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Beijing Report

Now that the 2008 Olympics have come and gone, I figured its time for a recap of the whole experience. Olympic preparation started back in 2007 with the selection of the US long team - the top 5 American women would be eligible to compete for 2 spots in the 2008 Games. Compared to the 2004 Athens debacle, the selection process was fairly simple this time around. Basically, the 2 women with the best results at the first 5 World Cups and World Championships would be selected for the Olympics. This meant that as of April 1, Georgia had to be on top form. The goal was to get a top 3 result (which would have meant an automatic selection) at the first round of World Cups. An automatic selection back in April would have meant a lot less stress for the remaining months leading up to Beijing. But, things didn't quite come together and two 5th place finishes were as close as we got.

At that point, things were still going quite well - right up until the NMBS race at Santa Ynez - the heat stroke weekend. Georgia was riding really fast, close to 4 mins ahead of 2nd place, and then the 103 degree heat took its toll in a serious way and heat stroke and delirium set in. The race reports said that Georgia "suffered from heat exhaustion and abandoned the race." The situation was lot more serious than that - she actually blacked out on one of the climbs and tumbled into the bushes and then was in and out of consciousness until the 4-wheeler hauled her off the course about an hour later.

Anyways, recovering from heat stroke posed a significant physical and mental obstacle for the 2nd half of the season.

Georgia went into the 2nd round of World Cups having done no intensity for 3 weeks and still unsure of how she'd respond in the heat and humidity. She showed a lot of resiliency throughout the whole process and even managed a solid result at Worlds. After Worlds, the Olympic selection was official and it was time to head back to the US to race the NMBS series. There was certainly no shortage of racing and traveling this year as Luna raced at all of the World Cups and all of the NMBS.

The first time that Georgia looked like her old self, in my opinion, was at the Windham NMBS. But, there were still some ups and downs at the east coast races (Windham, Nationals and the Canadian World Cups) - and with all of the traveling and racing, preparation for the Olympics was less than ideal. There were a handful of great training days and the ever-present race intensity, but a lot of travel stress and wear and tear to go along with it.

After the Bromont World Cup, Georgia was able to come back to Fort Collins for a week and got sick almost immediately upon her return. At this point, we were about 2.5 weeks away from Beijing, so the priority was to rest and get healthy. So, it was sickness for a week and then off to Jeju Island in South Korea for a pre-Olympics training camp. The Jeju camp went well - Georgia had some good training rides and acclimated well to the climate and the time change. She arrived in Beijing on Tuesday night and got ready to race on Friday (which ended up getting postponed until Saturday.)

The race course was about as tough as they get. The climbs were exceptionally steep - they forced the riders to stand or at least to the nose of the saddle on every climb - and the descents certainly didn't allow for any recovery. The race really seemed to be in slow motion. After getting the hole shot, Georgia rode strong for a couple of laps and then faded a little mid-race, (pacing herself as she called it), and showed a lot of character in the last 2.5 laps. Drooling up every climb, she moved up from 14th place to finish in 8th. It wasn't the result she was hoping for, but it was certainly a very impressive effort. Sometimes you just have to be content in knowing you did your very best, even when you're disappointed with the result.

This guy's had a long season too.

I personally think that Georgia had a very strong performance, especially considering the variety of stresses that occurred in the months leading up to Beijing. Racing nearly every weekend from April until August isn't exactly the ideal preparation for the Olympics, or for anything really. However, sponsors aren't paying you to train in seclusion, so you just have to do the best with the cards you're dealt. Good job Georgia, keep up the good work!

Beijing Smog

The air quality in Beijing for the upcoming Olympics seems to be quite a hot topic. The picture at right is of the Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing on a smoggy day vs a clear day. The question on everyone's mind seems to be: "How will that athletes prepare for the pollution????"
The answer is....there is no way to adapt to polluted air, just as there is no way to adapt to cigarette smoke. The best thing to do is to avoid it as much as possible.
However, since that doesn't seem to be an acceptable answer, there have been a variety of strategies provided for combating the pollution - everything from prescription inhalers to special masks.
I object to the idea of prescription inhalers - if one person is allowed to use one then everyone should be allowed to use one. Or, better yet, no one should be allowed to use them. Everyone is competing in the same conditions, and the poor air quality is just an unfortunate part of it.
As far as masks go, I have a hard time believing that competing with a mask tied around your head is performance enhancing in any way. The US Track Cyclists are giving it a shot though.
It's a real shame that China has failed to live up to their promise of improved air quality, and while it will likely be a detriment to performance, the pollution is not something that is going to change at this point. So, its best to focus on the aspects that we do have control over and keep the fingers crossed for good conditions.

Dehydrated = SLOW

With summer fast approaching and temperatures on the rise, it seems like a good opportunity to talk about hydration. I will try to keep this one short and to the point.

Hydration plays an integral role in performance, exercise, recovery, and general well-being. The human body attempts to maintain its core temperature at 98.6 degrees fahrenheit. When that temperature starts to rise, the body cools itself by sweating. Sweat more or less comes directly from the bloodstream. So, when fluids are lost due to sweating, the body's ability to move blood is significantly diminished. Red blood cells carry oxygen, which is a requirement for many bodily functions. This means that in a dehydrated state, the body's ability to move oxygen and other nutrients is greatly limited.

In terms of performance, this is obviously bad. The slower your blood moves, the slower you move. Staying hydrated is a prerequisite for a optimal performance, so it should never be underestimated. It sounds like a simple concept, but it is something that is easy to forget about in a race. The body's thirst mechanism is a bit slow, so if you wait to drink until you're thirsty, it is too late!

Hydration needs to become a habit. People sweat at different rates, so it is a good idea to figure out how much you need to drink to stay hydrated. For cyclists, I recommend 2 bottles (32 oz) of electrolyte mix per hour if you are riding at a moderate pace or better. This changes depending on the conditions and the individual (hot and humid conditions definitely require more, and the bigger the person, the more fluids are required). For runners, drinking during exercise is more difficult as the inherent jostling can cause stomach upset, so do your best to top off the fluids before you start, and then put down whatever you can tolerate during the run.

Let's look at a couple of examples from last weekend at Santa Ynez NMBS. The conditions were definitely extreme at 103 degrees during the men's and women's pro races and it was incredibly hard to stay hydrated. Most racers finished the race dehydrated. Georgia went with the standard 2 bottles of drink mix per lap, which equates to 4 bottles in ~1hr 45mins. More often than not, this has worked very well, but, it ended up in heat stroke at Santa Ynez. When Georgia was pulled off of the course by the medical staff, she had totally stopped sweating, which is an indication of severe dehydration.
In the men's race, Ross put down a total of 10 bottles in under 2 hours. This seems like a ridiculous amount, but in those conditions, it is what was required. So, that being said, the 2 bottle per hour guideline is definitely subject to change.

Other aspects of hydration are the sodium/potassium balance and blood glucose levels. I won't go into detail on those - but it is very important that these levels remain in proper balance. Water by itself cannot maintain these levels. For that reason, electrolyte mix was invented. Be sure to use a drink mix that has sodium, potassium, and some sort of sugar (maltodextrin is one of the better ones).

Once you have figured out how much you need to drink and what your favorite drink mix is, make hydration a habit. It can be hard to remember to drink when you're racing, so practice it on every ride. Then, come race day, make note of how much fluid you're drinking during the race. If you're not drinking at least 2 bottles per hour, there's a good chance your body is not operating at an optimal level.

Well, so much for a short entry. Feel free to email me with any questions or clarifications -

Eat Your Brussel Sprouts

Georgia and I went out to Horsetooth yesterday for a final intensity session before the first World Cup in Houffalize this coming Sunday. Goodness gracious, there are not too many things that can make a fellow feel slower than trying to follow Georgia up a 20+ % grade at race pace. We climbed up Towers Trail for 10 minutes, traversed Loggers, and came down Sawmill, which is a pretty technical descent. It was perfect for spotlighting my current major weaknesses - steep climbing and technical descending.
After getting over the initial bummer of being immediately dropped, I was able to settle in and maintain a good pace and a full effort up the climb and then push my comfort zone on the downhill. I definitely felt that I made some small improvements – which I hope will add up over time into big improvements. All in all, it was a very productive day.

Practicing the things that you feel incompetent at rarely tops the list of fun things to do. If “bread and butter” is a metaphor for things that you excel at, then working on your weaknesses is like eating brussel sprouts. They taste sick, but you know they must go down the hatch because they will improve your health. That being said - to truly become a well-rounded racer, working on your weaknesses is one of the best uses of your time. The long-term goal would be to improve to the point where a given skill is no longer a weakness at all. Maybe it even becomes a strength.

Think about it - what if you improved yourself to the point that you had no weaknesses? What if you ate those nasty brussel sprouts until they tasted delicious?

You might still be better at some things than others, but imagine if there was nothing that specifically holds you back.
There would be no race courses that "don't suit you," no pigeon-holing yourself as a certain type of rider, and far less opportunity for making excuses. (I will save my “excuses” soap-box for another time.)
Here's my point - if you just go out and race your bread and butter events all the time and only do the things that you know you are good at, you are missing out. Putting yourself in a situation where you feel incompetent is a hard and sometimes embarrassing thing to do - but it is certainly a very important part of the process of becoming a better athlete.

SO - to begin, think of the weakness that makes you cringe the most. Next, figure out specifically what it will take to improve in that area. Then, bring along a patient attitude and some elbow grease and get after it!

The Recovery Ride Conundrum

Good question: Just curious, it seems as though you prefer rest days to be completely off the bike; do you ever have your athletes do recovery rides instead/also? I've found recently that having a week of recovery with only 1 or 2 rides is not working out for me, as it ends up taking a week of riding to get back in the "groove". This week, however, I'm trying out a rest week that involves the same number of rides as usual, but mostly at recovery pace.

The basic goal of a recovery day is to allow your body to heal from the stress you put it through in previous days. If you allow it to recover, you will gain fitness. If you don't, you will remain in a state of fatigue and actually lose fitness. So, what should take place during a recovery day to allow for this fitness boost? Well, there's a bunch of things - quality sleep, good nutrition, hydration, minimizing stress, stretching, and a recovery activity, or active recovery.
Active recovery is a good idea because it increases blood flow throughout your body which moves nutrients around faster and hastens the process of recovery. I consider active recovery to be "walking pace" activity. It can be done on the bike, it can be done on foot.
A lot of this depends on how much free time you have in your day. If you are trading an hour of sleep for an hour recovery spin on the bike, I would say get the extra hour of sleep.
Recovery days are as much a mental rest as a physical one - so I think that it is important sometimes to step away from the bike and think about other things.
So, let's say its the week leading into a big race. I would probably have you on the bike every day - esp as you get closer to the race - as it will keep your legs open. But some of these days might be a 30 minute spin at 15mph or less and the only goal is increase blood flow and get some junk out of your legs.
If you're further out from an important race or important day of training, I prefer rest days that are totally off the bike. Its important to save up as much motivation as possible for the hard days, so if that means staying off the bike on recovery days, then that is the best thing to do. If your hard days are as hard as they should be, you will quickly develop a great appreciation for the rest days.

As you point out though - too many days off the bike leaves you feeling like garbage. So, assuming you are in race season, I would recommend no more than 2 consecutive days off the bike.

My advice would be to remember the goal of recovery days. Putting in an extra hour on a recovery day to bump up your total hours for the week is faulty logic. Quality over quantity - and quality recovery is equally as important quality training. Thanks for the question!

Base Training...

Question: When does Georgia start her base training? How many hours per week does she train?

Well, let's see - this answer might be the kind that just generates more questions - but I will try to give a good overview on base training.
Between cyclocross season and the beginning of mountain bike season, Georgia has about a 3 month break from racing. The traditional idea of base training (long, slow base miles) really is not something that I advocate and is not a part of Georgia's training in any way.
The last couple of years we have approached cross season as the "off" season. This is the time of year when she is riding the least - hours are low but the quality of those hours is high. We did a lot of running this year and the general goals of cross season were to enjoy racing, stay fresh, and maintain lactate threshold fitness.
In January - we start up with the big miles. These are very high quality miles and not slow by any means. The general goal of January through March is to build a giant aerobic engine and get the ol' LT as high as we can. We do this through "LFD" rides - this means "Long Fast Distance" and is my modification of the running term "LSD" or Long Slow Distance. We spend a lot of time at and around tempo pace and really limit recovery on these rides. The result over time is a really big diesel engine. We also might do 2-3 days back to back, which puts a very big load on the system and will often produce a big adaptation (once you've recovered).
If you neglect recovery, these workouts are a great way to overtrain really fast. The physical stress from these rides often requires more recovery time than you might expect. Most cases of overtraining are caused not because you have trained too hard, but because you haven't given yourself enough rest. So, I prefer the term "under-resting" to "over-training."

All of your fitness is gained on recovery days, so never underestimate their importance - not only for physical rest, but for a mental rest as well. Think of recovery days as your reward for all of your efforts. These days present a great opportunity to stay the heck off your bike. Go for a walk, stay hydrated, stretch, and hit the hay early. This will leave you much fresher for your hard days.

Moving on...the "total hours per week" concept is a very over-rated measure of work in my opinion. It says nothing about what you have done during those hours. You could ride 30 hours at recovery pace and you would be just as fit if you had sat on the couch for 30 hours. So, I always stress quality over quantity. 5 hour rides are the longest rides that Georgia will do, and she'll spend most of that time just below tempo pace - right around a 20 mph average for a lot of the road rides.

Thanks again for the questions! Keep 'em coming!