Hell Yeah Fascats!
4 weeks ago I was in the best form of my life. Coach Christian had me performing in excess of 300W FTP, we’d been #FTFPing, doing #TSTWKT and making Training Peaks go green every week. My CTL was the best ever, taper was perfect, my nutrition and hydration nailed. I had been flying up hills for months surprising others and myself with that beautiful FasCat Sweet Spot derived endurance and power.
Day 2, of a 3 day MTB stage race 4 hours from the start gun and my team mate, Phil, and I had paced ourselves perfectly. The previous day’s prologue had us in 5th place, and we were easily in 4th place 2km from the finish line. On a very steep legendary downhill trail, I hit the deck hard, very hard. What the heck? We had practiced this trail and we’d crushed it in training.
My right arm didn’t want to move. I tried to shake it off. The pain was big and bad. Head hung low I was taken off the hill with a badly dislocated shoulder and cracked ribs. Twelve months of training and achievement down the drain. DNF.
What went wrong? What next? Overriding this was a massive sense of failure, letting myself and my team mate down. These last few weeks I explored my ‘why’, you know that ‘thing’ we are supposed to know. My why has always been difficult for me to define.
I had time on my hands during my rehab. Dozens of podcasts and inspiring stories were devoured. I began to explore just what my “hell yeah” moments in cycling really are, who they were with, where the rides were, and even what bike I rode. I may not have totally discovered my ‘why’ but I had realized what I loved to do. Have my A races even been what I really enjoy or something else?
Now there is no A race in my calendar. My calendar is now full of my ‘hell yeah’ rides. If it’s not a Hell Yeah ride or race it’s not on the plan. Some of these are races, many are simply back country missions with friends with no time limits or podiums, they might be audax style rides, or even riding massive miles of bike packing roads with no time limits. And you know what? They are all rides and races I can cancel if family or life offer their own hell yeah moments, because there’s another hell yeah ride coming right up!
I will be training as hard as ever - I will #FTFTP, turn TP green and crush whatever targets Coach Christian sets me. I want to be at my best to enjoy what I do, and what I do going forward is going to be awesome, cos it’s what I want to do. And there’s plenty of it. Pretty cool huh.
I wrote this hoping my experience might help others in a similar situation, maybe post injury or even if you are ‘stuck’ in a rut. If you haven’t gathered by now I totally enjoy being a member of the Fascat community and it has got me through some tough times. So maybe like me take some time to think on your own hell yeah moments and make ‘em happen more – as the Big Cat says I just know it will make us all faster.
Ride On Fascats
Chris (Father) O’Leary
