It's been over three months since the TDR start and I still think regularly on that time. During the ride every day was an adventure. I knew I couldn't burn that bright for long and as it turned out I made it to the end. Along the way knowledge is gained as to what worked and what didn't and I'm finally getting around to posting those thoughts.
1) A great bike. This is pretty obvious. The nuance is that the bike has to be comfortable from the start. Thinking that the bike will get more comfortable with time will lead to teeth gnashing and possibly tears.
2) Cycling must be a passion. I still haven't done bike packing since finishing as mentally I'm not quite ready yet. I have been riding daily though since returning home. Riding a 100km or less on pavement with no training goal in mind has been extremely enjoyable. Even booting around on my commuter 26er is a gas. I'm still hooked on riding and that desire helped get me through. Dedicating weeks of time to just get up and ride down some crazy route was awesome and although I was tired I never really tired of the idea.
3) Ride your own race. Resist the urge to tailor your ride to those around you. Set your daily goals and stick with them. I enjoyed riding with those I met on the race but I also enjoyed riding on my own. Solitude meant total freedom to ride my pace. Of course there's moments of compromise especially when deciding on where to stop for the night. Once I was grumpy that we passed a stop with a toilet to get an extra 5km in. I hate dealing with cat hole digging first thing in the morning. In these cases I'd advise letting go of the irritation. Camping with others also has benefits so better to focus on the positive rather than the negative.
4) Don't "red line". I remembered this advice but ignored it early in the race. All the excitement had me wanting to catch other riders on the hills as I'm a strong climber. Pushing into the anaerobic zone causes a greater need for recovery which isn't going to happen in this race where 6 hours of sleep is a luxury. After the first couple of days I tried to stay in my aerobic zone.
5) Dreaded knee pain. Knees are one of the sources of potentially race ended pain. I had a bike fit before the race so I knew saddle height wouldn't be an issue. Regardless my knees stilled pained me with tag team issues. First my right knee would be a pain which after a time would quiet down only to have the left on act up. After ten days though the knee pain vanished and stayed away for the rest of the race. What also happened after ten days was fatigue. I no longer kept a training cadence which involved a fair amount of pedal mashing. Instead I rode in lower gears with higher cadence.
6) Trauma injures. Please note I'm not a medical professional and so this is not medical advice per se. If you're seriously mangled get help! Remember that SOS button on the Spot is available for the worst situations. Now with the disclaimer out of the way here's what worked for me after I came off the bike and hurt my hip. At the time I could barely walk and had unpleasant mild shock sensations. The year prior, I hurt my hip once with my CX bike on a fall which caused a massive bruise and kept me from riding for a week. The similarity of the situation freaked me out. I had just entered NM and was a long ways from help. Firstly I popped 400mg an antiinflammatory (Advil). Secondly I saw the humour of the situation. The idea of "racing" 4600km is pretty nutty especially as this was my first race ever. For some reason this notion had me laughing which seemed to sweep away the mild shock. Strangely although it was a cycling related injury getting the pedals turning again seemed the best therapy even though the stroke on my right leg was out of whack and I had to "walk" up some hills due to pain. With Advil and "pedaling" I recovered in a couple of days. I lost a bit of time but didn't have bruising or any long term effects.
7) Goals. I had race goals such as seeing the Mexican border but I made sure not to have expectations. The lack of pressure to perform helped me enjoy the ride. Success does rely on some luck which is the uncontrollable part of the race. Bad luck may mean the end of the race regardless of preparation. With all outcomes being acceptable I felt I was able to concentrate on riding which funnily enough meant a better chance of meeting the goal.
I could go to point 10 but that's cliche and I'm tired of sitting. Time for a ride!
No comments:
Post a Comment