WKG Winter League 19/20 Stage 8 – High and Dry TT

Date	01.12.2019
Course	Watopia Tempus Fugit
Strava Activity	https://www.strava.com/activities/2903658848
Distance in km	30.1
Elevation in m	46
Bike	Bolt
Points	2
League Points Total	40.5
League Position	41/71
WKG Vlog	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ratyx3cGb8

I have been feeling pretty fatigued since the last WKG league race and my attempts at recovery since then were very easy rides, including Stage 4 of the Grand Tour de Öffentliche Verkehrsmittel. So my expectations into this race were very low. My aim was just to get through the race and not push hard enough that I would get the back issues that plagued my last 2 WKG races. I knew I wanted to keep riding afterwards to get some more kilometers towards my yearly goal of 10,000 km.

I totally over-injected basal insulin before the race as I was up at 6:00 to correct for high blood glucose levels. Next I didn’t reduce the amount needed for breakfast enough, since I still had insulin from the correction at 6:00. This meant that once I started exercising, my blood glucose dropped quickly since my body was in a state of high insulin sensitivity. Solution: take on an emergency gel and hope for the best!

I started the race at tempo power (160 W) range – much higher power values are required for a decent time in a 30 min time trial. I wanted to see how long my legs could take this and the answer was just about halfway through the course. I just couldn’t sustain this wattage and dropped to endurance power values for the rest of the race. This resulted in a time of just over 31 minutes for a 17 km time trial and placed me last within my category. Once again I picked up the 2 league points just for showing up and finishing the Stage.

Next to me, Nadja, was on the route for her attempt and was holding good power in her threshold range – much more like it! Once I finished, I challenged her to beat my time and she did. Quite easily too, her final time was just over 30 minutes. Great effort! Unfortunately, this flat course favours raw power over a high W/Kg so her time but her behind most of her direct competitors in this Stage. I am very proud that she put in such a great effort – time trialling is really about digging deep and embracing the pain to get a good time.

My take away from this Stage is that I definitely need to rest and recover as I am showing the classic signs of overtraining – decreased power outputs and performances despite high effort levels. I initially thought that I would like to get to my yearly goal of 10,000 km (I only need 198 km) and then rest, but given how terrible my legs feel I am going ahead with recovery asap. 

I plan on being off all bikes for at least 10 days and then I will test out my body accordingly. I know that I’m struggling to sleep and rest properly during the night due to my CGM alarms, meaning that I can’t recover properly. I hope that by resting completely and trying to stabilise my blood sugar levels means that I’ll be back at my usual levels sooner rather than later.