With the new job and having the time and mental energy to get back to the life I WANT to lead, as opposed to the grinding corporate experience that I was in, I am trying to get back into riding and racing my mountain bike more. Seems like such a simple thing, but when your brain is so drained that you don’t even want to go out for a ride, you know there is a problem. But enough about that.

A couple months ago, I found, through the www.yeticycles.com web site that there is a series of local races up in Nathrop, Colorado, about 10 miles north of Salida. Being a Yeti owner, this was pretty exciting to me, as Yeti is one of the primary sponsors of the race series. I circled the dates for the three races in the series, and vowed that I would use those races as a reality check for what kind of condition I am in and how serious I want to be to improve and spend the time not only for the training, but for the travel and preparation for racing as well.

The first race of the series was in late April, but was cancelled due to extremely inclement weather. It has since been rescheduled for a couple weeks from now. The “second” race was yesterday, and I was there for it. The course is about a 7.5 mile loop that has 2 pretty good climbs, some sweet singletrack, and some two-track runs out in the flats. Its a good course, minus the first big downhill, which is really loose/sandy, off camber, and not very stable or fun. It will get better with time, I am sure, but for now it is pretty miserable.

My goal in this race was to measure my conditioning, not get completely dropped, and evaluate my conditioning during the course of the race. The weather at the course was cold and snowy, for a May 1 date – it was about 34 degrees, and steady snow the whole time – maybe good for the actual riding, but not good for standing around and waiting.

I decided a pre-race tour of the course would be good, since it would give me something to do, give me an idea of the couse layout, and warm me up a bit. So I put on my gear, ate my peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and started out on the course, following the route that we would take in the actual race. Out from the start line goes immediately to the biggest hill on the course, which in reality is not that big, but it gets progressively steeper as the climb goes on, then basically turns into a hike-a-bike for the top 50 feet or so. The course then goes down a steep rocky chute, then transitions to the long loose descent, then out to the flats…all in all I did about 4 miles on the warmup and headed back to the start area – there was still about 40 minutes to the race start. Not wanting to get cold or nervous, I just kept spinning around a little practice loop they have to stay loose.

Its race time…about 20 Expert/Pro riders line up to the front of the group and get ready to go. I am riding Sport, so we line up behind them in a group…I hang to the back of our pack of about 11 riders – its pretty miserable out there – we and snowing. The Expert riders take off like they were shot out of a cannon – rockin towards that first hill. The Sporties line up behind the line with a bit more aprehension and calm than the Experts exhibited. Bang! Off we go!

Its a reasonable start – not flailing bikes and grunting. As we roll towards the first corner and start up the climb, I am in about 5th place, but see a lane to accelerate easily and get in good position for the climb. But I make a mistake and get behind someone who is downshifting rapidly and slowing down quickly – I don’t want to just jump out from behind him, since there is already riders coming around us, but as soon as I could, I got out from behind him and got free. That little spurt took a bit of effort and kinda bogged me down for the rest of the climb, and by the top of the climb I think I was in 4th or 5th, with 2 guys right on my wheel as we started the downhills. Getting through the loose downhill was tricky – I was breathing hard, I knew these two guys were on my wheel and the footing was way loose and not predictable…but we got through it. At the bottom, only one of the guys was still with me, and as we rolled out into the flat, 2-track section, I turned and told him “Sorry about that, I should have let you go past me…” His response was “hey, if we wanted to race like that, we would have been in the first group,” which was a really great outlook. We chatted for a couple more minutes in the flat, before he kinda started rolling and pretty much left me behind.

Now that we were in the flats, I was starting to feel flat…there was a junior rider, probably 14 or 15, who had now caught up to me and was grinding past me. My mental attitude was slipping – I was getting passed by a 14 year old, I felt like dog, and was starting to suffer, and we were only about 3 miles in…maybe that first 4 mile warmup was not such a good idea.

The flats transition into a fun rolling single track, where I should be able to catch and keep up with that kid, but he stayed far enough in front of me that I could not reel him back in…I was getting frustrated and worried that someone was also going to catch me, which would not be acceptable. So I tried to keep pressure on the pedals, focusing on pulling back with my legs and making good round pedal strokes and relaxing…just relax. The next part of the course was the second climb – a bit more gradual and I think a bit shorter than the first climb – as it turns out, the top was steeper and also hike-a-bike style. The junior and I got to the top at about the same time – I was burning hot so I removed my helmet liner as we re-mounted, with him in front. The single track trail then headed out into the flats, running next to this barbed wire fence heading south out in this field – and it went on forever…The Junior was able to pull away from me on this – I could not keep speed up for any length of time and reel him back in, so he probably got about 150 yards on me in this section alone…I was suffering. Towards the end of the big flats, which had to be about 2 miles long, the course transitioned into a single track through the trees – I should be able to make time on this section, but my quads were cramping and I just felt tired. After a quick downhill, back out onto the 2-track road and heading towards the creek, he was still about 75 yards ahead…there was no way…

The trail headed down into the creek bottom on some sweet singletrack through the trees – it was really great! I kept grinding, trying to keep him in sight…maybe I was hungry? Maybe my energy was waning cause that sandwich had burned off…Knowing there was more 2-track road coming to get back to the start line, I decided that I was going to try one of the Crank gels on that road and see if that picked me up for the climbs and the second lap…I just had to hold on long enough to get to that road so I could eat, and I could not be more than a mile away…

Then, a gift – the Junior’s wheel skipped out on a quick little jump climb and he stopped to get back on his bike real quick – I cleared these sections, and now there was only about 30 yards between us. Coming out of the creek bottom there are 2 short steep little climbs – my best scenario! By the top of the second one, I was right back with him…if I could only eat! Out onto that 2-track road, he started to pull away again, but I decided to let him go, I would sit up and eat, get adjusted and ready for the pain of lap 2. I sucked down a Crank Cherry Bomb and as much water as I could get in. By the start line, he probably had 100 yards on me again and was heading up the climb as I came around the start line, but at least I could see him – I could also see that there was nobody behind me…so it was just him and I. Mano y kid.

Coming around the corner to the climb, he had slowed considerably, and by the start of the real climb, I was only probably 30 yards away…by the time we got to the hike section, we were essentially together, but I decided to le
t him have the top and do the loose downhill in front, so that I could just relax and focus on the descent, not on him. Good move, since he jetted down the first steep little downhill and had 30 yards on me by the loose section. I could see him, but we had plenty of room. As we dropped down into the flats though, I took my hands off the disks and let the Yeti roll – by the time we hit the flats, I was on his wheel and rolling onto the 2-track road, where I got dropped on lap one. I rolled up next to him and got a look at his face – he was suffering more than I thoght, and reaching for his water. As I passed, him, I thought I could hear him at the end of his water bottle…I did not want him to crack cause he runs out of water.

Through the flats, I kept the pressure on the pedals, I was feeling tired, but the cramps were going away, and my energy was lifting…maybe it was mental, but I was feeling better. Just gotta keep on the pressure. Up the second climb, Junior was still quite a ways behind me. His dad, who had ridden back and forth between various points on the course, was near the bottom of the climb. As I passed him, I told him that I think Junior had run out of water. He immediately ran back to his bike to get his bottle. A short time later, when I dismounted for the hike section, I could hear them talking – Junior was quite a ways down. At the top, it was go time – I got dropped on this section before, he was not catching me this time.

As I pulled out onto the flats by the fence, I could see another rider ahead of me – now it was chase time, what I do best. Now I could focus ahead on catching the guy in front. Pull the pedals, relax the shoulders, go! At the end of the long flat, I was maybe 50 yards behind him, but just could not reel him in. Singletrack to short downhill to 2-track road, could not reel him in, but Junior was not catching. I felt great, was going fast and speeding up. Onto the 2-track and towards the creek, I could see the guy in front of me, and nobody behind me.

This rider was much better on the singletrack by the creek – I never saw him again. Climbing out of the creek and onto the road home, it was pound time. I was fast and flying home. Junior’s dad was coming onto the course about halfway home – I was hauling. Could not catch the guy in front of me, but finished strong in about 1 hour and 33 minutes for a 15.3 mile course.

At the finish line, another guy had caught and passed Junior – he finished about 2 minutes behind me, and Junior was about a minute behind him. After a couple scoops of chocolate Endurox, I walked back up to the Finish line to cheer on other riders. A couple experts finished stronger than I started. It was done – I survived and finished strong.

So…some lessons learned…I should probably have had a gel pack at the start line. I probably should not have taken such a long warm-up, and I definately should not have done the climbs in the warm-up. Riding relaxed and focused felt better than when I was feeling tense and worrying that I was falling back. The bike was awesome, although my pedals clogged and my glasses fogged heavily – they were a real problem…but it was wet and cold, so maybe its not fair to expect them to stay clear…

Another version of this same race in 2 weeks. Gotta train hard prior to that and see how it goes, all with the thought of getting ready for Angel Fire the forst weekend in June…with these lessons learned, I think I will be better prepared for next time.

Posted in Journeys and Musings |