To read my ride recaps, check these links:
Now that you're up to speed on how the ride went, I'll go through some of the things that may have made the difference between a good day and a bad day. Bring on the Medio route!
The Good
Nutrition:
My nutrition was dialed in. I was able to provide enough calories to prevent the dreaded bonk throughout the day and I didn't have to vary much from the kind of things I typically eat on my training rides. That being said, there were plenty of “treats” on hand to make the ride a little more interesting (and a little tougher on the stomach) but common sense prevented my from indulging too much.
Tip: If you're having trouble on event days, consider taking a look at what you eat starting from breakfast and working up through the ride. Don't change your breakfast patterns much from your normal training days and don't change your in-ride nutrition, otherwise you're inviting disaster. Bring your own nutrition, and don't rely on what's provided at the rest stops.
Recon:
Course recon for a ride as difficult as this one is almost essential. I've ridden the climbs countless times, and I've ridden most of the roads at least a few times. Putting it all together during the sponsored training rides was a great experience, and it allowed me to figure out where I could spend energy and where I should conserve energy.
Tip: If you have the capability of pre-riding the route, then go and do it. It's a highly recommended step towards being able to formulate your pacing strategy and your energy budget, both of which are critical to meeting your overall objectives.
Warmup Ride (previous day):
I've always had success with riding the day before an event ride. While some people choose to rest, I find that opening up the legs with a short ride that combines some spinning with a few harder efforts preps the body for harder work the following day. It also helps to ensure more sound sleep the night before an event.
Tip: If you're planning a ride for the next day, keep it short, sweet and intense. Half an hour of hard effort is all you need. Treat this like the night before a race, and peak appropriately.
Prepping Gear the Night Before:
Having as much of your equipment ready to go as possible saves a lot of time in the morning, allowing you to sleep longer or get in a meal a couple hours before the start. There are also times where this is mandatory, such as having a long drive to an event the morning of.
Tip: Have everything packed so all you have to do is throw a bag and bike in the car.
Sticking to Preset Goals:
Deviating from your preset goals during an event will only set you up for trouble. I had thoughts that I would never make my goal time, so when I started to cramp, I almost dashed those hopes. Only by making a quick calculation at the last rest stop did I realize that I would be able to hammer to the finish and just maybe make it. Had I stuck with my reasoned goal throughout the ride, I may not have had to pound asphalt in order to make my goal.
Tip: Don't relay on those around you to make goal setting choices for you. They'll drag you off pace quickly.
The not so good
Lack of Warmup (morning of):
We arrived at the start/finish area around 6:00 AM. It was about 58 degrees, and we ended up standing around for about an hour and fifteen minutes. Legs were stiff, there was little blood flowing, and the rollout from Morristown was extremely slow. This meant relying on muscular endurance too soon in the ride and not being able to properly warm up my neuromuscular system. It's not surprising we spent so much energy early on.
Tip: Try to work out some way to get in at least a few minutes of warmup before you start your ride. It's almost essential in cooler temperatures. It's especially necessary if you're going to start out hard from the gun.
Burning Energy Too Early/Poor Starting Position:
These two issued go hand-in-hand with the lack of a decent warmup. When looking at the breakdown of the ride on TrainingPeaks, I spent 500KJ of energy between the start line and the first rest stop, which was the point where the packs of slower riders began to thin out. That's despite the fact that there were no real large climbs in the first third of the route and was about 100KJ more than I should have spent during the easiest part of the route.
The VI (shown below) also revealed that there was a huge variability in the power output/efforts that I put in throughout the first portion of the event (slowing, accelerating, repeat.) To give a point of reference, the next highest VI that I recorded was 1.41, and that was in the (very steep, punchy) rollers at the end of the route. You'll also note that the average power
is a sad 106 watts. Yes, there was a lot of soft pedaling followed by hard acceleration in the first part of the route.
This tells me that the mass start, the accelerations and decelerations necessary to weave in and out of packs of slower riders combined with the lack of an easy neuromuscular warmup wasted a lot of energy early on.
Had I positioned myself differently from the beginning (perhaps in the front of the 18mph group) I may not have had to deal with the excessive traffic jams. That may have saved the extra 100 KJ that I could have spent on the timed climbs or towards finishing the end of the ride strongly.
Cold Weather:
Starting in the cold has always been an issue for me, and this was compounded by wearing my light summer jersey/base layer combo, as well as the unusually cold morning. I'd decided early on to forego arm and leg warmers because I didn't want to carry them: in hindsight, they may have been worth it.
In the cold weather, blood is shunted away from the extremities into the core in an attempt to maintain core temperature. In this case, the extremities contained the working muscles that I needed to propel myself forward, and the lack of blood flow to those muscles early on made for a tough start. Make sure you dress properly for the conditions you'll be facing and take your start time into account.
Lack of Sleep:
I don't sleep well before events, and many of you probably don't either. Sleep is necessary to get ourselves feeling primed for the day's effort, so a lack of sleep hurts. Consider testing melotonin as a supplement in order to ensure a good night's sleep prior.
Alcohol the Night Prior:
Maybe an issue, maybe not. Sometimes alcohol before an event can have a profound effect on performance, sometimes it has no effect. I don't think it made a difference other than disrupting sleeping patterns, but who knows. If you have any concerns about drinking before an event, play it safe and save it for the victory lap.
Well there we go: it's easy to see how a few things can coalesce into a cloud of doom for your event, so take good care to be diligent in your pre-ride planning. You never know if changing that one little routine may be the key to a breakthrough performance.
