I find it interesting how different racer's seasons play out -- when someone starts their training, how well they keep up their performance throughout the season, when & if they train & race hard enough to finally come unglued at some point. Someone that's never really had that last aspect happen wonders "How in the heck does that happen? If you're in good to great shape how does it ever leave you?" Great question, and when posed that way I don't know that I can give a great explanation. However, it's just one of those things the human body does when pushed hard, perhaps repeatedly to it's limits. At some point, it says enough is enough and begins a process of shutting you down for your own good. I like to call it cumulative fatigue and until you can give the body enough rest to recover from it. It'll be banging at your backdoor trying to shut you down.
For all the reasons we are unique as individuals, so will the fatigue manifest itself. For me, I generally know something up when my sleep patterns get screwy. I can otherwise feel great, still race & train normal and not even feel overly tired after doing so. Alotta times that's because a person is so hepped up on the regular dose of endorphins the body has become accustomed to from the training.
What's a screwy sleep pattern, well for me, it's waking 2-3 times per night & not falling back to sleep immediately. There's also a nagging feeling that's hard to explain that tells me something's not right. It's completely different than when an outside noise or event wakes you up.
This year it started for me as soon as early August. The "if-I-ignore-it-it-will-go-away-method" didn't work as even though I cut back on the training during the week I still raced hard most every weekend. A back to back MTB race weekend mid August in Calumet,MI & RiverFalls,WI probably pushed me over the edge. The following weeks at Seeley's Pre-Fat & Copper Harbor's Fat Tire Festival though respectable races I was carrying a boat anchor through both of them.
With the sleep issues getting worse at the beginning of September Coach & myself settled in on the fact that rest & recovery was the priority. I'd still race, but do the most minimal work in between. It seemed reasonable that two weeks of rest should shake just about any cumulative fatigue....well... not for me. Mid Sept had arrived & time for the Cheq 40 -- without any training for the previous 2 weeks -- for whatever reason I was able to pull off a great race until a mishap early in the race finally caught up with me.
However still sleep issues followed me after the Cheq 40... whatever recovery I would get from my time off would get beat out of me the next time I raced. Finally I told coach, I'm taking off as much time as it takes until I finally get a solid full nights sleep! .... Three weeks later it finally happened now into the first full week of October. If you've ever had sleep deprivation issues for any reason -- you know how long time can feel like to get over them.
Sleep taken care now... time to get back on the bike... oh wait....now a 4 day battle of the stomach flu or more likely food poisoning to take care.
Here's the frustrating part of it all. You know when your season is mostly cooked, but you still have races you want to do & do well at. You want to be able to recover fast enough to still be able to to do reasonably well at. Well in the case of my last planned race of the season -- Ashland's BayCross race weekend Oct 17th-18th I'm down to 1 week to go and essentially haven't trained in 5 weeks, doing one race in that time and gotten sick.
The first time back on the bike after those 3 weeks & being sick I thought Kelly McKnight was going to kill me -- we were late to the start of the Whistlestop Half Marathon where we volunteer to lead the runners on the course. With still 3 miles to go and 8 or 9 minutes before the start -- I told him we had to move out. He went to the front & though I drafted off him very tightly, I could barely hang and after 6 minutes I had to drop off... not good and doesn't bode well for racing in a week. The next day I got out and tried several hard threshold intervals that are a standard part of my training... results... power that was 12-15% below my abilities back in May. Ugh!
Being far removed from what I consider my normal cycling abilities -- I carried through with some general workouts for that week & a few lesser intervals and hit BayCross that weekend. (Didn't want to add to an already too long post-- so I'll recaps the races later).
Only those two races or probably moreso Saturday's "hero" effort - sunk me right back into the poor sleep patterns.... AND yet MORE TIME OFF!! I think my coach said something along the lines "if you choose to do another cross race this season -- it'll destroy you". I don't know if he was serious or kidding.
Hence it's been another three weeks off the bike and a case of the swine flu later... but I'm finally sleeping decent again, Hallelujah!!
My 8 weeks previous to today? 3 races, 1 week of training....
Good thing I'm headed to the Iceman & then trying to decide on MI or MN 'cross championship the following weekend.... huh...go to the suposedly "can't miss" super fun MN event/party or bust out the big guns on Jeff, Jesse, the Tylers & give the rest of yooper country a run.
ok, I'm just kiddin'.....
At least about the Iceman that is....
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