The View from my Bicycle [COLUMN]

Poegaai

I was very tempted to ride with my Zipps today, as I have felt quite stale this week (mostly as a result of adding some running to the training mix). While riding with these lighter and faster wheels always feels better, you get less of the benefit (fitness and strength) from each race than you would riding without them. Yes - one of the main ways and probably quickest ways I improve my fitness is in the long, hard races on weekends.

I am focussed really on 2 races at the moment - the OFM on 2 November, and 2 weeks later, the 94.7. I'll be riding with the Zipps then. Today though, they stayed at home.

I arrived at the venue with 10 minutes to spare - literally - and joined the A/L bunch about 3 minutes before they left. I could feel my body still felt very tired, so I knew it was going to be a long 107km.

One issue I tried to avoid on this ride was my water bottle falling out the cage. It had happened in the previous two races, so I had used double-sided scotch tape on the carbon fibre wings (it's not a wire cage). The problem was, the side facing the bottle was now too sticky! So I sprayed the sticky surface with a teflon spray, but once it dried the stickiness returned. An experimental insertion of the bottle proved almost impossible to get out! So I placed some newspaper on the sticky surface and tore it off. This seemed to work. Anyway, I went into the race quite nervous that the bottle would fall out anyway, and on a 107km race that would be a disaster.

At around 15km I noticed the bottle sitting at an awkward angle and while fiddling with it, the bunch climbed away. From the graph you can see my hardest effort of the day was in the first half hour and in the final few minutes.



I noticed the bottle really wasn't going to make it, and so stuffed it into the back of my jersey where I already had another, smaller bottle. This wasn't part of the original plan, which is why I think I arrived home to find my credit card gone (probably jumped out while getting the bottle out).
So this bottle fixation also caused me to lose touch with a nice runner-up group, leaving me essentially isolated at around 20km. It occurred to me to turn the engines off and cruise the rest of the race - especially since my body was really not feeling fresh. I caught up to Mr. Allergic soon after and thought we might make a real effort to catch the runner up bunch. Except he turned out to be allergic to riding in front. On one of the few occasions he went in front he nearly knocked me off my bike. I think it was an innocent mistake, but I was pretty keen on getting as far away from him as possible. Then, 2 things happened.

1. A bee decided my head was an imminent threat and rocketed into it, stinging me immediately upon making contact.
2. A small group we'd past on the tough climb earlier caught up to us.

I thought the bee sting would itch under my helmet, but after two minutes or so I completely forgot about it. (I pulled out the sting at home, from a slightly swollen forehead).

The small group was composed of a nice bunch of riders, one of them being Rapunzel (a pretty young girl with a very long blonde ponytail, wearing a yellow MTN shirt). I thought we'd work together but it turned out I was one of the stronger riders, so spent quite a long time riding in front - even riding them off a few times. I didn't want to ride alone so I sort of hung around. At one point Rapunzel offered to do a shift in front and shot away.

We cracked a few jokes approaching Suikerbosrand (an area I had avoided altogether the previous year as I had ridden the shorter distance). One guy was saying we were about to climb Joburg's toughest climb, and 'even on your best day it's a nightmare'. Er...this definitely wasn't my best day.

So we started going over the roly poly first section, and round about here B/L caught us. I wasn't to chuffed as I thought it would be nice if our little group stayed together, but it was impossible with hundreds of riders streaming and weaving around.
After the first big climb only one guy from our group was slightly ahead of me, and much later, Mr. Allergic caught up and asked if I was ok. Not long after that he faded and I never saw him again. Rapunzel caught me on the final climb (called Eat Death Hill) and it is truly a hellish, interminable climb. It was here that I sort've wished I had my Zipps.
From the graph you can see exactly what sort of monster Eat Death Hill is. You climb as high as 1740m (from a low point of 1385m).

At the top I grabbed some water, and asked a girl rider who was sitting on the side of the road:"Are you alright?" She shouted: "NO!" It was quite funny because I just went on riding. She looked as though she had suffered a tubby puncture in her front wheel - something I couldn't have helped her with anyway.
Meanwhile, I shot downhill. My hefty 85kg slicing through the wind like a hot warhead through Iraqi airspace.

I caught up to Rapunzel and another group that was forming, and then up another climb she went ahead slightly again and I caught them on the downhill again.
On the other side I began to pick up speed but again, throwing everyone off just meant I was riding alone against the wind. A group of about a dozen riders including Rapunzel eventually caught me, and then first me and another guy, and then eventually four of us kept the train going.

I started getting a bit tired here. At about 70-80km I started letting other riders ride in front for a number of shifts. Then at around 90km the bunch broke into little pieces. We were assimilating riders and losing riders. The last few kilometres suited me perfectly and so I started working again in front. In the last 3 or 4 kilometres we picked up an MTN rider with his helmet pushed far to the back of his head. He was also A/L. We were also flying by a lot of riders that had passed us on Suikerbosrand. I came around the corner second or third in our bunch, and then the new MTN guy went hard, but far too early. At 1.5km I sailed by him, also very early, but it was impossible to sprint or ride in a proper group with the road as narrow and busy as it was. I got to the finish first of our group - I have a feeling they decided to ride in easily to avoid mishap. Rapunzel must have come in a few minutes after me. After picking if a Nando's burger I went to say thanks for (not sure for what really...?) - working with us, and then headed home.

The best part was throwing my corpse into the swimming pool's brisk water. WAH!

Stats:
Time - 3:25
Hr - 153 (167)
Distance - 105.8km
Speed - 30.8km/h (75.5km/h max)
Alt avg - 1475 (1757 max/1369 min]
Temp - 14 min 21 avg 28 max [Quite hot]
Ascent - 945m
KCal - 3533

2007 Stats:
Time: 2:23
Heart Rate average: 159 (Maximum 169)
KCal: 2628
Ascent: 600m
Temperature: 14/18 average/23
Altitude average: 1524m (1671m max)
Average speed: 31.9km/h (Maximum 97km/h - there were some steep fast downhills but that still seems a bit suspect to me.)
Distance: 76.8km

Note how much lower my heart rate average and even maximum heart rate was this year.

Read about my 2007 Race for Victory here.

Carnival City Bike Race – 100km

Phedra-fueled jumpiness with a decent dose of sleep deprivation = a quirky performance

The first miracle was arriving in time for this race. Although I got instructions from Alex, I went to see the sights in Germiston on the way. There was a MOER of a traffic jam winding in a great arc, so I arrived at Carnival City at about 7am, and my group, BL started at 7:18. I had to find the registration tent, collect my number, attach it to my shirt, get back, get ready and get to the start. Somehow I did all this with about 4 minutes to spare.

I had no idea what to expect from this race. Inconsistent training means I have no idea where I’m at… 2 weeks on 2 weeks off…it just meant there was a giant question mark hanging over my helmet on Sunday. The 24th would also be the first time in weeks that I’d be seeing my Heart Rate (I had to order a new one since the old one’s battery had gone poegaai).

Boredom Sets In

The first 10km were helluva boring. Just sitting in the bunch, speeding along, nothing happening. Because I was so sleep deprived, I found this very very tedious. I was already asking myself: “How are you going to feel I’ve 50km?” That’s as far as I’ve gone in training; I haven’t exceeded that since Christmas. I had a Phedra-fueled jumpiness with a decent dose of sleep deprivation. This, and the fact that gravity attracted me downhill faster than anyone else, got me into the habit of breaking the boring all-in-a-day’s-work mindset of the riders. No one was saying anything, no one was doing anything, it was just so BORING! So I made a series of hops off the front, nothing spectacular, using the momentum to hop over small hills. Once someone came with me, but on such a flat course the bunch was always going to be biting at our heels. At 1 hour we had covered just under 40km. We hit 50km at about 1hr 17:30.

I suppose I did some good marketing (during the first 75% of the race) for NVDL. Some of the spurts were just plane fun. At around 60km – disaster. On one of my solo forays I was just waiting for the bunch to reel me in on a long drag when both calves suddenly pinched hard. I pedaled through it, but it was something of a shock, and it took about a kilometer for the tightness to finally loosen. A rider must have seen me wincing, because he said: “Standard Bank, how’re you doing?” I told him my fluids weren’t doing the job and he very kindly offered me one of his quarter filled water bottles. It really did the trick. The cramps went away completely. For about 10 minutes.

Strain

From here on out I began to feel a bit of strain in terms of my endurance capacity. I was fishing for the slip, and at one point I realized it was not on the right of the rider in front of me, so I moved over to the left. Just then I felt a right hand shove hard and plum against my upper thigh – HARD – and as I glanced back, saw an oldish rider go down.OOooof. Looked eina. He must have gotten a shock when he pushed and realized something as heavy (and immovable) as a menhir was riding a bicycle. Not quite sure where the shove came from. Was it reflex or something else?

Oddly enough, I drifted off the front (believing the calf cramp to be a one-off), and then later, moving nicely up a long drag my quads suddenly tightened. I’m not sure I’ve ever had these muscles pull in about 15 years of cycling. I drank water and stretched, but now I was concerned. 20km to go and it seemed like if I started pushing on an uphill, even if my muscles weren’t tired, they were hungry for electrolytes that weren’t there. I rode conservatively the next 10 km and with about 3km to go started revving towards the front.

Lock and (CANNOT)Load

On probably the second last climb, my upper Quads locked – not tightened – locked, so that for a few desperate moments I was unable to move my legs at all. I was basically standing and rocking my upper body, but my legs had locked, the ropes in the muscles in a vicious spasm, so tight I couldn’t do anything. I really thought I was going to fall over in a few seconds. The second miracle was that – remarkably – I managed to squeeze out a single pedal stroke, despite this painful vicelike muscle lock in both legs. But as soon as I’d leverage the grip, as soon as I bent my leg a snake would seize it up and it would tighten again. Strangely, this was happening with far less pain than when this usually happens. Then another pedal stroke. I pedaled in the lightest gear, in a lot of pain, for about 300 metres… I’d experienced a muscle strain at the end of Race for Victory that had me sore and limping for a few days. That was based on not being strong enough for that long brutal climb at the end. This was different. I felt a series of severe but recoverable spasms, but not a bruising strain associated with a cramp.

The severity of this last muscle lock meant I had to drift entirely to the right hand side of the road so that cars and bikes could get around me. So I lost the bunch. I slowed down a lot now. I was limping in at 11km/h. Once again, as the road leveled off, I felt the lock gradually unlock. I got through 100km in 2h:43 and took 6 minutes to do the last 2km.
Not the nicest way to end the race, cramping in the last 3km, but if someone offered me 2:49 for 102km at the start of the race – cramps and all – I would have taken it.

Why?

Now the question: why did you cramp? My reasoning is as follows. I left home already quite thirsty and over the past few days have restricted my meals. I believe I started the race not sufficiently hydrated, and I was using a new fluid mixture for the first time, not the usual magic stuff (GU2O). This is a bit of a wild card, but I suspect Phedra cut may have had something to do with it too. Phedra makes me jumpy, why not my muscles too? Alex says that I cramped because of my aggressive (foolhardy?) riding. That my muscles were just tired (because I haven’t been training much.) It’s true, I haven’t, but I don’t agree, simply because it wasn’t a case of my legs being tired. They didn’t feel tired, and I wasn’t struggling to stick with the bunch, even after my little adventures off the front. If it was the case that I was growing increasing tired the cramps would have been in the same place, and would have hurt a lot afterwards (as was the case with Race for Victory – where strength up that last climb is a key factor).

The cramps felt like those you get in the pool – foot cramps – they happen often, lock up the inside of the foot, but it’s not a lasting, bruising type of pain. You don’t get these sort of cramps because you’re tired; you get them because your body lacks salt.

Headaches

I think fitness did play a bit of a role, and the fact that I was doing a long race flat race repeating the same motion all the time…and all this riding uncharacteristically without my Zipps. It could be this aspect alone that my legs weren’t used to, the heavier wheels over a longer distance, but if I had to make a bet I’d say it was drinking and eating too little before the race, and having a formula that didn’t have a lot of electrolyte replacement. What confirms this diagnosis, I think, is that I’ve had a splitting headache all day – I went to shoot a model on Northcliff hill after the ride as well, which meant even more time in the sun. I think I’m suffering from a bit of sunstroke and dehydration.

Even so it was a great way to start the morning and one of the highlights of a busy and stimulating weekend. Oh and the third miracle was that Rapport finally published my pictures of Roxanne in Sunday’s paper. Beautiful.

Stats

Time: 2:49
Distance: 102.6km
Speed: 36.2km/h (ave) 70+ max
KCal: 3027
HR: 154 ave/170 max
Time per km: 1:39

Race For Victory

After a terrible sleep (violent thunderstorms last night amongst other sensory distractions - including smelly shoes and overpowering tephlon aromas), I got up at about 5:10am.

Alex and I drove behind Andrew MacLean on the way to Gold Reef City. He has quite a nice rig. Was ironic then that he came belting past me on the road - on his own - in pursuit of a breakaway as far as I know. I think he ended up 2nd.

Here today's stats...
Time: 2:23
Heart Rate average: 159 (Maximum 169)
KCal: 2628
Ascent: 600m
Tenperature: 14/18 average/23
Altitude average: 1524m (1671m max)
Average speed: 31.9km/h (Maximum 97km/h - there were some steep fast downhills but that still seems a bit suspect to me.)
Distance: 76.8km

Was a great setup for an unfit rider. Start with a few smallish climbs, then a long, monster downhill (5km long). Then rolling undulations with the wind. Did the first 40km in just over an hour. Did the next 37km in around 1h25min. Was actually looking good timewise until the last 10km, then we hit the monster downhill - but from the other side. We had this interminable climb against the wind. My right calf basically went into a gradual strain after that effort.

Was a great race; I was a lot stronger and faster than I would have given myself creidt for, but then it's easy to do downhills and flats with the wind at your back.
Some of the roadside sights included motorbikes flying over ramps - high into the air - a microlight swooping over the moving line of riders that included me, Andrew easing by us on his own with a peloton not that far behind, working together to try to reel him in.

I survived with the front bunch - well, the piecves of it that remained, until about 54km. I lost them when the vet bunches started streaming through. I slotted in behind a group of about 7 flying juniors. That was a great piece. Was buggered afterwards though.

The Vodacom girl in the blue bikini - while we were eating yummy steakrolls - gave me a bit of a er...lift...just before we left. Lovely breasts. Also motivating to see so many people in great shape. Now me.

Was a gr