Bike race...again

So, it did come the day.
I had promised to myself that I would have never ever made a cycling road race again (promised done in 1994 and 2005), but today I was on the starting line again....

Weather was crappy, with showers and quite chilly for our standards. Because the Transport Department did not show up to close the road, we had 1 hour delay and they had to rearrange the different races and cut short to only 15km ! So we were grouped M30 and M40 together, which in HK means probably the most competitive batch of cyclists apart from the very few full time Elites.

Before the race I had a series of progressive objectives:

1. Essential: do not crash or fall
2. Basic: do not get dropped by the peloton
3. Expected: at least "do the race", race in front and do not simply hang up on the back
4. Optimal: get into the Prizes (top 5)
5. Dream: win, if I was really lucky

Well, a 22 min race goes quite fast. The 2 race favourites got away quite easily and I was surprised that any of the largest team did not react. It was really a pity that we left them go and I tried to create some gap but there was really poor initiative from the others. At the last lap we slowed down to 30kmh so it come down to a huge bunch sprint for the podium places and it was really bad that going so slow we were all fighting for places. I norroly avoided a crash and, all of the sudden, after a turn, with 1k to go we started to sprint. I was really too far behind (maybe around 15th-20th), so I had to immedialty sprint hard to catch the train. I felt good, but I was scared to blow up too far from the line, so I did not really sprint hard until 300m to go, which is definitely too late to catch up those ahead. I closed in 7-8th and 4th Master, not even feeling exhausted.

So I can declare myself satisfied. Now I am clear with my cycling potential and I just to need to be more careful at the sprint.

Also the PT has eventually taken the right path and I feel the tendons less sore. The PT found my calves "a total mess" (her own words). She says that the tendon will be never be the same as before becuase is permanently degenerated, so if I want to resume running I will need to be hugely attentive (streching, shoes, soft surfaces, etc) because the tendons will not be able anymore to forgive me anything...
Anyway let's see...I will not give up running so easily

update November

I have been very lethargic recently with this blog, but unless I change subject or start to talk about what is to work in Dongguan, there was nothing to report on the running front.

Now I am treated by a very good PT and I feel that she is tackling the problem in the right way.

She told me that there is a lot of adesion between the tendon and the sheat and she was "horrified" by the state of my calves: a lot of micro-trauma and adesions among the fibres. So the muscles did not flex efficiently and there was too much stress on the tendons (obviously compounded by my bow-legs, etc).

It may take still several months of therapy, so I presume that I will not race anymore until the season 2010-11 (jeeezzz...)

Cycling is going well and I am not quite satisfied of my fitness. I train in a much more spontaneous way than as a runner, so no intervals or specified efforts.

I train to have fun, ride with other guys and do as many climbs as possible (I love climbs...).

Yesterday night I showed up at the Science Park: on Thursday evening, there are ALL the competitive cyclists of Hong Kong looping around at a crazy pace...

it is a great group training, well, basically it is like a race with even a final sprint. We clocked 44km @ 42kmh average, but in the final sprint I really did a beginner's mistake and got myself exposed too early... (anyway... it is only a training)

All said, I made enrolled the HK cycling Association and I will make my cycling "debut"

as a Master in a criterium race next Sunday 15th. It is a bit crazy and I do not think to really be in "competitive" shape, but I want to feel the thrill of competition again (well, a cycling criterium is a LOT of thrill)...

I will let you know how It goes. If everything goes well, there is another race in Shenzhen (just beyond the border) the following Saturday

40yo / 40 e sentirli...

Writing while above the clouds headed to Shanghai... Yesterday I turned 40, so officially starts my "career" of Master runner.
Sincere thanks to all those who sent messages in any way.
It feels like yesterday when I was a 19yo stud and the idea of enrolling a race as M40 would have been unimaginable...

My original plan for the event was to run the Berlin Marathon as my last race as a "young" and double with the next available marathon 2 weeks later as Master. It has not gone to plans and I had to content myself with an easy bike ride, eccentric stretching and self massage to the tendons. The rate of recovery is slow and still I just try to keep the morale and keep myself in the groove of waking up early to make bike rides to keep fit...



ITALIANO:
In volo per Shanghai...
Ieri ne ho fatti 40 e onestamente posso dire "40 e sentirli tutti"...
Zoppicando appena alzato dal letto ha dato subito un concreto elemento del perche' comunque 20 e' sempre meglio di 40...
I'll mio piano di celebrazioni prevedeva di correre 2 maratone a cavallo della data fatidica per fare un ultima gara da "giovane" e poi lanciarmi in una gara da "master". Non e' andata come sperato e mi sono dovuto accontentare di un giretto in bici attorno a casa.

In questo periodo e' realmente difficile non mollare la presa, I'll recupero e' veramente lento e mi devo sforzare per mantenere I'll ritmo di alzarmi presto ogni mattina per fare almeno un po' di bici..prima o poi arriveranno tempi podisticamente migliori

Amazing MTB

Well, this morning I took a bold move and went for a real MTB ride in Dongguan... we have mountains back here but it not really evident if there are tracks/road or whatsoever.. the usual situation is to take some dirt road and after 100m you meet a cluster of barking dogs guarding some farms or else...
Also the name Dongguan (world's factory city) does not really resound with ideas of dirt tracks and mountains. Mostly is a endless stretch of factories and dusty industrial towns...

So to my amazement, I really got the right way and found an amazing climb of 6,5km, mixed dirt and some concrete stretch. I guess that they will add more and more concrete on the road to make it a kind of park or else, but for the time being it is amazing. It was a good 50 minutes climb and my HR was well above 165/170bpm for most of the time... from the top, wonderful view of the surrounding mountains and all the town.
Now I am looking forward to do it again tomorrow!!...

for those with time, here the link to the GPS tracking

Photo 1: view from the top

Photo 2: only in China... a cement mixer did try his way on the dirt road and end up like that...

(photos are awful quality because the phone was wet)

a dark Recession

the Recession is striking hard on Dongguan... for a city whose economy is 90% depending on export and with export going down by 25%, well, you can make the math yourselves..

our town government is clearly getting less income from taxes, etc and is out of money.

First they cut on new projects and new road contruction, but now seems also operating costs... in short, no more money to keeps the lights on in the evening for all the roads.

So this is how it looks like at 7pm for the north boulevard.

I went there for a ride and as soon as it got dark, I expected the street light to be on... but no way. So I just went back home. I have to figure out who to manage the situation, even putting lights on the bike would not be a solution...

for reference, this is how it looked like before at the same hour:

C degrees !!! (NOTE: I had to change the title of this post because it attracted huge spam)

ENG: just back from a 4 hours ride with friends. We climbed the TaiMoShan, the highest peak in HK, 990m high, straight from sea level in 10km...

The heat and humidity are devastating and I felt like I could have thrown myself in the sea at any moment to cool down. At home I gave a look at the temperaure and Accuweather proclaims that the "real feel" is like 51C (124F). Yes, I agree !!!

I got even headache from the sun/heat/humidity

ITA: pedalata di 4 ore con amici. Ci siamo lanciati alla scalata del TaiMoShan, la montagna piu' alta di HK (990m), scalata che parte direttamente dal livello del mare in 10km...

La percezione del caldo puo' essere molto soggettiva, ma c'era un caldo ed un umidita' devastanti...quando sono tornato a casa, il sito di Accuweather dava una "temperatura equivalente" (effetto combinato di umidita' e temperatura) di 51C gradi !!! Le estati a HK sono realmente disumane, ho la testa che mi fa perfino male dal sole e caldo

8 months - 8 mesi

ENGLISH:

I know I have been very lazy in blogging and I must thank the comment from William who woke me up from my numbness..

Well, thanks William for the compliments on my charts with the Polar HRM and I hope to start again with a "comeback charth"...

By the way, some of the charts will be used somehow also in this soon-to-be-published book by Matt Fitzgerald, who also read this blog and got interested in my charts...

So I exhort all of you to pre-order the book and give it a read (the title is captivating and the author is one of my favourite read for running-related books..)

(disclaimer: I would not get a penny from the book)

As it is, I could summarize that after 2 months from my last post, the situation with the tendons is gradually improving but they are still painful when I pinch them (especially the right one).

I do not make any previsions for wearing the running shoes: some days seems that it could be over in a week, somes days are simply a "no no".

I just enjoy my time as a biker and try to make the most of my bikes rides now that I have a discrete endurance: last week-end I joined a group of racers for a long training ride all around HK: we hammered down 100km and I am pretty proud to have survived to the end (we started in 30 and finished in 9)

On thursday I joined the crazy "thursday night" workout at Science Park: there are mybe 100+ competive riders who gathers at 8pm for a VERY FAST ride looping around the Park. It is more or less like a race: last night we averaged 42kmh (!!) for 50km (it is 4 km loop and there are 2 U-turns every lap). At the end I was totally spent, but very happy to hang out for the whole time with the lead group.

It really fueled my competitve juices and especially it was really a nice memory of my juvenile years as competive cyclists. Riding in a group, elbow to elbow with kids half my age was a real fun and I want to join the ride more often.

I alternate easy rides to climbs, interval, sprints, almost like a real training for a race...but

I have in a drawer a coaching certificate for up to "Amateur elite", so I know what is the real training in cycling and it is really too demanding and tiring. I really believe that training for a bike race is incredibly more demanding than any training for a Marathon, so I do not plan any come-back to competitive cycling whatever will happen with my tendons...

Lastly, since my bike was becoming a vintage model (I got it as a gift from a frame builder in 1992!!!), I caught an opportunity and bought 2nd hand this splendid Fuji (see above): carbon-frame , Campy Chorus set 10 speed, Mavic wheels and it is really cut on my size.

ITALIANO

So che sono stati molto pigro a bloggare e devo ringraziare il commento di William che mi ha svegliato dal mio torpore ..

grazie William per i complimenti sui miei grafici con POLAR e spero di lanciare un "grafico del riscatto".

A proposito, alcuni grafici saranno utilizzati in qualche modo anche nel prossimo libro scritto da Matt Fitzgerald, che ha letto questo blog e si e' interessato ai miei grafici.
Così esorto tutti a pre-ordinare il libro e dare poi una lettura (il titolo è accattivante e l'autore è uno dei miei preferiti per i libri sul running)
(Nota: non ricavo un $ dal libro)

potrei riassumere che dopo 2 mesi dal mio ultimo post, la situazione con i tendini è in graduale miglioramento, ma sono ancora dolorosi al tatto (soprattutto il destro).
Non faccio previsioni su quando indossero' ancora le scarpette: a volte sempra tutto gia' OK, ed il giorno dopo invece un disastro

Per il momento mi diverto a fare il ciclista e sfrutto la mia resistenza migliorata: nel week-end mi sono unito un gruppo di corridori seri per una galoppata a manetta di 100km tutto attorno HK: ho penato tanto ma sono molto orgoglioso di aver resistito fino alla fine (dai 30 iniziali abbiamo finito in 9)


Giovedi' mi sono buttato con il gruppo del "giovedi notte": circa 100+ ciclisti "seri" si trovano alle 20.00 per girare a ritmo folle a Science Park: 50km a 42kmh di media, su un giro di 4km con 2 inversioni ogni giro... alla fine ero veramente spento, ma sono rimasto aggancito al treno di testa.

Trovarmi in un gruppo cosi' competitivo, con ragazzini che potevano essere i mei figli mi ha fatto realmente riassaporare i miei anni giovanili, quando correvo nei "Dilettanti". Non vedo l'ora che arrivi il prossimo giovedi'!!

Di sicuro allenarsi in bici e' incredibilemente faticoso e duro: ho una licenza per allenatore Elite e se penso a cosa e' un vero allenamento in bici, l'allenamento per la Maratona diventa una passeggiata. Solo al pensarci, ogni velleita' anche remota di tornare al ciclismo competitivo si blocca completamente (per fortuna...).

Infine, dal momento che la mia bici era diventare un modello d'epoca (l'ho ricevuto in dono da una costruttore nel 1992 !!!), ho colto un occasione e ho comprato (di seconda mano) questa splendida Fuji (vedi sopra): telaio in carbonio, Gruppo Campagnolo Chorus 10v ed la bici mi calza a pennello...