TPRNo4 reflections and lessons

 You can't prep for and do a long event without some fallout at the end- whether you finish or not. There is always going to be some kind of learning process. This is perhaps even more true for those who do not finish. Retrospection and reflection are the nature of the beast when you find yourself as a non-finisher. What went wrong?

What went right?

Was it the planning? The execution? The kit? Something unexpected? Something utterly expected? Or all of the above? 

portrait by the wonderful Liz Seabrook - @lizseabrook

I suspect there are a number of contributing factors as to what went wrong. However, one of the main points of note is that the longest rides I have completed in the past, and indeed recent past have been about 600km, and over 2 or 3 days. It probably isn't coincidence that everything fell apart after 3 days and about 600km. In hindsight, perhaps my training should have focussed a little more on multi-day longish rides rather than long rides in a single push, or over just a couple of days. 

Yes, of course this takes time, but I have had no experience of getting up, doing 200k, sleeping and then going again, day after day after day. After about 3 days everything begins to break down and instead of being proactive, you tend to be fighting fires, everything takes a bit more concentration to do etc. It was really hard to multi-task on the bike by day 2, while every time you start a new audax or a long ride from fresh, that cumulative mental fatigue hasn't even begun yet. 

So Lesson 1: practice multiday efforts- either concentrating on distance, or simply time in the saddle, building the fatigue, but also practicing being competent at eating, drinking and making decisions on day 4, 5 and beyond. 

Training consistency... yes, I'm being more focussed on the prep at this point, don't worry I'll get to the interesting bit of the actual race in a moment. Looking at my overall cycling distance and ascent for this year, I've done much much more than any other year since 2011. Not only that, but cumulatively, including running, (of which I have done VERY little), I've done more distance and ascent than any other year as well... all well and good- about 5000km of cycling or so- which is probably slightly less than average for most people doing this event. Although it *felt* like I was doing loads, I probably wasn't. 

more cycling than ever before!

Equally, and this is probably my biggest downfall- in the 2 months leading up to the event my mileage and general activity levels dropped off significantly. My acute training load took a huge dive. This was partly as I had just done my first 300k audax (with a bit added on at each end), and my bike was going in for a service. In hindsight, I should have really have been going out for long, long days on the mountain bike, or semi-long runs, or SOMETHING. As it was, I didn't. There was, of course, lots of prep to do in terms of admin, routes, travel etc. but I was not keeping myself in a decent amount of chronic fitness load. 

This is not what consistency looks like

In the final month, my brain was just done with the training. I didn't really want to go out, the weather was pretty awful and I started to get a bit paranoid about injury. The turbo was my excuse, though I simply ended up spinning at a low level and not really pushing myself at all. No, I didn't want to gas myself out and go into the event, but ended up going into it somewhat undercooked. Not entirely raw- but definitely undercooked. 

Not the picture of consistency in the final 3 months, it has to be said.

You can see that my training took a drastic fall into August and not a huge amount happened in September either... although it *felt* consistent, really was not. (Ignore the final 2 datapoints - that's the week of the race). Essentially, August into September- everything just fell apart. Not great, it has to be said, and this might have been the single biggest training error that contributed to my downfall. 

So there you go. Lesson 2: keep consistent right up to a week before race day. 

Personal admin was generally pretty good. The reason why I haven't really done multiple day events in the past has been because of my skin. Ecsema has been a real bane of mine when doing long efforts. Single days out at hard efforts would render me unable to do much for a week or 2 just because my skin ended up inflamed, itchy and it would take extended periods of time to actually recover to the point of being able to do any exercise. This year I have been on a new drug called Dupixent which seems to have genuinely sorted things out. I had no real trouble with ecsema either in the run up to, or during the race which is an absolute bonus. 

The problem I did have- as alluded to earlier was that by the middle of day2 and onward into day 3, I was having trouble not only eating, but having the co-ordination to get food out of my bags and chew on it, while cycling. The concentration needed was more than I could afford- and so I ended up stopping a lot more than I intended- just so that I could chew something! This isn't really something you can practice unless you're in that place of tiredness- which means long, long hours of training. I thought I had got there on a couple of rides, but as explained, they were only a couple of days long- we're not talking days and days of racing, which is a whole other kettle of fish. 

Lesson 3. Personal admin, even though you think you have it nailed on shorter events and tours of 3 days or less, it doesn't mean that you have the brain capacity or dexterity to manage it further on in terms of days or fatigue. You need to practice in a fatigued state. 

The headgame is really important. I suspect I set myself up for failure. In the planning phase of the route I ended up unconciously writing my route up in specific days. This was partly to work out what shops were open when (Sunday opening hours are a nightmare in Spain), but also partly to vaguely plan where I was going to stop for sleep in hotels... thus it became more and more ingrained in my head that I would be in certain places on certain days. What this ultimately meant was- that once I was behind schedule, I became more and more obsessed with where I wasn't. How long it was taking me, how slow I was going etc. Maybe, even by the time I had stopped on day2 I was in a bit of a funk as to how slow I was going and thus my mental state was taking a dive even as my knee started to hurt. 

Once everything goes downhill mentally, you're really in a bad place and it takes a LOT (Not just a maccyD's) to pull you out of it and kick you off down the road. I realised that night in Jaca that that was it. Done. Nothing was going to turn me around from there. In hindsight, maybe I could have carried on - to the utter detriment of my health, I imagine- but I'm glad that I didn't. 

Lesson 4- the Mind is Primary. I know this anyway- but fell into the trap of giving myself unrealistic targets pretty much from the off. Don't do that. Be flexible in planning and on the day. 

Getting hotels. This was probably my biggest concern about the whole race. I like things to be planned. I like to know when I'm getting somewhere and where I'll sleep. On previous adventures the worst part of the day was towards evening when there was no campsite planned and I was scanning every field in the hours before I stopped to see if it had potential for camping. It was an extra layer of stress that really took away from the enjoyment of the ride. It was playing on my mind that I'd have to work out where I was going to get to, timings etc. Now- it didn't entirely go to plan. On the first day I booked late and had to ride FAR longer than was good for me to get to the hotel. On the second day I booked too early and didn't get to the hotel and ended up paying for another one that night- and on the third day, well, I was kind of cooked and at the end of my race, so it wasn't entirely what I was thinking was going to happen. That being said- I did it. Every night when a hotel was needed, I got one. It wasn't without some stress, granted, but it was possible. Some nights I paid a lot, some I paid not a lot- but it has broken the worry and stress of it for me and probably opened up a whole world of possibility that was previously a scary and closed book.  

Lesson 5- the hotel thing was fine. Sometime expensive, but fine.

Blisters are expected. I had no idea. For all the miles I have ridden my bike, I've never had a blister on my bum. Yes, I've been saddle sore- but blisters? No. Never. At the end, when I saw Robin- the winner unpack his utterly minimal luggage, I noticed that he had 2 full packs of large size compeed. I had taken a single small compeed for the entire trip. Ah. It seems that blisters on contact points are a fairly common occurance in the Ultra-cycling world, and I certainly should have been more prepared for them. 

Lesson 6- take more big patches of Compeed than you think you'll need. If you don't get blisters, fine- but if you do, you'll be prepared. 

Still can't believe I lost a pair of shoe covers and a tool box. It just goes to show that if you have elastic loops on something, don't rely on them to keep stuff on your bike. The shoe covers- well, they basically live on the outside of my bags. Not anymore. Always inside now- I'm not losing ANOTHER pair! As for the tool bottle- it was pretty securely attached in a bottle cage and had never come out on any of the offroad sections I've done in the past (and I've abused this bike!). However, it seems that it would be a good idea to either get another Restrap cage with an elastic lock on it (such as the one I had for the big bottle), or reinforce the bottle attachment with another thing, like a Restrap strap or something. Alongside that, it was a good idea to split my spares between that bottle holder and the inside of my saddle bag, so that when I lost the bottle, I still had a spare pair of brake pads and a puncture repair kit on my bike. 

Lesson 7- strap EVERYTHING on with more than one point of failure or keep it inside a bag.

The last I saw of my tool bottle

 Lights... yes, I took too many. Had I spent a vast amount of money on a dynamo set up, I'm sure I would be raving about it. However, I did not. There were, however, a number of people who did have a dynamo set up who were having issues at the start - with connections not working and lights playing up and general weirdness that seems to go along with dynamos. Apparently they all have their idiocyncracies, and just because you take it to a bike shop, it doesn't necessarily hold that they they'll be able to help you, let alone solve the problem. 

The week before the race I freaked out that I wouldn't have enough light to get me down some of the more gnarly descents and so was bought a (very) early birthday present. Having used Exposure Joysticks for a number of years, I utterly trust the brand, and ended up with an Exposure Race. It isn't the most powerful light they do, but it has an incredible beam and has a digital readout on the back so that you can see how long you have left in each of the modes. It's very reassuring to have insane brightness on the way down a hill, and then knock it into a lower mode for climbing where it tells you that there is *still* 20 hours of light left in the batteries at that level. I didn't use my emergency Alpkit lights at all, barely used the Joystick, but the Trace and TraceR lights were excellent for daytime visibility. (some people will say "you took machined aluminium lights with you? Are you crazy? Theyre really heavy!)- in comparison to other things, yes, but I've been on a hill when a light has decided not to work, and it isn't fun. These lights work- and they work well. 

Would I consider a dynamo in the future? Maybe. As I mentioned, it's a fair old financial outlay for things that I really don't do very often. The battery power that I took with me was enough to top up my lights through the day if needed, and they were always recharged in hotels overnight. A dynamo would certainly be useful if doing multiple days away from any power source, but that isn't on my list of things to do at the moment. 

Lesson 8- reliable lights are utterly necessary. If you can't rely on them, get some new ones. (but don't carry too many). 

And speaking of powerbanks, I had 2 10,000maH batteries. They were fine. The only things I really charged were my small lights and my wahoo. yes- the new garmins have insane amounts of battery life, and it is a little annoying to have to charge the wahoo on the go, but it's fine. The thing that really guzzles battery power is the phone, so I put it in maximum battery saving mode (but without dimming the screen to the point of not actually being able to see it), and the amount of battery it saved was incredible. It meant that I recieved no information when it was in my pocket, but every time I took it out to take a photo, it woke up and messages etc came in. A compromise, yes, but better than having to charge a hungry phone every few hours and blast through your battery packs which might be needed for later. 

Lesson 9- Phone in powersave was a very good idea. 

Lesson 10: Kettles. French and Spanish hotels have no kettles in the rooms. Nightmare. That is all. 

The knee. What happened with the knee? Had you asked me before the race what was going to be the thing that stopped me, I could have given you a list. It would have included numb hands, painful neck, sickness, dehydration, painful feet, mechanical issues, lack of battery power for lights, lack of sleep etc etc. Knees would not have been on that list. 

Again, I think this goes back to the inadequate acute training load in the month(s) leading up to the race. It wasn't like it was a muscle giving out (though they felt like they wanted to), it was the tendons from the hamstring on either side of my knee. Ibuprofen helped to a point, which indicates some kind of inflammation in the tendon, most likely through overuse. Just continually taking ibuprofen for the next few days would have been an option- but not a good one. That and long distance events are not a good combination and ending up in hospital with rhabdomyalysis is not on my list of "want to do's". 

It might have been because of the weight of my bike (though I've been training on it with bags since February). It might have been that the excessive height gain and distance on the first day just drove me into a box that I couldn't recover from- that first day should perhaps have been cut into a couple of shorter sections. Figuring that day would be the freshest, a whole load of distance and ascent were packed in- perhaps to the detriment of my legs for the rest of the race. Also- there wasn't really much in the way of making the bike too much lighter. 

In the end, I feel I made the right choice in scratching. Finishing a race- or indeed getting half or 3/4 of the way through to the detriment of my health is not a thing I'm happy with. That's kind of what happened on the Spine and I was messed up for a LONG time. This time I'm hoping to be back out doing things relatively quickly. 

Lesson 11... well, I'm not entirely sure about this, it is probably the same as 1 or 2- keep the training consistent and you won't go far wrong.  

 

Did I go too fast? When I scratched I was in 25th place or thereabouts- which is pretty decent. Certainly I was no-where near the front of the pack, Robin had done 1000k where I was just about getting to 600 (mind you, his bike, fully loaded was lighter than my bike with nothing on it!). However, being in the top 1/3 of the racers might have felt a bit spicy for someone who hadn't done this kind of thing before. To be honest, I didn't feel like I was going fast. I felt like I was going very very slowly indeed. Stopping on hills where I didn't think I should be stopping, spending more time in hotels than necessary and generally being "not fast". There was some comment made that my knee must have started to give me problems because of the fast descent on the hike-a-bike, but to be honest- that was the least of my issues. Could I have gone slower? Well, maybe, but as mentioned previously that may well have eaten into my head even further because of the "I should be at X by now" thoughts- which were entirely self-inflicted and not helpful. Maybe I just need to lower my expectations somewhat. Better to exceed your plans and be ahead of a random schedule than the opposite where you get mired in self doubt.  

Mudguards. I ride with these on the bike pretty much all year round. In the Peak district it's kind of necessity unless you like having a wet bum and crap all up your face. No-one else on the race had guards, but crikey, on the descent to Vielha, and at a number of other points on the race I was very very glad to have them! Ok, bikes look waaay cooler with out guards, but when you're 2 days deep and covered in your own grime, who actually looks cool? At the sharp end, I can see the point of not having guards, but down in the pack? Yeah, I'd use them every time. 

Lesson 12- mudguards. Yes. We love them 

 

Tyres- GP5000AS 700x35. Yes- that's 35! No issues with them at all. No punctures, good grip on wet road and dry. Ok, so they might be a little heavier than others, but through gravel and fairly technical terrain they kept me upright and going with minimal fuss. That's what you want from a tyre, something that you forget is there and just keeps
on going. Very happy indeed. (yes expensive, but really- I run tubes and they're very much a fit and forget).  

Lesson 13- tyres- and this goes for everything else as well- if you don't think you can rely on them, find something else that you can.

That'll probably do for the moment, I think. I could get bogged down in the minutiae of all the bits of kit that I took. The main thing that contributed weight that didn't get used were 4 spare innertubes. I might look at getting some of the new hyperlightweight ones that are now being advertised. Damn, but theyre expensive though! 

For the moment, autumn is here, winter is coming and I'm very much looking forward to getting running properly again. The Autumn South-westerlies should be making an appearance for windsurfing, and the gym is certainly calling, as is the climbing wall.

I did wonder about getting a cycling coach- or some kind of external voice as to what I might want to focus on in terms of cycling and running. However, those together, alongside the gym, climbing and windsurfing are such an eclecltic mix of sports that I can't imagine anyone has any more experience than I do of meshing the training together. It's fairly obvious that without giving one or two of them up that I'll probably never rise above crass mediocrity, but flipping heck, they're all fun and maybe that's waht I should be focussing on. 

If anyone has any suggestions for coaches who have some ideas about multi-disciplinarians, by all means get in touch, I'd be intrigued to know who is out there.