It is customary, post performance, to determine what went right, what went wrong, who can be blamed, and what are the most plausible excuses for poor performance. This is commonly called a postmortem examination, 'cos it's Latin and it sounds smart, like you put your best brain cells into the effort. Ideally a thoughtful postmortem will determine the cause of death and analyze how things could have been improved for the victim. The goal is to eventually land on a satisfying conclusion that will help the living let go, move on, and stop playing with dead things.
I've had a couple weeks to cool down and think about it all, and also learn a few things. It's been very satisfying.
I re-read my race report, then walked away, then read it again and thought my god what a bitter, nasty, horrible race report. It almost seems like I didn't have any fun at all. Which is sort of true, I wasn't having any fun. I'm pretty clear on that point. Nonetheless, it bothers me that I wasn't having fun. I trained for this race - and I knew it would be difficult. I'm dissatisfied that I fell apart so catastrophically as to not even enjoy the experience.
My lower back hurt, solid, for a week after the race. I seriously damaged it something awful. Then it got better after stretching, massage, and general laziness. I've been trying to enjoy my recovery, and it's been bittersweet. On the one hand, it's nice not to be training for an Ironman and sleep in, and enjoy weekend time with my kids. On the other hand, I really seem to enjoy training for an Ironman. Just maybe not all the time. So I'm kind of missing it.
I'm a little closer to figuring out why I didn't have fun. This weekend I got back outside on the bike for the first time since St. George. Bones and I elected to ride up Tramway as prep for Iron Horse. I was happy to be outside in the sunshine with no training pressure.
Tramway is a reasonably difficult climb in the City that holds some respect. The first time I climbed Tramway (all 6 miles of it) I was rather proud of myself. It's not super steep (maybe 6% or 8% at most) but it's long, and climbing it without popping is a task that takes practice.
I had initially convinced myself when I signed up for IMSG, that the bike profile looked about like climbing Tramway roughly 8 times. I spent many weeks of paper research convincing myself that no, it couldn't possibly be that steep, and many a ride up Tramway gritting my teeth and thinking there is no way in hell I'd be able to do this 8 times.
After extensive review of the GPS data for Tramway and many many breakdowns of the IMSG profile map, (the map says this many feet of ascent, over this distance, etc. etc.), I convinced myself that surely IMSG would be a little shallower than this. In preparation, I completed many trips up Tramway chewing on the idea that it would be far worse than what I would get to experience during the race.
This past weekend's ride was like a PTSD flashback: climbing up Tramway on Sunday, Bones and I agreed that yah, it was about exactly the same as riding the St. George bike course. It may be shallower on paper, but it felt almost exactly the same, qualitatively.
About 20 minutes into my easy pace Sunday ride my back started to hurt and would not stop. There I was, mentally, in exactly the same place I was about 40 miles into the Ironman St. George Ride, thinking "huh, that hurts, I'll just stretch it out and it'll relax".
Except that much like St. George, there was no relaxing. There was no position that got me out of that pain: it stuck to me relentlessly and didn't quit until I got off the bike. The rest of me felt absolutely ready to ride. My legs felt strong, my heart and lungs felt fully on-line. And yet, WTF is up with this back thing?!
Here is my dead thing. How did it die? What was its cause of death? How can I learn from this to make the next thing better?
On reflection, I think I know exactly what happened: I traded saddles about 6 weeks before the race.
Yes I know that was probably not smart. In my defense, I traded to a saddle that a) worked better than the one that was currently on the bike, and b) was identical to a saddle I have on my tri bike. At the time, it seemed like a much needed improvement, and the timing seemed like it would work -- I'd be doing some long hard rides on the new saddle in plenty of time for the big day. So while it was different, it wasn't super weird different. This was a known difference.
I'm recalling now that when we (my professional LBS bike fitter and I) put the new Cobb V-Flow saddle on the bike, we observed that it would not go as far forward as the current one (Selle Italia Glamour), and that this may or may not be a problem.
The new saddle (which I totally recommend, by the way, I love love love the Cobb on my Tri bike) does not have the same adjustability on my road bike as the old one. To which I said, "it's better than the one I have, I think it'll be OK."
Since we couldn't move the saddle forward farther, I am seated just behind the cranks on the Cobb. And when the rider is seated just behind the cranks, she ends up using her back to do some of the work, instead of getting her legs to do the whole job. And when the rider has just come out of a hypothermic swim, and her muscles are frozen, it seems they don't adjust well to being over-stressed by doing extra work on a ride that has a whole lot of climbing.
Ya think my back hurt a little?
During my experimental PTSD climb up Tramway, I discovered how much that pain tore out of my ride - it slowed me down immensely. Physical pain is fatiguing, and when there's no way to get out of it, well, it's no wonder my ride sucked.
On the plus side, because my back was killing me on the ride, I think I effectively saved a lot of energy for the run because I was unable to push very hard on the bike. That's not to say the run was easy for me - but it does explain a PR on freakishly hilly marathon course.
I don't have a moral for this story, I'm just glad to know what the problem is, and what to do about it now. I'm experimenting with a new saddle (the Adamo) in a better position, and I'm still stretching my jacked-up lower back (it's still not 100% happy with me). I'm worried that Iron Horse will be painful, but now I know why, and I know what to do.
Lesson learned. Postmortem complete.
What's next?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Maybe you need to try a zero setback seatpost. Actually, the problem isn't so much your position relative to the crank spindle - it's the angle your thighs sweep through relative to your torso. If you're further back and still maintaining a low position, your thighs are coming up too far. Maybe try raising your bars a little too?
Its pretty amazing how one minor thing can make that much of a difference in comfort (as I am finding out as well). Hopefully you can get this figured out and suffer no lasting effects on the back issue. Its most likely muscular discomfort so more likely to correct itself with proper setup and time.
I've noticed the pain thing too--no matter how well trained or ready or good I feel, if something is hurting, all bets are off. I'm not one who can push through it. I'm considering that saddle for future rides.
Solid reflections.
I ride the Adamo saddle - and it rocks! It made a huge difference to how I feel about riding in aerobars, I love them now as opposed to resigned dread. (no pun intended!)
Post a Comment