in some sense, other than possibly avoiding a recurrence the cause isn't important. The more important question is exactly what's going on. Simple muscle soreness from overuse? Sciatica? Both?

As noted above, I'm nearing the end of my willpower on the diet front but what has kept me going is I'm still making progress via the combination of diet and exercise. I have my doubts about how long I can continue on diet alone with little to no progress.

So obviously I'm hoping this is simple muscle strain and will resolve itself in a few days. I've got a 200K/300K brevet scheduled for 3 days from now which is looking doubtful at this point.

I'm very depressed. By nature, I'm an optimist and am generally fairly upbeat. This will pass, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Stay tuned!

Account overdrawn

In the last episode, our hero said:

"The current plan therefore is to continue to focus on longer distance (I did my first 100K Populaire today) and get that to a reasonable level and then hit the dieting hard once I'm riding 1000+ miles per month. I expect that'll be April at the earliest or more likely May so this means my April brevets are going to be slogfests."

I also said:

"you've got $10 of will power and you can spend it however you'd like. I've been spending it on trying to ride more and longer and don't have any more willpower to spend on dieting".

But it's well known that fat people are impatient, at least this one is, so I started dieting in earnest a week ago today and also did my highest mileage week post-surgery this past week.

Ouch. 

I'm making big withdrawals from the will power account that history suggests I won't be able to sustain too long. Historically, I've hit the dieting really hard for a couple of weeks then have gone to a "normal" but still very restricted diet. In other words I eat the foods I usually eat (sans beer, of course) but very small portions.
 

Here are the results from the last time I did this in 2017:

As you can see, over a period of three months my weight went from 198 to 168. I should note that the big drop in the first week is partially explained by a difference in scales - we went from Wisconsin to Texas that week and I took a smaller digital scale with me which weighs about 3 lbs less than my usual scale. Also, the first measurement period was from the very beginning of one week to the very end of the next so it was almost two full weeks.

So I can do it.

What does a "very restricted" diet mean? An anecdote that I read in Tyler Hamilton's book about when he was losing weight for the TdF was that he'd do a hard 100+ mile ride and when he finished he'd eat two sticks of celery and take a sleeping pill so he could ignore his body screaming for food. For those that don't know, celery is calorie negative: it takes more energy for your body to process it than it provides.

But, as anyone who has ever ridden with me will hasten to tell you, I'm not a pro rider.

Here's a representative sample of my daily intake:

Breakfast

• Coffee with 1 piece artisan bread (a small 2" x 3" slice)
• 1/4 cup grapefruit, 1/2 an orange
• 1 cup mixed fruit, yogurt, granola (so about 1/3 cup of each)

Go ride

Lunch

• Small slice of ham, 2 eggs scrambled, 1 piece whole wheat toast with butter

 Dinner

• 1 piece toasted multi-grain bread spread with 1 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 apple
• Tea

If it turns out that I finish my ride late enough in the day, I'll skip the dinner "meal" and just have an apple or two. Breakfast and lunch is what I usually have so no real change there. Dinner however is a different story and has always been my downfall for reasons enumerated in my last post.

I've made good progress on the weight loss and increasing the mileage but the consequences are obvious: I'm hungry all the time and very low energy when I ride. Fortunately, I've got enough adipose tissue (sounds better than "fat" doesn't it?) to sustain me through a two hour ride. If I'm riding more than that I'll have an energy bar. I'll likely be able to keep this up for a couple of weeks and then go to a still restricted but somewhat more normal diet with the only real difference being I might have e.g., a bowl of soup for dinner.

 

Miles per week post surgery

So what's my weight goal? Well, I'm not going to give a hard number but let's just say that using the personal standard I discussed in my last post I'm hoping to go from "obese" to the low end of the "fat" range. 

 

I know from history that once I start eating truly normal meals (according to a friend, I apparently provide quite an entertaining spectacle when eating) including the occasional malted beverage that'll be the weight I'll be at and I won't continue to lose no matter how much I ride. I also know that 2-3 months on a restricted diet is about all I can manage.

Stay tuned!

Boy, you're gonna carry that weight

Boy, you're gonna carry that weight

Carry that weight

A long time

The Beatles "Carry that weight"

 

There are few sports that penalize a few extra pounds more than cycling. 5 pounds can make the difference between flying up the hills and having each one be a long slog. I've struggled with weight gain my whole life. Well, strictly speaking this isn't true. I was pretty thin up until after grad school when working 80 hours/week sitting at a desk took its toll. Since then, it's been a constant battle. There are a number of reasons for this:

1. I'm "gifted" genetically with the metabolism of a hibernating bear.
2. I have the self control of a 4 year old when it comes to food.
3. I like the occasional malted beverage.
4. Although I'm not a glutton, the fact is that I enjoy a good meal.
5. I was raised in the "clean your plate" generation. Put it in front of me and I will eat until it's gone.

Typically, my weight is a step function: in normal times it's fairly stable for months or years plus or minus a pound or two. When I'm inactive due to injury or travel for a week or more: boom! Plus 5 pounds. And that's my new "normal". I'll remain at this new weight for months until the next time I'm unable to exercise when I add another 5. This process repeats until I reach a level that's unacceptable to me and I go on a "starvation" diet. It's important to note that cycling in and of itself is not enough for me to lose weight, it has to be in conjunction with a fairly restrictive diet.

 

I know what you're thinking: I could of course modify my intake to match my activity level so when it looks like I'm going to have a period of forced inactivity for any length of time I could just not eat/drink as much so I wouldn't gain weight.

 

But that's just crazy! I don't know where you get those nutty ideas!

 

How much "should" I weigh? Well, the US Govt Health and Human Services Dept says that for my height (6'3" or 75") the Body Mass Index (BMI) values are as follows:

• Underweight - below 18.5
• Normal - 18.5-24.9
• Overweight  - 25.0
• Obesity- 30.0 and above

But that's the government. My personal standard (in pounds) is as follows:

• 160-170 - ideal
• 171-180 - a little heavier than I'd like, but I can live with it
• 181-190 - fat
• 190+ obese

It probably goes without saying that the repeated and extended times off the bike last year weren't helpful. Right now according to the Government, my weight is "normal" but by my cycling standard I'm obese.

Sigh.

Here's the thing though. My rides post back surgery have been fairly short duration (40 miles or less on average) and low intensity. I've had a few sessions of dieting and basically have accomplished nothing other than making myself miserable. As I've said here in the past: you've got $10 of will power and you can spend it however you'd like. I've been spending it on trying to ride more and longer and don't have any more willpower to spend on dieting. Further, as I said above the "secret sauce" is diet and exercise so on a program of shorter/lower intensity rides I simply won't lose weight, I'll just make myself miserable.

The current plan therefore is to continue to focus on longer distance (I did my first 100K Populaire today) and get that to a reasonable level and then hit the dieting hard once I'm riding 1000+ miles per month. I expect that'll be April at the earliest or more likely May so this means my April brevets are going to be slogfests.

Stay tuned!

A missed milestone

A lot has been going on lately so not much time for updates. I did realize a while back that the 6 month post surgery milestone has come and gone and have been asked by several friends "how's it going" so I guess I'm overdue.

So how's it going?

There are two dimensions to that answer:

1. How is my back specifically?
2. How am I progressing toward "normal" riding and doing brevets?

My back has progressed quite a bit since my last report. I would say most of the pain that I have now is caused by muscle soreness from disuse for several months. I do still have occasional (and significant) pain centered at the S1 but it's usually the result of something "new" i.e., more stress (lifting something heavy), stretching, etc. 

My left foot is numb at the forefoot and left three toes. What's puzzling about this is this can be made worse with hard activity. I'm not surprised that there's residual numbness, nerves take a long time to regenerate and sometimes never do. What is puzzling though is that it can be made worse. My chain of reasoning goes like this:

1. The numbness was caused by the bulging disc pressing on the sciatic nerve root at the S1.
2. The surgery whacked off the part of the disc that was pressing on the nerve - it's gone - as revealed by a post surgical MRI.
3. So if there's nothing pressing on the sciatic nerve, how does e.g., lifting something heavy, make it worse? 

According to my surgeon, there is a 5% probability of reherniation in the first 6 weeks post surgery and I'm well past that. In fact, in my last follow up I literally couldn't get him to say "don't do that". The conversation went like this:

• Me: can I do strengthening/stretching e.g., planks?
• Surgeon: Sure
• Me: can I do hill repeats, hard sprints, etc? 
• Surgeon: Go for it
• Me: can I dead lift the front end of a '57 Chevy?
• Surgeon: all day long

OK, I made that last one up but the point is I'm cleared to do anything within reason and a few things that I thought might have been off limits (hill repeats/hard sprints) so I'm nonplussed that e.g., a hard sprint or sustained hard climb will result in increase numbness in my foot. There's not much to be done about it and I hope that it improves with time but I do find it puzzling. 

I've lost a significant amount of flexibility due to the surgery and resulting dictum not to bend or twist for 6 weeks. I'm working on regaining it (see below) but progress is slow. I used to be able to bend over and put palms flat on the floor at any time, now I can barely reach my ankles and even that with a slow warmup.  

Snowmageddon

On to the second question: how's the riding progressing?

In truth, not all that well. I'm well behind where I was hoping to be on all three axis (weight, distance, intensity). We were caught up in "snowmageddon" in Central Texas which resulted in 10 days of basically sitting in a hotel room, eating restaurant food (take out) three meals a day and staring at the walls. It was so icy we couldn't even walk. We finally said "screw it" and returned home and I've been dismayed by not only how much weight I gained but also by how much riding hurts. I'd worked through to the point that I could do 30-40 miles at JRA pace without suffering too much and I'd done several rides of 60+ miles but that's a distant memory now. Every ride, at any pace, just hurts.

So back at it. I've also thrown increased stretching (specifically aimed at my back, glutes and hamstrings) and some upper body work into the mix so the net is I hurt all over, all the time. I'm dieting (no beer, sigh) and have lost 6 lbs but all that's really accomplished is I lost the weight I gained sitting in the hotel room (I'm a mediocre cyclist but world class at weight gain).

My first brevet, a 200K, is on April 17 in the Quad Cities so I have about 6 weeks to get into some kind of shape. Right now 200K seems impossibly far and I think I'm in for a "season of suffering" as I try to increase the distance. I usually come into brevet season (April) with 3-4K miles in my legs and this year it's going to be more like 1,500 with no rides longer than (hopefully) a century although even that sounds daunting.

Stay tuned!

 

Preconceptions - and now with more data!

Today's route took me over two of the climbs in the previous post so I collected a little more data. More importantly perhaps, the environmental conditions were exactly the opposite of what they were on my 1/3  ride so rather than a 28 MPH headwind on the Crabapple climb I had a tailwind of similar velocity. It wasn't a full-on tailwind, the steep part of the climb runs toward the SW and the wind was out of the WNW so the North bit helped, the West bit didn't. 

So before I add some follow on thoughts, here's the data with the most recent in red. First the Palo Alto climb:

And then the Crabapple:

The Palo Alto data is in line with previous efforts so not much to talk about there. Faster than all but 2 rides on the Crumpton. 

The Crabapple climb is a bit more intereting. As I said, bit of help on the climb, highest wattage and fastest time of the three outings. It is interesting that the S40 was nearly as fast on fewer watts but it could well be the wind accounted for the difference because as I said in the previous post, the winds were mild on the 16th.

As a wise man once said:

The speed at which you climb on a bicycle is determined mostly by the following factors:

1. Power, measured in Watts.
2. How much weight in the total package (bike plus rider).
3. Aerodynamics.
4. Drivetrain efficiency.

As can be seen from the data, my power output is similar on both the Cruzbike and the Crumpton. Maybe a small amount lower on the Cruzbike but that might have more to do with measurement than reality. I have Asioma power pedals on the Crumpton and a PowerTap hub on the Cruzbike and it's definitely the case that the farther you get away from the source of the power (your feet) the less accurate it is so this could account for the difference. So let's call it a wash.

I've not done a weigh-off between the two bikes but I'd say that as ridden the Cruzbike is about 8 lbs heavier than the Crumpton. However, the weight of the rider (me) dominates and the difference in bike weight only amounts to about 3%.

At the speeds I'm going, especially on the steeper climb, aerodynamics isn't really a factor. I'd expect an aero advantage to start showing up above 15 MPH and I'm going considerably slower than that.

The drivetrains are essentially identical. The Cruzbike has a very efficient drivetrain unlike a Long Wheelbase (LWB) recumbent like a Bacchetta. 

So the bottom line is there's absolutely no reason for the Cruzbike to be a slower climber than the Crumpton.

If that's the case then why was I convinced it didn't climb as well?

As I said in my previous post, I think it's all down to perception and how your brain processes and interprets motion. On a DF, you're looking down and the ground is rushing by. On a recumbent you're looking essentially straight off into the distance so you gain ground on a reference point e.g., a tree, the top of the hill, etc., much more slowly therefore it "feels like" you're going slower.

There's one other factor: control. The stall speed on a DF is essentially 0 (track stand) whereas below about 5 MPH on the Cruzbike I'm struggling to hold a line. Coincidentally, on both the DF and Cruzbike when I look at my bike computer at the steepest part of the climb I'm going (wait for it): 4.5 MPH. No issues of control on the Crumpton whereas the slightest tug on the bars on the Cruzbike and I'm over in the other lane.

So the conclusion is this: they're roughly equivalent climbers, they're equally suitable for doing brevets and it's entirely possible the aerodynamic advantage of the Cruzbike would win out on all but the hilliest routes where the extra weight penalty might make a difference.

Based on all that, it's likely that I'll do one or more brevets this year on the Cruzbike. My longest ride to date has been 53 miles so I have some work to do to build endurance on it but there's time.

Stay tuned!

Shattering preconceptions

Let's get this out of the way first: I was wrong.

I've been thinking a lot about the differences between riding the recumbent Cruzbike versus the diamond frame. In general, although I like riding the Cruzbike I always have to add the caveat for a recumbent so I've been trying to figure out why that is. In thinking about it I concluded that it was because of the difference in climbing on a DF versus a 'bent. My conclusions can be summarized thusly:

1. The recumbent is slower.
2. The recumbent doesn't suit my natural climbing style.

The first falls into the "conventional wisdom" category. I've read it everywhere on the internet so it must be true. The second point is more personal.

Every cyclist I've ever met has a climbing style that they're most comfortable with. Some people sit in the saddle and grind, some climb mostly out of the saddle. For myself, I'll pedal seated for 100-150 pedal strokes then stand for 25-50 pedal strokes and repeat this process until I reach the top of the hill. I feel that does the best job of recruiting different muscle groups and not overtaxing any particular group.

And of course there's no "out of the saddle" on a recumbent.

As a result, when I'm climbing on the 'bent I feel like I'm just crawling along and grinding my way up the hill. The thought of doing some of the extended climbs I've encountered on brevets e.g., on the High Country in Colorado with 7-10 miles of 7% just seemed unfathomable at best and not something I wanted to do.

As I've said in the past, I'm analytical by nature and a scientist by training so I set out to prove myself right so I could justify to myself why the recumbent just wasn't going to work for brevets.

We've been here in Texas for almost 4 weeks. In that time I've been alternating between the Crumpton (a custom carbon DF bike) and the Cruzbike. Not strict alternation but based more on whim or the route I was going to ride. I'll also note that I've spent a huge amount of time getting the fit of the Cruzbike dialed in. This isn't easy. Moving the seat involves not only determining proper placement but also drilling holes and a certain amount of fabrication. The design of the Cruzbike is such that you "bring the fit to you" i.e., the reach to the pedals, bars, etc., are adjustable but the seat position is relatively fixed. I'd bought a new seat (a Thor Composites Carbon Sport) which gives more support to my back and shoulders and although more comfortable than the stock seat I still felt limited in how far I could ride comfortably. 

So after much work, I've finally got it dialed in. I did a 52 mile route that I've done a number of times on various DF bikes and was completely comfortable - no aching back, neck, shoulders, etc. Of even more interest was that I did my fastest time ever on that route. The layout of the route is the first 12 miles is straight south with a big climb and then a section through town before turning north. I do this route when there's a strong south wind so the first part is a real grind but then I've mostly got a tailwind for the rest.

So yeah, I was faster on the recumbent but then this route is right in its wheelhouse: rolling hills, no big climbs except at the start and a tailwind so the aero advantage of the recumbent would come to the fore. For "real" rides though the fact that the recumbent is a slower climber would dominate. At least that's the thesis that I set out to prove. And hey, I took physics so I know how to make the data support the conclusion ;-)

A few comments before we get to the data. This is taken from normal rides. I wasn't going for KOM's, they weren't maximal efforts, some days I felt good, some days I didn't. Weather conditions varied. I didn't pick one bike over the other when I was feeling peppy, on recovery days, etc. Put simply, the data is representative of everyday riding.

Up from Middle Creek

 

There's really nothing special about this segment, it's not all that steep (max gradient right at 5%), a little over a mile long and the steepest part is at the end. I usually hit this climb about 5 miles into my ride so I'm reasonably fresh. My general feeling was that the times I'd done it on the DF would generally be faster than the 'bent but not by much. Let's look at the data:

Hmm.... My fastest time is on the Cruzbike (S40). Average power levels are in the same ballpark. Overall, you'd have to say the results are essentially the same with maybe a slight edge to the 'bent.

Up from Palo Alto Creek

 

Once again, nothing terribly special about this segment. A little shorter, max gradient of about 4% and I usually hit it toward the end of my ride as it's about 2 miles from the cabin. Here's the data:

 

Here my two fastest times and my highest power is on the DF but comparing the 1/13 and 1/16 rides is interesting. I was within 10 seconds of the same time on about 20% fewer watts. Tailwind maybe? But the 1/23 and 1/21 rides are similar. The overall conclusion though is the data is still essentially split with no strong preference toward either.

I hear you saying "yeah, but these are the sort of climbs that wouldn't bring out the worst of a recumbent. They're not all that steep so not being able to get out of the saddle wouldn't matter" (I really did hear you saying that!). So let's look at something a little steeper.

Crabapple Southbound

 Although the average gradient on this climb isn't all that impressive, this is a bear of a climb. The max gradient is 12.1% and that steep bit is 1/4 mile long - just the sort of climb where you'd jump out of the saddle and lay down the power so the 'bent is going to be seriously disadvantaged. Let's see:

Wait, what? The recumbent is faster? And not by a few seconds either, by 2.5 minutes.

That just can't be.

OK, the sample size is small. Maybe I was feeling peppy when I rode the S40? Maybe I wasn't when I rode the DF? According to the weather data on Strava, the 16th had gusts from the SW at 28 MPH whereas on the 3rd the wind was fairly mild so that was certainly a factor. SW winds would have had me climbing into a headwind and going up a 12% grade into a 28 MPH headwind would certainly slow you down.

But still, I'm astonished at the difference. I would have expected the Cruzbike to be much slower under any and all circumstances. But why do I think that? I know when I'm actually doing the climb on the recumbent I really feel like I'm crawling, working hard to maintain some semblance of control and not weave all over the road.

Here's my theory: when you ride a DF, you're looking down at the ground and it's going by pretty fast, even when climbing. When you ride a recumbent, you're looking at the horizon and it's coming at you pretty slow. This creates the perception that you're going slower even when you are in fact going the same speed or even faster.

What does this all mean? Well, it would certainly lead one to the conclusion that there's not a significant disadvantage to riding the recumbent on any sort of terrain and there might even be an advantage, even on hilly routes. Does that mean I'm going to scrap all of my DF's and go all in on the 'bent? 

In a word, no. There are still the logistical issues associated with travel and recumbents. Also, there's the aesthetic issue. I've said it many times: I'm a diamond frame guy at heart. They touch me on an emotional level in a way that a recumbent doesn't, at least not thus far. Don't get me wrong, I really like the Cruzbike and I like riding it but it's not the same. Maybe I'll get there, maybe not. 

It does show however that the recumbent is a viable option for riding brevets, even hilly ones and more experimentation and data gathering is required. 

And I realized in writing this that I don't think I've ever posted a picture of the 'bent so here you go:

Stay tuned!

Walking a fine line

It's been a while since I've posted an update of my progress and things have been interesting. The good news is that there IS progress. As recently as two weeks ago the summary was:

• level 1-2 pain 24/7
• left leg "not working right" - significant cramping in my calf after 10 miles or so on the bike or a mile walking
• three small toes on my left foot numb constantly. This would spread to my forefoot and lower leg as the distance went up on rides or walks.

 As things currently stand, I actually have periods where none of the above symptoms occur which is significant progress. That's not to say I'm pain free but just being able to do a 20-30 mile ride without increased back pain, calf tightness or numbness is a huge step forward.

But I've found that I'm treading a very fine line. I'm trying to ride more, gradually turning all three "knobs" (distance, frequency, intensity) one at a time and this is definitely an experiment in the truest sense of the word (a test without a predefined outcome). Since we arrived here in Texas I did one stretch of rides at moderate intensity but rode 5 days in a row - no problems. I then took a day off and did a ride where I pushed hard and all of the above symptoms recurred. Here are some pictures that illustrate objectively what I did.

The first is of a Rouvy workout I did on the trainer.

The max watts for that ride was 378 watts and I obviously spent most of the ride in Z2-Z3 so in a range of 122-198 watts. No problems with my back or leg at all and note that this was the last ride in a 5 day stretch without a day off.

I then took a day off and my next ride was outside. Here's the same picture from that ride:

As you can see I spent significantly more time in Z1 (121 watts or less) and a fair amount of time in zones 2 and 3. The key difference though is the harder efforts. In the indoor workout I spent a very small amount of time (2:46) at Z6 (265-330 watts) whereas in the outdoor workout I spent 6:03 at that intensity and 3:19 at an even higher level. My max wattage for that ride was 480 watts.

The more intense ride was most definitely too much, too soon. As I said, I experienced all of the usual symptoms post ride. This all happened yesterday. I rode a fairly easy 33 miles today on the recumbent with no significant issues.

So I'm encouraged. Although a harder effort does have some negative after effects, even the easier rides are at a higher level of intensity than I was able to manage a month ago.

Progress is being made!

I've begun thinking more seriously about 2021 ride plans and have even made a few concrete plans (well, "set in concrete" is a bit of a stretch, more like "set in Jello"). I know my vast readership is on pins and needles wondering what's in store for the year but I'll keep you in suspense for a bit longer.

Stay tuned!