In September of 2009 at Kelso Conservation Area I had what I think was my best race ever. It was my best year ever with consistent results that earned me a 13th overall in the Ontario Cup as an Expert racer. My legs were stronger than ever and I had great endurance and I manged to hold off some racers that I had never beaten before in previous years; it was a break-through race for me and I had so much momentum heading into the next season that I could very-well have been a top racer in my class of Master Expert 30-39.
As it turned out I decided to return to school at the tender age of 33 so that I may upgrade my skills in the arts (post-grad course so most students were not much younger than me). The result was both good and bad! My new skill was computer animation and I managed to be a top student in a school that is ranked within the top ten in the world for animation training. In the process I fell in love with it, moved to Oakville and forgot that I even had a bike! Well, not really, I continued to go to the gym and get out on the bike for light but long rides that helped take the stress of school off. The result was not pretty as I lost muscle, gained about 10 pounds and lost all my cardiovascular. I'm still a student although it's all done after-hours on my own and will be that way for 15 months. I have mentors from all over the world helping me fine-tune my animation skills but it only made matters worse for my fitness. As time went by and the weather improved I began to become restless and eventually I started to race again. I missed two races already and had no real training but decided that I should join the Expert class again just to see how I measured up; I didn't measure up! I was 35 minutes off the pace when I'm normally about 10 minutes of and I had no confidence, no power and barely enough strength in my hands to hang on to my new and much smaller bike that is very demanding to control in high speed downhills! It was a nightmare right from the get-go when I hit the first uphill about 500 feet into the race and noticed things were very different. The racers in my group just pulled away like I wasn't even racing and eventually (about a minute later) they were gone so far up the trail that all I could hear is the slapping of the chain and a few miss-shifts; I could even hear some chatting away as if it were Sunday ride whereas I was about to fall dead due to lack of O2. How could this be? That wasn't the end because the other riders from the groups starting later were soon to make my day even worse! I forgot that the super-fast do eventually catch me late in the race but not just a few kilometers into the first lap; I had to pull over and let them all go by because I was moving so slow! With them by I began to ride again, sowing gaining confidence thinking I was starting to get my legs back already ...nope! The next wave came through and the same thing happened again but then it was followed yet again by the next and the next and so on. I was now aware that I could very well be in last place of the whole damn race! As it turned out, I pretty much was and there were no more racers passing me. It was then that I was able to settle in and do my own race and eventually caught a couple of racers but was too chicken-shit to pass and they eventually pulled away again. I just wanted out, it was over and I thought about just pulling out after the first lap. As it turned out I didn't as that's just something that I don't do and is the reason why I excel at ultra endurance bike races. I started to pick it up on the third lap and reeled in a few racers and actually made passes but it wasn't enough and I crossed the finish in what seemed to be slow motion with all the other racers who were already out of their gear, pacing up and preparing for the awards watching me. I made a quick exit and went to my team trailer where I had to explain my dismal results. It was then I knew it would take me all season to return to what I hoped was my mid-pack results.
What happened? Simple, I stopped racing! Racing is the best way to get yourself in shape for successive races and so on. Training is also critical but without practical training (real races) eventually your body just adapts to that training and forgets about racing. I even noticed that I was having food energy issues and before my body could easily survive a race without something like this. So now I have to start again although muscle-memory will make things return to normal a bit quicker of course but it's frustrating having worked so hard only to lose it all in a matter of a year. It took me from about 2006 to get to this level so that's about 3 years. I'd say if I had taken just 6 months, even three months I'd still be in the same situation. So in conclusion, if you plan on racing in the future but want time off then you'd better be prepared to have to start from scratch! Do what you can to stay on the bike but perhaps reduce your racing to a lighter schedule, rather than racing every week then perhaps change it to once every other week or even once every three; it's better than what I did and now I'm paying for it.
