Hello @Ivegotabike ,
I’m still around. Still training hard (but not as hard), and racing when I can.
Spoiler Alert, I had a bit of a decline since my update. I don’t think it was burnout from training, but actually just a whirlwind of life circumstances and realizations I’ve had between all the ups and downs since my last update. I actually spoke with Alex earlier this summer, and he thought I should share my story as it might relate to others, but I still hesitated as I still am struggling a bit mentally to balance my passion for cycling and other things in life.
So back to where I left off. I had hit a pretty high peak back around Nov. Going into December I tried to maintain it. December went fine, I felt my fitness had plateaued a bit but that was okay as long as I was able to keep the relatively high level I achieved. However in Jan, my family took a vacation on a cruise. During the cruise I obviously wasn’t able to train other than a couple 45 min spin classes, but the major setback was that I caught a nasty illness and it began the day after we came home. It knocked me out for 2 weeks, and even after that I struggled doing anything with intensity for almost another 2 weeks due to horrible coughing and trouble breathing.
When I finally felt recovered enough to go back to normal training, I tried a ramp FTP test just to see where I was at. As I feared and I’m sure you can guess, my FTP from the test dropped significantly. 342 if I remember correctly. So around a 15% drop. I would wager even more actually because my 400w FTP test was a 20 min test, and in the past ramp tests usually result in a slightly higher FTP for me.
Despite my disappointment, I used 340 as my new training FTP and used TD Coach Jack to create a plan for my A race goal in early May and got back to work. Training prior to the event went relatively well other than one cold I caught that derailed it for a week. I never did take another FTP test before the event. I felt I had gained back some fitness, but not fully recovered back to my prior peak, so I didn’t want to even put a number in the back of my head leading up to race weekend.
Then came the big race weekend. It is a rather important one that I always look forward to. It is a 3 day event with a TT, Road Race, and Criterium. Even more, the Road Race was chosen as the WI State Championship road race. So the winners would be awarded 2025 state champ title for their respective category. So doing well in that was my main concern. In addition, my kids and wife as well as my parents all made plans to come support me for the weekend.
The TT went fine. Ended up getting 7th, which wasn’t terrible considering it is all uphill and I’m a bigger guy. Then the road race came. I knew that morning I felt good. I won’t bore you with all the details, but in the end I was right, I had strong legs and determination that day and ended up winning from a solo breakaway to get the Cat 4 state title. Unfortunately my head unit wasn’t connecting for the first 45 minutes or so of the race, so I only have data from the last 50 minutes. During the last 50 minutes I averaged 316 watts with normalized of 325. I wish I had the earlier data because my hardest efforts were actually in that time when trying to get and maintain a gap from the field. So I think the numbers would be higher for the whole race.
The Criterium the next day actually went quite bad. Not sure if it was due to the effort from the road race or the fact that we celebrated way more than I should have, but ended up getting 16th. Unfortunately that gave the whole weekend a bitter end, as I was quite disappointed in myself. This was really the beginning of a bigger mental spiral about to happen.
I lost quite a bit of motivation for training following that. Again not getting into too much detail, but I had non-cycling related financial issues come up that really stressed me out and on top of that in another race I ended up crashing early and not having a good result. Then in late June I raced another criterium, and a crash in front of me happened where I was able to stop in time, but then a rider behind me slammed into my shoulder and ended up dislocating it. I had to drop out on the 3rd lap and go to the med tent where they reset it.
A comment before another race from my 4 year old saying “Dada I don’t want to go to anymore races” and some other things that came up had me questioning my focus on cycling. I drew the line and decided it was time to “cool off”. I still maintained training 10-14 hours a week but a bit less intensity so that I can be fully present for any family/kids things. I scrapped a goal to try to upgrade to Cat 3, because where I live and with so much going on with two small kids, I just don’t race enough to get points (even with winning the state race).
I haven’t raced since mid-June, but I have one coming up next weekend. It is finally another road race, so I’m excited for it, but I’ve shed any expectations or pressure I normally place on myself ahead of races. If I had to guess, I think my FTP would probably be around 370 now, but I haven’t taken a test and don’t plan to anytime soon. My dad got an e-bike and I now ride with him most days of the week. The rides are much more chill than my usual training rides, however the time I’ve been spending with him has been priceless. I’ve been having more fun with family this summer and stressing out less about bike racing, because in the end I’m 33 and only race for fun. Don’t get me wrong, I still LOVE cycling, but I realized with my young family I need to have more balance.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Tayno