With a few weeks of down time and nothing exciting over even remotely interesting happening I thought I would spend my free time being productive; so I decided to give my training bike a long overdue cleaning…man did it need to be cleaned! That’s to Carson and the folks at Inside-Out-Sports I took my Trek in for a overhaul, something I hadn’t done for over a 1.5 years.
After stripping the bike down to it’s frame I realized just how dirty it really was! The parts washer was key in helping to remove all the grease, grim, and who knows what else was stuck in all those hard to reach spots.Also I cleaned out the frame as much as I could, including the inside. After taking the seat post off and turning the frame upside down what seemed like a gallon of water poured out! Like I said this cleaning was long over due, but now my bike is ready to take on the grim of winter riding…and will probably be just as dirty as it was in about a week. Oh well, at least it was clean…and I’m sure that it will work better at least until it needs to be cleaned again!
I told you I had some down time…and nothing exciting is happening! 
It is fitting and a little ironic that my rookie pro season began (IM California 70.3) and ended (IMAZ nov.) with lower back spasms and a subpar run. In both races I felt pretty good on the bike and did not really over extend myself. However, when I got off and began to run my lower back seized up…and I mean seized up to the point where it was in spasm and I was in agony. My lower back if often a little tight at the beginning of the run whenever I do a brick workout or in a race, however, it usually relaxes within the first mile or two. That was no the case at either of these races. By mile 2 or so in both races I knew I was in trouble.
This is a perfect example also of how important the kinetic chain is in your bodies movement. My legs were not that tired in either race, however, due to my back spasms my running form and everything from my neck to my feet was thrown out of whack. As a result I just couldn’t run, not matter how much I tired to relax and find a rhythm and proper form it was not happening.
There may be several reasons for my back melt down, however, I have noticed a theme with these two races. The last few weeks before both California and Arizona I was very busy and did not take care of the “details” of recovery. Mainly, I omitted the 10-15 minutes of yoga and stretching I usually do 4-5 times per week. I have a pit in my stomaching thinking that something as simple and easy as taking a few extra minutes to stretch could have been the difference between a top 10 finish along with a 25min Ironman PR and then dreaded DNF. Although this may have only been a part, and not the whole cause I can assure that I will never find out, because my yoga/stretching routine will never be skipped again. Yet again, another important lesson learned from my 2008 season.
So please learn from my mistakes, don’t neglect the little “details” of recovery, you may not realize just how important they are until you skip them.
