Racing, Eating & Glycogen Depletion

The order of the title is really how it all works. If you race your bike you must eat to refuel. If you don't eat to refuel you get Glycogen Depletion and could very well black out. Which I have now experienced multiple times this year in races minus the black out part. Which I am happy about and I am sure my competitors are as well. Basically means a complete stoppage of work from the legs. I had a small taste of it at Independence Valley Road Race at the end of March. I hit the first climb on the last lap and my legs really stopped working. I ate and recovered and felt much better after I had been dropped by the leading group. I have also been racing with the big boys 1, 2, 3's at Pacific Raceways. The last time I raced at Pacific Raceways 2 weeks ago I had the same thing happen. My legs basically seized up and wouldn't work. Its a strange feeling when it happens and very frustrating at the same time. I got dropped that night 3 separate times and the 3rd time I just rode straight to my car and went home. Still not sure what was happening.

Then a good week of training and Volunteer Park criterium on Saturday and Olympic View Road Race on Sunday where I placed 6th last year. I arrived Saturday morning at the criterium with Shawn and did our warm up. As I was pulling up to the line for the start of the race I saw Gabe who just finished the Category 5 race. I pulled over to the side to see how his race was. As I unclipped my foot from my pedal the whole thing came off. So my left crank arm came off with my pedal. Gabe and I looked at each other and Gabe said, "Oh that's not good." So that was my Saturday race. I came home and got the bike to the West Seattle Cycle U and David and Catherine were there to assist and get it fixed. Its great having a shop that sponsors the team. You guys are the best!

I was really looking forward to Sunday's race. I felt good and really thought I could do well as it is fairly flat with a couple climbs and a very fast and technical last mile. We had a very strong team going. Chad, TravisB, Eric and myself in Category 4. That is a lot of horsepower...and then there I am. The smallest out of the 3. The weather was horrible. Low 40's and rain. Our goal was to try and split the field on the first lap on the 180 degree down hill corner 1 mile prior to the finish line. We were doing 4 laps totaling 54 miles. We tried really hard to get it split but we only had 6 or 7 guys that were willing to work and the others in the front group weren't really interested. The whole race felt like someone had taken a sprinkler and stuck it in your face. There was so much water on the road and it didn't stop raining the whole race. It was miserable. Then the last 2 laps my arms and hands started going numb. Great. I am cold, I can barely shift gears with out looking down at the gear lever to make sure my hands are actually working and little did I know I am about to implode on the last lap 2 miles from the finish. I was always in the front 15 of a field that started with 70 racers only to finish with 27. Chad was doing much of the work as most teams didn't seem to bother with doing any work. I felt ok coming into the last climb where we were about 2 miles to the finish. The goal was to get me to 200 meters and let me go for the Win. I stayed on Chad's wheel as we came to the climb and he told me to hang on. Sounds good I thought. I was getting excited as we were pretty close to turning it up a notch. As we started to climb I was dumbfounded by the fact i couldn't get my legs to continue to turn. Oh no not again, not now. I went from the front of the race to off the back. I tried standing up to go faster up the hill but felt like I would fall over so I sat back down. I dangled about 100ft off the back of the lead group totally gutted along with being very confused still unable to transfer any power from my legs to my pedals. I couldn't believe it. Why was this happening. I am training more this year than last year and my results are not close to where I was last year. So as I strolled in and weaved past a crash about 100 meters from the finish I rode up to Chad and Travis to see how they did. To my surprise TravisB WON and Chad got 2nd. Total change from being depressed to asking how it happened. Tell me. Cycle U got its first Win! This was great news and I immediately was relieved and happy. Chad is on a roll now with a podium in every race he has entered so far this year and TravisB showed he is a serious contendar.

I spent the entire ride home trying to figure out what was going on with my body and specifically my legs. Monday I emailed Custom Smoothie owners Kathy and Kris to find out if they knew what I was going through. Immediately they responded with "You are experiencing total Glycogen Depletion. You need more fuel, before the race and during the race." Then we started to analize what I ate before and during the race. Then the light bulbs start going off. I am not eating enough. They continued, "You need breakfast, then another 300 calories (wafffle and 2 gels?) right before the race, then another 200-300 calories (bloks or gels) mid race (30 mins in) to finish strong.
Hope this helps...remember that eating the night before really doesn't help the glycogen stores-it has to be pre race and replacing as your are depleting during high intensity. Fueling and eating are two different things-lesson learned the hard way. Bummer."
I went to Pacific Raceways last night to race with the 1, 2, 3's again. This time though instead of it being the flat course we were doing the escape route that included a little climb/hill. I was pretty worried that I would get dropped on the first lap since my confidence had taken a pretty big dent over the last couple weeks. I ate 2 gel shots and a bananna before the race and took 2 more gel shots with me for during the race. I felt great and during the race there was 1 lap I started to feel a little fatigued. I took out my gel shot and ate it and took down some water and that was it. I felt great again. This is amazing. The last lap I was up near the front and actually was able to follow a break to the bottom of the hill before the finish. At that point I sat up and cruised into the finish. Who would have ever thought eating could be so hard to do and how you could forget to do it. I was so happy after the race. I really have to say thanks to my wife, Lindsay, who I didn't listen to. You were right I need to eat more. Big thanks to Custom Smoothie for explaining how the body and muscles work and getting me to listen. Bring on Walla Walla.