A new phrase was coined for the Wednesday morning ride today. It rhymes with Duck & Duck. Five lonesome figures cast shadows over the elevated highway this morning, what has happened to the large groups that were joining these ferocious sessions is beyond me. S.Sam uttered something about lightweights and I am prone to agree.
Anyway back to the Ducks. S.Sam, R H Bee, KK, Chris and I were the tour-de-force this morning and having missed out on last week’s Wednesday ride due to sickness I was looking forward to today, apparently though my legs were not.
We set at the usual pace and as we approached the highway I started to crank it up. Everything was hurting; couldn’t breathe, but I told myself that is how I should feel when you push. And then S.Sam passed me. Usually he catches a lot later and usually up a bloody hill but today he went past and I could not follow. Cor Sam’s having a good day I thought in-between cardiac arrests and asthma attacks (am not kidding). AND then R H Bee sailed past. Good going Bee, I said to myself, George Junior is obviously working for you. Of course despite my disposition I gave chase, I had two carrots in front and that isn’t allowed.
Could I catch R H Bee? S.Sam was off in the distance and whilst I kept Bee in my sights the elastic chord kept shrinking and then extending over the 30k out trip. My heart rate was skyrocketing, my legs were hollow and crying out for me to stop but it never EVER occurred to me that anything was wrong.
Sweating profusely I killed myself going out and went through the toll at just over 3mins behind S.Sam. He and Bee both looked at my hangdog expression collapsed over my bars and said “What’s up Emma?” And THAT was the first time I thought that I could be having an off day. I was nowhere near reaching the speeds I usually do, the cadence was way off and the legs as I said were empty BUT I still never let it occur to me that I was not 100%. KK and Chris came through the toll and both of them again noted on my below par performance. (thanks guys!).
I finally accepted this was going to be an off day and on the way back knew I was in for some pain. Bee kindly rode with me for a while until I told her to go ahead; she was falling asleep at the speed I was going. (Thanks for the support though Bee). I watched the others one by one go off into the distance until I could see them no more. My legs were pounding, stand up, sit down, nothing helped; I just span my legs and hunkered over the aero bars as it took too much energy to sit upright.
A painful lesson has been learnt here today. Many people will say overtraining and I am still going to argue that one. But I do know that whatever little buggar of a bug I caught knocked me for 6. I don’t mind admitting that this morning really battered my confidence and dented my ego. I felt like everything I had built up over the last 6months had been lost. How can performance drop off THAT much? I now wonder about the weekend, will the legs work, will they stay in bed? I have all these doubts in my mind which is in reality is really bloody silly because it was just ONE ride.
We all have off days and I know mine has been long overdue. I hope however that last Sunday and this morning is the end to it, but just in case, my legs are now on holiday until Saturday when I shall endeavour to ride strong. To where and for how many K’s I don’t know, I shall do the wise thing and let my body dictate this one.
As for the title, “24”. It is rather embarrassing but I like to be honest about my ups and downs and 24 happened to be my average speed this morning. As I said Duck & Duck!
Anyway back to the Ducks. S.Sam, R H Bee, KK, Chris and I were the tour-de-force this morning and having missed out on last week’s Wednesday ride due to sickness I was looking forward to today, apparently though my legs were not.
We set at the usual pace and as we approached the highway I started to crank it up. Everything was hurting; couldn’t breathe, but I told myself that is how I should feel when you push. And then S.Sam passed me. Usually he catches a lot later and usually up a bloody hill but today he went past and I could not follow. Cor Sam’s having a good day I thought in-between cardiac arrests and asthma attacks (am not kidding). AND then R H Bee sailed past. Good going Bee, I said to myself, George Junior is obviously working for you. Of course despite my disposition I gave chase, I had two carrots in front and that isn’t allowed.
Could I catch R H Bee? S.Sam was off in the distance and whilst I kept Bee in my sights the elastic chord kept shrinking and then extending over the 30k out trip. My heart rate was skyrocketing, my legs were hollow and crying out for me to stop but it never EVER occurred to me that anything was wrong.
Sweating profusely I killed myself going out and went through the toll at just over 3mins behind S.Sam. He and Bee both looked at my hangdog expression collapsed over my bars and said “What’s up Emma?” And THAT was the first time I thought that I could be having an off day. I was nowhere near reaching the speeds I usually do, the cadence was way off and the legs as I said were empty BUT I still never let it occur to me that I was not 100%. KK and Chris came through the toll and both of them again noted on my below par performance. (thanks guys!).
I finally accepted this was going to be an off day and on the way back knew I was in for some pain. Bee kindly rode with me for a while until I told her to go ahead; she was falling asleep at the speed I was going. (Thanks for the support though Bee). I watched the others one by one go off into the distance until I could see them no more. My legs were pounding, stand up, sit down, nothing helped; I just span my legs and hunkered over the aero bars as it took too much energy to sit upright.
A painful lesson has been learnt here today. Many people will say overtraining and I am still going to argue that one. But I do know that whatever little buggar of a bug I caught knocked me for 6. I don’t mind admitting that this morning really battered my confidence and dented my ego. I felt like everything I had built up over the last 6months had been lost. How can performance drop off THAT much? I now wonder about the weekend, will the legs work, will they stay in bed? I have all these doubts in my mind which is in reality is really bloody silly because it was just ONE ride.
We all have off days and I know mine has been long overdue. I hope however that last Sunday and this morning is the end to it, but just in case, my legs are now on holiday until Saturday when I shall endeavour to ride strong. To where and for how many K’s I don’t know, I shall do the wise thing and let my body dictate this one.
As for the title, “24”. It is rather embarrassing but I like to be honest about my ups and downs and 24 happened to be my average speed this morning. As I said Duck & Duck!
2 comments:
OVERTRAINING - That's why you got ill and that's why you're not recovering! The first symptom of overtraining is denial by the way!!!!!!
As long as you don't lose heart, you'll be back to the level you were in before. Just be patient as the body needs time to recuperate. Take care.
Post a Comment