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Not bad, but the timing wasn't good at all! |
Now this year is all about learning and much of that happened this past week (beyond watch out for cactus in the road)! It might be a breakthrough week for me really. See, sometimes when things do NOT go as planned they're of greater benefit than when things go perfectly as expected. That's what happened with me, all week!
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Mt. Hopkins and behind it, Madera Canyon, in the background |
I'd done the slower variety of the Shootout a few weeks before and only had trouble when I put myself in difficulty with intention. But Saturday there were a lot of young pro riders looking for a workout and they had me in difficulty all day long.
Long story short, I discovered how much my inexperience is costing me ... I really need to learn how to ride in a group. I'm not unsafe, if anything, I'm too cautious. I kept getting scrubbed off of wheels I wanted to follow and ended up in bad positions all day. Then, at one point I decided to take off my gloves, but thought it best to slip towards the back to do so. I ended up on the wrong side of a split in the group. I waited to let those in front of me bridge the gap, but they couldn't. By the time I decided to do it, the gap was significant. UGH! I had to work for a long time before catching back on.
As it turned out a large group was deviating from the Shootout route and heading up Madera Canyon, too. Madera Canyon is a category 1 climb, most of the elevation gain in the last 3 miles. The last 3 miles average 7% gradient, but there are long stretches of 10% plus with no rest. For a big boy, like me, this is brutal.
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One of the hills near my home I ride up every day. |
On the return leg of the ride back to town I ended up getting cramps in my left leg, suddenly, without warning. It was very strange. Upon reviewing the data collected on the day I saw that I had an imbalance between left and right leg power, 46% to 54%. So I need to address this before it leads to injury!
So I learned I need to work on riding in fast groups as well as flexibility and strength in my left leg (weakened by the back injury). But, I also learned that BBS can have a great application even in a group ride or race! I also worked on nutrition timing, which worked very well. I'll share about that another time.
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Cedric climbing out of Pena Blanca Lake on Sunday with me. |
I collected a handful of KOMs on Strava Sunday, even though I had fried legs. Funny how finding your limit, like I did Saturday, can help push that limit! It's a great thing.
So while I got my butt handed to me Saturday, I realized that I've come a long way on Sunday. That's cycling for you!
Last thing to share: I put together the video from the Oracle Road Race that happened last weekend (week #4). Here it is. Thanks again for reading.
I'm not sure that the power imbalance is something to get too worked up about. Everyone I know who's used L/R power sees a discrepancy of several percent. Now granted you are actually coming back from an injury which h affected one leg more than the other, but keep in mind that most power meters are only accurate within about 2%. And to measure L/R power you need to make 2 power meetera potentially leading to a 4% discrepancy even if you are 50/50.
ReplyDeleteThe imbalance has been drifting (towards greater imbalance) and is worse during a hard ride. No big deal, glad I know about it before it turns into something. I need to be more vigilant with my single leg exercises. Today I found one I forgot about that targets that exact muscle that cramped.
ReplyDeleteYou looked smooth and comfortable on your new bike Saturday. Is the bike fitting worth the money?
Oh it is absolutely worth it. A few years ago I had a problem with a really bad case of runners knee (Patellar Tendonitis) and I used some other fitters but couldn't shake it. After using Tim Carolan I was able to eliminate the tendonitis. So I've used Tim ever since and I always feel so much more at home on the bike afterwards. Even when I try to recreate my position from one bike to another I never seem to get it exactly right, I blame the change in the seat tube angles, since he's fit my other bikes he's able to get me re-fit much quicker and he reduces the price accordingly. Also after getting a fit with Tim (and most fitters I think), if it isn't quite right after you ride it for a while he'll do another adjustment free of charge to get it dialed in exactly.
ReplyDelete