And just like that, it is over

After good legs, and mediocre results early in the season, things have gone sideways pretty fast. I had pretty good form going into the State TT, but two weeks before the event, I herniated a disc in my back. This is the second injury I have had there, the first being L5/S1 which required surgery. This time it is L4/L5. For the first 8 days I could barely get out of bed. But the Monday before the State TT I started to feel better and spun on the bike. There was no pain, but a noticeable drop-off in power. I rode 4 days that week, mostly on the TT rig, but knew I was going to be in trouble on race day. The warm-up went fine, but 3 or 4 minutes into the TT I knew something was wrong. My HR was jacked (I would typically average 159-160 in a 40k) and my power was low. Before the injury coach and I had targeted something in the 320 watt range out and then increase it after the turn if I was on a good day. I was only at 300 or so watts for maybe 7 minutes and from there on it was really bad.

I had no idea how bad it would get though. Since I had no power in my legs, I really focused on head position and trying to be as aero as possible. I was down to a 275 watt average at the turn and did the last 20k at 245 watts for  a 261 average at 161bpm. My right leg went numb after 10k and basically I was pedalling with my left leg.

A few weeks before I did this on the rollers as part of a longer workout:

60 minutes at 320watts and an average HR of 149.

I still managed to finish 3rd in the CAT 3's, the winner beat me by 52 seconds and I barely broke an hour coming in at 59:30something. I was pretty disappointed as I think on anything close to an average day I could have been in the 56-57 minute range, but if's don't win bike races and the winner showed up and laid down the best time and fully deserves the championship skin-suit. It was also fun just to travel and hang out with one of my teammates who took the silver in his masters category.

I felt better and better as the week progressed. On Monday I was having power issues on the road bike, but by Wednesday I was probably 90-95% of where I was before the injury. I was feeling really good, but after PT Thursday I started to have increased pain. Friday was one of the worst days I have had as far as pain goes, but I still planned on racing an Omnium this weekend. I was in constant pain Friday night and pretty much have stayed that way since.

I think a big part of the problem is that I was pushing to get back on the bike too quickly. If it were not the state championship there is no way I would have raced after only 4 days back on the bike. The state RR championship is July 9th and that was my A race. I felt like I really needed to be training and I feel pretty sure that has contributed to my regression. So I have made the decision to end the season now. I have to get healed up and I can't worry about racing. If I need a month to six weeks off the bike to get better, that is what I need to do. I hate it because I don't think I have ever worked harder than this past winter. My FTP was solid and I had a level of endurance I have never experienced before.

So, that is that. What started with so much optimism and promise ends with my only results being the second CAT 3 in a 1/2/3 road race and 3rd at the State Time Trial. This will be my first season without winning a race and the second year in a row that injury has prevented me from racing past the 4th of July.

It stinks getting old, but this is just bike racing and things like this do remind me that it may not be as important as I make it out to be. Even though I did not get to race this weekend, I did get to be with my wife as she did her first USAC race, a TT at the omnium I was going to race. It was fun watching her warm-up and seeing her get the pre-race butterflies and knowing exactly what it is like. She did great, pacing the course perfectly and beating her targeted power number by a couple of watts. I think if she can race in the extensions she will be a very good time-trialist.

-T