Post Crit...odd

I don't know how much info you all need...so...
I race 10 Mile TT's on a weekly basis, a few days of training, watch my food intake fairly close...ummm, 30 years old, 5'-7", 140 lbs.

Alright...
Last Tuesday I found out there was going to be a Crit Race on Saturday. Sadly I didn't decide to race until Friday night. This was my first group race and I wanted to see what the weather was going to be like (LOL, 65, Light rain, 5-10mph wind ... what great conditions for your first race!) Anyway, not ever racing anything other than a TT...I "prepared" for the crit like I would for a TT. Thinking that it was going to be a "pace race" without a bunch of excellerations, brakes, etc. ...wrong.
Ummm...for breakfast I had Oatmeal (2 cups of coffee), a banana for a mid morning snack, couple of turkey sandwiches for lunch, and a cup of coffee about 1pm (my start was at 2pm). I also drank ...?... enough water, don't know exactly how much, and a little bit of Gatorade.
Raced, felt great...I think I did alright for my first race!
...Warmed up for about 15-20 min, raced for about 28 minutes, took a lap and a half cooldown. The corse was about .5 mile around a couple city blocks. After the cooldown, I found my family and rode about another block really slow (walking speed).

PROBLEM...

When I got to my truck I still felt fine. I got off my bike and put it up on my carrier...then...all of a sudden I felt like I had a major burp (or throw up?), I couldn't stand still (felt almost dizzy...but not?), and my wife told me that I lost all my color. She made me sit down in my truck (didn't help), I got up walked around in circles in the parking spot next to my truck, while sipping on Gatorade. Finally started feeling good enough to finish putting all my stuff away. My wife drove, and about 10 min later I was feeling fine.

Now, I don't think this is anything major...but just odd enough to make me wonder what I did "wrong"? I've never had this feeling before...and don't want it again!
From what I know, I'm guessing its among the following...
Diet ... Should I have ate different for this type of race vs. a TT?
The cup of coffee that close to the race?
Not a long enough cooldown ... Should have taken a little longer to bring my heart rate down?
Or preperation for this style of race? The braking and excellerations "killed" me. For the last part of the race I ended up riding like a TT.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions.

There's a lot in there, but bottom line is that you did a lot more high end work, particularly anaerobic work than you're accustomed to and you might have eaten a bit more conservatively prior to a fast crit.

The post race meltdown is a bit troubling, especially the dizziness and loss of color which implies a sharp drop in blood pressure. It's not unusual for fit athletes to have what's called postural hypotension when standing up quickly from rest but not so typical to have that sort of thing come on just after warming down from a hard race. I probably wouldn't stress too much on it but I'd pay attention to things like unexplained shortness of breath or undue fatigue over the next few days and if it happens again I'd see my doc just to be safe.

On the feeding strategy, I wasn't clear when you ate the sandwiches, but I don't do any solid food within two to two and a half hours of a crit or time trial. You don't really need it, if your muscle and liver glycogen stores aren't topped up the morning of a race (and you don't need them totally topped up for a 40 minute crit or half hour TT) then the sandwiches aren't going to make the difference. I have good luck with oatmeal but eat it two to three hours out along with some protein in the form of nuts or a couple of eggs which I have no trouble digesting in two or more hours. But in the last couple of hours I might drink some energy drink and have had good luck with recovery style drinks with a bit of protein like Recoverite, Endurox or Metabolol and even low fat chocolate milk which is what I drank between back to back crits this past weekend.

The burping/reflux issue could be totally explained by your fueling strategy and those partially digested turkey sandwiches coupled with a hard race. The coffee could definitely be part of the story, but you know best how coffee affects you. Sure it could be something more sinister but I'd eat more carefully before your next event, even the time trials. Check out this resource on athletic fueling: http://www.hammernutrition.com/downl...gn=fuelingbook
They recommend eating at least 3 hours out and not eating at all if you have such an early race that 3 hours of lead time costs you sleep. That seems a bit extreme to me, but their point that your morning meal is almost meaningless in terms of your glycogen stores is valid.

The other big thing is crit tactics and learning to carry speed through the corners to smooth out the riding and avoid unecessary accelerations. It's tough, especially in the lower categories with less skilled riders hitting their brakes and taking poor lines through the corners. And much tougher still if you can't ride near the front of the group. Best advice I can give you is to ride more of them, try to ride them in the first six to eight riders at all times, follow better riders through the turns and learn to carry speed and stay off your brakes.

The other big thing is to master "gap management" where you stay very aware of what's happening all around you and start spinning up your gears as attacks and jumps start so you aren't stuck making huge out of the saddle efforts after everyone is already up to speed and the gap is growing. That also implies using your gears intelligently and not simply hammering a big gear for the whole race. You see it all the time, folks stuck in one gear mentality jumping hard out of the saddle out of the corners till they just can't do it anymore and they get dropped where riders with more crit savvy carry speed through the turns, react earlier to attacks and use their gears wisely to limit the number of times they have to jump hard out of the saddle. All that takes time and practice and there aren't a lot of shortcuts, you just gotta ride a bunch of crits and pay attention to the better riders.

Good luck,
-Dave

Thanks...yeah, I figured it was just what I ate that day. Since then I've done a couple of TT's with no problems...and some "easy" rides too.