Dunnigan Hills / Fatigue

I've finally come out of my overtraining denial: I've been exhausted for weeks and it's time for a little forced rest. I think the turning point was last weekend at Patterson Pass (my first cat 3 race) where I blew myself up on the second time up the climb, in the heat, only to flat 100 yards from the top. I got a ride back with the follow vehicle (Rick, for those who do velopromo...) and then managed to fall down from heat exhaustion getting out of the truck, which is never a good sign. 

Being the exercise addict that I am, however, I failed to rest the following week and went on hard rides wednesday and thursday, leaving my legs in bad shape for the Dunnigan race on saturday. I did it anyways, though, in spite of an elevated resting heart rate, fatigue, etc, telling myself I would just take it easy and sit in. Somehow that got translated to attack by my tired mind, and, after a flurry early attacks by others in the first 15 miles I jumped away from the group on one of the few (slight) climbs and bridged solo to 2 other attackers who had managed to get a decent gap. I had to put in a huge ~3.5 minute, 400+ watt effort to do this, however, before transitioning into an uncomfortably fast 3 man rotation with the other two guys. 

We managed to get a 40 second gap, however, before the group finally responded and we were caught after the turn into the headwind section (from a right sidewind) -- after spending about 15 minutes in the wind. The attacks resumed almost immediately, however, and another group of 4 managed to get away; I should have just gotten into that move right away, but decided I should save some energy, given that I didn't really start the race with a full tank. The chase into the headwind, however, turned out to be so pathetic that I finally attacked on a small hill, again, and sort of let myself dangle off the front of the pack in an attempt to taunt someone into chasing me. Chase, they did, and I ended up back in the pack before the downwind section. 

This 10 mile downwind section is really weird, I have to say: the draft is practically nonexistant, and the guys at the front just drilled it, holding 30 mph, and making these short accelerations up to 350-500 watts repeatedly. At some point in there my legs just popped -- out of glycogen, must have been, because the average wattage through that wasn't very high -- and I fell off the back. This is the point where I should have just called it a day and gone back to the parking lot, but instead I made a vain attempt to finish the race, and rode the last lap with the group of stragglers before crossing the line dehydrated, overheated, and exhausted after 90 miles in the wind and heat. 

Realizing, after the race, that I absolutely must rest, I've been doing recovery pace rides all week, sleeping more, and finally getting my resting HR back to normal. 

I always thought the recovery zone was a joke coaches played on first year athletes --something for cyclists who don't know how to use a TV remote-- but now, after 3 days of getting passed by guys with beer bellies and bar-end shifters I can say, unequivocally, that it does work.