RAAM 2009: No Go

Here is the email I just sent to my wonderful crew. It summarizes things well.

Dear Crew:
Today is April 20th and the start of RAAM is less than two months away. After much thought, reflection and numerous discussions with my family, friends, coach and medical team, I have decided to pull-out of this year's race and postpone my quest to finish Solo RAAM to June 2010.

Before I go any further I want to let you know how much I have appreciated your willingness to support me during '09 RAAM and the personal time and effort you have already put into the race thus far.

I truly feel we have a dream crew in place - you are an outstanding group of individuals to support such an ambitious goal . And you all were willing to give up vacation, work commitments, your own races and leave your families behind to support me. This means the world to me and I am sorry we can't go all the way to Anapolis together (at least not this year ;-)

There is nothing I enjoy more than achieving a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) with great friends. That's what ultracycling/randonneuring in general and RAAM specifically is all about for me.

I also really don't like not finishing something I have started. I have always maintained that there are only two legitimate reasons for DNF-ing an ultra event: possibility of permanent damage or immediate life danger. So pulling out does not come easy to me.

So what has lead me to this decision?

• The knee injury I now have been dealing with for the last three months has gotten somewhat better but I am clearly not where I need to be. I am ok gently spinning. However, as soon as I increase the wattage the knee starts to hurt (at about 250 Watts). Getting out of the saddle is bad news. A 2.5 hr easy hilly ride on Friday left my knee inflamed. My knee is not in a position to take on any long or hard rides right now - at what should be a critical point in my training.

• My injured left leg is now significantly weaker than the right one. This has lead to a misaligned pelvis (aren't you glad you know ;-) and a number of annoying aches and pains on the 'good side': strained muscle in my groin and knee and calve tenderness. Ramping up my training would most likely make the misalignment worse and lead to more aches/pains.

• I am getting mentally exhausted dealing with the injury. Virtually every day I am at a rehab appointment, while trying to maintain some sort of light alternative training regime, fulfilling my duties at work and being a decent husband and father. It has become increasingly difficult to keep my spirits high while watching the clock tick and not being able to train pain free.

Looking back from where I sit now it might not come as a surprise that my body is rebelling. The last 18 months were pretty intense. I started a new job in the investment advising world which I love but which ended up being quite stressful because of all the turmoil in the financial markets.

Catherine and I had our second son Liam who is a great kid but who has been a horrendous sleeper for the first 13 months of his life. We can in fact count the number of nights we slept without interruption over the last 18 months on one hand. Fortunately, it's SLOWY getting better.

All that said, I had a good season last year with a strong 600 km (24+ hrs solo over four mountain passes), a very enjoyable Cascade 1,200 km with tons of sleep and a pretty good Hoodoo 500 mile race. However, the cumulative stresses over the last year in combination with strenuous RAAM training was obviously too much for my body.

Finishing solo RAAM remains a deeply cherished goal of mine. I finished team RAAM in 2002 and DNF'd 2005 solo RAAM with pulmonary edema resulting in an air lift and two days in ICU. When that happened, there was never a doubt in my mind that I would compete again.

Endurance sports competition has always been the overriding constant in my life and RAAM is arguably the grand daddy of all endurance races: it is by all accounts the hardest and most demanding race in the world. As you know, half of all participants who start don't finish. More people summit Mt Everest every year than have ever finished RAAM in its 26 year history. Wofgang Fasching, the only person who has done both, says that RAAM is physically and mentally more demanding.

When it comes to my own athletic life, there is nothing I want more than to finish solo RAAM.Unfortunately, it's not going to happen in 2009.

So Where to from here?

Over the next few months, I will focus on healing: physically and mentally. I will take some down time and start building from the inside out with a strong core foundation. I will spend a lot of time with my family over this summer. I will catch up on all the normal life things I put on the back burner for the last five months (how about cleaning up that basement honey?).

Come fall, I will build up for a longer ride and then start training for RAAM 2010.I will of course be in touch with you later in the year and and try and recruit you for my 2010 bid ;-).

But for now: thank you once again for your willingness to give it a shot this year! Enjoy planning the three weeks you now have free in June and send me a (virtual) postcard from the beach.

Thanks again for all your support!

Urs

Baby Steps

It's been 11 days since my growth factor injection. It sure got worse after that. While I was able to ride for several hours before the injection, there was no way I could even to 5 min for the last 10 days: walking, every step hurts and riding was not even on the horizon. I sure hope it will get better after it's gotten worse...

Ended up doing nothing at all for 5 days. Mid week last week I was able to start doing some core strengths again and even the elliptic trainer.

Today: 30 min of spinning with virtually no resistance (HR<115). First little test was a success.

I still have 2 1/2 weeks until I have to make the final decision on RAAM. After a challenging 11 days, today was a small success. Will see the MD tomorrow and find out what he has to say...

Patience and living with ambiguity are the name of the game. Both not my strengths so I am seeing all this as a personal growth opportunity :-)

Sidlined for now

It's been a challenging time lately. Two weeks ago the MRI revealed that I have a partial tear in one of my tendons on my left knee(Partial tear of the deep fibers of the distal quadriceps tendon a the patellar insertion). Expected healing time: 6 weeks. In my exploration of options I discovered a relatively new medical procedure called 'Injectable Platelets & Growth Factors' which I underwent today. The process which comes out of Standford and has been used with a couple of Sea hawks players this year goes as follows: A small amount of blood is drawn. The blood is then placed in a centrifuge and spun to separate the platelets and growth factors from other blood component. The now 5 times concentrated growth factors are then injected into the injured area. The idea is to increase healing time by having a large concentration of growth factors in the injured area.

So far so good. The knee of course now hurts significantly more than before due to the injection. That is expected to get better over the new few days.

To add to it all: I overcompensated with my right leg and strained an abductor....so for now I am totally off the bike (and off the gym floor).

Over the last week I spent a lot of time thinking about my options and what decisions I need to make when. I want to handle my injuries both smartly and tenaciously. Smartly, in that I will not start RAAM injured. Nor will I start it without the proper training (i.e. not with significantly less than 5,000 miles since the beginning of the year). Tenaciously, in that I will move everything in my power to get this injury under control and still train properly for RAAM.

I will lay low and do virtually nothing for the next seven to ten days to give my body time to heal. I will then take it day by day.

At a high level, I have set two deadlines for making the go/no go decision. The first one is a soft one the second a hard go/no go decision.

The first one is a crew practice ride on April 10th. I want to be able to do this but will be OK with a bit of issues and pain. I however, will keep the option of starting RAAM open, even if I have to cancel the ride(although that would admittingly be difficult mentally). Second (and hard) deadline is the week of April 20th to 26th. I will need to be able to put in a huge week (800+ miles or so) with very little issues. If I won't be able to do that then I will pull the plug and not start RAAM.

It's all part of the journey. As everyone who is involved with RAAM knows: simply getting to the starting line is an accomplishment. Send me good karma :-)

nursing the knee

A two hours indoor spin today at the gym seems to have actually helped. I am feeling a bit better, even can walk with a minimal limp. The non-stop icing is maybe helping too. Lots of funny looks in the office as I am sitting there with my pants rolled up icing my knees. But hi: small price to pay for getting better.

x ray showed a small bone spur. Sucked it up today and went in for an MRI to check out the soft tissue. Will know more on Friday morning. For now: Stretching, self massage, some RAAM logistics and then shut eye. Just put Liam down, Catherine is negotiating the good night routine with Luc as I write this.

that knee again

can't believe it. Re-injured my knee today on.....the playground..

I was out with my two boys this morning and in attempt to rescue Luc from falling off the 'big-boy' swing (while holding Liam) I hurt it again. We don't seem to have much luck in the family this weekend. Catherine's back is worse again today. Sooo, let's go nice and easy for the next week or so. I tried riding indoors this afternoon and ended up with 5 hrs. The knee actually got slightly better during the ride. Standing hurts every time though..

So, this week is taking it easy on that leg so that I am ready for long days on Friday and Saturday.

All out efforst hurt. Even if they are only 20 sec long...

Another intense week at work but I made time for short intense training blocks. 1 hr of core on Monday, 2 hrs below threshold intensity Tuesday, single leg drills yesterday and the toughest of them all on Wednesday: 20 sec all out, 40 sec recovery. Do this for 5 min then recover for 5 min, 20 sec all out, 40 sec recovery for 5 min, 5 min recovery until the hour is up...Hardest training session so far this year. I have done so much base work that the high end intensity REAALlY hurt...

Hoping for no snow this Sunday for the start of the SIR brevet series: 100 km. I will extend it to a 6 hr ride. Should be goooood.

Not such a great ride..

This Saturday showed me again what I knew all along: Balancing my job, family and training is a real balancing act. Things don't always turn out the way they should. After a great 'stacking week' the week before I had to work late every single night last week. Not always being great at just switching off, I would often not fall asleep until way after midnight. Apparently our one year old Liam does not really care and 530 am is his normal getting up time no matter when his dad goes to bed :-) Result: totally overtired into the weekend. A relatively short ride (for a weekend) was on the program: 6 hours. I felt decent for the first 2 hours but then the lights went out. An 'deep in your bones' tiredness overcame me and I decided to cut the ride short to four hours and have a two hours nap. Fell into bed and did not wake up until dinner time.

Being a very structured (and I like to think organized ) person, this would have gotten into my head even a few years ago: I don't like not finishing what I have set out to do. I have learned though to listen to my body: I now am much better at distinguishing between the true need to rest and simply being a bit lazy. Yesterday was certainly the former..

A new week and my resolution is: NO LATE nights for work this week. Training will be relatively easy with about 12-14 hrs. Saturday is the SIR 100 km brever which I will extend to a century.

I am looking forward to our crew meeting this Tuesday. The RAAM crew of seven is coming together nicely. I will write more about these truly great people shortly here. Signing off for some shut eye now...

It;s going to be a great ride tomorrow

After a long week at work I am looking forward to six hours in the saddle tomorrow! Every hour HR 10 min at 150 says the coach...will keep it interesting.

hard at.....work

good thing this is an easy training week: Work has me pretty good. The markets aren't good to us and I have to make some more unpleasant cost cuts. Revamping our marketing strategy at the same time. Lots of hours over spreadsheets and charts. Last week I thought of RAAM every hour every day, this week it's the four Ps of marketing that keep my mind busy. Keeps life interesting. On a side note: I am so thankful that Liam (our 1 1/2 year old) is now sleeping through the night. Sleep makes everything better!

Urs Races RAAM to Benefit Boyer Children's Clinic

Here is what we just handed to Boyer Children's Clinic for their parent newsletter:

'Race Across America' to Benefit Boyer in June '09 Former Boyer parent Urs Koenig will compete as a solo bike racer in the annual 'Race Across America' (RAAM)- a coast-to-coast, 'ultracycling' race that pits each rider against the clock and is known as the world's toughest endurance event (www.raceacrossamerica.org). The race begins June 17 in Oceanside, California and has to be completed within 12 days for an official finish in Annapolis, Maryland. The route is over 3000 miles, touches 14 states and climbs over 100,000 feet. Solo racers typically finish in 9 to 12 days, averaging 250 to 350 miles per day. To achieve this staggering accomplishment, Urs will have to maximize time on the bike, minimize sleep, and conquer adversities such as desert heat, high altitudes, and blustering headwinds. An official finish would represent the fulfillment of a long-sought dream for Urs and be the pinnacle of his athletic career focused on endurance sports. The 2009 race is actually Urs' second attempt - he competed as a Soloist in RAAM four years ago and had to pull-out after 850 miles due to pulmonary problems he developed in the Rocky Mountains. Exciting news for Boyer Children's Clinic and our families: Urs and his wife Catherine Parker have chosen to use RAAM as an opportunity to raise funds on our behalf this year. Together with Boyer, they'll ask friends, colleagues, family and our extended network of supporters and donors to follow the race and pledge their dollars for Boyer's benefit. Please stay tuned as Boyer rolls out more information on how to sponsor Urs to support Boyer in 2009!

Back to work

Sure enough: after a great training and family week work has me again. Have to cut costs. Lots of number crunching until all hours. The market is hurting us.

Had a good strength session at the gym: CORE!

Four months until RAAM!

Great training week

Just finished my second 'stacking week' 29 hrs and 480 miles and almost every mile of it in the sun! Not bad for Seattle in February. I feel very good. Of course tired but very thankful that my knee issue is slowly getting better.

Here we go!

After a lot of soul searching and discussion with Catherine, I decided in December of last year to give solo RAAM 2009 a shot. I also want to make this 'ego' trip bigger than just me. I will be raising funds for the Boyer Children's Clinic. Boyer has a special place in my family's heart. Our three year old son Luc was dealing with developmental delays and went to Boyer for speech and physical therapy. http://www.boyercc.com/.

I will use this blog for updates on my training, the logistical preparation and our fund raising efforts.