Journal of professional cyclists Ian MacGregor and Timmy Duggan

US Pro Time Trial tomorrow!

My first competition in my return to racing is the national championship time trial tomorrow. Its been great to be back hanging out with my team again here in Greenville. We scoped out the time trial course yesterday and I have to say it really is perfect for me for what I am capable of now. Its very undulating and has several corners but with no long rhythm sections or hills, so there will be lots of little recovery moments. I know I will have a lot of emotion to let out in the race tomorrow and I’m really excited to get that feeling again.

You can watch the race live on the internet tomorrow from 11-130 eastern time at http://www.usacyclingchampionships.com/live-streaming-video-2.html

Thanks for checkin in!

Ready for Nationals

It feels nice to be done with my big initial training block as I return to competition.  It took an enormous amount of energy from all systems to get the ball rolling again aftera couple months of total rest and no riding.  The last couple weeks I didn’t feel so hot, just slogging it like I’m stuck in 4th gear.  But yesterday I finally found fifth gear.  I did some work on the TT bike with the intent of just going out and feeling fast.  At the end of the ride my PowerTap told me I had put out significantly more power for significantly longer than anything I was capable of the the last few weeks, and I was really just on cruise control. It just clicked, the difference between having to force a hard pace and just being comfortable at it.  So now I have much more confidence going into the National Championship Time Trial in Greenville next week.  Its funny how your body reacts.  In the past after significant time off from injury or fatigue or whatever, it has taken me almost exactly 8 weeks to go from zero to flying.  Not 7 weeks, 8 weeks.  I just feel like crap and then all of a sudden all the switches get turned on and I feel good again.  And this time its no exception.  So we’ll see how it goes, but I’ve really done all that I was capable of in training and now its just a matter of feeling good and happy going into the race.  Luckily Loren and Karli and I are heading down to Crested Butte this afternoon for a friends wedding party.  So after a weekend of camping and mountain biking I should be happy enough.  I haven’t yet been on the mountain bike yet, but I think it really is a sin to be in Crested Butte in the summer and not go for some mountain bike rides.  Pretty sure that Heaven is actually CB with a mountain bike.  If those arent there, not sure I wanna go!Thanks for checkin in 

Benefit from The Pros Closet

Check out our new sponsor, The Pros Closet, for some Tour de France memorabilia and Slipstream cycling stuff, sales of which will benefit the Just Go Harder Foundation. Thank you!!! 

Recovery and Return to Racing

I met with my doctors at Craig Hospital last week to get another CAT scan and devise a time frame for my return to racing.  We did a CAT scan instead of an MRI because my neurologist wanted to see if there was any new bleeding or anything that may have caused my massive week of fatigue and depression.  Luckily there was nothing remarkable on the scan except that the scar has developed from the hematoma.  This doesn’t really mean much other than it is just there and is a representation of the severity of the injury.  Just as a scar from road rash or something doesn’t mean your elbow is more likely to burst at the seams, it just means that you got some road rash.  That was encouraging and an indication that my healing has progressed but the things I’m still trying to correct will just take more time and rest.  Consulting with my neurologists, my team doctor, my coach , and my family, I’ve decided to not participate in any further races for this season.  I will, however, take the line at the US Professional National Championships in Greenville, SC in the individual time trial.  Having nationals as a goal is a good way to keep me sane for now while I am training to return to competition.  It will fit in well with what I have been capable of training at this point. Lately I have been able to do short hard rides, and long easy rides, but long AND hard rides are still a little much for me as it takes days to recover.  However, that’s not a big deal with a 40 minute time trial.  So this month I have been training for that.  I’m hoping my legs can come around in the next couple weeks and I can put in a good ride, but if not that’s ok too, because really the biggest victory is just to be back to my team  and competition.  I’m really looking forward to pinning on a number again soon.

Thanks for checking in

Boulder Bike Park

If you haven’t heard of it already, my hometown of Boulder, co is embarking on a really cool project, the valmont bike park. Soon it will hopefully be a playground for all types of cycling with mtb courses and cyclocross tracks. Check out the valmont bike park website and this news article to learn more.Thanks for checking in

Tour of Utah up next

The past few days have been nothing special. A couple easy rest days, and a couple big 5hr days in the mountains. I’ve just been trying to polish off the form before heading to Utah on Monday for the five day Tour of Utah.  I’m really excited for this race; two big mountain days at high altitude, and hopefully my form is still there! For Team Type 1, the race should be perfect for our team full of strong climbers, we’ll try and get our hands on some of the $75,000 in prize money.

Best of luck to two of my teammates, Moises and Chaddy in Beijing, and also to former teammate Friedman!

Recovery Update

The last couple weeks have been a bit of an experiment.  I arrived in Colorado from Europe last month with a solid 2 1/2 weeks of EZ riding in Girona under my belt.  With I little “base” I started to up the training intensity a notch or 2 for a good block.  Initially things were good, I did moderately hard 5-10 minute intervals on my time trial bike and even went at maximum heart rate at a couple points to see how I would react.  Even at above 190 I felt fine with no dizziness or anything like that.  I did a few solid rides in the mountains with some shallow climbing.  And this week I’m really paying for it all, unfortunately. I’m really just knocked flat all day.  I just woke up from a 4 hour afternoon nap and I havent done anything all week except take a hunting certification class. (Im proud to announce I passed the test with a 100% and shot the elk target right through the heart on the first shot in the firing range.  So this fall Ian will have another hunting partner.)  I realize that my recovery is just not up to a normal level yet.  Doing just a third of what I would normally do in training just wipes me out after a few days.  I feel like my teammates who just finished the Tour.  I basically took this whole week off to recover, either doing a short EZ ride or not at all.  Fatigue can be a common side effect of traumatic brain injuries even months after the injury.  I have to maybe give my injury a little more credit and seriousness.  Although I handled training well initially, repeated efforts at a harder intensity render me unable to recover normally for now. With brain injury recovery, its one thing to have a normal every day life and have it not affect your work, sleep, social activities, etc. anymore.  But in cycling I am working with the top few percent of my capacity.  Although I may be fine in my every day life, that few percent I am still missing comes out in my recovery ability.  But its all ok because now I know and I can back it off.  I also realize that I have to be realistic with the rest of my season.  I wanted to make a solid run at the National Time Trial Championship but it will be tough for me to be at a high level by then.  I will at least race just to get the sensations back again!  But for now I have to really take it day by day and focus on my recovery.  I will spread out harder rides and take as long as I need to recover from them.  It may not be as fast as I would like, but my recovery is happening and I have to take it slow.  I am also continuing to work with a psychologist and even a hypnotist for some other lingering issues.In a few days I will be down at Craig Hospital for another MRI scan and doctor update, so ill let you all know what they say.  Thanks for your support 

Camping, guns, beer, oh and a bike race too!

This past weekend Timmy and I, along with Jason Donald, Mike Friedman, Blake Caldwell (all Garmin), and Mike Lange (Jelly Belly) headed up to Salida for an Omnium and the Colorado State road race. We had one heck of a fun time! It was great to just relax and have some fun during the middle of the long road season.  The priorities for the three days included eating ‘friedmand foil food,’ shooting a lot of clay pigeons, and having a beer or two - ok maybe three! The best part was that we acutally all rode pretty well in the race, with Jason winning the crit and the omnium overall, Blake was third in the omnium, and I won the road race while finishing fifth in the omnium.

A few long training rides in the mountains await this week, hopefully it won’t be near as hot up high.

Mt Evans

I had the legs to win, but didn’t. Three days later and I’m still frustrated about the finish. I should be happy with 2nd, but I really don’t like to miss opportunities for race wins. Oh well, at least I felt good which is no small feat when racing at 14,000ft above sea level.

Took the past couple days pretty easy, trying to rest up and doing some gardening around the house. I’ll be doing the mid-week crit tonight in just a couple hours, then a long ride in the mtns. tomorrow. After that, Timmy and I’ll will be heading to Salida for a three day stage race. Timmy won’t be racing but instead will continue to put in some ’safe’ miles while continuing to get back to the bike.  Maybe I can get him to make my bottles and pump up my tires!

If you’ve got a moment, check out my teammate Emile’s recent crash, just click the link then go to the ‘video’ button below the photo of the crash.

In B Town, Finally With A Bike

Loren and I returned from Europe and are now back home in Boulder.  Being in Europe this last month was a good experience for me.  A big part of why I went was to test myself in new situations and new places, speaking French and Spanish, and see if any mental deficits came about, like finding the right word, not understanding spoken language or just feeling a little slow.  Fortunately everything felt really normal.  I even totally forgot while I was over there that it was almost expected I may run into troubles in that area.  My doctor said that if there were any issues hidden they would surely show themselves being in new places with new people and speaking a 2nd or 3rd language, so it was very encouraging.  Its good to see Karli, our dog, again.  When we got back she was tired and muddy from spending the month with our parents playing with other dogs, hiking, or hanging out at the construction site.  She welcomed us back so she could rest a little bit I think.  I’m glad to be back in Boulder and now I will attempt to ease into some structured training and a regular routine.  It was an adjustment for Karli too…the first day I rode from home and returned, she was barking at me as I walked into the door, unsure who this argyle-clad clown was clomping up the stairs with a bike.  She hadn’t seen me with my cycling gear on since February and wasnt sure what to make of it!  Anyways, hopefully Ill be walking in my door with my bike every day with a giant grin on my face because I’m so happy to be riding again!  I did some testing intervals a couple days ago to see how I would react to higher power output and heart rate.  At the end of the last interval I punched it for a couple minutes and got my heart rate to 190, feeling no ill effects, no dizziness, no headaches, nothing, so that was a little confidence booster for sure.  I will continue to slowly push myself with caution to be ready for the National Championships Time Trial at the end of August in Greenville, SC.  Thanks for checking in