Just in time for the upcoming Tour de France, I officially made my return to training this morning and I couldn't be happier - not that I'm riding le Tour but we all love to be able to get out there and ride just as hard while it's on. It's been a roller coaster ride over the last three months since the accident, the low point of the initial injuries, the highs of what appeared to be an early return only to be frustrated by a relapse in the left knee with cronic inflammation of the pre-patellar bursa remedied by a cortisone steroid injection and a slow but sure build up to normal riding again. The knee is now responding beautifully to harder efforts and I can now ride pain-free for the first time in over 2 months. My mind is firmly set on a come-back to racing!
As I began to raise the pace with each ride over the past week or two, I could begin to sense the amount of form and strength that I had lost since the accident, however I could also feel that my level of fitness was generally still there and I will have a new base to build from when I get back to regular training in a week or so. Hopefully the form will return as quickly as it did last time.
Persevering with solo efforts and restraining oneself from the the temptation of group training, group rides and hills is by no means an easy task, but it was important to remember Brad's opinion that good riders can get out there and get back into it hard and fast but it is a great rider that can demonstrate restraint, discipline and commitment to the long term outcome which can result in a champion rider. This meant dealing with the frustrations of recovery and being patient.
I'm glad that I was able to continue to follow Brad's guidance and time my return to group training but at the same time, I was able to be inventive with my solo rides last week and used the groups I usually ride with as a "chase" target. My Thursday ride was the first of these efforts where I allowed the Bell Tower group 15 minutes head start and began to chase them down solo with the intention to have caught them before they reached Canning Bridge.
While it was a tough effort on my own it was a really consistent exercise and kept my HR in E3 for the majority of the ride. I eventually caught the Bell Tower group and, as it happened, the SPR Main group at the same time at the end of Melville Beach Rd (just before Pt. Majestic) and continued to maintain my pace on through to South Perth. I thought I had left them all in my wake but was surprised to see Scotty come around me just before the pedestrian crossing lights outside the Zoo. I forgave him only because he rides a Venge!!
I repeated Thurday's exercise again on Saturday by chasing down all the Garland Crew groups that took the usual river loop route with the intention of catching Group 1 by the time I reached the West end of Riverton Drive in Rossmoyne. I fronted up to the bike shop before this exercise so that I could ascertain who I would be chasing and given the calibre of the riders that had shown up, I was not so keen to give them a 15 minute head start as I had on Thursday so I decided to allow them 7 minutes. I let Alan know that I would be chasing them down with the hope that he would try to prevent the group being caught and make me work hard to catch them.
As it turned out, I could have given them the 15 minutes as I caught them a little earlier than I had anticipated but there were still other groups ahead of them - in particular Group 2 being lead by Dennis whom I know does not like being caught by Group 1 so I wanted to keep the pace on right through to catching them. I thought this might allow me to drop Group 1 as part of this effort but it was not to be as they continued to keep my pace. So as long as I was able to keep a consistent effort, I was happy to stay with them. We almost caught Group 2 at Shelley Bridge but a bad run with traffic lights prevented us from catching and overtaking them.
With these efforts showing no cause for concern with the knee I was able to join Brad for a session down at Shelley this morning where we completed a similar exercise in chasing down. With seven riders attending the group training, I was sixth to leave the West end of Riverton Drive with the intention of chasing down all 5 riders ahead of me while keeping Brad at bay who would be riding from scratch. The purpose of the exercise was to hold E3 all the way through to the end of Riverton Drive, recover through the loop and then E3 again on the return. I managed to catch all five riders before the reaching the eastern loop and kept the power on right through to the end of the exercise. It was good to be able to complete the activity so strongly without any problems with the knee.
The final exercise of the morning was similar to the first but in groups of two with the intention that all riders would finish in a final sprint up the hill at the west end of Riverton Drive. Everyone's timing was excellent and we all finished together. Again, no pain in the knee after a hard sprint up the final hill so all seems to be good with the recovery.
I'm looking forward to riding a few group rides this week but will continue to manage the tempo and surging to ensure the knee does not get inflamed again. Friday will see a long awaited return to the hills with a consistent and managed effort up Welshpool Rd and the Pickering Brook circuit to see how the knee holds up to the stress of climbing longer and steeper hills.
If all goes well, I'm hoping to return to racing after the end of July for a road race with the West Coast Masters and hopefully the last of the Pickering Brook Road Race series on August 12th. This should certainly allow me enough to to rebuild my strength and form before attempting to race again.
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