Another beautiful Wellington day and I’m thinking about my comeback

Eight days ago I snapped my right achilles tendon (AT) running on a stunningly beautiful beach in northern New Zealand. It broke with a ‘boing’ – like a sound in a kid’s cartoon on morning television –
kicking me forward, face down in the tide. With the help of friendly strangers and a lifeguard I was taken to the lifeguard base and then by paramedics to Thames hospital where the leg was put in plaster. Today is the beginning of week 2 of my recovery.

Thames hospital treatment – the plaster – was a holding pattern. They advised me to see my hometown GP asap and get referred to a specialist for evaluation and treatment decisions. The appointment with a specialist in the fracture unit came through quickly once they understood the AT was completely broken. A 3 week wait became “can you get here in an hour and a half?” The consultation confirmed the events and reported diagnosis, but rescheduled evaluation (treatment decisions?) for next week, once the injury has had two weeks to settle down.

As I understand it from a quick literature review, an oversimplified description of the options is whether to follow a conservative recovery approach and allow the tendon to heal itself or assist the process with surgery to join the two ends – stitching them together with parachute pattern sutures. Considerations include the innate healing effectiveness of my body and a 10% risk of infection through surgery. The literature is not clear if either method is faster or results in a better outcome for cycling or life.

In the meantime I have had a week off work and now 3 weeks without riding. I pulled my entry in this weekend’s 2 day tour. My crazy thought is to comeback at K2, the 200km mountainous circuit of the Coromandel peninsula in early November 2011. That gives me 10 months. The big question is whether the specialist can provide a workable time line for return to the bike and training. In the meantime I need to control my weight and make the most of what I have. This means daily calorie counting (I am using fitday.com) to monitor and control what I eat, keeping daily intake close to my low activity needs. I am following or reading ‘comeback stories’ for inspiration and developing a weights plan to strengthen my core initially and then move progressively to a full cycling plan, in appropriate stages, later.

And now a different direction, achilles ruptured

Simply running on one of those dream beaches, an unseen pit in the tidal sand (after a storm) took my step far, far lower than expected. It went pop like exploding a sealed plastic bag and kicked me onto my hands and knees. The hospital 70kms away in Thames confirmed that the achilles tendon was snapped.
Three days later back home in Wellington, the cast is providing temporary support while I wait for the long weekend to end and doctors opinions, plans to guide the pathway back.

2010 in Review

My first year as a licensed club rider included some club races in summer (January – March 2010) including 3rd in one stage of the WVCC 2 day tour, but the standout event was completing the epic Karapoti 50km mountain bike race, which doubled as the nationals, in March. An OK placing saw my name in an international e-zine!! Some TT hit outs with WVCC, a crack at the ‘Screaming O’, the Kapiti Challenge and into the off season, where I ended up taking spin sessions in a community hall.

A bit of a climb, Karapoti 25th anniversary race, March 2010.

A few kms covered in the hills through the westest winter and I was ready for the regional season in September 2010. High expectations…By springtime all races looked good and I had a crack at everything in region. Wairarapa cycle challenge, Martinborough Tour, Tour de Whitemans, Club road races around Wainuiomata, Whitemans, Te HoroSome good top 10 finishes, and a solid place in B grade racing. In November I finished with the front group in the Taupo fun event,  riding in 1A tested the mettle on the hills, but idled on the flats…

Taupo 160km fun ride 2010.

The Rice Mountain Classic completed the local year, just on burn-out I was figuring….

Rice Mountain 2010

My ride, BMC SLT01

2010, the Two Year Plateau bites

Two years in, my third time around Lake Taupo in New Zealand’s biggest ride (10,000 odd cyclists) and my time was no improvement on 2009 (4h 18m). Sure I rode at the front and finished with the first few, but I felt just as tired for no big leap up in my time. Yes, it is your age place that tells you most and yes I had been warned about the two year performance plateau. I just thought I’d avoided it. Nope.
For the first two years, any reasonable amount of any kind of riding improves your performance. Its all good. And the steps up are large. So I’ve been feeling a bit flat about a perceived lack of improvement. In the last 4 weeks since the event I have had a good look at how I do things and made some changes.
Firstly, I actually have made improvements during 2010. The spin strength work and hill commutes through winter have improved muscular endurance – seems better and I can tack on a bit of a sprint at the end. Cardio seems really good ( I have done nearly every race going in spring). So what gives? I feel like I am weaker on the hills than last year –
when the cadence drops below…80? I was dropped in Rice Mountain and struggled to stay on in Taupo in this situation. It takes everything to chase back on after dropping a chain. Investigation – back to basics:
1. weight – fitday.com turned up in a blog. Measuring calories, carbs is really informative. A visit to the gym scales confirmed that I am far heavier than I appear. Power to weight needs to be fixed here!! I am recording and considering everything I eat.
2. gym – the books said masters category racers need to do weights. Work offered a great deal, I am in. This is what it takes to be the complete athlete.
3. Training weaknesses – I purchased the power unit for my Polar CS600…. More data and more reading on training. Additional attention to the VO2 and training tests in the Polar indicates that my training has continued too long in the grey zone. That is, long, but not focussed enough.

So from here, the new data shows I am inefficient in my action and work to do on power. One week into a new programme the efficiency ratings are improving already and a new approach to power as well feels different and really good. I am re-looking at everything and spotting lazy patterns in my training log. The options for training look broader than ever before. Will it get the results I seek?

UCI Individual World Top 20 After TdF

UCI Individual World Ranking Top 20

1. Alberto Contador (Esp) Astana 482

2. Joaquin Rodriguez (Esp) Caisse d’Epargne 428

3. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC 390

4. Luis Leon Sanchez (Esp) Caisse d’Epargne 363

5. Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 304

6. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana 283

7. Andy Schleck (Lux) Saxo Bank 258

8. Fabian Cancellara (Sui) Saxo Bank 250

9. Samuel Sanchez (Esp) Euskaltel-Euskadi 239

10. Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank 239

11. Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Transitions 217

12. Christopher Horner (USA) Radioshack 216

13. Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step 216

14. Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 213

15. Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo 206

16. Michele Scarponi (Ita) Androni Giocattoli 203

17. Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas-Doimo 188

18. Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Radioshack 174

19. Jurgen Van den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 169

20. Alessandro PetacchI (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini 163

Following Pro Cyclists

Here are some great places to get the news on the pro road season:

Velonation

VeloNews

Roadcycling New Zealand

Cycling Weekly

Graham Watson cycling photographer

Cycling Fans

Cyclingnews.com

And they are all on twitter too. Enjoy!

Floyd Landis told ESPN how to use EPO

Landis told ESPN.com [extract from their article here] last week that during the two or three years leading up to his 2006 Tour de France victory — subsequently nullified after he tested positive for synthetic testosterone — he and some of his fellow riders combined strategically timed transfusions and microdoses of EPO (erythropoietin, a red blood cell booster) in order to keep their blood values constant rather than spiking and dipping.

The main difference between their methodology and that of riders in the 1990s, Landis said, was riders of his era learned to inject EPO intravenously rather than subcutaneously, as a cancer patient or someone with another grave illness would do. When EPO is injected under the skin, it is absorbed first into soft tissue and released into the bloodstream gradually, prolonging its therapeutic effects. Injecting EPO intravenously has the same effect of boosting red blood cell count and improving oxygen processing capacity. However, the drug disperses more quickly in the bloodstream and thus becomes undetectable sooner — especially if riders dilute their blood with an intravenous drip of saline solution or simply by drinking a lot of water after injecting it.

Roughly speaking, the biological passport is designed to catch riders who cheat based on fluctuations in their baseline blood values. One fundamental element is the ratio of their “young” or new red blood cells, called reticulocytes, compared with mature cells. When an athlete transfuses his own blood, the body responds by slowing down production of reticulocytes.

Landis said riders brought the level of red blood cell production back to normal by microdosing with EPO during races on a nightly basis. “ You can use three to four times your body’s normal production of EPO if you inject it intravenously and have virtually no chance of testing positive within a matter of hours. So the biological passport is a joke, and I’m fairly certain the UCI knows about it. ”

According to Landis, the coup de grace that made this methodology work was that he and his U.S. Postal Service teammates routinely had advance notice of supposedly unannounced anti-doping controls. “We always knew when the blood testers were going to be there the following morning, so we would know when to have the saline solution bags so we could dilute our blood the night before,” he said. He said he did not know how the team staff got wind of the schedule. “It was just nice that they did,” he said. “You can use three to four times your body’s normal production of EPO if you inject it intravenously and have virtually no chance of testing positive within a matter of hours,” Landis told ESPN.com.

Landis added that he bought an expensive piece of machinery to measure his own reticulocyte count and also learned to do the analysis manually with a microscope.

[This is an extract from ESPN, the full article is here].

Why do cyclists dope? Confession excerpt.

Here are excepts of the confession of a cheater named Thomas Frei, a member of the U.S.-licensed BMC Racing Team led by road world champion Cadel Evans of Australia and American legend George Hincapie. Frei, a 25-year-old Swiss with the potential to rise above domestique status, told website NZZ.ch why he used the illegal blood booster EPO — and why he would not have stopped if he hadn’t tested positive, lost his contract and been banned from racing for 2 years. Frei’s interview included these insights, according to cyclingnews.com:

—“Of course I would have gone on doping. The money tempts you, it is the same for everyone.”

—“After Tirreno-Adriatico [Italian stage race], where I was once again the most important helper for team captain Cadel Evans, the bosses talked to me about a better contract. I was on a contract of $110,800 a year, but if things had continued I would have gotten a lot more in 2011.”

 —After Frei started his career clean, “Then came the hard stage races, and I learned that infusions were used for recovery. Everything was legal, but I still didn’t want any of it. But at some point it started [for me], because everybody does it. The doctor gives you the first shot, and then it isn’t long until you give yourself the first illegal shot.”

—He said he used EPO, because “you stand in front of a huge mountain and don’t know how to get over it. Your ambition eats you up. After all, you want to become more than just a helper.”

—“I have never been told by a boss to dope, but I have also never experienced a rider being asked why he suddenly became so fast.”

—“From the bosses you only hear, ‘We don’t want any doping cases.’ But what they really mean is something else.” —Frei’s bottom line: “I am not a victim. It was my decision to dope.”