How to come back from injuries as a Masters Athlete

How to come back from injuries as a Masters Athlete

By PCG Elite/Master Coach Gordon Paulson

In cycling, things can change suddenly.  A moment’s inattention, a touch of wheels, and the next thing you know, you’re heading for the ground, and unfortunately sometimes the ER.  It makes no difference whether you ride road bikes, mountain bikes, or a commuter bike.  Accidents aren’t limited to riders who do criteriums.  So far this summer, I’ve seen injury producing accidents in easy rides and hard racing, in road races, mountain bike races, time trials, criteriums, group rides for fun, challenge rides, training rides…and the list can go on and on.  Face it, injuries from accidents can happen to anyone who rides a bike.

“Coming back from injuries is part of being a bike racer, because no matter what level racer you are, you’re virtually guaranteed to get hurt at some point.” ~ Jim Rutberg, Guidelines for Returning to Training After an Injury (TrainingPeaks).

The bad news is that as a Masters athlete we are more likely to have an accident, and when accidents happen to us, more likely to get injured.  Statistically, older athletes are much more likely to injure themselves than younger athletes who are doing the same sport.  When injured, a Masters athlete is more likely to experience a longer recovery time.  “In general terms, a younger person will heal from injury more quickly than an older subject with a similar injury; the recovery rate is directly related to the speed with which the body can grow new cells to repair itself.  Various sports science studies have illustrated that an injured athlete of age 45 and over will recover at a rate of between 15% and 18% slower than a similarly injured 30-year-old person.” ~ Age-Related Response to Injury, (World of Sports Science)

Management and treatment of athletic injury must take the athlete’s age into account.  With odds like these, it’s best to plan ahead.  While training your bike skills to reduce the chance of an accident is essential, you should also prepare a plan in the event you unfortunately get injured from an accident.

Tip 1:  Even before an injury occurs, you can aid your recovery by accepting that injury is possible, and spending time reconciling yourself to this fact.  This frees you up to think through a healthy approach to recovery.

Tip 2:  Following an injury, begin your recovery as if you are lost in the woods.

Step 1: Stop and Think - Take Stock- Hold Your Horses - Settle Down!  Panic doesn’t help.  Don’t dwell on how this is messing up your plans to win the Wednesday Night World Championships.  Rushing in to “Recovery” will only lead to a longer recovery period or, worse yet, an exacerbation of the injury.

Step 2: Take an inventory.  Be honest.  What’s injured, and what’s not injured?  Accept that you will need to step back a bit from your preinjury physical performance capability, and accept that it’s not the ‘end of the world.’  There may be other things you can do that help your overall fitness and help keep you from sliding toward ‘detrained.’  For example, consider following through with that core strength routine that you never seem to have enough time for, or start that nutritionally healthy eating that you always meant to do.

Step 3: Gather information…  Get the facts.  For example, depending on location of fracture, severity of the break, and age and nutritional status, average healing time for bone fractures is 6-8 weeks.  Ligaments in the knee don't take that long to heal.  Minor damage will heal within 7 to 10 days.  More severe damage can take three weeks, and up to six weeks to be fully strong and completely back to normal.  Are there things you can do to maintain fitness using uninjured body parts, for example, swimming?

Step 4: Formulate a Plan.  Find care providers who work with athletes.  Ideally, find folks who share your passion for the sport.  They will appreciate that you place a priority on returning to your sport as quickly as possible.  Plan your recovery as carefully as you would plan training for your “A” Race.  This is where an experienced coach can really make a difference.  A coach may have seen many injuries among athletes, and may have even experienced some his or herself.  A coach’s ability to know what needs to be done, and how long recovery will take, can be reassuring and help you stay on track.

Step 5: Be Patient.  If you were lost in the wilderness, the best advice would be ‘stay put and wait for help to come.’ The post-injury parallel is give the healing process time to work its magic.  Be patient.  Healing takes time.  Time is the most important component of recovery.  Accept that and don’t expect to hurry the process.

Tip 3:  To overcome the likely mental challenges from an injury that disrupts training, focus on the positives.  Establish goals.  Set priorities.  Develop a realistic timeline.  Focus on intermediate goals for recovery.  Set yourself up for some early ‘wins.’  It helps to think about all the other athletes you know, or know of, who have had similar bad luck and have come back even stronger.

Tip 4:  Commit 100% to recovery.  Make recovery your ‘training plan.’  Get organized, follow the plan persistently and diligently.  Dedicate the same level of commitment to recovery that you brought to your performance training.

Tip 5:  Never Quit.  Avoid the ‘slippery slope’ of waiting to get better and, consequently, not taking a proactive role in your recovery.  Trying to force an early recovery can be a bad thing, but equally dangerous is becoming ‘resigned’ to your fate.  Believe in the plan, and have patience. Just as patience is a powerful resource as you train to improve, patience can be indispensable for a full and satisfactory recovery.

Injuries that prevent athletes from training and competing are an unfortunate part of the sport of cycling.  Experiencing an injury does not, however, signal the end of either.  An injury may delay some accomplishments, but they should only be a temporary inconvenience.  As the saying goes, ‘if it doesn’t kill you, it only makes you stronger.’  Get stronger.

So You Are Fit, But Do You Know How to Win?

By PCG Elite/Master Coach Todd Scheske

Over the past 10 years, power meters have become much more prevalent, and during that time the analysis involved has become more refined and advanced as well.  It is common to hear even beginner riders talk of FTP and thinking in terms of watts for outputs.  These are certainly all great advancements, but there is something that I find missing in many riders’ pursuit of racing.

That is: how to actually win a race.

It is true that without the fitness portion you will have a harder time implementing any strategy or tactics, but strength, without good strategy or tactics, isn’t going to win you a race most of the time.  I know, personally, that I’ve won races against stronger competitors.  I have a saying that goes something like: “the strongest rider almost never wins, but the smartest rider almost always does.”  Being smart in a race is likely more important than what your FTP is, or your 5 sec power.

So what things should you be thinking about in terms of being a smarter rider?  First of all, STAY OUT OF THE WIND.  Sounds simple right?  Look around at how many riders will ride next to the group, or (try to) move up when it is single file into the wind.  Racing is about conserving energy until you need to unleash something, not dribbling out power sitting in the wind, accomplishing nothing.  Learn to flow with the pack.  I’ve seen race files of clients that did the same race as I did, and yet they had half the percentage of zero pedaling.  This is where you can also start to use the “power” of the analytics available as well.  Look at your road race files and see how much time you spend generating less than 5 watts.  If you have a low percentage of (near) zero pedaling, and you were not in a breakaway, then you may need to look at why and find ways to save energy.  Remember it is not a contest of who does the most KJ of work!

Secondly, ask yourself two fundamental questions: “What am I doing?” and “Why am I doing it?”  This will help you with the first point above and also help you start to correct for mistakes on the road.  I hear often from athletes, “I just found myself….”  Don’t just let things happen to you.  Own what you do.  If you find yourself, say, sitting on the front, ask the questions:  Q: What am I doing?  A: Sitting on the front.  Q: Why am I doing that?  If you aren’t setting up a teammate or helping chase something, etc., then stop it.  Even if you are chasing something, ask the same questions!

Third, respect everyone and fear no one.  If you ride with respect, you mitigate the tendency to ride dumb.  Kind of like the proverb that says, “Pride cometh before a fall.”  I’ve seen strong riders sit on the front, pulling people, because they think they are “hurting them”.  Most likely, the reality is you aren’t.  So respect that they are fit and strong, and don’t just pull people, or don’t lead out a headwind sprint from 500 meters, and then expect to win.  When you respect other people’s ability, you recognize that you cannot be foolish in the race and waste energy.  Along the same lines though, don’t fear anyone.  Don’t negate your chances by thinking that you aren’t good enough.  You are lining up to race, so you deserve to be there.  Ride like it!  Confidence and respect set the stage to make good tactical decisions and plan solid strategies.  

So yes, use the power meter and be strong, fit and fast.  However, make sure you are a smart rider too, so that those tools are put to good use.  Use those tools to be even smarter by knowing yourself even better.

Recovery is Training Too

By David Ertl, PCG Elite Coach

The 2016 training and racing season is cranking up, and so is your training.  You are accumulating miles, hours in the saddle, and loads of training stress score (TSS) numbers.
Your fitness is increasing, and you are getting stronger and faster.  You are also getting more fatigued.

As a coach, I rarely have to encourage athletes to get on their bike and ride.  Most athletes who are motivated to seek out and pay for a coach are also motivated to train hard.  More often than not, I have to encourage the athlete to train a little less and spend more time recovering.  It’s true, the more and harder one rides, the stronger they will get, but only up to a point.  If they don’t allow their body to recover, their hard work won’t get translated into increased fitness.  In fact, it will work against them, and drive them into sustained fatigue, which can lead to over-training if not addressed.

I like to remind people that riding, what people consider training, actually breaks the body down.  It creates injuries to the muscles that must heal.  It’s the rest and recovery that allows this damage to heal.  In the process, the healing results in increased fitness.  Shortchanging the recovery process shortchanges your training.  You need to balance the riding with the resting.  In this regard, resting and recovery is an important component of training, as much as the working out.  It will serve you well to remember that recovery is as important as riding for increased fitness, and is indeed part of training, as are proper attention to nutrition and hydration.  Focusing only on riding will not address all aspects of fitness and training. 

The training stress balance metric (TSB) is a way to monitor your fatigue and need for rest when training with power.  As you workout longer and harder, your TSS will increase and your TSB will decrease.  The lower the TSB value, the more accumulated fatigue you have.  In order to get stronger and fitter, you must sustain fatigue and drive TSB into negative territory.  But you can’t keep it there indefinitely as you pile on the miles.  You need to ‘come up for air’ periodically and allow yourself to recover and get your TSB back above zero.  Experiment with your own ability to tolerate fatigue by watching your TSB and discovering the point where you need to rest and recover before piling on more stress.

So as you attack this training and racing season, remember that recovery is just as important as training, and in fact is an equal part of training.