That's pretty much been my mind set this week about the first Ocup this Sunday at Mansfield. I guess I'll start from the beginning.
After my brutal race on Friday I decided to stay off the bike and sleep. I may have slept a little too much because by Monday I headed off to do a core workout (still felt like sh*t) and my legs were feeling extremely weak and oddly bloated? I got through the core workout which was a struggle and then woke up Tuesday to do some Z4 intervals. I got through the intervals and completed the ride but I had extremely bad cramps in my quads before I even started the intervals. I had to get off the bike and stretch for a good 5mins until I could even turn the pedals over without being in pain. The cramps started when I ran upstairs to use the wash room and was going back downstairs and I started feeling them. After my ride I was brining down a basket of laundry and as I'm going down the stairs I can feel my quads cramping up worse and worse with each step, I was like "o crap this is gunna be bad" sure enough by the time I got to the last step I was doubled over onto the laundry basket rolling around in pain for about 5 minutes while my trusty dog sat there and looked at me like I was nuts. At that point I called off the race this weekend as I knew I wasn't ready. I woke up Wednesday with extremely sore legs, almost like DOMS except that I haven't gotten DOMS for months since I started working with Mark and we fixed my nutrition. I stayed off the bike and stayed in bed some more. Hopped on the bike Thursday and spun in Z2 with some Z3 mock climbs. The legs felt much better, or at least normal, not too sure how they are in terms of power.
Since I finished exams on Tuesday, and my 3rd year of my undergrad. Amanda (who graduated College this year) and I decided to spend a night in Niagara Falls. On the way there I started thinking about what the hell happened to my legs and why they were so bloated and cramped. I realized that since my diet normally consists of no added sodium and a lot of Magnesium and Potassium and I normally sweat really heavy at least once a day when I'm training, my body normally carries very little excess water. When I got sick I felt like crap and obviously didn't train, which meant no heavy sweating which lowers sodium levels. That paired with all of the lying down, and the fact that my nutrition wasn't excellent had me carrying much more water then normal. I missed taking some electrolytes throughout the day and had some food with high sodium in it, as I wasn't in any kind of mood to do my usual cooking. The problem fixed itself right away once I did my Thursday's spin and made sure I had a low amount of sodium throughout the day and taken all my other electrolytes. So once we finally pulled into our hotel - a 50min drive too 3+hours due to a flipped over truck and a closed bridge - we headed off to the Keg. I got to watch Amanda crush a steak while I munched on my mixed greens and side order of Asparagus. It was pretty decent, just not all that exciting for a Keg meal - except for the funky smell of Asparagus pee for an hour after ward! We headed out to Dave and Buster's after since we had a free $20 there. I'm not a video game guy, and it definitely showed there, although I crushed Amanda twice at some driving game, I had two 1st place wins while she chugged in last place. She quit on me after that and played the machine that dish out tickets. You know the ones where you always feel like you win...too bad her 150 tickets got her a whole lot...a mini blue bouncy ball... All in all it was a fun relaxing night and it was night to get out for a night.
Once back in Burlington I went to pick up my Hemp butter order...tough stuff to find, only took me 3 weeks to finally get an order in. It will be replacing my the peanut butter in my shakes since it actually has protein in it, not just fat. I always laugh when I hear people justify their massive amount of peanut butter use on the fact that they are "getting a good source of protein". I then headed home and spun for a bit and then headed to the gym for a core workout. The legs felt much better and the workout went great. I figured I might as well race since I love riding Mansfield because of all the hills, and it super fast and flowy. I also don't want to go into the second Ocup without having already raced one. So even if I can't race with my full engine I feel good enough to at least finish and get an Ocup under my belt. I'll be heading to Mansfield before lunch tomorrow to do 3 or 4 laps of the course. I have barely been on the Scale at all this year since this week was nothing but rain and consisted of me sleeping most days. Mansfield isn't that technical so lack of experience on the bike hopefully won't be a big issue, and I'm sure it's the same with most people since this spring had been a bust. My plan is to do 2 easy laps and get a feel for the course then another lap with a couple intervals thrown in, and depending on the time, finish with another easy lap to test out my lines. According to people who pre rode today, it is a really fast course time wise.
Off to get some rest now, my sinuses are still gunked up, but at least everything else is running good, hopefully by Sunday my nose will be all cleared up. I won't be making any goals for this race until I at least get to see how the legs are running tomorrow.
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