Body composition

[morganfletcher]

The San Bruno Mountain Hill Climb. Northern California's race season starts very early; in this case, a little bit after dawn on New Year's Day .

How did you do?

Morgan

 

[kmavm]

How did you do?

Being honest with myself, I performed very badly. I reconn'ed the course on the 14th and did 19:54. My time yesterday was 21:45.

 

[frenchyge]

Being honest with myself, I performed very badly. I reconn'ed the course on the 14th and did 19:54. My time yesterday was 21:45.

Oh man, 2 minutes off from a practice run? What happened? Was the wind/weather dramatically different, or did you just not feel strong. Hey, bad days happen.

 

[kmavm]

Oh man, 2 minutes off from a practice run? What happened? Was the wind/weather dramatically different, or did you just not feel strong. Hey, bad days happen.

I can't quite explain it. It didn't feel like a bad day. I got a good night's sleep, good warm-up, etc. My RPE felt considerably better (i.e., harder) than the training session. The holidays have definitely interfered a bit with my training, but I haven't slacked so much that I could have lost 10% performance in three weeks.

In fairness, the race was very windy, and somewhat cold and rainy, while the practice session happened in ideal weather. Still, the wind was predominately a tailwind, and course times were fast by historical standards.

Right now, my best guess is that it is some sort of mental block I have when performing in a race context. I've had some similar experiences in the past. Oh well. Now I have some power data to work with for next year, but that's another thread...

 

[kmavm]

I can't quite explain it. It didn't feel like a bad day.

Sorry to reply to my own thread, but I have some more information to share. Since I last posted, I've consulted with a dietitian, who looked at a food and exercise diary for the week surrounding New Year's (I think the 27th of December to the 3rd of January). The things she pointed out were that I seem to be in a pretty severe caloric deficit, and that in particular, I wasn't getting enough calcium or fat. I've been supplementing with flax seed oil and fish oil, and trying to up my dairy consumption in the intervening week.

Probably more importantly, I've been easing up on the diet, and wow, I feel like a new man. I'm training WAY more intensely, racking up 800 TSS points this week and still feeling fit as a fiddle. I think I was just severely glycogen depleted. This is consistent with the near-instant weight fluctation of about 4 pounds whenever I go on or off my restrictive diet. As for those 4 pounds, even if they're all fat, I don't care, given the world of difference it seems to make to my energy levels.