Speed # One: All out race!
Speed # Two: Dead stop!
Conclusion? Delusional thinking and denial of the reality of dealing with time and anxiety.
Ha!!!
I just spent the last hour reviewing journal articles on `denial of aging.' I've even got a book on that subject waiting for me at the Prescott Library.
With the wife gone for a week and being relatively immobile while the knee heals up I've spent waaaaay too much time `thinking.' Such a waste! Not my best `muscle,' i.e., from the neck up.
I preached two mantras in my clinical practice as a psychologist: "Action Defines Us" and "Behavior Precedes Awareness." One of my patients even went out and got me a ball cap with those phrases emblazoned on it as a retirement memento.
Take my own advice: Think less. Do more.
A good deal of the reason I am so active with cycling is so that I can wear myself out. (DSM-IV-TR diagnosis: Cyclothymia. Just a tad short of all out mania). Just a different way of dealing with the same anxiety that creates alcoholics, zealots, workaholics and others among us burning up excess psychic kerosene.
The challenge of `retirement' is in being able to integrate life's accumulated wisdom and the strengths it brings, and a relative certainty about the trajectory of the future having an ultimate downward slope (unless of course I'm on a 4% downhill descent into Wilhoit on a 75 degree angle left turn doing 36.4 mph on a posted 25 mph speed limit ... then the slope is a right angle, straight down. I got lucky and am here to tell about it.).
I really did feel pissed that I came in behind 51 other people in the recent Skull Valley Loop Challenge. Angry, in fact. I gave myself no `slack' for probably being among the 3 oldest people racing. Some of it is good fuel for motivation. A lot of it is denial of `inherent' athletic/genetic limits and limits imposed on me as a consequence of age.
Transition. Age and the time to think about it carefully and with acceptance and courage. A denial of it ... thinking that "I'm different and I'll prove it" can prove futile. And `resistance is futile.'
Of course, we all know that the only people without stress in their life ... are dead!
Sermon over.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Chondromalacia and Plantaris Muscle / Tendon
Left knee. Had nothing to do with cycling.
Definition of chondromalacia patella: (By Mayo Clinic staff)
The cartilage under your kneecap (patella) is a natural shock absorber. Overuse, injury or other factors may lead to a condition known as chondromalacia patella — a general term indicating damage to the cartilage under your kneecap. A more accurate term for chondromalacia patella is patellofemoral pain syndrome.
The plantaris muscle / tendon definition is so tortuously medical-wordy that I won't even try it here. Essentially, it is a tendon behind the knee that is missing in 7-10% of the population and has little purpose or consequence. However, when, for whatever reason, it is inflamed or damaged it causes pain and swelling.
I was schlepping 50 lb bags of dirt and rocks for some landscaping of our house and I pivoted on my left leg, generating these two conditions.
In 1989 I had arthroscopic removal of torn meniscus / cartilage in my left knee. I'd run about 8 marathons at that point and ... that's what happens to some of us. The cartilage gets damaged. Since then I've been totally pain free (ran another marathon 9 days after the surgery). But when I flex that left knee I'd always hear a few clicks and grinds.
Today I rode the bike 34 miles and climbed about 4,000 feet with nothing more than a slight sense of tightness.
When walking it is painful to straighten the left leg because of the plantaris muscle. And the patella problem is resolving with NSAIDS, careful stretching, alternate heat and cold compresses, a knee band that sort of stabilizes the patella. I used one on the Race Across the West and the slight initial pain literally vanished in less than 12 hours, never to return.
Training will probably be on flat stretches for a while, avoiding too much power strokes on inclines. Though, I still climbed faster than all my buddies today, and without pain.
Prudence, however, suggests reduction of climbing intensity. So, for the next few / half dozen training sessions I'll be a flatlander again. Probably a wise change of pace.
Definition of chondromalacia patella: (By Mayo Clinic staff)
The cartilage under your kneecap (patella) is a natural shock absorber. Overuse, injury or other factors may lead to a condition known as chondromalacia patella — a general term indicating damage to the cartilage under your kneecap. A more accurate term for chondromalacia patella is patellofemoral pain syndrome.
The plantaris muscle / tendon definition is so tortuously medical-wordy that I won't even try it here. Essentially, it is a tendon behind the knee that is missing in 7-10% of the population and has little purpose or consequence. However, when, for whatever reason, it is inflamed or damaged it causes pain and swelling.
I was schlepping 50 lb bags of dirt and rocks for some landscaping of our house and I pivoted on my left leg, generating these two conditions.
In 1989 I had arthroscopic removal of torn meniscus / cartilage in my left knee. I'd run about 8 marathons at that point and ... that's what happens to some of us. The cartilage gets damaged. Since then I've been totally pain free (ran another marathon 9 days after the surgery). But when I flex that left knee I'd always hear a few clicks and grinds.
Today I rode the bike 34 miles and climbed about 4,000 feet with nothing more than a slight sense of tightness.
When walking it is painful to straighten the left leg because of the plantaris muscle. And the patella problem is resolving with NSAIDS, careful stretching, alternate heat and cold compresses, a knee band that sort of stabilizes the patella. I used one on the Race Across the West and the slight initial pain literally vanished in less than 12 hours, never to return.
Training will probably be on flat stretches for a while, avoiding too much power strokes on inclines. Though, I still climbed faster than all my buddies today, and without pain.
Prudence, however, suggests reduction of climbing intensity. So, for the next few / half dozen training sessions I'll be a flatlander again. Probably a wise change of pace.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Attention `Excess' Disorder
In graduate school we had to learn how to diagnosis mental disorders. There is a `big book of mental disorders' that all credentialed folks have to use. The unanimous experience of I and my classmates was that each one of us had at least half a dozen diagnosable serious psychiatric disorders!
Decades later... no different. We were right.
These past two months of cycling in `valhalla' (Prescott, AZ) with more time to ride and train than I've ever allowed myself I've violated my notional dictum: `Be a fanatic about living a balanced life!!' In otherwords, I'd frequently overtrain by doing too much, too hard, too fast. Fortunately, I've been able to `listen to my body' and recognize it in a day or two and back off.
This last `go-round' with overtraining left me wiped out, empty and flat all day after my early morning training ride. I liked the training ride. I `hated' feeling flat the rest of the day. And, of course, my `psychiatric disorder' raised it's ugly head and I started blaming myself for stepping into this familiar hole again. Then I started making lists of things I have neglected. Finally, I took two naps instead of just my usual one -- this so that I can pile on the self-loathing for being such a slug and a sloth.
This morning I looked at my Training Plan and realized that I had abandoned any forward looking Plan two weeks ago. Instead I was just using it as a Riding Log.
So now I'm going to do what I am supposed to have been doing all along:
Decades later... no different. We were right.
These past two months of cycling in `valhalla' (Prescott, AZ) with more time to ride and train than I've ever allowed myself I've violated my notional dictum: `Be a fanatic about living a balanced life!!' In otherwords, I'd frequently overtrain by doing too much, too hard, too fast. Fortunately, I've been able to `listen to my body' and recognize it in a day or two and back off.
This last `go-round' with overtraining left me wiped out, empty and flat all day after my early morning training ride. I liked the training ride. I `hated' feeling flat the rest of the day. And, of course, my `psychiatric disorder' raised it's ugly head and I started blaming myself for stepping into this familiar hole again. Then I started making lists of things I have neglected. Finally, I took two naps instead of just my usual one -- this so that I can pile on the self-loathing for being such a slug and a sloth.
This morning I looked at my Training Plan and realized that I had abandoned any forward looking Plan two weeks ago. Instead I was just using it as a Riding Log.
So now I'm going to do what I am supposed to have been doing all along:
- Identify cycling events that I want to train towards;
- Anchor my training to these events;
- Set short and longer term goals;
- Follow the `Periodization Training' method that has served me so well;
- Live a frigging `balanced life!'
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Skull Valley Loop Challenge - Prescott, Arizona
Skull Valley Loop Challenge Garmin Data
The heart rate data are completely wrong. There were power lines that screwed with the HR. And halfway through the race the `grade' function on the Garmin stopped working.
The last time I did this route was June 17, 2010 -- (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/37612893). Climbing gain was 4,079 feet. Still, this beats previous Personal Best by 49 minutes. I was the only recumbent in the event and finished 52st among `around' 150.
I liked it. It was fun. I used some muscles that connected to my coccyx that I didn't even know were there. Coccyx muscles?!!
The heart rate data are completely wrong. There were power lines that screwed with the HR. And halfway through the race the `grade' function on the Garmin stopped working.
The last time I did this route was June 17, 2010 -- (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/37612893). Climbing gain was 4,079 feet. Still, this beats previous Personal Best by 49 minutes. I was the only recumbent in the event and finished 52st among `around' 150.
I liked it. It was fun. I used some muscles that connected to my coccyx that I didn't even know were there. Coccyx muscles?!!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Big Bad Bagdad!!
Training in the Arizona deserts and mountains is humbling. In the midwest there was a farm or a town within spitting distance of most anyplace I was training. If my unconscious carcass was off to the side of the road I'd probably be noticed within an hour or two by some passerby.
Here, though, the natural threats are dramatically more profound, if not actually lethal.
First, there are the descents and twisty turns. I was baptized in this danger a few weeks ago by foolishly speeding down a twisty mountain grade at 35.1 mph (posted vehicle speed limit: 20 mph) when I let the bike get out of my control (spooked myself by a crease in the road) and destabilized myself, going down HARD, damaging some bike components and getting lots of bloody and painful road rash. I'm lucky I didn't kill myself.
The other danger has to do with the dramatic climatic and terrain conditions. A few weeks ago I left Prescott in the AM when it was 66 degrees. I rode 44 miles south and descended about 3,000 feet, arriving in Congress, where the temperature was 104.
The solar radiation of the sun at this altitude is dangerously intense, certainly burning the skin and risking pain, injury if not cancer (melanoma).
What humidity?! Sitting on my front porch, in the shade, for an hour results in passive dehydration. Training uphill, into the sun, with no wind for fifteen minutes means that I have to drink a quart of liquid with electrolytes. Training on a relatively flat surface of slight descent can `trick' me into forgetting to hydrate. Both conditions can cause loss of consciousness or severe disorientation, making cycling even more dangerous.
Twenty miles between dirt roads leading to ranches three or four miles off the paved roads constitutes a relatively densely populated area :) So-called `towns' amount to one store and a few dozen mobile homes off on the side of a hill. Today I had to plan for a source of water (post office has an faucet out behind, near the dumpster) in the likely event that the one store in town was closed.
Things `eat' you out here. Not little `bites,' like with a bug or mosquito.
No. They friggin' EAT you. Javelinas, mountain lions, coyotes, critters of all sorts that might consider my conscious / unconscious carcass found bounty. And don't sit down on the side of the road. Snakes. Spiders. Scorpions.
Tires. The road surfaces just eat up road tires. I've already had one tire literally split apart at the middle of the tread due to the heat of the road and the roughness of the pavement.
These were just some of the things in the back of my mind over the past week as my training distances and challenges increase.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bagdad is a copper mining town 68 miles from my front door. A two lane state road `terminates' in Bagdad. There are three little one-horse towns between my house and Bagdad. The road to Bagdad is paved and passable but it follows some very significant changes in geology, climate and terrain. From table top mesas to `bottom of the earth' canyons. Not a 10th of a mile of straight road to nor from Bagdad. Descents and ascents and descents again, ranging 3,000 feet at a lick and 30 to 45 degrees in temperature difference.
I'll be in a brevet to and from Bagdad in a short time.
So, this morning I was working on the Silvio and adding long-distance `worst case' gear and equipment so that I could `probably' survive a trip to Bagdad.
Here, though, the natural threats are dramatically more profound, if not actually lethal.
First, there are the descents and twisty turns. I was baptized in this danger a few weeks ago by foolishly speeding down a twisty mountain grade at 35.1 mph (posted vehicle speed limit: 20 mph) when I let the bike get out of my control (spooked myself by a crease in the road) and destabilized myself, going down HARD, damaging some bike components and getting lots of bloody and painful road rash. I'm lucky I didn't kill myself.
The other danger has to do with the dramatic climatic and terrain conditions. A few weeks ago I left Prescott in the AM when it was 66 degrees. I rode 44 miles south and descended about 3,000 feet, arriving in Congress, where the temperature was 104.
The solar radiation of the sun at this altitude is dangerously intense, certainly burning the skin and risking pain, injury if not cancer (melanoma).
What humidity?! Sitting on my front porch, in the shade, for an hour results in passive dehydration. Training uphill, into the sun, with no wind for fifteen minutes means that I have to drink a quart of liquid with electrolytes. Training on a relatively flat surface of slight descent can `trick' me into forgetting to hydrate. Both conditions can cause loss of consciousness or severe disorientation, making cycling even more dangerous.
Twenty miles between dirt roads leading to ranches three or four miles off the paved roads constitutes a relatively densely populated area :) So-called `towns' amount to one store and a few dozen mobile homes off on the side of a hill. Today I had to plan for a source of water (post office has an faucet out behind, near the dumpster) in the likely event that the one store in town was closed.
Things `eat' you out here. Not little `bites,' like with a bug or mosquito.
No. They friggin' EAT you. Javelinas, mountain lions, coyotes, critters of all sorts that might consider my conscious / unconscious carcass found bounty. And don't sit down on the side of the road. Snakes. Spiders. Scorpions.
Tires. The road surfaces just eat up road tires. I've already had one tire literally split apart at the middle of the tread due to the heat of the road and the roughness of the pavement.
These were just some of the things in the back of my mind over the past week as my training distances and challenges increase.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bagdad is a copper mining town 68 miles from my front door. A two lane state road `terminates' in Bagdad. There are three little one-horse towns between my house and Bagdad. The road to Bagdad is paved and passable but it follows some very significant changes in geology, climate and terrain. From table top mesas to `bottom of the earth' canyons. Not a 10th of a mile of straight road to nor from Bagdad. Descents and ascents and descents again, ranging 3,000 feet at a lick and 30 to 45 degrees in temperature difference.
I'll be in a brevet to and from Bagdad in a short time.
So, this morning I was working on the Silvio and adding long-distance `worst case' gear and equipment so that I could `probably' survive a trip to Bagdad.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Big, good week.
Here it is Friday, September 2nd, and I know that I've got at least four good months of training ahead of me. No more of this `dash' to squeeze in as many events as possible before the ice and snow get here.
This week is Week # 6 of the evolving Training Plan. I've still got two days before I close out this week and already I've ridden more miles, hours and climbed more feet than any of the previous weeks. And I'm not tired!
Because of the distances and climbing I've done so far this week I've trained every other day. Again, trying to be careful about overtraining.
Monday I had planned to do hills and mountains but wound up going north toward Ash Fork to get in some flat miles. Mistake. Intense traffic. All kinds of crap on the road. Got a flat tire. Four and half hours, 3,451 feet of climbing, 60 miles. Nice to get in the miles but I felt like I was riding on a crazy highway ... which I was.
Wednesday I rode from Prescott to Congress and back. Ten hours, 9,504 feet of climbing and 9 hours of riding, with one hour off the bike for food and hydration.
Today, Friday: Good workout. 5,170 feet of climbing over 45 miles. I feel like I'm cheating when flying on the descents but later, on the climbs, I'm paying cold hard cash. Stayed in 39 front ring and 23 rear ring on all climbing (except the two 11% and 14% `pops' at the very end of the training ride). Cadence was typically in the 40's. Climbing HR usually in the teens(except for those last two `pops'). Training goal was to develop capacity for long (4.5 hours) solid grinds, i.e., endurance. Good week of training and rest.
Here's a link to the rides. Page back to see the rest. 3 Training Rides this week
This week is Week # 6 of the evolving Training Plan. I've still got two days before I close out this week and already I've ridden more miles, hours and climbed more feet than any of the previous weeks. And I'm not tired!
Because of the distances and climbing I've done so far this week I've trained every other day. Again, trying to be careful about overtraining.
Monday I had planned to do hills and mountains but wound up going north toward Ash Fork to get in some flat miles. Mistake. Intense traffic. All kinds of crap on the road. Got a flat tire. Four and half hours, 3,451 feet of climbing, 60 miles. Nice to get in the miles but I felt like I was riding on a crazy highway ... which I was.
Wednesday I rode from Prescott to Congress and back. Ten hours, 9,504 feet of climbing and 9 hours of riding, with one hour off the bike for food and hydration.
Today, Friday: Good workout. 5,170 feet of climbing over 45 miles. I feel like I'm cheating when flying on the descents but later, on the climbs, I'm paying cold hard cash. Stayed in 39 front ring and 23 rear ring on all climbing (except the two 11% and 14% `pops' at the very end of the training ride). Cadence was typically in the 40's. Climbing HR usually in the teens(except for those last two `pops'). Training goal was to develop capacity for long (4.5 hours) solid grinds, i.e., endurance. Good week of training and rest.
Here's a link to the rides. Page back to see the rest. 3 Training Rides this week
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