One year on and back to square one. (Plus slight rant)

Over the weekend. The Amy's Gran Fondo was held in Lorne Victoria. It is a cycling race aimed at raising money and awareness for the importance of bike safety to better protect cyclists.

Last year I was lucky enough to be able to participate. And training for this ride provided good motivation for me in my comeback from surgery in April last year. I came 7th overall in the race. With a normalised power output of 377Watts for just under 3 hours of riding, Within the ride for one hour i averaged 414Watts. For those unfamiliar with riding data these numbers are pretty high. And if I wasn't so heavy I would have been flying. Check out some more data here on strava if interested.
http://app.strava.com/activities/22132706

Anyways, the purpose of this post is to share with you how frustrating it is for me one year on from this ride. At that point in time last year I was extremely fit, and it held me in great stead for the 2013 rowing season, which I was able to notch a win in the long distance time in december, which was definitely a result of all the hard work I put in cycling to get my body physically prepared. As you are now aware, I wasn't able to carry on with my comeback and in january this year was struck down with my medical condition, And at the moment i would struggle to simply ride the 110km course in Lorne, let alone race it.

Now, there is not a single thing i could have done to avoid this. It is the nature of the condition, and all i can do now is progress with my training and hope that as I become fitter and stronger the problem does not start happening again. I am sick of having people say to me that because i trained 'too hard' i caused my problem to occur again. For these people, either don't comment to me at all, or do some reading and come to me with an explanation as to how I could have prevented it from happening again, because i sure would love to know how to prevent it from happening again. I know that is a bit of a rant. But I just need to clear it up that i am completely powerless and all i can do is stay positive and trust the surgeons finally have hit the nail on the head and i will be problem free going forwards.

Got slightly sidetracked there, but the purpose of this post is to share with you what it feels like to work your ass off for something and dedicate a huge amount of time, return to a level you desired only to have the floor taken out from underneath you. Only to have to start the progress all over again one year later. I know from my rehabilitation last year that where i am now I am still a long way off what I would consider as elite standard. Yes i can do one or two 30minute efforts on the wattbike with semi decent outputs, But I am a world away from completing 4x30minutes at 360+ as i could last year. I dream one day of having an injury free period for a few years as i wonder just what my capacity might be if i can train without getting hampered and without sitting on the couch for a few months each year. Oh and as to what it feels like to bust your ass, make it back, only to have it fall apart. Well, that sucks big time and is the cause of a lot of my frustration presently.

I am sure some of you have similar experiences where you have worked very hard for something only too loose it all. I would love for you to share some below. Maybe leave out the times you wrote an essay only to have the computer wipe it all.. haha

Pre-Ride photo June 2012. 

As always, Thanks for reading.
Cheers, John