Hermes

Saturday I did a Zwift 16 mile D race and made the break. Unfortunately, it was the break "behind" versus the "away". There were four of us in the last group and we traded pulls until only me and another guy were able. We dropped two riders and with a mile to go, he took off and I could not stay with him. He got me by 22 seconds.

I was not planning to race Zwift and in fact, I was going to ride outside. Since my wife was racing Zwift at 7:30 AM, I tried to arrange another riding partner - no dice. I got up early and was drinking coffee and after flip flopping between Zwift and outside, I saw the race. I had 30 minutes to make the start line. I got the start line with 3 minutes to go so no warmup.

Realistically, with no warmup, I was in no position to survive any early surge. I drifted back and found a small group and rode z2/z3. Perfect. Fun workout and better than a BOT. I did a recovery ride with a BOT after the race.

Sunday, my wife and I rode the coast for 1.5 hours that included 4x30 second max power climbing efforts on four different hills. Legs felt great.

TMonk

Mehhhhh... "Won" the sprint out of group two, 5th/11 total. Four got away on the steep ramps and were simply better, although things clearly got broken up there. Thing is, after they surged, they slacked off to our pace on some of the shallower ramps and held it at ~10s up. I should have gone all in to stay up there instead of playing it conservatively. Sometimes you gotta risk it for the biscuit.


This includes a minute or two of coasting down the 10% "grade" towards the end, so actual effort is much higher

Phatman

Anyone here train after a concussion? I was really great shape two weeks ago and I managed to trip and smack my head into the toilet on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I was unconscious for ~20 seconds, had cerebral fluid in my sinuses, convulsions, etc, pretty serious. I went to the ER and they did a CT scan and it was "negative" so they sent me on my way with zero info on how to manage my concussion. After I could read again, I've been doing a bunch of research on concussion protocol, and its staggering how little concrete info there is out there, and how much the advice varies.

I've been doing a bunch of ~45 minute Z2 trainer rides and I seem to be tolerating it fine, so I my next plan is to start ramping up a bit, doing some Z3 work to see if my symptoms ramp up accordingly.

It kinda sucks, my FTP two weeks ago was actually better than it was in college, which is a major accomplishment for a 37 year old parent of two little kids that works full time and trains only 5 hours a week. Having strong legs doesn't mean anything if my brain doesn't work, but its a bummer to me that its going to take so long to start making gains again.

himespau 

Be careful and take it slow for sure. I've had concussion after effects (wasn't training at the time) show up lots later and it got scary.

Hermes

In discussion with a neurosurgeon after my wife's concussion and hospitalization, the brain heals but it is a slow process. While it is healing, one does not want another concussion - that is very bad. This doctor also certified boxers for the ring. If you want to be conservative, it takes a year for the brain to recover. Six months is okay and less than that, the longer one goes without another blow to the head the better.

TL : DR. Take it easy and give yourself time to recover. Do not expose yourself to another blow to the head. Recovery is very individual.

Phatman

Jeez, wow, a year? Good to know. Is there any way to know, like, when you're in the clear? I've got an appointment with a neurologist next week, I guess I can ask him these questions. I had an infuriating appointment with my PCP yesterday where I had a ton of questions and he had zero answers, but at least he got me a neurologist recommendation and somehow I got on their schedule relatively quickly.

TMonk

GL w the recovery Phatman. I am not in the clinical/medical space but I think there aren't many concrete instrumental test methods to determine things like recovery from a brain injury. Can you train indoors? Maybe Zwift (or another platform) can give you an outlet to stay fit and even compete a bit while you let the noggin' recover. whilst avoiding more opportunities for concussion out on the road.

topflightpro

As others have said, brain healing is kind of a mystery. There really aren't any good tests to know how well you're healing or when you're ready to go.

Phatman

Yeah, I have a smart trainer but jeez, I really hate the trainer and Zwift just doesn't do it for me. I might just try to find some other way to crosstrain, maybe swimming or something? The hard thing for me is that I *feel* fine at the moment, but my reflexes are definitely slower. I was playing this game with some friends called "Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza" where you have to take turns saying, "taco", "cat", "goat", "cheese", "pizza" as you go around the circle of players, and as you say the word, you put down a card that has either a taco, a cat, a goat, etc drawn on it. If the card you put down matches the word you say, everyone has to slap the deck of cards, the last person to slap has to take the pile of cards, the person who runs out of cards first wins. I would've dominated this game pre-concussion, I didn't win a single one this time though. My ability to recognize the figure and make my body react was completely broken. Also, my neighbors have a pickleball net, I wonder how poorly that would go, its a similar type of test--see, react, move. I dominated the pickleball court before, maybe I'll go back to mountain biking once I win a few games haha.

With that said, I did an easy ride yesterday and it went fine other than getting completely dumped on in a 5 minute rain shower.

Yeah, I've gathered that. Kinda wild, brains are important! Its made me realize though, that humans are kinda like old Volvos--they can run (poorly) for way longer than you expect.

Also, I just realized that the appointment I have setup today is with a "functional neurologist" with a chiropractic degree, not like a degree from an actual medical school. Part of me wants to give it a shot since they seem to be the only ones who are willing to see me in the next 6 months, but I've had bad experiences with chiropractors in the past so I'm a little (very) hesitant. Hermes did your wife use the services of a "functional neurologist" in her recovery?

TMonk

"Castle Crit" Zwift race: 1st/4

Interesting race. I almost quit ~1min in because I was the only one to have a hard start, and thought the others were just not up to par. Didn't feel like a solo 30 min TT. But Mr. S gave me a real run for my money.

Much bigger dude, would be doing like 30+ watts more at any given time. Real steady too. I would surge up the climb and build a gap to almost 20 seconds, but by the next one, he'd be on my coattails. He caught me on the last lap too, but predictably, didn't have the acceleration to match me up the climb. Fun race! It was really only a race for 1st and 2nd.


recovering after the climb



Good job Mr. S

himespau 

50 minute team points race on indieVelo. Not much in the way of elevation (~250 m over 36 km, but with a short, steep-ish ending that kicks up to 15% kind of like the ground-level finish on Zwift's NYC map), but just enough bumps to make it interesting (and make my fat behind hurt). Best 20 minute power in 6 weeks, so it put me through a good workout if nothing else. My 1 to 5 minute power is absolutely garbage (20 minutes isn't great either), but it was a heckuva workout. First one I'd done in a while where I was more or less satisfied when I was done. Gave what I had, pushed my limits, ended the race on empty, and didn't make any stupid mistakes. That's about all I can ask for these days.

Hermes

Saturday - 2.5 hour endurance ride along the coast with TMonk Fun ride and great workout.

Sunday - Fiesta TTT w/spouse. 2 x 20K. We got out early and missed the wind and traffic. Great weather.

Fab weekend of riding.

TMonk

Wanted to drop in on the famous "AB" group ride this morning, but my boss called a 9:30 AM in person meeting - damn. It starts at Fiesta Island at 8:15 which is 30 min of riding away from work. So I was only able to ride the first 20 or so minutes. Softened my legs up first with a 1x20 around ~98%.

The ride is a 27-28 MPH paceline from some local hitters, punctuated by 30+ MPH Ebike attacks from a local coach. They can be sustained and up to a couple minutes long. So the front group gets smaller and smaller until there are usually only 2-3 left for the sprint. Best group ride in San Diego IMO.

This morning, the first e-bike attack came after I was on the front digging into the pedals at 6+ w/kg for a minute.... then had to sprint from that. Killer.

Hermes

Yesterday, I arrived at Fiesta after AB ride for a structured warmup of accelerations and starts and then did 3 sets of 8x(30" on 1' off) 2.5' of z2 between sets. I was up about 20 watts since the last time I did this workout. For the starts, I do a ~ 7 second seated and standing start from a slow rollup. I hit 700 watts during the seated start which is okay for me. When I am in better form, I can hit 900 watts. Standing is more power. I was on my road bike with SRM power meter so the power is probably accurate.

There were remnants of the AB ride on Fiesta plus a couple of hitters on TT bikes. The weather was great with typical winds.

Phatman

Man, so this concussion recovery has been a pain in my ass. I've been working my way up through HR effort zones, and zone 3 works fine for me. Zone 4 makes me light-headed though, and I've got to back off. It makes riding outside a bummer because there's so much climbing around here and its really tough to stay in zone 3. My legs also feel great, which isn't unexpected after having a month of rest to recover. So I *want* to ride hard but my brain is putting the brakes on. I'm going to try again next week.

himespau 

Definitely sounds like a rationale for doing trainer work (less fun, I know, but easy to just get off and walk away if needed) unless staring at a screen isn't good for your recovery.

Phatman

Yeah, the screen isn't ideal. It doesn't cause pain necessarily, it just adds fatigue. I'm on a screen most of the day at work, so I'm usually pretty eager to get outside when I can. The trainer work I've been doing has actually just been in the garage with the door open listening to music. Hot as hell, but I'm fine with heat, especially at these low intensities. My neighbors thought I was crazy at first but a couple of them stopped by and I chatted for a while, which is actually a pretty nice way to make the time go by. I was a little concerned about dripping on them though, I get some good puddles going after 20 minutes or so.

TMonk

Hope the recovery goes well Phatman!

I'm recovering from (my first) COVID positive on 7/7. The first couple of days were pretty awful, but I'm already feeling markedly better. Mostly congestion and cold-like symptoms at this point, fever/aches and flu-like symptoms have mostly passed. I'm going to have some time off the bike surrounding the weekend of the 27th for my sister's wedding, and really wanted to build some TSS/fatigue before then, but I've been cautioned that this is an illness that I need to respect a little more.

This is usually the time of year when I back off a little bit anyway. Maybe I should just stick to z2 (and under) between now and my return from the wedding, and let myself lose some TSS and top end. I think that's the right call, we'll see.

Phatman

Hey, I really appreciate it. It’s been a journey so far.

As for Covid, I think you’re smart to take it easy, there’s been some stuff coming out lately correlating long Covid to inadequate recovery, so definitely make sure you listen to your body.

himespau 

I definitely acknowledge that I tried to come back too hard too soon, and that slowed my recovery significantly. 18 months later and I'm still not fully back to where I was before (though I've had other, unrelated, health issues in the meantime).

topflightpro

I'm on "vacation" at the beach with my wife and her family. I brought my bike so I could continue training while here. Today I became a "Local Legend" on Strava for one of the roads I've been riding down.

TMonk

Today was my first day of feeling completely normal following my COVID positive (and symptoms onset) on 7/7. Yesterday, my energy and disposition was normal but I still had cold like symptoms. I have ridden an hour of z2 for the past few days inside and flirted with higher power, to no I'll effect.

Tomorrow I'm going to join a local hammerfest, smash the front and bookend a bunch of extra endurance riding. Just kidding. But it will be more - more than an hour in z2, that is. If all goes totally swimmingly (and I suspect that it might), I will try some controlled threshold efforts on Monday. No really race paced stuff for another week.

bampilot06

State championship was today, I had no intention of racing, I have been riding like crap lately and really don’t know why. Only thing I can think is the extreme humidity and heat and my 36 year old body can’t acclimate to it anymore.

Team convinced me to do the masters and it went pretty badly. Took everything in me to just hang on and it wasn’t even that fast, I had nothing in me to attack and got dropped 2 laps to go. I did make an extreme effort to catch the group on the last lap, but once the pack was in my grasp my brain decided that was it. Feelings mixed, part of me thinks I should have just not done it like I had planned, the other part chalks it up for experience.

It was 100 degrees at the mid point of the crit.

topflightpro

Years ago, I did a crit like that. Stuck a bunch of giant ice blocks in my jersey pockets - they were melted within two laps.
'
A few laps in, 2 or 3 guys attacked off the front, and the rest of us just watched them ride away. We rode around struggling in the heat and humiditity while the leaders just hammered it out racing against each other.

Once the race was over, everyone was just beat. Awful, miserable day.

bampilot06

I should have put ice in my jersey, didn’t even cross my mind. Don’t think it would have made a difference though.