Karapoti 2012 MTB race, Specialized Epic Erasure!

Postponed for the first time in 27 years after a weather bomb on 3 March, “Karapoti Take2” two weeks later was a stunner! Perfect, still, clear and half the size of the normally crowded event. Lush New Zealand forest, gut busting climbs and rapid descents through the Akatarawas, pleased to be here instead of the regional road event passing by the startline on the same day.

Akatarawa range in the morning.

Mountain racing is unforgiving – there is no way to hide ‘lack of form’. No drafting. No weakness goes undiscovered in relentless climbs that keep you in the red zone until you see spots dancing like moths in your vision. Ten months on from surgery (stitching an achilles back together), I have a secret weapon to build confidence  –  a new bike.

Start of the Karapoti race is a run through the river. Specialized Epic sure is clean.

The start bursts through a thigh deep running river and on to a sealed section for a short drag race to the start of the gorge track. Sitting in with the front runners is as easy as… road cycling. Spinning up the gorge drops riders who can’t hold intensity, at this point a riding buddy and I are feeling pretty happy about the clear track ahead and the choice of the easier ‘weekend warriors group’.

An hour in, two climbs done and my pace is pretty nice – within 2 minutes of the ‘gold standard’ 3 hour finishing mark that the experts aim for. This snippet of deficit I expect I can make up on the last, long climb. In the past I’ve been strong there.

The Epic was smooth and supple, its an experience I call “Epic Erasure” – all the doubts of 2011 erased by a bike that climbs and descends.

Can't describe how much better the ride is compared to an old Trek 6700 hard tail.

But it wasn’t to last. The middle section of the race pushed me back into the humble corner. Failing to get any food in the first hour (couldn’t get my hands off the bars into my pockets), with complaining legs, I faded across the top of Deadwood and compounded it with a slow passage down the technical rock garden descent. 12 minutes gone from 3 hour target time! A big hunk of time to lose. Mainly about skills really. Watched some beautiful lines as a group of seven riders caught up and dropped down the jagged route.

Grabbed gels during the slow descent (finally able to reach rear pockets) in time to feel refreshed for the bike-carry-run up Devil’s Staircase.

This is 4 or so kms of grovel – pitching up to 30% in places. Its clay-ish. You’re climbing in cleats. Small steps 10 cm wide are just visible in the nearly vertical trail. A decent time means attempting to run with your bike up this.

Achilles recovey is slowest for hill running – its the last part of strenth to return, relying on a strong hamstring and some real power to ‘pop’ you up the step. Even strength, left to right sides, is also needed. I was nervous about this, building a lot of running into my build up (too much in fact).

It went well! Only a small margin on 3 hour finish time lost here (seconds) and no discernable additional agony over and above the zone 5 heart rate and general exhaustion.

Picked up the group of seven on the climb and powered on (3kms/hr) to the top.

The race may only be 50 kms, but it feels like you left civilization back in time. The 4 wheel drive tracks are really narrow slashes cut into forest like a claw across fleeing prey. There is mud. At one point a narrow supple branch caught in the vents in my helmet. I expected it to flick out. It just hung in there, until its spring force popped me backwards off the bike. Jurassic park moment.

The big descent to the last climb opens out into fast and loose gravel trails. Lost my second big hunk of time here.

The final climb is a solid 600 vertical metres in a few kms. Much longer than you expect, it pitches up to the top…. then does it again, each time you think you are there. Each time the pitch is steeper again. Rode through the ‘prams’ – pushing their bikes, pulled back some minutes and set myself up for a TT style effort back down the gorge to the finish.

Full tilt back down the gorge to the finish of Karapoti 2012. Epic's porcelain paint job 'erased'.

Final time in the 3:20s – not awesome but not bad. Less running more riding required. I feel like I’ve completed a uniquely kiwi rite of passage. And removed all lagging doubts about the ankle.

6 month update, acute achilles rupture recovery….

Six months and one week on from surgery using ‘firewire’ to reconnect my snapped achilles I can report that everything looks bright! Today’s workouts include 40 minutes freestyle over lunchtime in the pool, reintroduction to running (30 mins walk/run programme) and due to poor weather, probably 90mins on the bike on a trainer tonight. At half-way to full recovery, my ‘recuperation journey’ is at Kuratau on the Taupo Challenge:

My recovery as the Taupo Cycle Challenge.

I am still performing 3 sets of 2 different achilles stretches, twice daily as well as ballet style exercises (standing on my toes, wearing a tramping back-pack full of hand weights ski boots, the odd encyclopaedia….another improvised workout.) I can walk quickly, no issue with stairs, cycle indefinately and run weakly. 30 day plan to strengthen running has just begun.

Hypertrophy of the calf is occurring and it is nearly the same size as the good left hand one. Getting a strong spring back into my step is the current project – the foot acts like a series of spring loaded joins in a cantilever bridge and all the little foot muscles need more ‘pop’. Athletic tape across my foot arch helped to focus the mind on this while walking around during the day. And of course, more overall ankle strength is still needed, to support and match the range of movement of the other leg. There are niggles of weakness – slowly less and less – but I feel like training is progressing nicely through aerobic base and full recovery is at the end of the flat ride ahead!

My old-fashionned cycling training plan, found some sweat identity in the Akatarawas

Finding 15 hours of training in a week is a success in itself. Its an old-fashionned approach to cycling, aiming to get as much time as I can (schedule) on the bike. Nothing fancy, no fast track, no “executives’ shortcut” or time-crunched plan. Which by the way, just sounds really 1980s – flouro sweat bands, afro hair, snickers in hand? Just time in the saddle, converting cell and muscle patterns, synapses and reactions, aerobic, lactate and energy systems back into cycling form. No chocolate, no racing, no Masters ego-trips. Before digital training plans, old school coaches knew that a large (and simple) block of slow aerobic base, provides the metabolic and physical infrastructure for performance. This means riding every single day.  Moderate 15min climbs, ideally 4 x 4-hour-long steady-paced rides each week for 3 weeks, ‘normal’ group rides… Above all, daily frequency. And no strength work. No races.

Its coming, slowly. On Sunday, a five hour ride took me to the top of the Akatarawas in Wellington. Not a massive climb, but a steady 10kms up through native bush. Ferns and large 300 year old trees dripping in moisture, the rain becoming steady and cold towards the top. I love this climb –  it closed for the rebuilding of the bridges at the same time that I dropped out of cycling – snapped my achilles. And just reopened.

You feel the warmth of your breath, climbing in the rain. I found the cadence that keeps my knees warm and lactate free. And get into the pattern of breathing and spinning. Its a fairly fast 6% average incline (guestimate) and I can feel some resilience in my legs from the last 6 weeks riding. You find yourself, climbing. Testing yourself, the big reasons for riding – endurance of the spirit.

6 months on from surgery, I’m not there yet. But my training recovery is improving – another big benefit of aerobic base. I’ve entered the Taupo ride in 5 weeks – 160 km Taupo challenge, not the race.  I think it’ll feel like the first time.

Wk 22 since achilles tendon surgery, in search of muscle bulk

My first base block of  cycling training is in the legs. Squeezed into the skinny pins. Cycling doesn’t use calf muscles (gastrocnemius, soleus) as heavily as explosive sports like running.  Cycling has more emphasis on quads and gluts. So my cycling will not achieve the hypertrophy (bulking up) of calf muscles that I need to make a full recovery.

Just how sick of ‘tip toe’ step exercises can you get? 2 stretches x 3 sets of 15, 2 strength exercises x 3 sets of 15, all done 3 times daily. Plus weights. Plus swimming for ankle joint flexibility. Pretty darn sick and bored with repetitive exercises!

But I’ve got to a great place – 6 long rides and 1000 odd kms cycling the “world’s best little cycling city” over the last 3 weeks means I have a base to start training from. 2nd base training period ahead, 3 weeks looking for longer rides, in the spring sun. I’ll be re-finding all the little coastal and bush clad roads around Wellington – magic!

Bike setup – Anthony Chapman used video analysis to make big watt gains

Through a series of small changes, my polar power meter tells me Anthony has profoundly improved my cycling performance and also comfort/endurance on the bike. His visits to Wellington New Zealand are announced in cycling club emails every now and then, following recommendation from a friend I decided now was the time to solve lingering questions about my position on the bike.

The video setup follows purple spots drawn on my knees, hip and back, allowing the movement to be slowed and traced. Knee, hip, foot, back, neck, arm angles were compared for ‘most powerful and effective’ positions.

It was a pretty understated affair. We pause for 20 minutes, in a cold garage (mid winter here) so Anthony can crunch the figures and talk me through the computer analysis. I put a top and jersey on. Much of what he is considering is the application of much bigger bodies of knowledge than we discuss.

But the practical outcomes are many and small – and didn’t include seat height, which was right. Changes to bar angle, cleat position, crank length, STI placement and some quietly given advice from a physiotherapists perspective on back shape, hip angle and foot movement.

Its an hour and a half long session. I finish back on the bike. Power feels so direct and unimpeded, right down to the souls of my feet. Bars feel low, in control and the bike extremely ‘balanced.’ I am horribly heavy (Week 15 post surgery to tie my achilles tendon back together) which video analysis documents.

On the wind trainer afterwards, the gain for a similar perceived effort is (conservatively) 14%. My achilles does benchmark perceived effort quite well, its abilities allow only so much effort. The best $200 investment in my bike yet. The change is as big as a full year’s training.

Also for polar users, the polar cs600 power setup is not as effected by the harmonic hum of a windtrainer as many expect, if it is the quieter fluid type. Which are more ‘road real’ anyway…..

40 mins at 110 watts on the #cycling wind trainer, Wk 15 #achilles recovery .

I’m on the comeback from an acute achilles rupture and surgery on 11 April 2011. I started physio and got back on the bike 2 weeks ago (week 13). Today I cycled for a whole 40 minutes. I’ve worked up to this from a 10 minute routine 2 weeks ago. Physio says increase cadence but not load now and stay at 40 minutes duration until the achilles tendon becomes more flexible. I saw the surgical person at the fracture clinic today (monthly check in). He said “6 more weeks before any real load or weights.” He is also interested in range of movement in the ankle.

So from the surgeon’s perspective, week 21 is the return to real training. From the physio’s perspective, ankle is too inflexible to do much more than address flexibility of the tendon and joint, which can’t move much above ‘flat to the ground.’ Massaging the joint, stretching 3x daily, its all uncomfortable and very necessary. Light cycling is not easy – a long way to go!

40 minute’super easy’ ride data: 12.7 kms, power balance: 52% L / 48% R leg, 110 watts, cadence 84.

My target is still to get around the Taupo cycling event in late November. 160kms, 1500m of climbing, 4 months to get ready!

Week 14 post Achilles rupture, physio asked me ‘what are you waiting for?!’

Week 14 of my recovery from acute achilles rupture puts me at kilometer 44 of Taupo.

If the Taupo Cycle Classic was the recovery path for my acute achilles tendon rupture, I would now be getting close to the Waihaha surprise, around the back of the lake. Last year (2010) the rider immediately in front of me collapsed forward onto the tarmac as his deep rim carbon wheel imploded at about this point. It folded like a pretzel…. he landed on his feet, like a cat.

First physio session today. She said ‘what are you waiting for? You need to get over your careful state of mind on this and get the ankle bending.” This is quite a different attitude to the surgeon. And really welcome. So every day on the wind trainer, increase time by 15-18% (if there was no discomfort during or after the last session.) Started with a 12 minute session today. Fat in the saddle! At the end of 7 days I could be riding for a whopping 32 minutes….. that won’t get me far.

Other exercises: Swimming – flexes and loads the tendon, all good! A programme of stretches, much like jogging stretches, 3x daily. It feels like physically insisting that the ankle work properly – don’t treat it gingerly. Pushing off while walking, circling the foot while sitting. Just awesome to be at the next stage!

5 Point Plan, fitness recovery after acute achilles rupture (wk 12)

Rebuilding fitness to participate in cycling events again, 12 weeks from surgery for acute achilles rupture, my thoughts are to tackle it on 5 fronts.

One month of stablisation is now in the bag (walking without a cast), the slow and careful journey back to fitness begins. The five strands of my plan for world domination are:

1. Protect improvements: each stage post-surgery has seen big improvements so far, but they are not noticeable daily. Every two weeks or so, I notice how much has changed. The process is organic. It takes its own time. Conversely it is a zero sum game – get it wrong and you loose, everything. 4% re-rupture. Research on protocols is prolific (120 recent thesis) but wildly varied and contradictory in conclusions. Summary: intel is poor, proceed with caution, review feelings / vibes & learn, carefully.

2. General condition: Middle age. middle of the bunch. I’ve just spent 6 months in casts and on crutches. Age related muscle ‘density’ and condition trends mean I am far less likely to have maintained strength and flexibility in supporting muscles. Core, spine, hips, neck…  Arms and shoulders feel pretty good from using crutches. New programmes take 4 weeks to ‘introduce’. I have a pretty good transition core workout for cyclists and a workout for cycling specific upper body. Under direction, swimming and cycling specific off season weights will be part of this.

 3. Movement shapes, specific muscle rehabilitation: This is physio. One loaded hip for 6 months. One petrified leg. Wear your best underpants on your first visit. I’ve held this off for an extra 4 weeks, to maintain point 1 above. Get recommendations on selecting physios, many are inexperienced.

4. Loose weight: There are lots of free online tools. I am using fitday.com to track calories. Classed as sedentary (!), 2300 calories a day is all I need. This is a great opportunity to look at the mix of foods, like building a diet training base. Without the pressure of needing training calories, a pattern that uses ‘only foods found in nature by cavemen,’ un-processed and slow release, can be introduced with the luxury of time to learn how to cook them.

5. Specific training: The point where physio ends. Movement efficiency is currently nil.  Base – shot to hell. highly lactate intolerant. Skills behind my 1 year old. Lungs like fat tourists . Mental toughness however is thriving through a mixture of sustained trash talk with former competitors and the sustained illusion that I am a pro rider.

A month of doing nothin’ – I’M BACK, just n time to farewell all the bastards heading to TdF

Early dawn DRIVE to get Havana espresso (The coffee of gods and kings), the throbbing ‘doock, doock, doock’ of the Subaru pulsing through the excellerator, vibrates through the long scar up my ankle, tickling the fiberwire in my hamstring.

One month out of casts, this week. Surgery, morphine, my ‘hospital-ward posse’ of smart, understated, old men is now ancient history. Good luck to those members of ‘the April 10 dinner club’.

One month of doin’ nothin’. I can walk. Physio, spin trainer starts in a week. 11 weeks since acute achilles re- rupture and I feel back, motivated.

 2010 Club silver medal for A grade hill TT series was awarded to me at the AGM – its an error. But I don’t care. Might change my twitter name to ‘1xHTTclubSilver’. A la Gordie.

On your feet 60sGuy! Week 9 #achillesrecovery

Get up! Get going, get going, get going!

Ok, starting week 9, of my acute achilles re- rupture recovery. Cast has been removed. Earlier I started using the route of the world famous Taupo cycle event as a record of recovery. Love the opening climb – 20kms that removes the bulk of the field. Chased back up to the front group, after dropping a chain, 2010 edition. Kind of metaphoric on reflection.

In a 52 week comeback, I have only got to either red dot (depending on which event I’m in). The rolling route toward snowy Mt Ruapehu ahead, need to protect the legs.

Cast is gone. Surgeon says back on bike (trainer) in a week. Scrubbed all the dead skin off, shed the snake skin! Tendon feels wooden, but strong enough riding the bike round the patio. Still on crutches and using a driving service for now.

3% re-rupture rate (Health industries are the origin of bung statistics). Most re-ruptures occur from now to week 13.

Fiberwire ‘augmented’ tendon – will never be absorbed nor weaken like traditional sutures. Long holiday weekend ahead. Swimming, physio, flexibility the target of the next 4 weeks.

Sunday mid winter sun, everyone’s cycling. 5 days left.

What a beautiful morning, mid winter, still and warm. The Wellington harbour is glinting in the sun. The family drive to the market at the bottom of Wellington city, it is my last weekend as a passenger. My last weekend in a cast.My last weekend holding the handbag.

I sit in the warmth,on a concrete bench in front of the skate park, organic espresso from a vendors truck. Small peletons of bright coloured road cyclists whirr past me on the curve into the coastal Oriental Parade. Some GP Meo riders (Garmin Cervelo and charcoal GP kits, its 10.30am, they’ve only done 90 minutes,) individual Onslow Tarbabies (neon green and red, early finishers). The mid-winter irises from the market are wrapped in the Dom Post from 23 March. Kiwi cyclist Jesse Sergent stares out of a half page story. Above a piece on Contador at Catalunya.

And I only have 5 days left in plaster after an acute rupture of the achilles tendon.

I’ve been writing up a storm here since 20 January. About doping, Landis describing how to bypass the biological passport, UCI passport rankings and the role teams play. About tough as guts riders and the brutality of cycling accidents. And about my place in life -being middle of the bunch, bottom of the world (way down under), family man.

5 days left in plaster. Much has changed. I am going to be so weak back on the bike. 10kgs heavier (guesstimate). 3 big earthquakes – ChCh New Zealand heading into winter without services or certainty. $16b national debt.  My kids have started school, learned to walk and won the school cross-country race. In cycling, clenbuterol exposed someone I admired. The worst timed comback in history looks to come to a head in a  U.S. federal investigation for big Tex.

Riding back into B-grade  fitness  is going to be heaven. I don’t yet know how to regain form. Physio, coaching, base building, weight loss, its all to be sorted. I think I’ll be riding for different reasons for this 4 months of reflection here. Less ‘to get away’, with more sense of the extreme gamble pros make and the opportunity for all of us to complete something great from a world-wide cycling bucket list.

My comeback trail starts this week. See you on the road!

Crutch Fatique at Achilles Rupture week 5 strikes again.

Its a mental thing, 5 weeks down is half way to nowhere. I still have four more weeks on crutches, in a cast, before I get to ‘recovery’. That is, learning to walk again. And, the car service delivering me to work is called ‘Driving Miss Daisy’. Its bright blue with a big daisy on the side. Sigh. 47 weeks to go.

At week 5 since surgery, I am the equivalent of 15.3 kms into the Taupo Classic.

If recovering from the full achilles rupture was the Taupo Classic, I would be descending in the morning chill, perhaps mist and freezing fingers as condensation on my breath surges with the effort of the first climb. Its a chill that will pass, the day will become hot and windy. Marked on the profile above, the first climb you jump straight into is now done and dusted and I’m dropping toward the sawtooth traverse across the west side of the lake.

So cycling is an experience at a distance. The Giro is squirming over Italy – 2 stages on the coast below Tuscany done. My favourite grand tour, truth be known. Pinotti has taken one for the clean riders and Petacchi one for the oldies (and returned from suspension) riders. Cav is whingeing, Farrar is coming 7th, everything is about normal.

A new light cripple-friendly Dell xt latitude Tablet has hooked me up nicely to live Gazzetta tv (middle of the night, don’t ask) – and its running / downloading polar CS600 files very nicely too. I had left my last race before the first accident, the 2010 Rice Mountain race file, on the head unit….  So many watts gone to waste. Giro watching it is then…

Cycling – friends and competitors

Maybe its a Col Trickle thing, cyclists don’t like to spend too much time thinking about the injuries that may occur racing a bike. 

Snapping my achilles a lifetime ago (96 days) meant doing something other than cycling. My time on the injury list has blossomed into a garden of alternative activities. Watching and thinking about riding, rather than being in the game. I have grown some ‘mental weeds’. That is, gained some new perspectives on the effort, mental attitude and time consumed by it all. 5 new ‘species’ in my mental window planter are:

1. Mulch rhubarb. There is such a thing as too much spin – for my liking. I think there is a limit to the value of endless twitter promotions, of cyclists as new media stars. Its only about what happens on the bike and real experiences. Everything else is piling on the compost.

2. Pruned tomatoes. Growth needs to be balanced – just like pro teams and the UCI. Can team management achieve the best results for cyclists and the sport? ‘Festina’ says no. Cyclists dropped because of injuries say no. And on the other side, does the UCI sound like a bit of an ass…

3. Rotten dead stuff. How the dope cheats stink! This may be jealousy speaking… but what is with all the returns to racing after suspension (embraced with open arms), all the ongoing issues. It is killing the sport. It just seems never-ending.

4. Big red capsicums. Are like pumping, full ventricles, full capacity hearts. Giving it everything, every ride, without excuses, this is what makes this tough sport. Its all iron and oxygen. Thats the pro arena. Shit I love seeing this. The best medication.

5. Roses. These go to the old gits and not so old cyclists I know who have kept in touch. Some a whole lot faster than me. Some not. Its not a competitive thing.

Not suprising really, that Masters grade riders would have a sense of community. Family men, used to different kinds of wins and a range of friendships.  

Sounds like its not that different at the highest level. Ritchie Porte’s blog on Velonation.com – “I normally go training with the Tasmanians…half the population of Australia is from Tassie, so I do a bit with Gossie [Matt Goss], Gerro [Simon Gerrans] and Wes [Sulzberger], and also some of the other guys in the peloton. It is funny, if you think of it…two years ago, the thought of riding in a bunch with Boonen and Gilbert and some of the biggest names seemed unusual, but we just meet at 9.30, coffee shop…I love it, it is great.”

“Some wonder about the rivalries, and how we put that to one side when we are training together. To put it simply, that is cycling! It is funny to watch the Classics, Stuey [Stuart O’Grady] chasing Boonen, but off the bikes they are such good friends. Everything seems to be put aside when we are out in training.”

On reflection, the main thing growing at my place, is the lawn – it hasn’t been mowed since I first went into a cast, 20 January 2011. I’m now at cast 7. Five more weeks to go and counting.

Choked as I drive past the cyclists commuting to work

There is no two ways about it, I’d rather be cycling, but it is a tainted surprise to me how happy I am, to be out of the cast, that ball and chain that has trapped my leg for the last 8/9 weeks. To be back on the road, in control, in any shape or form is a rush. I am not a fan of cars (in general, as a transportation solution). It seems that motorways are like baseball fields – “if you build them, they will come.” Meaning that new motorways, flyovers, tarseal additions to the roading network, always achieve capacity immediately. The new interchange built closest to my home has achieved this.

This morning, driving a car is empowerment. Its a step up, an improvement towards the goal of getting back to the bike, slowly getting mobility from the stiff-as-steel-band ankle. Its like the rights of adulthood come flooding back to me.  Japan’s nuclear issues, quake devastation, death tolls, the world takes a back seat. Which is really odd if you think about it.

Its great bike commuting weather here in Wellington New Zealand. Soft mist, not cold. The traffic is not too fast. I’m idling beside a rider at 30km/hr in slow traffic, he is in Discovery Channel team kit. And riding an older Trek. As we say in New Zealand “Distance Looks Our Way.”

Mr. Discovery Channel and I are moving at the same pace. And that says it all really. What causes a choke anyway? I am going to file this under ‘Bike Zen’ and get back to work.

Achilles Rupture: a new walking cast for week 7 (&8).

The specialist confirmed that the ruptured tendon has re-attached well. Improvement, moving forward, transition, part way out the prison doors… Week 7 and 8 are in a ‘flat foot position” cast. With the old ‘pointed toe’ cast off and the specialists job done, the nurse pushed –
heaved – my foot up out of the toe down equus position, the tendon aching like a powerful yoga stretch. 8cm of tilt-straightening took five minutes. With the everything held in position, a new fibreglass cast was applied in the new horizontal pose. And a low walking pad attached. One day on, I am walking carefully around the house on it! 13 days of cast time left.
The nurse confirmed that it is a year long effort after an achilles rupture, to get back to full fitness. Also that I will be referred to physio to begin reconditioning the achilles as soon as the cast comes off. Sounds like heal lift shoes and crutches for a period then.

Escaping My Bust leg with Pro Peleton voyeurism – Paris Nice and Strade Bianchi this weekend

There is no better pain killer, floating out of my damaged state. Away from the limits of crutches and a lost season, to the narrow white, tyre-packed, gravel channels of Tuscany or the mini tour de France.
Here it all is, a big-bang pro weekend – Kiwis from the cold south of New Zealand showing themselves on the gravel and in the freezing central France stages of the ‘race to the sun’.
Which TdF contenders will show themselves in Paris Nice?
Nicolas Roche (AG2R) finished strongly in 2010, Tony Martin (HTC) comes off an early win. Do Sanchez, Vinokourov, Frank Schleck or Leipheimer have what it takes to win against 2009 winner LL Sanchez or the young guns of Sagan, Velits, Brajkovic? Who else? Matt Goss is on a winning streak. A comeback by Haussler.
I’m picking LL Sanchez – because this is the year of Rabobank. Mixing it up with a TT works against the pure climbers. Also he has said he’ll back Gesink at the Tour, so this is his chance to shine. Bring it on!
And the strade bianchi – those white gravel roads that ripped the 2010 Giro from the history books!
Menchov, Contador, Sastre, Vandevelde, Zabriskie, perhaps Basso are at the Vuelta a Murcia…

Week 4, Healed but Not Healed

Week four, I am more comfortable moving around on crutches. My second week back at work – made possible by ACC funding taxis. A small (non-existant) milestone this week, I am Half Way There – the (various) casts come off at week 8, when the rupture is supposedly knitted, but not supported by muscle nor accustomed/flexible enough to use. Or put another way, half way to healed but not healed.

Weighing on my mind has been this conservative protocol – no surgery – which reads as unusual in a significant amount of the literature. I found support for the non-operative approach last night. Previous studies showed surgery had a quicker and more effective result. However, as younger and more athletic candidates formed a much larger percentage of the ‘surgery set’, the results were skewed. Once findings were normalised for the age and athleticism of the candidates, the results showed no discernable difference in healing time and re-rupture rate. Although surgical solutions still showed a markedly higher infection rate. Time will tell of course, but I no longer feel I am on the ‘slow track’.

It is left to me to determine the load I put on the walking stirrup. Some studies indicate early load is a significant plus. While the re-rupture rate seems strongly linked to early overload. I’m guessing that my ‘get around at work’ light load patterns are about right, but it is strictly guess. My toes take turns at feeling numb and like a steel band connects them to my heel.

Workouts – ‘The Improvised Athlete” approach is working great! Two and a bit weeks in the bag and I feel stronger in the workouts already. Plank pose (including side variations) for 7 minutes last night!

The Improvised Athlete

Two weeks on sick leave at home, in plaster. Two weeks waiting for specialist appointments, waiting to get an idea of the prognosis and the treatment protocol. Home gets too familiar, excessive reading, planning and imagining goes on as the unknown…. remains that way. To kick start recovery, I have created two work outs which avoid the achilles / lower body and start to ‘stabilise’ ready for whatever physiotherapy or cross training might be ahead.

As I don’t have much in the way of equipment at home, I am making up things for weights. Buying one or two cheap support items – like a swiss ball – and finding some great, specific sets of workouts for cyclists, I’ve found I can improvise workouts that create challenges using simple ideas and simple equipment.

There are two principles in my plan. Firstly, with an eye to cycling exercises, my aim is to be the complete athlete. This is to be undertaken as a creative activity that challenges the body in ever changing ways, in a high intensity circuit. It is the opposite of monotony. Building on the principal of training consistency, I am aiming for 4 weeks of introductory stabilisation to a weights programme, followed by increasingly ‘creative’ exercises with shorter rest gaps.

Secondly, the workouts must continually introduce new challenges into the circuit using found stuff. This means being open to any challenge, from lunges using water cooler bottles as weights, rotator curls using flower vases, in fact any found or cheaply bought second hand piece of equipment that can be creatively applied to the task at hand. If I can think of it, I have to do it. No controlled, repetitive gym environment, just challenge, challenge, challenge!

I will still use my gym membership for swimming, when I am out of the plaster.

Week one is in the bag. I’ve used murano glass vases as handweights, decorative iron work in door frames for pullups…. how far can I take this? What simple,, challenging , effective solutions can I gather together into a junk bag workout?

Book review: Weight training for cyclists 2nd Edn by Doyle & Schmitz

I bought this book to assist my comeback after breaking my achilles tendon 9 days ago. I used weights in the off season last season, but found that the programme I was on wasn’t specific enough, lessened outcomes from training on the bike and as it now seems, was poorly managed. I can say that, because after reading Weight Training for Cyclists by Ken Doyle and Eric Schmitz it is clear that more attention was needed to my old programme to keep it fresh, effective and in line with training on the bike.
Masters racers like me lose muscle tone in a flash, there really is no choice but to multi train to maintain or develop an athlete’s body. The challenge is to balance weights into other training and a busy day!
This book is a practical how-to book. The references are in the back if you want the science. It aligns the weight training year to off season, pre season and racing needs. The 40 week plan starts with stabilisation period (an introduction to the movements and challenge of weights), moves to strength building, then power and finally maintenance through the race season. Sound familiar? The exercises are chosen to work muscles identified through research as important to cyclists, through either use or issues around non use. The plan is there for you to use and you could simply lift it out of the book, use the workout sheet and you are away.
But you would miss some of the pearls in this book. There is a do-anywhere Core Circuit Workout – fantastic! I did it this morning, so simple and yet so hard! The stretching section including self massage with a simple foam roller or tennis ball is easily worth the price of this book alone. And the most useful, applied idea of periodisation I’ve encountered (in my limited experience.)
I can begin my comeback path with a few really simple tools – a swiss ball, a tennis ball or foam roll, maybe 2 sets of hand weights. I started today with none of these in my lounge, my gym membership parked as my lower body is off limits, it was an effective core workout.

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.