Riding to recover

My calf muscles were pretty beat up from the Boston marathon. They have been hurting all week and I was stiff and had trouble getting up. At night I was restless and woke up many times. Walking did help but running was pretty much out of the question -until yesterday when I took a brief jog in a parking lot. So I have been riding my bike. Swimming might have helped better but we no longer have our pool membership so biking was my only option.

After flying back on Tuesday, April 20, I rode for 35 min on rollers Wednesday. Surprisingly enough I could ride pretty well and even spinning at a high cadence was no problem. Getting off the bike though was less than pleasant. It felt as if I had been sitting for hours. It is remarkable how different parts of the muscle are used for different activities. Sore from running worked fine for biking and I have experienced the opposite in IM races.

On Thursday I rode 28 miles, including a climb up Redwood Road. Then on Friday I rode the Briones loop, affectionately known as "The Bears" in Berkeley. I added Pig Farm hill just to top 21 miles. Saturday I took Alistair to the Wente Road Race and rode some 15 miles in Livermore, up Patterson Pass Rd. and up Altamont and Flynn Road. I climbed Flynn a few times which was great fun.

On Sunday I rode the loop over Altamont, Midway and Patterson Pass. The weather was great and the winds were calm, which made for a pleasant ride. Normally, the loop can be a real challenge. The west winds usually start before noon and one goes out with a monster tailwind, flying down Altamont at 40 mph, only to hit the wall at Midway and suffer a constant headwind up Patterson. None of that I am happy to say. Just a calm breeze to keep things honest.

Sort of hard, all the time

Beginning racers who don't have a coach tend to make one of two basic mistakes. The first is to substitute distance for intensity. This is rather more common in the older age categories, where competitors prefer to abstain from hard efforts and indulge in distance rides instead. These athletes seem to believe that they can make up for going hard by going long. Alternatively, they may think that, because they are training for an endurance event they should avoid intensity and concentrate on distance. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The second, equally devastating approach is to go hard all the time. This is more common in younger riders who think they need to go to their max every single day in order to get better. It is also common in triathletes, many of whom appear addicted to training. The result is a near constant state of fatigue that lulls some people into thinking they are doing all they can to improve. While some will become frustrated about their lack of improvement, most eventually resign to the status quo and believe they have reached their peak.

Here is a nice rule of thumb. Unless you have practiced an activity for 10,000 hours (see the 10,000 hour rule), you can always improve.

In addition to a lack of improvement, ineffective strategies also lead to overreaching, overtraining, and burnout. None of these are good and like so many things in life, it is easier to prevent these conditions than to remedy them.

The key to improvement in training is high intensity. Without it nothing else matters. However, it is important to realize that you cannot perform at high intensity unless you are both healthy and well-rested. Effective training programs will allow sufficient time to recuperate before key workouts.

Exactly how often and how much you should rest depends on your specific genetic makeup and training situation, but if you don't feel excited and enthusiastic before races and key workouts, chances are you are doing too much. Apart from periodic (one to two day) rest and recovery, you also need the occasional long (>1 week) recovery in order to do well and improve.

Yesterday (Wed 3/17), easy 25 mile ride;

Today 12 mile hilly run (the Strawberry Canyon trail loop).

Coaching clinic

Today I am in Davis for a level 2 coaching clinic. The event lasts through Sunday noon. Two full days of lectures plus one morning. It is pretty intense. Overall I was pleasantly surprised with the quality. The level is quite basic -esp. the physiology parts- but the scientific rigor is good and that is reassuring. It is not so much that I am learning new stuff here, but reviewing everything from a training/coaching perspective is good to do. And it is good to hear that people take all the training hype with a decent grain of salt.

I will use this event to insert a break in my training. I plan to take two days off and then maybe I will do something light on Sunday. That will be a nice change now that the season is over. So far this week, I have run 7.5 on Monday, and another 8.75 on Wednesday. I also did two rides, 30 on Tuesday and 35 on Thursday. Together with a light workout on Sunday, it will make for a good recovery week.