SBR Utopia - OPEN (Page 98)

Wow, so sorry to read this. I hope all is OK.

I have nothing helpful on the rehab question, but I would say the ever popular "rest and recover" advice would be the way I would go were I you.

Take some time to heal up.

Oh man...glad you are relatively okay and it wasn't worse.  The smart thing to do would be to listen to doctor's orders and take it easy, but man...I have to admit that I've never heard of a streak as long as yours...especially knowing you have to deal with snow and other weather every year.  Whatever happens, hope you feel better soon.

ugh, sorry to hear you got hit but glad it was not worse.  And super glad the driver stuck with you and did all the right things. 

Given that the arm is not broken though don't be throwing all that training away.  You won't be starting from zero again once you can start again.  Although I highly recommend perhaps not worrying about the streak right now.  I get that you want to keep it going but you'd be riding with your body position not idea cause I assume you can't really use the arm and that's just going to potentially cause you another injury down the road.  Although you could ride straight up I guess but I think rest would be more important

Nicole, in my own experience that bolded part is the key so long as walking does not cause any further pain or injury. I took a freak tumble and injured my knee last year about 10 weeks before my IM. In consultation with my Doc, my coach had me ditch all of my running and instead substitute walking for every run I had on the schedule. So if I had a run that would take an hour to complete, I would walk an hour. If my long run was 2.5 hours, then I would walk 2.5 hours. Bike-to-run bricks became bike-to-walk. We basically just made sure that I still got all of the time on my feet that I was supposed to. To maintain aerobic fitness I did a lot more hard threshold swimming and just a little bit of deep water aqua jogging to maintain ROM and hip strength. About 2 weeks before IM I was finally allowed to run for 20 minutes during each of my walks. It was glorious. Although i certainly didn't set any land speed records, I was able to run every step of the way at IM. I was probably about 20 minutes slower than my goal pace I was working toward before the injury.

I think too many people underestimate the importance of just getting the time on their feet, especially for long course racing.*edited for typos, sorry.

Edited by TankBoy 2013-02-27 2:56 PM

Ugh! So sorry, Take care and let us know how you are doing!

Oh no!!!  I'm so sorry to hear this.  How are you feeling now?  I know that coming out of the ER (and on whatever nice drugs they give you there), you often feel pretty decent and the first thought is, "When can I get back to it?"  Unfortunately, sometimes that thought doesn't last....but I'm hoping for the best! 

If you're feeling up to it tomorrow, I'd consider an easy ride on the trainer....but if you're feeling awful, don't get on for the sake of the streak.  I know 1519 days is a LONG streak, but your health is more important.  Hopefully you'll wake up feeling alright and wanting to get on. 

Heal up.

Great to hear you had success with that kind of plan, Rusty!  Maybe I had read one of your race reports or maybe you had commented on it at some other point, but I remember hearing that if you can't run, it's still worthwhile to get walks in for the duration you had planned to run. 

I figure substituting walking for running helps because a) it's time on the feet/knee, b) even though it's low impact, it's not no-impact, so it should help build up my knee's tolerance, and c) it keeps me accountable, in terms of sticking with my plan.  In terms of keeping my fitness level up, I'm also doing lots of threshold swimming and cycling.  I'll consider adding some aquajogging in again, but I'm hopeful that I can start doing a bit of running, so I can avoid that torture

Thanks so much for the feedback guys.  I'll try out the run/walk combo and see how it goes.  If I feel pain, I reckon I'll need to shut things down pretty quickly.  My fingers are crossed.

Oh, and of course (before even running) I'm wondering if I can race my planned HM in May.  At this point, I reckon it will take 6 weeks to get back to where I was (doubling the three weeks I was stopped).  I only have 9 weeks till the race, so I don't think I can be ready.  Anyone think otherwise?

Really glad you are mostly okay.  Hope you're not hurting too much tomorrow, and can recover relatively quickly.

Sidenote - that is some kind of streak.  3 days in a row on the bike and I feel like a champ!

Wow, I'm sorry to hear this but glad it wasn't worse!  Take things easy and give yourself a proper chance to recover properly (but I'd be thinking about trying to extend that streak too....).

I can't answer based on experience, but I'd guess you'll be able to run the HM (maybe not race to your potential??).  Based on Rusty's past results with walking for the expected duration of training runs while keeping up the swim and bike fitness, I'd guess you'd be able to do it (assuming, of course, that you can keep the achilles issues at bay). 

I have a HIM in July and that's my current plan....walk the duration of the run, and add in some running as my body will tolerate it.  I'm banking on it working

While you may not have the race you were planning on, you can still have a good race relative to the circumstance you find yourself in. Only you can decide whether or not you will find value in that however. This was advice that BryanCD gave me last year when I asked him the same thing about racing IM after having to lay off running all summer (he gave me permission at the time to share it with the group if I found it to be of value. It was extremely so - I read every word about 100 times as I considered my options to race or not.

Since some of you mentioned your interest in time trialing, I thought I would create a comprehensive list of tips.  There were a few good threads on ST that I cherry picked from, and feel free to add any other tips.

1. If possible, scout the course.  A TT may sound simple, but those who pay attention to the small details can gain a significant advantage.  Here are the things you should be looking for when scouting.
1. Potholes, cracks, and the smoothest part of the road.  Making a mental note of where these are may seem trivial, but trust me, if you’re riding balls to the wall with your head buried in your arms, you really don’t have that much time to look up the road.
2. Prevailing wind.  Knowing that you will have a headwind coming back or going out might affect your pacing.  You definitely want to save some energy for the part of the course that is into the wind. 
3. Hills.  Same with the wind, you want to know when you may need to apply more power, and if the descent is fast enough where you can tuck and coast, or if you need to keep pedaling.
4. Turns.  If there are any 90 degree or sweeping turns, you want to know which ones you can hammer through, which ones you need to coast, and which may require a tap of the brakes.  Not something you want to have to experiment during the race.
5. PRACTICE YOUR U-TURNS!!!  You would be amazed how much time you can gain or lose especially if the turn is tight.  Make sure to shift down into the appropriate gear before making the U-turn.
6. Landmark an area prior to the finish.  Most of the time, with maybe 60-90 seconds left in the race, you’re going to switch from an aerobic exercise to going somewhat anaerobic where you start to unload the rest of the tank.  Sometimes you can’t see the finish line from far out, so you want to make sure you don’t jump too soon, but at the same time you don’t want to make a turn and have the finish line only 100 meters away.
7. Evaluate what type of tire pressure you want to run.  Courses with rougher roads go better with lower pressures.  Don’t automatically resort to the pressure you always ride at.
2. Get in a good warm up.  I always prefer the trainer because it’s controlled and I don’t have to worry about how much time I have before my start time if I were warming up on the road.  Before you start your warmup, check with the timing official to get in sync with the race time.  Sometimes they are running late, and the race time might be a 5-10 minutes behind actual time.  I prefer a nice long warm up of about 40 minutes.  15 minutes of just easy pedaling to get loose, then about four or five 1-2’ efforts that slowly build to race pace, and about 3-5’ easy pedaling between.  I know I’m ready when I’ve got a nice sweat going.  I try to plan my warmup so that I finish about 10-15 minutes before my start time.  Gives me time to switch back to my rear race wheel, use the bathroom if necessary, then roll to the start line about 5-8’ before my start.  I would also recommend getting to the race site early for preferred parking.  The best spot is as close to the starting line as possible so you never get that worrisome feeling that you might be running late.
3. Bring a water bottle with you if you want, but you most likely won’t need to drink.  I always bring a bottle with me that’s about half full, but I almost never drink…even up to 40k
4. Make sure you start in the appropriate gear.  I usually start in my big ring, and my second easiest cog in the back if it’s a flat start.  If someone is going to be holding you up for a clipped in start, make sure that you won’t drop your chain if you pedal backwards.  Because you will almost always have to pedal backwards a little to get comfortable.  If you’re using a Garmin, start you timer with about 10 seconds to go (I use the auto pause feature so the timer will start when I start moving).  Be in a position where your dominant foot is applying pressure to the pedal and hold your brakes.  When it’s time to go…simply let go of the brakes.
5. You want to get up to speed quickly, but then get down on your bars ASAP.  You probably don’t want to be sprinting out of the gate for more than 6-8 seconds.
6. Controlling yourself early on is key.  The first 3 minutes you’re going to feel like superman and if you’re using a power meter, it will likely show it.  While your AP is naturally going to be higher early on due to the sprinting off the line, you want to try and let it settle back down ASAP.  You also probably want to get control of your breathing since you’re are going to be transitioning from an anaerobic effort for the first 10-15 seconds with a ton of adrenaline to now a full aerobic effort.
7. Stay low.  Relax your upper body and hands, but try to squeeze yourself as low as possible while maintaining power.  The hurt in your legs and lungs will trump any discomfort in your neck, back, or shoulders.
8. If the road you are riding on is not closed, and the shoulder isn’t quite sufficient, I would advise to just take the whole lane of the road.  Assuming you’re going at a reasonable speed, it’s just safer because it lets cars behind you know that it’s not okay to do a brush by pass.  You have enough things to worry about when you’re suffering, including dodging potholes and finding the smoothest line.  The last thing you want to worry about is cars buzzing you.  But of course, the main thing is to be safe.  Use your own best judgment based on your scenario. 
9. The middle 85% of the ride is just a mental battle of focus.  It’s going to hurt, it’s not supposed to be easy.  Practice with intervals closer to the race length is going to help you deal with this.  Just remember that you don’t have to run afterwards, so ride hard. 
10. Don’t pay too much attention if someone passes you.  Chances are that there is a 30 second to 1 minute time interval between starts.  If someone passes you, they’re just simply faster or they are going to have an epic blow up.  Also realize you're likely now racing with people who only train by riding a bike.  Some of these guys are going to FLY past you.
11. Everyone has a way of mentally pushing themselves, but I like to get to the last 10% of the race pretty wasted, then just rely on guts, pride, and fear of failure.  I use this in 20 minute power tests as well, but my line to myself is something like “You didn’t just force yourself to suffer for X minutes just so you can give up with 5 minutes to go.”  Then usually comes a whole bunch of grunting, swearing, etc. 
12. Unless it’s an uphill finish, stay down on your bars.  If you paced it properly, you shouldn’t have enough energy to jump out of the saddle the last 100 meters and still be able to overcome the aerodynamic penalty of standing up.  Just flip one or two gears harder and enjoy the pain.   

I think I just found my new sig line.
Absolutely fantastic stuff Jason - I am going to refer back to this a lot, I think.

Agreed, that's great stuff Jason!

How would you guys handle the pacing on a course that is a loop but basically net elevation loss for the first half and then net gain on the return.  This is my TT from last year - if you look at the elevation, you can absolutely fly for the first half if the wind is right.  Avg speed was 44 km/hr from the start to the lowest point on the course at the 12 min mark.  AP was 277 to there but by the end of the TT, it was 273 so I had lower power for the elevation gain parts.  That makes me think I overcooked the start a bit?  There are two steep, cruel hills at around the 15 and 16 km marks and then it's a gradual rise to the finish.  I'm thinking that this year I might be better served by going out a bit easier and trying to save some for that last bit.

Agreed, very nice list.

And with that TT, I'd probably go close to goal effort out, maybe *slightly* under, but not much. It's a downhill trend, but not overly steep so you aren't really chasing after resistance so much like from continued acceleration. Just going faster than on a flat. Not very different from a tailwind/headwind situation. Then pick it up that little bit in the second half. Also be mindful of the power spikes in there. Those can be harder to recover from when you're already at (or breaking) threshold.

My surgery was not a "success" in that it did not take care of the issues/pain I've been feeling since my accident.  My surgeon said that my knee looks "surprisingly normal" (given my running....and competitive gymnastics background) so he has no idea why I'm still having issues.  I've been doing a decent amount of strength training, a lot of stretching and foam rolling, and have started up with ART again.  The ART does give me a decent amount of relief, but doesn't seem to "fix it". 

Anyways, I think I'm also going to try a bit of running this weekend as well.  My plan is a 4:1 walk/run ratio -- and as long as it feels good, I'll go for 30-45 minutes.  My HIM training plan technically started this week, but I'm currently doing walks in place of all the runs.  Hoping I"ll be able to start adding in some actual running soon!

Nice to have you back!

Great stuff Jason...going to save that for sure!

The intimidation factor was high for me at the TT. I didn't have a skin suit, aero helmet or race wheels...but I did console myself in the fact that I ride an aero bike a lot more than most of those guys. I figured they were mostly roadies who probably only rode a TT bike in prep for this race....made me feel a bit better

To be honest, I dont have experience with a TT like that where there seem to be some significant undulations in there.  I agree with Ben that you need to be careful about the power spikes, but it does look like you were able to keep constant pressure on the pedals throughout.  Once you start getting into courses where there are constant downhills that allow you to go 40+ (where tuck and coast becomes an option) then you really have to come up with a strategy to maximize efficiency (as far as power to speed), but not create too high of a VI that can result in a blow up.