Today was a little bit of a season milestone for me. I actually rode outside today. You see, it’s been a difficult spring for me with training…or actually even riding. As the weather started to improve to get off the trainer and get outside, I had no motivation, desire, what ever you want to call it, to ride. Indoors or outdoors. It got to the point where I just didn’t want to do anything. My knees hurt, my hands hurt, headaches, and fatigue. Very fatigued. I live in the woods and I’m fully aware of ticks. I occasionally find one crawling on me after walking the dog, and I’ve found one attached only one. That was years ago and the test were negative for Lyme. This time around, I didn’t found anything attached to me or even crawling on me, but everything that I have been feeling points to Lyme disease. But no “bullseye” type rash either, or any rash at all. Just fatigue and a body that ached all over.
After a visit to Google to read up on Lyme disease, I decided that I really should go see my doctor. Based on the best timeline that we could determine, it’s still another week for the 6 week incubation period before we can do a blood test. My doc put me on antibiotics anyway. After five days, I could feel the fatigue going away. I could ride the trainer again. I say trainer because my body still mostly ached. I didn’t really want to be out on the road and not be able to continue, so I stayed on the trainer. If I couldn’t continue, I would just stop and get off the bike.
But today, everything just fell into place for me. No feeling of fatigue, body felt mostly good, and a 3 hour window between batches of rain. I didn’t know how I would feel, so I planned on riding my 13 mile sand lake route. I ended up feeling better that expected, so I added two pretty stiff climbs to test myself. While I’m not even close to race shape, the month or so of bad training, or basically no training, didn’t effect my fitness too much. So it shouldn’t be too long before I’m back to where I should be for this time of year.
Even if you don’t find a tick or rash on you, be aware of the symptoms and your body. Even if you just suspect, see your doctor. Early treatment, and you shouldn’t be knocked out for too long.
After gaining 13 pound in two weeks, I realized that a 6-7 week layoff was not going to work for me. My 12 week training plan that I designed for the off season was about to turn into a 16 week plan to shed the weight that I put on and to get ready for spring riding and racing. The plan is to do four days a week of interval training indoors on the trainer. Two days of HIITs and two days of sustained efforts. My goals are simple: lose weight to get lighter on the bike, and gain speed to get faster on the bike. I’m not too concerned about my endurance, that will be there, especially once the weather is warmer and I’m riding outside. In the first 6 weeks of training, not only did I drop the 13 pounds that I gained, I also lost an additional 7 pound for a total of 20 pounds in six weeks of interval training. Now I’m fluctuating between 162 and 165 lbs with my target race weight of 160 lbs so close.
That does seem to be the question when it comes to training for cyclocross. I think everyone will have a different opinion on the matter of incorporating running into you cyclocross training. And I’ve said it many times before, I dislike running very much. Every year I get older it feels like it gets harder. But, I will say this…after including running in my training plan for one day a week, my overall cyclocross riding has improved. I’m not going to say that the run-ups are easy, but they are definitely easier. Where I use to struggle on the run-ups after the first lap of a race, I now shoot right up, struggle free, and hop right back on the bike. No stopping. No resting. No need walk my bike to catch my breath.
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