Updates – Jen Orr – Ultraendurance Cyclist

A New Adventure

It’s been awhile since I’ve been motivated to post any updates. The last year or so has been crazy for all of us. I thought I was holding up pretty well up until my world record ride last November, but all the stress finally took its toll on me physically, mentally, emotionally, and professionally over the last few months. I made the announcement earlier this year that I would be deferring RAAM until 2022 without going into too much detail for my reasons. I’ve been thinking for awhile that someday this will all make for a great comeback story, but I really didn’t have much desire to talk about it until it looked like there would actually be a comeback. There has finally been some progress that has encouraged me over the last week or so. I mentioned to a friend this weekend that the comeback is finally starting to shape up. She told me not to think of it as a comeback, but as a new adventure.

Hopefully this will be the first of a series of updates on my progress as well as an explanation of everything that’s been going on for the last 5-6 months. The easiest thing for me to talk about at this point is my knee pain, so I’ll start with that.

I first starting noticing some knee pain associated with my cycling 3-4 years ago. I believe it was just in my right knee at first and it came and went for a year or two. It seemed to improve in early 2019 when I changed my diet, and I don’t recall having any issues with my knees during Race Across the West that year. Both knees seemed to start flaring up again about a year ago. I specifically remember really struggling on the two long indoor rides I did during the early days of the COVID lockdown. Interestingly, both knees did okay when I did VRAW in June on the indoor trainer. I attributed that to the lower intensity riding I was doing over those 12 days. Both knees started getting irritated again at some point over the summer as I ramped up my training for the Borrego Springs WTTC, which turned into my 24 hour world record attempt once the race was cancelled. The long stretches of constant pedaling would usually start to cause some irritation, and sometimes it would be quite painful to go out for my Sunday long ride after putting in a long session on Saturday. They never prevented me from riding, mostly because I was too determined, which may have been my downfall.

By January, I was starting to really struggle just to get through day to day stuff – going up and down stairs, kneeling down to tie my shoes, demonstrating exercises for patients at work, even standing up from a chair sometimes. One of the most painful things for me was to sit with my knee bent for a long period of time. When it was really bad, even my 12 minute drive to work would be painful. I let my coach Rachel know what was going on. I had already deferred my RAAM registration, so we backed off on the training, and I reluctantly started working on getting my knees checked out after insisting on trying to take care of them myself for several months.

I had some X-rays done and the radiology report came back showing no abnormalities. Because I’d been pretty consistently trying to rehab the knees myself, my primary physician put in a request for an ortho referral without going through the usual first step of physical therapy. When I actually got a chance to look at the pictures of my knees during my ortho consult, it was obvious that both kneecaps were laterally displaced and laterally tilted so that the outer portions of my kneecaps were being compressed against the femurs. There were bone spurs on both femurs as a result. The surgeon was also concerned about a shadow on the undersurface of my left kneecap that he thought might be a defect in the articular cartilage, so he ordered an MRI of the left knee. I was able to read the MRI report before speaking with him and was pretty discouraged to see that I had “diffuse loss of articular cartilage” on the kneecap as well as a “partial tear” of the quadriceps tendon. I was pretty certain I was going to be having surgery on at least one of my knees. I spoke with the surgeon about a week later, and was a bit surprised that he didn’t have any recommendations for surgery or further treatment. He also mentioned that the partial tear really looked more like tendonosis of the quad tendon. He advised me to continue backing off on my training and consider taking time off the bike completely if the symptoms don’t improve. He also approved a course of physical therapy so I could get another set of eyes on my knees. It was a relief to not be headed for surgery, but it also felt like I’d reached a dead end. My knee pain wasn’t any better after weeks of decreased mileage and dedicated rehab to strengthening my quads and glutes. I couldn’t bear the thought of having to stop riding my bike for 8 weeks if they didn’t get better. I knew I could pursue some other non-surgical options, but I decided to try a few conservative options first.

At some point in the middle of all this, I listened to a podcast featuring Nate Koch, a physical therapist who owns several physical therapy clinics in Arizona that specialize in treating endurance athletes. Their facility in Scottsdale works in conjunction with a bike shop next door to provide medical bike fits. I’d spent plenty of time having my bikes fit for me in the past, but I was intrigued. I got in contact with Nate and Cyclologic, the bike shop, and set up an appointment. They recommended spending three days in Scottsdale, one day for the initial assessment and fitting plus two days to go riding and follow up as needed. It would cost me a full week off work, travel expenses, and the hefty cost of the bike fit itself, but I figured I wasn’t in any shape to be racing anytime soon so I might as well spend the money I’d be spending on races on this instead.

I was super frustrated and didn’t have much reason to look forward to the trip to Scottsdale. I had just had the conversation with ortho letting me know he couldn’t do anything for me. I’d spent weeks trying to rehab on my own. I hadn’t done a ride longer than 50-60 miles in two months. I would get frustrated watching other people ride without pain, watching other people do things that made me think about how much my knees would hurt if I tried to do the same thing, watching patients at work doing exercises that I wouldn’t even bother attempting to do. I was convinced these guys in Scottsdale would see how out of shape I was, not want to take me very seriously, maybe make a few tweaks to my bikes, and I’d come back and not notice any difference. Obviously, I was not in a very good mental state at this point.

The first morning in Scottsdale, I had an appointment with Ian, a physical therapist at Endurance Rehab. He spent 30 minutes or so doing an assessment to collect some information to pass along to my bike fitter. The most compelling thing to come out of this interaction was when he had me do a series of mini single leg squats to see how painful they were. He spent a few minutes using a Gua sha tool to scrape some of the ever present knots in my quads. I tried doing the single leg squat again and it was almost completely pain-free!

I spent most of the rest of the day in the fit studio at Cyclologic, the bike shop next door, with Paraic, the owner of the shop. He spent a great deal of time just collecting information from me on my cycling and injury history, making sure I mentioned any issues I might have been having, however minor – saddle sores, hotfoot, obviously the knee pain. He was impressed with what I’d been able to accomplish in my short stint in ultracycling and clearly wanted to help. After several hours of measuring my feet, taking and analyzing video, and mapping saddle pressure, we decided to shorten my crank length, try a new saddle, and get some new shoes with arch supports to match my arch index. After a late lunch, I headed back to Endurance Rehab to go over the exercise program Ian had prescribed for me, then went out for a short ride to see how the changes felt. I wasn’t expecting a miracle, but I could clearly notice the difference. My cadence had increased about 10 rpm without even thinking about it and it felt like so much less effort to get my knee over the top of the pedal stroke. The knees were still aching by the end of the ride, and they weren’t too happy when I had to stand up to accelerate from a stop, but I knew there was some chronic inflammation that wasn’t going to go away overnight. Paraic instructed me to head out for another 2-3 hour ride on Tuesday morning before coming back in for my follow-up in the afternoon.

I felt great riding on Tuesday morning and again on Wednesday. By the time I left Scottsdale, I had one road bike completely dialed in with the new fit and planned to incorporate the same changes on my other road bike. I realized on Wednesday morning that I had ridden seven days in a row for the first time in two months and my knees were feeling better than usual. Ian had set me up with a new exercise program that was a little different from what I’d been trying on my own, along with the idea to try scraping my quads a few days a week. Paraic seemed excited to continue helping me get my bike fit dialed in as I get my fitness back over the next several months. I headed home with a completely different outlook than I’d had earlier in the week.

In the month since my bike fitting, I’ve been riding 6 days a week, gradually increasing my mileage, and doing my rehab program religiously. The changes have been gradual, but I am absolutely noticing some improvement. I noticed within a couple of weeks that I could actually feel my sit bones getting a little sore from putting pressure on them after years of unconsciously doing everything I could to not sit on my saddle. I was starting to feel my glutes getting a little sore during and after rides, instead of the typical burning in my quads that I had gotten so used to feeling. There are still some knots in my quads when I do my foam rolling, but they’re not nearly as bad as they were a month ago. Some days are better than others, but I’m fairly consistently able to kneel on the floor and stand back up without grimacing. Sometimes I’m so surprised at how easy it is for me to demonstrate a squat or a lunge or a step down to a patient that I find myself doing a few extra just to make sure it’s not a fluke.

It had been so frustrating watching my fitness dropping precipitously on my Training Peaks profile between January and March. Now its kind of fun to see the gradual climb back up, almost back to where I was 90 days ago.

There’s still a lot of fitness to build back and recovery that needs to happen before I’m ready to race competitively again, but I’m happy to see that things are finally moving in the right direction. And hopefully when I am fully recovered I will be even stronger than before, mentally and physically. Having the chance to step back for a few months has had its upsides. For the last two years I’ve been putting in long solo training rides almost every weekend. I’ve been able to reconnect and ride with friends again and enjoy the social side of cycling. I was able to help a friend train for her first triathlon. I’m going to be crewing for my friend Rick Zwetsch in RAW in June.

If all goes well, I’m hoping to be back on my TT bike over the summer to start training for the 24 Hour WTTC in Borrego Springs in October. I will keep the updates coming. I appreciate everyone who has reached out over the last few months to check on me and give me some encouragement.

To Be Continued…

Three years ago I set my sights on a long-term goal to complete solo Race Across America (RAAM) in the year 2020. At the time I was a rookie ultracyclist who had qualified for solo RAAM on a whim at the 6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships (WTTC) in 2017. I had no other real ultracycling experience and no idea of the journey I was about to undertake. Since that time, I won the 24 hour solo female division of the 6-12-24 Hour WTTC in 2018 and won Race Across the West outright in 2019. Assuming I could put together the funds and support crew, things were looking good for a successful outcome at RAAM 2020.

As the COVID pandemic shut down the world in early 2020, it was looking less likely that RAAM would happen. I had spent the first few months of the year focusing all of my spare time and energy on training, fundraising, and administrative tasks to prepare for RAAM. The thought that I had possibly done all that work for a race that wouldn’t happen was devastating. By the time RAAM was officially cancelled in late March, I had talked myself into believing that it was for the best. With everything shut down and the economy crashing, it would have been extremely difficult to continue to prepare and fundraise anyway. I decided to look at the cancellation as a blessing in disguise, giving me another year to prepare for possibly the most challenging thing I will ever attempt in my life.

I was able to stay positive throughout most of the year and focused my training on some events later in the year, most notably a fun 4x relay at Hoodoo 500 in August and a 24 Hour World Record attempt in place of the cancelled 6-12-24 Hour WTTC.

After my world record attempt, I knew I needed to get moving on putting together a new RAAM support crew and somehow try to finish raising the funds needed to race across the country. With surges in the pandemic resulting in further lockdowns around the world, it has not been looking promising that RAAM will happen in 2021, either. It became very difficult to stay motivated to put in the work for a race that might not happen. I’ve also been very hesitant to ask other people for their time and resources to support me. With strict restrictions on social distancing in California, fundraising events will be next to impossible.

A few weeks ago, I was talking with some friends and was asked what my plans were for 2021. I mentioned that I was theoretically supposed to do RAAM in June, but that I wasn’t too hopeful it would happen and therefore not very motivated to prepare. It was suggested that maybe I should just put it on hold until next year. I think that the was the first time I seriously considered rolling my registration over another year. I spent several weeks deliberately and discussing this option, as it was a decision I did not intend to take lightly.

Logically, I knew the best decision would be to postpone RAAM until 2022. Even if the race is able to happen in June, I am not confident that I would arrive at the start line adequately prepared and properly funded given the current circumstances. Going into my rookie attempt at solo RAAM with anything less than 100% commitment and preparation would be asking for a disastrous result. Emotionally, I had a very difficult time letting this reality sink in. I’ve been preparing for this race for so long. It’s heartbreaking to have to put it off yet another year. But I finally made it official last week and have deferred my RAAM registration until 2022.

I do hope that RAAM and RAW are able to go on as planned this year, even if I won’t be racing. If it does take place, I definitely plan to be at the start in Oceanside and may even look for a spot on a RAW support crew. I’m sure it will be somewhat difficult to watch the race as a crew member or spectator, but for now I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I am confident that having an extra year to prepare will give me the best chance of a successful Race Across America.

I’ll have to wait another year to get to the Race Across America starting line in Oceanside.

10,000 Ways That Won’t Work

The last few weeks have included a few misadventures that led me to think of Thomas Edison’s quote: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

I (hopefully) have two actual, real events coming up in the next month or so and am looking forward to my first chance to attend a non-virtual event in about six months. I participated in both events (HooDoo 500 and the 24+6 hour time trial at the 6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships) last year with less than awesome experiences. As my coach Rachel reminded me a few times, hopefully the bad stuff has already happened in training and now I’m set up for some great race experiences.

With a bunch of events going virtual this year, I’ve enjoyed taking the opportunity to use them for training and working out race and nutrition strategies in a low consequence environment. Last weekend, I planned to tackle the Southern Inyo by Moonlight Double Double Century (double centuries on back to back days). Weeks earlier, I had what seemed like a great idea in theory. I booked a couple of nights in Borrego Springs and planned a massive training weekend that would work for both HooDoo 500 and the 24 hour time trial. I would do both rides at night to stay out of the heat and also allow me to get more experience riding at night. I mapped out a modified version of the challenging Borrego Double Century for one of the rides, then planned to do loops on the 18-mile time trial circuit in Borrego Springs for the second double. Perfect, right?

As anyone who lives in Southern California knows, we’ve been hit with a massive heat wave the last couple of weeks along with horrible air quality from all the wildfires. The desert is probably the last place I should have been riding, even at night. But I stuck to the plan. I drove out to Borrego Springs after a half day at work on Friday, dropping off a couple of water caches on my way. After unpacking and getting my bike ready, I rested for a bit and waited for the sun to go down, which brought the daytime temperature of about 120 degrees all the way down to 111 degrees. Figuring I’ve always done pretty well in the heat, I just need to get myself up Montezuma Valley Road (the Glass Elevator in RAAM-speak) at an easy pace, then it should be cooler for most of the ride.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. The heat, horrible air quality, windy conditions on the climb, and a body that just didn’t want to cooperate quickly led to a DNF. I’d started to get a headache earlier in the day and had to take my migraine medication, which is never a good way to start a big training weekend. As I made my way up the climb, my head started to feel heavy, my knees started hurting, then my back started hurting, then I just could not shake the feeling that all I wanted to do was get back to the bed in my hotel room and go to sleep. There really was no easy spinning on the climb with the conditions and the way my body was feeling, so I was working a lot harder than I wanted to be. I started texting Rachel, who agreed with my assessment and “gave me permission” to call it and head back to Borrego Springs. I’d been on the bike about 90 minutes and was fairly close to the top of the Glass Elevator.

I figured I’d get a good night’s sleep and stay inside during the heat of the day on Saturday and try again the next night. I had taken Monday off from work, so I figured I could still get in the double double if I extended my stay an extra night. Around mid-day Saturday, Rachel encouraged me to change plans and just do the loops on the Borrego time trial circuit Saturday night to build some confidence. Unfortunately, spending all day laying around and “over-resting”, with too much time to think and allow second thoughts to creep in led to me not feeling spectacular about heading back out into the heat by the time I was planning to get started again. I ended up compromising with a very early start to an easy century ride on the time trial course and managed to finish just before the temps hit the triple digits on Sunday morning. I headed home discouraged, but fairly certain I’d made the right call.

Derailed by the desert heat in Borrego Springs. Hoping for better conditions in early October…

I spent the week very much looking forward to my plans for this weekend. Rachel has been working on building her running mileage up over the summer with a goal to run 100 miles solo from Temecula to Long Beach. I offered to be a bike escort during the night hours. After getting home from work, I quickly got ready to ride and raced over to Rachel’s house just in time to start with her at 8:00 pm. Her husband Nate ran with her for a few miles before turning around to head home and then get in the car to SAG for her through the night. After a couple of hours, we were joined by our friend Sarah in Murrieta and she ran with Rachel for 15 miles through Wildomar and Lake Elsinore. Then we had about 25 miles to cover before meeting up with her second crew at the Santa Ana River Trail (SART) entrance at Green River Road at about mile 55.

Rachel had similar luck in picking the date for her run as I did with my double-double. The weather and air quality was not optimal for an ultra-distance run. Even at night, the temperature hovered around 75 degrees with humidity, so that she was sweating a lot more than she should have been and was struggling to stay cool by the time we hit about 30 miles. She tried icing herself down, showering herself with the water from her Camelbak, and eating popsicles and icees. We were looking forward to the sun coming up so that she would feel more awake, but knew that the sun would bring more heat. We were hoping that getting closer to the coast would mean cooler weather.

I dropped Rachel off with her second crew around 8:00 am and rode back home. The rest of the crew was surprised that I didn’t take Nate up on his offer to drive me home, but I knew that I needed to do some actual riding (as opposed to rolling alongside Rachel at 5-6 mph). I also knew that pushing myself in my fatigued state would be some of the best training for ultra races I could get. I actually felt pretty decent for the first couple of hours and got a PR on the big climb up Foothill through Corona (after convincing myself not to detour around it and take a flatter route). I was running on fumes by the time I got home. I managed to shower and inhale a quick snack before falling asleep.

Unfortunately, the heat and humidity never let up for Rachel and she made the difficult choice to finish her run at 81 miles. Much like my choice in Borrego Springs, it was the right call and I’m happy that I got to participate in the effort.

Also on the topic of finding ways that won’t work, I’ve been struggling to find a nutrition strategy that works for me for ultra distances. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m trying to keep my sugar intake low, which eliminates a lot of sports nutrition products on the market. I thought I had something worked out during VRAW, but have found in the last couple of weeks that my stomach just won’t tolerate the current regimen. With my two events coming up quickly, it’s a little discouraging to go back to the drawing board, but I’m confident that I’ll figure it out.

As for the upcoming races, I’m excited to go back to both events. I’ll be heading to St. George, Utah with my friends Dee, Rob, and Phil to take on the HooDoo 500 route as a four-person relay team, along with our crew members Curtis and Megan. It should be a fun weekend, and the relay format should be better training for the 24 hour time trial (as opposed to racing solo). My workouts since VRAW have been targeting higher power intervals, which has been fun but exhausting. Hopefully all that work will pay off in the next few weeks.

Dual Event Training

I’m finding myself in a bit of a unique position where I (hopefully) have two very different events coming up that are only six weeks apart. I’ll be participating in HooDoo 500 in Southern Utah on a mixed 4x team with my friends Rob, Dee, and Phil at the end of August, followed up by the 24 hour solo time trial at the 6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships (WTTC) in Borrego Springs, CA in early October. Both events involve riding at night and are likely to be hot during the day, but the similarities stop there. The HooDoo 500 course will have a lot of climbing and I will be riding short, more intense pulls with breaks in between, and I’ll be riding my Cannondale Synapse, an endurance road bike. The WTTC will be 24 hours of constant pedaling on a relatively flat course with as little stopped time as possible. There is the potential for the weather to be very hot and/or very windy, and I will be riding my time trial bike in a much more aggressive position.

The strategy over the next few weeks will be to divide my weekends into long hilly rides on the Synapse and long flat rides/loops on the TT bike, while taking advantage of any opportunities to get acclimated to the heat and ride in windy conditions. I felt really great this week after last weekend’s double double and was able to put in some good efforts after a couple of days’ recovery, so I hoped I would be able to nail my training rides this weekend as they were relatively short compared to last weekend’s epic adventures.

My workout for Saturday was six hours consisting of repeats of 45 minute higher intensity efforts with 15 minutes of easy riding to recover. Despite the forecast of temps above 110 degrees in Borrego Springs, I decided to head there to ride loops of the race circuit for the first time since last year’s event and get started on my TT training. Last year I used a combination of laps on the Santa Ana River Trail (SART) and loops on the Borrego circuit for the bulk of my long training rides, which I felt was perfect for getting used to the constant pedaling and monotony of riding in circles for 24 hours straight. The SART has been so crowded that I didn’t feel comfortable trying to do my more intense efforts out there, so I opted to go where there would be a lot less traffic in Borrego. While I figured some heat training would probably be a good thing, I didn’t want to put too much stress on my system, so I drove out there in the middle of the night on a few hours’ sleep and got started while it was still cool at 4:30 am. This actually worked out well, as it also allowed me to put in some time riding the course in the dark and in a somewhat sleep-deprived state.

I headed out for my first lap and found that although I’ve done this loop dozens of times, I still needed a lap or two to get comfortable with the roads and the corners again. I swear the roads on the north half of that course have gotten worse since last year, which is probably why they’re planning to do road work in a couple of weeks. I’m hoping that won’t interfere too much with my plans to train out there, or with the race itself.

I definitely don’t want to worry about 15 minute delays happening during my training rides, or the race itself which is scheduled for October 9-10. Hopefully this means the roads on the north end of the course will be a little smoother by October.

It was apparent even from the first attempt at higher intensity that my legs weren’t completely recovered from last weekend, but I managed to stay on pace for the first few intervals. Knowing it would be getting hot, I tried to stay on top of my hydration and nutrition, remembering the trouble I had on last Saturday’s double century. The temperature stayed pretty comfortable for about four laps, but I really started to feel the heat for the last couple of hours. As I made my way through my fifth 45 minute interval, I found that I just could not will my legs to push hard enough to hold the effort, but my heart rate was climbing. It may have been my body’s self-regulatory mechanism for protection against the heat. It may have been fatigue from last weekend. It may have been my low-carb nutrition regimen catching up to me. Maybe it was a combination of all those things. I don’t believe I was terribly dehydrated as I was drinking plenty and stopping at my car every lap to refill bottles. Weighing myself before and after the ride, I lost about 4% of my body weight, which is perfectly reasonable for a six hour ride in that heat.

I can also mention that this was my first time putting in a long effort on my TT bike in several months. I mostly stopped riding it once RAAM was cancelled and didn’t even have access to it for a month or so while some issues were being worked out with the power meter. After a few hours, this occurred to me as I started to feel very uncomfortable in the aero position and had to start sitting up frequently. This was extremely unusual during my training for the time trial the last two years. But then again, this is probably the longest I’ve gone not riding that bike in 2-3 years. So I’m sure this was a factor in the fatigue as well, and getting tossed around by the rough roads probably didn’t help matters.

So it wasn’t the perfect training ride, but I was able to put in a pretty solid six hours with some intensity, while putting in some time acclimating to the heat and riding in the dark. The wind was pretty minimal, and when it did start to pick up it was mostly a favorable wind (meaning it pushed me up the only “hill” on the circuit). Hopefully there will be some opportunity for wind training during some future rides.

For Sunday’s ride, I had a four hour hilly ride at a steady, easier pace. Because I didn’t hit my pace targets on Saturday, I had it in my head that I might even be able to ride at a slightly higher effort than what my training plan called for. As much as I figured I could use some more training in the heat, I opted for another early start in the dark so I could finish up meeting my Cycle Relic friends for coffee at about 8:30 am. I got rolling at about 4:15 am and headed south for the hills in Lilac, Bonsall, and Fallbrook.

I gave myself 15-20 minutes of easy pedaling before I felt ready to start pushing the effort. I found that I was struggling just to hold my prescribed intensity so I didn’t even bother trying to increase it at all. Part of the reason I struggled a bit is because most of the climbing was on the back end of the route, so trying to hold my effort on flats and downhills was challenging. Still, I was able to spend a solid hour or so riding in the dark and even got a nice windy descent on Rice Road done in the dark, which was great training for the HooDoo 500 route.

Once I had to start doing some climbing, and after my legs had a couple of hours to warm up, I found that I was able to increase my power output a bit and bring my average up to where it was supposed to be. I pulled into Ryan Bros for coffee just as the Relics were finishing up their orders and got to spend an hour or so BS’ing with them before putting in some easy miles to ride back home. It was definitely worth getting out for the early start and having a chance to do something social after the long solo rides last weekend, with plenty more slated for the weeks to come.

So overall, not the perfect weekend of training, but I got in a good mix of everything and had some fun. Oh, and incidentally, my mileage total for 2020 hit 10,000 miles after Saturday’s ride, which is a nice milestone. It’s only been the last two years that I’ve hit 10,000 miles for the year and both times reached that number by June or July.

For what it’s worth, I fully realize that there is a chance that the WTTC won’t happen this year. Even if it does, the field may be very limited due to travel restrictions, especially for international athletes. Just as I did with my training for RAAM this year, I will continue training as if the race is happening until when and if it isn’t. Even then, I might just go ahead and do my own 24 hour time trial “for fun”. With so many races being cancelled this year, I’m finding it helpful to have virtual events and personal challenges to stay motivated. And everything is working into my training for RAAM 2021.

(Virtual) Race Ready!!!!

It’s kind of a bittersweet time for me right now. If 2020 had gone differently, I would be in the final phases of preparation for RAAM right now. On the one hand, it’s a bit of a bummer to look back at memories from this time last year when I was getting ready for Race Across the West. On the other, it’s also sort of a relief to not be going through all that stress right now and know that I have another year to get ready.

I did decide to participate in Virtual Race Across the West (VRAW) on the FulGaz platform, and that will begin on the original RAAM/RAW start date of June 16. I’m back to work full-time now and will not be taking any time off for VRAW. I figured I would treat VRAW as more of a challenge to put in the miles between my work hours than as a race. It’s only been in the last week that I’ve been able to sit down and put together a schedule that I’m realizing what I’ve got myself into.

This weekend I finished up a four week training block that I am really happy to be done with. Planet Ultra put together some mileage and double century challenges over the last couple of months to stay afloat during the pandemic, as they’ve had to cancel several events. I spent the last four Saturday’s completing solo double century rides as part of these challenges, three of them to earn credit towards my California Triple Crown total, which I believe now stands at 20. Each challenge had a minimum requirement for elevation gain, which forced me to look for hillier routes. Most people know I’m not afraid of climbing, but it would have been easy to choose some flatter routes for the double centuries just to get them done quickly.

It’s been a whole new mental challenge to start doing double centuries solo and unsupported, but I think I got the hang of it pretty quickly. I also learned a lot over the course of the last few long rides about how to balance my nutrition, hydration, and electrolytes. The physical challenge of the fatigue building up week after week has been good as well, as each long ride I’ve had to stay focused to keep pushing through.

I opted to do my last double century on the indoor trainer yesterday as a final preparation for VRAW. I had some concerns about how I would hold up for longer distances on the trainer after struggling through a few big rides a couple of months ago. Physically, I think I held up about as well as I did on my double century rides on the road. The monotony of sitting on the trainer for so long, along with the knowledge that I could just stop at any moment and call it a day, was a mental challenge that I was able to handle pretty well. It was also good to be reminded of some of the things I need for long indoor rides. I must have placed 3-4 Amazon orders over the course of my ride.

All told, in the last four weeks I rode nearly 1500 miles, climbed 82,000 feet, and worked anywhere from 32-40 hours each week. I know it’s a big cliché, but I always love being able to say that “the hay is in the barn” at the end of a training cycle. I anticipate that I will feel like crap for a few days this week as I start to recover from the hard block of training, but I’m ready for it.

My set-up for VRAW is just about dialed in now

COVID Era Virtual Races

It’s been awhile since I posted an update, so I figured it was about time. I’ve stayed busy the last month or so doing virtual run/bike events and more recently, virtual double century rides for California Triple Crown credit. I was also “unfurloughed” to come back to work part-time two weeks ago and will be back to work full-time starting tomorrow. It was actually kind of nice to have a five week break for the first time in over a decade. It was kind of like hitting a reset button, allowing me to recover and reprioritize. Now it’s just a matter of fitting some of the priorities around my work hours.

This weekend and last, I set out on solo, self-supported double century rides from home to complete the virtual events offered by Planet Ultra. Last weekend’s “Virtual Heartbreak Double” was an epic ride from home to Borrego Springs, then a reverse trip on the RAAM route back to Oceanside (as far as the end of the bike trail at Mance Buchanon Park), then back home. I felt great on the ride into Borrego and even did well climbing back up the Glass Elevator in 110 degree heat. I got to the halfway point thinking I’d done most of the climbing and the rest should be a cakewalk. I really need to stop thinking like that. Fatigue set in, I had a flat, had to ride into headwinds most of the trip to the coast, and could have done without the hundreds of loud motorcycles and sports cars flying past me on Highway 76. My less than meticulous nutrition and hydration strategy led to some edema and GI discomfort that fortunately worked itself out once I balanced out my fluid/electrolyte intake. After a final stop in Oceanside, I was feeling better, had a tailwind most of the way home, and managed to finish with just the faintest hint of daylight left.

This weekend’s double century was to complete Planet Ultra’s “Virtual Grand Slam Double”, part of their “Make Mine A Double” Challenge. After putting together several different routes I left home on Saturday morning still not sure where I would end up riding. I was torn between wanting to ride to a fun destination like the Queen Mary in Long Beach and wanting to avoid a lot of traffic and people along the coast. I probably changed my mind 4-5 times in the the first hour or so of riding before finally deciding to ride a variation of my originally plan to ride “the big loop”. North to Corona, west to the coast, down the coast to Oceanside, then back towards home. I figured I’d only have to deal with about 20 miles of stoplights and traffic along the coast before getting to Dana Point where I would be on bike paths and the shoulder of I-5 the rest of the way to Oceanside. I also knew I’d have to improvise an extra 30-40 miles on the way home from Oceanside to get 200 miles, and also had to make sure I ended up with at least 8,000 feet of elevation to complete the virtual double. There was definitely the potential to end up with a lot of extra miles or needing to do a few hill repeats once I got home to get the required elevation.

After fighting a headwind all the way out to the coast on the Santa Ana River Trail, fatigue was setting in by around mile 75, and I was seriously considering cutting the ride short. Fortunately, I started feeling better as I headed down the coast and started plotting my extra miles. I opted to weave around the RAAM course a bit out to Pauma Valley before taking Highway 76 back to Bonsall and heading back home. Lots of climbs to start making up the elevation I needed. And the undulating terrain was helping with the fatigue from riding so many flat miles.

Taking a more disciplined approach to my nutrition and hydration this week paid off big time. I realized I have a tendency to use too many electrolytes and take in too much water, leading to edema and an upset stomach. It wasn’t a terribly hot day, so I cut back on both water and electrolytes, and also avoided my instinct to grab a soda or extra sugar when I stopped to get water. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how much discipline it takes to walk into a mini mart at mile 165, stroll past a plethora of cookies, pastries, sodas, and ice cream, and check out at the register with nothing more than a gallon of water. But it worked, and I feel like I’ve solved another piece of the ultracycling puzzle.

As I got closer to home, I saw that I would easily get the required 8,000 feet of elevation and just needed to make sure I got to 200 miles. I was at about 201 when I pulled into the driveway with plenty of daylight left. First ever daylight start and daylight finish for a double century. One of the best moments, and for some reason these encounters always seem to happen at the end of my rides – I’m about five miles from home, sitting at a stoplight and there are three kids on scooters waiting at the crosswalk and goofing off. They wave at me and ask me how many miles I rode. I look down at my computer.

“One hundred and ninety six.”

There was an awkward pause, then one of them asked “That was all today?”

“Yep.”

“How is that even possible?”

Priceless…

Change of Plans…

The completely expected news came on Friday afternoon that Race Across America 2020 has been cancelled due to concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. When talk of cancellation first arose a few weeks ago, it caused quite a bit of anxiety for me. For more than two years now, my plan has been to do solo RAAM 2020. Thinking back on the work I’ve put in to prepare for RAAM over the last few months, I couldn’t fathom putting myself through that all over again next year. As the weeks went on and the effects of the virus on public health and the economy have taken a turn for the worse, the importance of a bike race took a back seat to everything going on in the world. Furthermore, I had no choice but to stop fundraising, promoting, and planning for the race. If the race was still to go on as planned, it would be quite the chore to pull everything together in the next two months.

I’m sure that as June gets closer I will start to feel a sense of loss that RAAM isn’t going to happen this year, as I know is the case with many other athletes who have had their “A” races for the year cancelled or postponed. For now, I’m more concerned about keeping myself and the people around me healthy and hopefully getting over the curve of this thing as soon as possible so we can start leaving the confines of our homes again.

Until two days ago, I was continuing with my training as though RAAM was still going to happen. What now? There is apparently a virtual RAAM and RAW in the works with Zwift to take place starting June 16, when RAW and RAAM would have started. While I don’t intend to continue training for RAAM 2020, I may consider taking part in this event in some way depending on how things work out over the next couple of months. Maybe I’ll hope that some of the ultra events in later summer/early fall will still be able to take place and use one of those as a training race. What I do know for certain is that the 6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships in October will now be my “A” race for the year, assuming it is able to go on as scheduled.

Thank you to everyone who sent messages over the last few days to check in on and encourage me. As I’ve been saying, I was completely expecting this to happen and if anything, it’s a relief to know with certainty where everything stands. My first communication about the cancellation went to my coach Rachel and then to my support crew. There are a lot of positive aspects to this news. If we had decided to go on with RAAM, I really believe that no one would have been sufficiently prepared with everything going on right now. This also gives me another year to work on some of my areas of weakness that just a few months ago had me wondering if I shouldn’t consider putting off RAAM another year anyway. But the biggest downside of all this is that I had been able to bring together a very solid group of people to be on my support crew this year, and I’m bummed that we won’t be in Oceanside together in June. A few of them have let me know they will likely be available for RAAM 2021, but a lot can happen in the next year, especially with the current state of affairs in the world.

So onward and upward. There will not be a RAAM 2020 for me, but I definitely have my sights set on solo RAAM 2021!

What A Difference A Week Makes…

Well, it’s been quite a week for all of us. Plans and priorities have all changed dramatically in just a matter of days. A week ago I was still hopeful that the virus threat would be contained within a month or so and RAAM would go on as planned. The race has not officially been canceled, and I know the decision is weighing heavily on the minds of the event organizers. At this point, I don’t see how it can possibly go on. There is so much preparation and planning that needs to be done by both racers and organizers in the next few months. Much of that is difficult to do with the current situation. Even if things did calm down before June, it just wouldn’t leave enough time for everyone to adequately prepare. And I for one wouldn’t want to embark on a 3,000 mile race with a half-assed race plan that’s been thrown together in a hurry.

So over the course of a few days, I think I’ve gone through most of the steps of the grieving process – denial, anger, depression, and at this point I think I’ve come to accept the inevitable when it does happen. As frustrating as it will be to put off a goal that I’ve worked toward for the last two years, I’m trying to see this as an opportunity to get in an extra year of physical and mental preparation so that I’m better equipped for the race when I finally get to the start line. I’m hoping that some events later in the summer and fall can still go on as planned so that I do have something in the near future to keep me motivated. I’m also thankful that I took the opportunity to get in the Joshua Tree Double Century last weekend, as I have no idea when my next event will be at this point.

With the social distancing guidelines becoming ever more stringent over the course of just a few days, I’ve also been able to put everything in a sobering perspective. There are much worse things that could happen to me at this point than not being able to race my bike across the country. The “stay at home” order was placed on Thursday night. Being an essential healthcare provider, I went into work on Friday morning not sure what to expect. I anticipated that my schedule would fall apart because everyone would want to stay at home. It was a pleasant surprise that most patients still wanted to come in and it was actually my busiest day of the week. There are plenty of people who are still in need of treatment to recover from their surgical procedures and debilitating injuries, and we’re taking as many precautions as we possibly can to keep everyone healthy. I’ll just need to be very careful to obsessively use hand sanitizer (assuming we can keep some on hand), wash my hands, and clean all surfaces between uses.

Despite the weather being relatively pleasant this weekend (or so I’ve heard), I decided that keeping my training indoors was the responsible thing to do given the current situation. Even though I typically ride solo anyway, I felt like staying indoors was the responsible decision. While we’ve been told we can (and should) exercise outdoors, I feel like that guideline refers to the typical shorter distance recreational outdoor rides rather than my epic rides that last all day long and cover a hundred miles or more. Also, my understanding is that some European countries have outlawed all outdoor cycling just to ensure that the medical system isn’t overburdened with unnecessary injuries. While I haven’t sustained any cycling injuries requiring emergency medical treatment thus far, it certainly wouldn’t be responsible to assume that this couldn’t happen on any ride. So it was an intense six hours on Zwift yesterday, followed by a slightly easier five hours today. Not a huge training load compared to the last few weekends, but it was definitely a weekend of mental training to spend that much time sitting on a bike constantly pedaling and going nowhere.

It’s anyone’s guess at this point what will happen over the course of the next few weeks. I plan to continue training for RAAM as long as it’s still on the race calendar. If and when it isn’t, I’m already trying to come up with some backup plans to give my training some sort of focus.

A Little Progress Each Day

I’m hoping to make this a quick hit to stay on top of regular updates as Race Across America is quickly approaching (128 days!). I’ve been crazy busy, but I feel good about the progress that I’ve made this week in all aspects of my RAAM preparation.

Training is definitely starting to ramp up and I’m seeing my fitness gradually improving. I’m feeling the fatigue, but at least now I feel like it’s on par with the training load (as opposed to feeling sore and fatigued from what I felt was a relatively light training regimen). For the first time in maybe a year, all 351 miles that I logged this week were indoors on the trainer. Not exactly ideal, especially on my knees, but it was a solid training week. I may try to finally venture outside for a weekday ride if it warms up a bit this week, but I’ve been trying to avoid going out in the dark when it’s still below 40 degrees in the mornings. Fortunately, having the incentive of riding on Zwift makes the indoor training a little more tolerable, and also allows me to simulate climbing a little better than I could on my “dumb trainer” last year.

I’ve also made some progress with my fundraising with a couple of events in the last two weeks. Part of the reason all my miles were indoors this week is because I spent eight hours yesterday at VROOM Cycling in Rancho Cucamonga (https://vroomcycling.com) for a fundraising ride. My friend Ken Adams did his four hour training ride alongside me first thing in the morning, then Simon Horton and Karen Feld joined me for another couple of hours. Rick and Sonya Reddell have a great studio set up and were there to keep me company, cheer me on, and help keep me hydrated and fueled so I didn’t have to get off the bike. I only got off the bike once for about 7-8 minutes for a natural break and to change socks because I didn’t have them pull out the big fan soon enough to help control the profuse sweating. I’ve definitely noticed an improvement in my ability to stay on a bike for longer periods of time without discomfort, as I believe I took three breaks when I did the same ride last year. My coach Rachel and Nate came in to cheer me on for the last half hour and then celebrate with a nice recovery meal. Because it was raining this morning, I had to get on the trainer again for my four hour ride. It was definitely a little uncomfortable for the first 10-20 minutes.

My support crew has been starting to take shape this week as well, as I had my first video conference with several crew members and my support team. We’ve primarily been communicating via instant messages up to this point, so it was nice to start getting the group all together. Hopefully we can keep doing this every other week or so as we get closer to RAAM. I’ll probably still be looking to bring on another 2-3 crew members, but I’m very happy with the group that I have so far.

Fortunately, the coming week doesn’t look quite as busy aside from training and work, so hopefully I can continue to make progress on some of these preparations. After next weekend, I believe I’ll be starting at least a four week streak of attending events every weekend, kicking off my season with the Camino Real Double Century on February 22.

Thanks once again for reading my often random and loosely organized collection of thoughts.

One week later…

Not surprisingly, the last week has been spent doing a lot of reflecting, experiencing a wide range of emotions, and trying to get some wheels turning (both literally and figuratively) as my focus is now on preparing for Race Across America (RAAM) 2020. Race day is June 16, which means I have 219 days to put together my crew, raise enough money to get all of us across the country, and get organized with a solid race plan. And maybe spend some time actually riding my bike. I have every intention of posting regular updates as I prepare for this journey that has been two years in the making now. At one time I believed the finish line in Annapolis, Maryland would be the end point of this journey, but my accomplishments in the last year have led me to believe that this will not be a “one and done” kind of a deal.

Learning From Failure

I’ve been re-reading Dr. Stan Beecham’s book “Elite Minds” over the last couple of weeks. This week, I found myself reading his chapter entitled “Failure Drives Success”. While I hate to use the word “failure”, the contents of this chapter definitely hit a nerve for me given the events of the last week.

The common belief is that you become successful by avoiding failure. But this is not true because successful people fail! Everyone fails. Instead, success is defined by your response to failure.
When things are not going your way, these challenges or “failures” in life have the capacity to be very informative. They help us create a better awareness of ourselves.
Not only can you not avoid failure, but you need failure to get better. When you fail and you will run into it and learn the lesson right away.
Elite Minds: How Winners Think Differently to Create a Competitive Edge and Maximize Success

Again, I hate to use the word “failure”, but I have to admit that my last two races have not been resounding successes by any stretch of the imagination. My experience at Hoodoo 500 motivated me to make some changes to my nutrition and mental preparation. I went into race week for the WTTC in Borrego Springs last week feeling like I’d done everything I possibly could to stack the deck in my favor, but when it came time to actually get on my bike my body just would not cooperate.

I mentioned in my race report last week that migraines have been a common issue for me prior to races. This is really the first time that I can think of when I’ve actually been forced to stop racing due to a migraine. I’ve been experiencing these headaches for over 15 years now, and I am generally able to manage them with medication. Unfortunately, I occasionally experience a “breakthrough” migraine that does not respond to medication, even after multiple doses. This was the case last Friday afternoon. I didn’t feel great from the moment I woke up Friday morning, and hoped it was just race day nerves. I figured as soon as I got on my bike and started riding everything would start to feel better, but the exact opposite happened. Anyone who has suffered from migraines will understand how difficult it was for me to stay on the bike. Anyone who knows me, knows that when I’m suited up and sitting on my bike and say that I don’t feel like riding anymore, there must be something wrong. I agonized over the decision to get off the bike, but after riding for 3-4 hours and feeling weaker and weaker, I just didn’t see what I stood to gain by pushing myself to continue doing this for another 20 hours. It’s been a little frustrating that every time I’ve hopped on a bike since then, I’ve felt amazing and wish that’s how I’d felt at 5:00 pm last Friday night.

When I updated my physical therapist colleague and nutrition sponsor Randy Ice on what had happened, he was concerned that I’d been getting so many migraines and had no strategy to manage them aside from medications. He sent me some information on possible migraine triggers. Some of them I’d already mostly eliminated – sugar, gluten, alcohol, processed foods, MSG, disordered sleeping patterns. I had hoped that the mindfulness training I’d been doing would help to neutralize the pre-race stress that I figured was typically causing my migraines before races. I mentioned last week that I may have made a nutritional error in suddenly consuming foods containing gluten in the 24 hours prior to the race.

There are some other triggers that I hadn’t eliminated as potential causes – nutritional deficiencies (magnesium, B vitamins, CoQ10, iron), hormone disruption, allergies, sinuses, dairy, artificial sweeteners, caffeine (pretty sure that’s the last one I’ll try to eliminate). I had some labs drawn a couple of days ago to test for several of these, including possible food allergies or intolerances. I should get some results in the next couple of weeks and am really hoping those will give me some answers. Going back to Stan Beecham’s message about allowing failure to drive success, maybe I needed to experience this failure to finally be motivated to figure out how to prevent the migraines. It would certainly be a shame if I experienced a show-stopping migraine at some point during RAAM. It’s a long enough race that I would likely have time to recover and get back on the bike, but taking 12 hours off the bike all at once would not be part of my ideal race plan.

Moving Forward

In addition to dealing with the migraine issue, there are plenty of other hurdles to overcome in the next few months before the real training for RAAM begins. I’m hoping to get some work done right away on getting my support crew together, budgeting, and organizing some fundraising opportunities so that I can spend more time focusing on training in the critical months leading up to RAAM. I’ll definitely be posting regular updates on how you can help me achieve my ultimate goal of racing over 3,000 miles from Oceanside to Annapolis!