RIDER FEATURE: Rob Muzio – Hospital bed to rainbows!

Here’s an interesting and inspiring story from Rob Muzio . Read about his determination to comeback from an horrendous illness to winning a rainbow jersey at Masters Worlds.

RIDER FEATURE: Rob Muzio – Hospital bed to rainbows!

From the BMCR (bike racing for the over 40s) Facebook page (private group) — Here’s an interesting and inspiring story from Rob Muzio . Read about his determination to comeback from an horrendous illness.

The story is both awesome and motivating. It shows us all that with true grit and dedication, combined with hard work, research and being sensible, setbacks can be overcome. Well done Rob and our (Masters 2024) Team Pursuit World Champions, who supported him.


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ROB WRITES…. This year started well. The winter is generally Zone 2 training only; for me that’s quite hard, with some track racing; track league obviously organised by me and our dedicated team. But as the numbers for the track league have been steadily falling, I decided to limit the entry and make it more intimate and introduce Derny racing.
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It was fast and furious. This in itself really helped with my first block of training. Fast pedalling on restricted gears of 100 inches. Training for me consists of block segments over periods of weeks. The first block of eight weeks, January to the end of February is Z2 only. More often than not, it’s 5 to 6 days a week and this equates to 220 watts, either 2, 3 or 4-hour rides.
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I try to do it as close to that as possible and keep the Z1 recovery zone less than 15% of the time for the whole ride. Most weeks I’m averaging approximately 13-18 hours a week. I also include body weight Calisthenics workouts to increase my strength, twice a week. These are really built in to help with shoulder strength after my crash and subsequent operation to correct the damage caused, in 2022.
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My next block of training in March and April generally is the same, plenty of Z2, but this time every week add a Z3 session of an approx. duration of 50 miles or 2 and a half hours, making sure the last 30 mins is the hardest. As the weeks go on, I also throw in at least 5 x 800 watt sprints, equally spaced over the last hour of the Z3 session.
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This year was slightly different as after some of these sessions, it took me a couple of days to recover, much longer than the normal, which I thought was perhaps age catching up with me. April was pretty good, the legs were starting to feel good, the Z2 & 3 sessions were getting longer and faster and all the correct feelings in the legs were coming pretty well.
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In April, the team went away to Roubaix to recon the track before the Worlds to get some valuable sessions in for the team pursuit. All was well!
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Back at home, the first race as a team; the team pursuit competition at Derby, I didn’t feel very well, the legs were not good, I couldn’t hold the speed as normal and the ride wasn’t great. Obviously, I was very confused, as I was going pretty well the week before in Roubaix. I just shrugged it off and put it down to a bad day!
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The start of May, legs were good, and when I started with the next block, the speeds had gone significantly up and very pleased with how it was going. However, whilst out on the bike, I kept having episodes of nausea and violent, eye watering, retching. I thought it was just a congestion thing, as once I’d coughed up a bit of phlegm, it seemed to pass, and I could carry on.
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I was getting indigestion type back pain in the evenings, then really tender spots in my side. I thought it was perhaps the byproduct of a hard session in the day. The pain in the side seemed to be getting worse, my wife as normal thought it was just in my head, no sympathy there! I carry on.
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In bed now and it was painful to lie on my right side. Halfway through the night, I experienced massive pain in my stomach and right round to the right side, instantly thinking, that’s not good! I obviously don’t wake up my wife for fear of no sympathy again!
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Eventually, it eases off and I try to go back to sleep. I’m still suffering, so I take a few days off. Thinking I can’t take any more time off the bike right now, I just do a Z2, but it ends up a Z3, as I feel good, I just couldn’t work it out.
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That evening, I didn’t feel good at all! I thought I’d just nip to the toilet, but didn’t make it, as I’m in the most excruciating pain I’ve ever felt. Sitting on the side of the bed, suddenly, I understand now when someone says “sweating buckets”. I literally did that in an instant!
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Eventually the pain eased enough to get off the bed. I felt really rough. During the night, the shakes came on uncontrollably, the bed was wet with sweat, yet I couldn’t stop shivering for what seemed like hours.
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In the morning, I couldn’t get out of bed. I was totally exhausted. I even had the pleasure of Lorna, my wife bringing me breakfast in bed, but my head couldn’t leave the pillow, and it was still there at 1 o’clock. Lorna managed to get a GP appointment, and my son came to help and drive us.
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I wasn’t in any state to understand what was happening at that point. My son said, “blimey dad, you’re completely yellow”. We arrived at the doctors and the nurse asked for a urine sample! It resembled a blood sample, and the census was to go directly to A & E. Do not pass go, do not collect £200!
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I spent the next 24 hours on a trolley in a cubby hole, still violently shaking, going in and out of consciousness, apparently, as I have no recollection of that time! Eventually I ended up on a ward looking like a well-tanned banana!
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The first four days in hospital, I spent all my time attached to a drip and intravenous antibiotics, it appeared I had Sepsis (Google – a life-threatening condition that occurs when the body’s immune system overreacts to an infection or injury). I had an enlarged liver, an enlarged gallbladder, an enlarged pancreas, enlarged bile canal, an enlarged spleen and a growth in the bile canal causing a bottle neck, the sludge and stones I had built up couldn’t pass into the colon quickly enough.
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I spent the next 10 days going to some very dark places whilst on antibiotics, going to numerous testing departments all over the Queen’s Medical Centre. The most horrific procedure was the endoscopy, which included a small blade attached, to widen some canals to eliminate the back up of sludge and any stones. I remember waking gagging and retching with the tube still in my throat as they couldn’t sedate me any further and they had to abort the procedure. Fortunately, I have some good friends, who work in the QMC, pulling quite a few strings to get me what I needed, to whom I will be forever grateful.
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Finally, when I came back to the land of the living, my attention reverted back to getting a timeline to start training again. The doctors seemed to suggest it may not happen, but I was determined to find a way. On the 10th day, I managed to convince the doctors I needed to get back to some sort of riding, but I was told to take at least a week of rest, and this combined with Lorna’s persuasive look of disapproval, I agreed to a week’s recovery at home.
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At the end of that week, it appeared I still wasn’t well, all the antibiotics had totally stripped my immune system and caused various other issues, and to top the lot, a bad cold had developed and so that was another week in bed. All this, in the middle of the season with four weeks of total darkness. In my head, I had sold my whole collection of bikes numerous times, then talked myself out of it and replanned the recovery daily.
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It’s now mid to late June, and I’ve got three months to rebuild the form I had prior to the forced lay off. I’m still feeling unwell, but in July the team had a planned track camp (multiple session) at the Glasgow track, as it’s a similar configuration as Roubaix, but it’s too soon for me with the speed our team ride at, it was not achievable to get in any recognisable shape to be productive, so it was agreed for me to sit it out.
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But I plan to be at the August session at Derby.
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How do I manage to get fit in approximately six weeks and make the team pursuit team, still not 100% well with each and every one of the team world class in their own right? Needless to say, at that point, it seemed futile! A very tall order!
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The first week I looked deep, just ride as far as you can each day at Z2 properly, and if I can’t do it, try again the following day. Bearing in mind, I’ve had to completely adjust my diet excluding all indigestible fats, being an endurance athlete you still need them to function, I realised that pretty quickly, the first ride back, fuelled primarily on plain veg and white fish, riding at 220 watts for two hours is extremely challenging. I managed 22 miles and grovelled back the last 16 miles on virtually empty! In that 16 miles, two 750ml bottles of water were consumed, but I still needed more.
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The following day, I needed to reset and adjust the length, duration and terrain, the usual flapjack was a no-no, based on the high content of butter and peanut butter normally included within the ingredients. All fats had to be cut down based on the fact that I still felt like someone was sticking their middle finger in my stomach with extreme force! I could eat rice & grains, but the ingredients required to bind them together were limited. So I went on to the internet and researched what I could do.
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I remembered Mike Twelves and a rice cakes conversation, so the next step was YouTube and what the pro teams were doing. Fortunately, there were loads of teams using rice cakes and masses of recipes, problem solved! Now, I don’t leave home without them. Gels and high sugar stuff wasn’t an option, especially for my issues.
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The first week had passed with no further issues, Z2 only. By the end of the second week, ride distances had increased to over 200 miles – all at Z2. The third week started with Z2 only, but by the end of the week, I’d tried a Z3 at 250 watts, which turned out to be a three-hour ride, average watts 252 for the 60 miles and the speed was over 20mph. The first three weeks completed, and I was now gaining a bit of confidence that I might just do it, but in the back of my mind, I needed to do another couple of weeks with the same, if not better progression of fitness than the last three.
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At least, I wasn’t worrying about going pop with the lack of nutrition like before. Trying to fuel for the following days training on limited possible food stuff was extremely challenging, with no guidance from the medical profession, I did it totally on my own, with the constant fear in the background of experiencing the excruciating pain as before, and completely destroying my chances of making it to the Worlds at Roubaix.
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Each meal had to be planned meticulously (and still is today) to facilitate the training required.
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I now needed to test myself, so I entered the BMCR road bike TT approximately three weeks away – I had the first challenge. Training was going well Z2 with a Z3 thrown in each week and mileage had gone to nearly 300 miles a week. Each day with a minimum of 40-45 mile rides and up to 70 mile rides, making sure I’m not too far from home in case of emergencies. The quality was always there; Z2 & Z3, now mixing it with 10 min intervals and 800 watts sprints 4 or 5 times with equal rest periods.
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The fitness was coming back quite quickly, but my endurance was questionable at this point. The TT came and went, it was acceptable, but I didn’t feel my usual self. I had, however, put a marker in the sand. The plan? repeat but faster!
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The next block was on repeat, but now included some racing, to only use as a gauge to judge fitness, and ride hard. I rode some of the Darley Moor races and entered the Tour of Breedon prior to the next Team mini track camp in August. The Tour of Breedon started and I thought, I’m totally on the edge here and we hadn’t even done a lap! Riders jumping about and I just couldn’t recover quickly enough to go with the next attack. The break went and then another, I thought I’m going to have to go for it and see what happens. I did and jumped across to the second group on my own and eventually finished 6th. I was actually quite happy with that even though I messed up the sprint, but still happy!
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The first team session was finally here, and I was extremely nervous. What happens if I can’t cut the mustard – I’ve not come all this way, to fail? It didn’t go completely to plan, but wasn’t disastrous. I’d now included private Derny sessions on Derby with Carl “Sid” Allsop pacing me, they prove to be priceless and extremely tough.
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Each session consisted of fast pedalling over 38 miles at an average of 33mph. We did five of these sessions over the period of four weeks leading up to the Worlds and right through both National Track Champs in Newport.
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We had two chances to ride a 4km team pursuit – the BMCR National Track Champs and the BC Champs, both giving us an opportunity to ride as one prior to the Worlds in Roubaix. From these events, we selected the team that we felt gave us the best option from the six possible riders.
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I decided to train straight through the Track Champs with no tapering and brought back four medals. This showed the training was on the right track, even though it was not where I wanted to be. I was still doing the same Z2 & Z3 sessions every week, still between 14 & 18 hours a week. I was feeling more confident.
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The time had come to leave for the Worlds, and I could do no more. I got better during week and narrowly missed out on a medal in the Points race. Then the main day had arrived; the Team Pursuit, everything that our team strives for, we must defend our title. The qualifying was a bit scrappy, it was controlled, but we qualified quickest by nine seconds.
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The Americans qualified second and the other GB team third. I must admit, I felt terrible after the qualifier and thought it was perhaps a bit too ambitious to attempt riding the final for the good of the team; I really didn’t feel well! However, I thought I had a good few hours to see how I recovered. Then the time had come – the final, warming up on the turbo’s, I actually felt quite good. We caught the Americans after 12 laps, we are World Champions for the second year in succession.
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This made all the suffering and hard work completely worth it, to be on the top step with great mates, all on song together at the same time. Fantastic!!

Some story that Rob!

Presented by BMCR.org.uk | Bike racing for the over 40s | Thanks Toks Adesanya | Alan Vallance

 

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