2010 Blogs
There is such a thing as too much caffeine. I never thought I could utter those words, as the thought of coffee was my single pull to rise from bed every morning. The scent of opening a fresh bag of beans and pouring them into my grinder. The decision of coarse for 5 cups from my French press or fine for my stovetop espresso maker. It became a ritual for me, which became an obvious reliance, which turned into an addiction as day after day I drank more and more and the thought of weaning myself off was unfathomable. I feebly tried to limit my intake until I went to Europe in December. I spent the majority of my time in England where the coffee is no better than airline or gas station coffee – like burnt toast. My coffee addiction was muted and replaced with copious amounts of Tetley’s English breakfast tea. And so began my new hot drink reliance, never in moderation. Since mid-December I have seldom had coffee, maybe once a week. Although English Breakfast Tea certainly contains caffeine, I think I have escaped the spell that caffeine once held on me. The nice aspect to this is that caffeinated gels and that flat coke in the feed zone offer a stronger turbo effect.
After a slow beginning of season due to health issues I had quite an arse-kickin’-into-shape at Tour of the Gila the week prior. Joe Martin Stage Race is a killer race – Fayetteville is a fun town, the stages can be challenging, and you receive a healthy dose of Southern hospitality. But this race’s icing is the crit on the final day. Normally an 8-corner crit, this year’s route was increased to 12-corners due to road construction.
By the third day of Joe Martin I was finally feeling some form coming on. I was guest riding for Webcor and our GC leader, Katheryn was sitting in 2nd place, just 5 seconds behind. With that, my possible form, and the excitement of a balls-to-the-wall 12-corner crit, I wanted to make this race count.
The French press had been emptied a few times from riders and staff soaking it up like sponges. So I made yet another round and transferred it to my travel mug to drink during our team meeting. As we rode to the start I could feel the caffeine trickling in and smiled at that adrenaline I love to feel. When I got on the trainer I was ready to pounce. As I got off the trainer I was really looking forward to the race beginning because all that adrenaline was beginning to pool and I was foaming at the mouth. I needed to move so as the race prior to ours was wrapping up with 3 laps to go, I was riding circles around the parking lot to keep things moving. As with many races it is a race within a race to the start line for good positioning; this being a 12-corner crit was no exception. I rode over to where all the riders were waiting to enter the course. Upon sitting there for a few moments my entire body was shaking like a rattlesnake’s rattler. Dave came over to ask how I was and if I needed anything; I handed him my caffeinated gel and told him I was crawling out of my skin. I couldn’t stand the shaking and sitting-still so I rode more circles in the lot until finally we were called to the start line. Lauren Hall, a Vera Bradley rider started talking to me but I couldn’t formulate thoughts or words. Sitting through the pre-race instructions was agonizing and I was really getting angry! My heart rate was pegged at 130, doing the jitterbug up to 150. You know The Claw from the movie “Liar Liar”? Both my hands morphed into that as my entire body and muscles were seizing from head to toe. My legs were knotted tree stumps. My stomach was queasy and turning inside out. These were the final torturous seconds until the whistle was blown and I could hardly pedal; I was relearning the bike. My vision was blurred and I couldn’t hold anyone’s wheel; I was sketching myself out and could hardly handle myself through the corners and fast speeds. I was dropped quickly but didn’t want to stop pedaling because that would mean turning back into a squirming worm. Pedaling seemed like a much better idea to knock this craziness out of my system.
Eventually I was pulled and made my way back to the cars, sat down and continued my full-body-shaking for another hour. I kept eating and eating and eating in hopes of absorbing some of the poison. On the drive home I had a momentary crash in energy, but was fairly on-edge the remainder of the day. After dinner I felt knackered and figured I’d sleep like a baby. But from ten to twelve I laid in the dark listening to my heart beat inconsistently and faster than normal, still uneasy and crawling. I got out of bed and ate more and watched TV and took a sleeping pill. Sometime I fell asleep and woke to a mega thunder and lightning storm around 2am. Back to sleep until my alarm at 8 to hear the rain pattering, happy we had avoided the rain for our races.
Not even the scent of coffee or a cappuccino offer from our host mom could tempt me. It was finally time to go home after a humbling 2 weeks of bike racing to jump start me back into some state of fitness.
After a slow beginning of season due to health issues I had quite an arse-kickin’-into-shape at Tour of the Gila the week prior. Joe Martin Stage Race is a killer race – Fayetteville is a fun town, the stages can be challenging, and you receive a healthy dose of Southern hospitality. But this race’s icing is the crit on the final day. Normally an 8-corner crit, this year’s route was increased to 12-corners due to road construction.
By the third day of Joe Martin I was finally feeling some form coming on. I was guest riding for Webcor and our GC leader, Katheryn was sitting in 2nd place, just 5 seconds behind. With that, my possible form, and the excitement of a balls-to-the-wall 12-corner crit, I wanted to make this race count.
The French press had been emptied a few times from riders and staff soaking it up like sponges. So I made yet another round and transferred it to my travel mug to drink during our team meeting. As we rode to the start I could feel the caffeine trickling in and smiled at that adrenaline I love to feel. When I got on the trainer I was ready to pounce. As I got off the trainer I was really looking forward to the race beginning because all that adrenaline was beginning to pool and I was foaming at the mouth. I needed to move so as the race prior to ours was wrapping up with 3 laps to go, I was riding circles around the parking lot to keep things moving. As with many races it is a race within a race to the start line for good positioning; this being a 12-corner crit was no exception. I rode over to where all the riders were waiting to enter the course. Upon sitting there for a few moments my entire body was shaking like a rattlesnake’s rattler. Dave came over to ask how I was and if I needed anything; I handed him my caffeinated gel and told him I was crawling out of my skin. I couldn’t stand the shaking and sitting-still so I rode more circles in the lot until finally we were called to the start line. Lauren Hall, a Vera Bradley rider started talking to me but I couldn’t formulate thoughts or words. Sitting through the pre-race instructions was agonizing and I was really getting angry! My heart rate was pegged at 130, doing the jitterbug up to 150. You know The Claw from the movie “Liar Liar”? Both my hands morphed into that as my entire body and muscles were seizing from head to toe. My legs were knotted tree stumps. My stomach was queasy and turning inside out. These were the final torturous seconds until the whistle was blown and I could hardly pedal; I was relearning the bike. My vision was blurred and I couldn’t hold anyone’s wheel; I was sketching myself out and could hardly handle myself through the corners and fast speeds. I was dropped quickly but didn’t want to stop pedaling because that would mean turning back into a squirming worm. Pedaling seemed like a much better idea to knock this craziness out of my system.
Eventually I was pulled and made my way back to the cars, sat down and continued my full-body-shaking for another hour. I kept eating and eating and eating in hopes of absorbing some of the poison. On the drive home I had a momentary crash in energy, but was fairly on-edge the remainder of the day. After dinner I felt knackered and figured I’d sleep like a baby. But from ten to twelve I laid in the dark listening to my heart beat inconsistently and faster than normal, still uneasy and crawling. I got out of bed and ate more and watched TV and took a sleeping pill. Sometime I fell asleep and woke to a mega thunder and lightning storm around 2am. Back to sleep until my alarm at 8 to hear the rain pattering, happy we had avoided the rain for our races.
Not even the scent of coffee or a cappuccino offer from our host mom could tempt me. It was finally time to go home after a humbling 2 weeks of bike racing to jump start me back into some state of fitness.