No More Caffeine???

Thinking back on the last couple years I can't think of a single day I went without that delicious caffeinated morning beverage that we all hold so dear to our hearts. I decided that it was time to take a break from that harmless substance I have grown so fond of.

This past weekend I was in Maryland racing a big stage race out in the heartland. It was probably the worst weekend so far this year of bike racing for me. Everything that could have gone wrong did. After driving 6 hours to get there early Saturday morning I hopped out of my car and warmed up for a while and went right into the race. I was feeling pretty good until the last 10 miles of the race where I felt a tiny twinge in my hamstring and my calf and we all know what come after that little twinge. The seizing off all muscular performance. On the last steep climb I stood up to move up in the pack and position myself for the sprint and not one, but both of my hamstrings completely locked on every rotation of the pedal stroke. It was horrible, I was able to downshift and spin my legs and stay with the pack but I finished 14 seconds off the leader and knew I had to work very hard in the time trial the next day. 

My buddy Travis and I headed to our hotel and proceeded to fill every receptacle we could with ice, we emptied the hotels ice machine and dumped it all in our tub and we each took a 10 minute ice bath to help recover our legs. I went to set up my TT bike for Sunday morning and realized I forgot my TT helmet at home!!!! DOHH!!! and as I was setting up my bike I realized that the rear de-railer cable was all frayed and chewed up so my TT bike was useless. I ended up doing the TT on my road bike and I got beat by a lot of dudes. Then in the  evening crit I was giving it everything I had just to stay in the pack. About 100 dudes started and only half of them finished so it was a super fast race and my hamstrings were sore to the touch and not working properly. It was a horrible weekend of bike racing and I am going to take it as a learning experience and move on. Theres always next weekend!!!! I'll be racing the category 3 and the pro race this weekend in Hartford on Sunday.

After this weekend of terrible bike racing I am giving up caffeine and dairy for the week to cleanse my body and get it up to par for this weekend. I felt like poop on Monday morning and only had one decaf coffee in the morning. I had a dull headache all day and felt horrible, hahahah I didn't realize how dependent my body had become on caffeine. Tuesday and Wednesday were a bit better, and today I feel much better and just had a cup of tea. 

Yesterday the film crew came to my place to get some footage of me and my parents hanging out, it was a really nice day. I don't get to see my folks too much so it was nice that they got to come spend the day at my new place. We went swimming in the green river later in the afternoon, a much need reprieve from the crazy hot day we had.

Also, congrats to my buddy Travis Kroot for cleaning up this weekend at the race! He finished 2nd GC at the stage race. While I had the worst weekend of bike racing he was at his best!!! Well played sir!!