Bagels and Bacon Short Track #2

Ok so I said MTB season was over but almost. This race was a cross type race on the MTB bikes. 40 minutes of an all out effort with a field of ~36 racers. It was good since it would tell me how my engine was going to handle this type of intensity. I knew through the rest of the season my endurance was good but going this hard for this short of a time period usually takes some time to get used to. It hurt.

I took off and was 2nd row on the start but made sure I got to the front early. I was sitting 4th into the first climb and then just stayed steady to see if anyone would come around. We were going hard enough that they couldn't. So I sat on 3rd place's wheel to see where he would make a mistake and where I could pass. Sure enough his pace slowed up so I was planning my pass and where the course split - one high line and one low line - he went low and I went high. I lit up the upper line as I knew I was more confident there and by the time the course came back together I had a couple second gap on him. So I just laid it down and patiently stretched the gap and started to work up to Monte. Maurice was killing it and in the lead by a decent margin so my battle was to get up to Monte and the race would unfold behind me(hopefully). So on I kept the pace and I started to close on Monte in lap #3. Up to the top of the 2nd part of the first climb I see him getting closer and closer. As I hit the garden - getting antsy knowing he's right there - I bobble and can't get clipped in. I hit the following downhill and rocky stream crossing not clipped in. CRAP! I was unsettled with not being clipped in so I had to be conservative and the gap reopened. My mistake.

I got back in the pedal and began search and destroy mode again. I hit every hill hard and looked for the remaining lap card. I thought we'd be doing 5 laps but then the cards suggested 6. So I knew just how to pace myself. I was hoping to regain sight of Mike but he was just out of range. I made up some time as my 5th and 6th lap got faster and faster but I wasn't close enough to challenge Mike at the end. I was in nowhere's-ville. Couldn't see ahead or behind so I let up a bit and cruised to the finish. 45 seconds away from Monte and 1:30 from Freddy who was chasing. Pretty decent gaps but not that great if there was the slightest error. Such a fun discipline. It was a fo real mtb course in a cx format. Pretty fun. 3rd place was the finish and I was happy with that. Hopefully this bodes well for my cx season that follows. Now it's really officially CX season :-)

Here's a great video recap of the event. Check it out! Great job filming and editing! http://vimeo.com/30940924

Wawayanda H2H #8 Recap

My race strategy was pretty simple. Try to not kill it off the line and ride consistently smooth through the rough stuff and see what time I could make up in there. I took off and sat comfortably in 5th of 11 through all of sitting bear and the white trail up to the lake. Just after the lake I was trying to manage killing all those nasty puddles and finding an line(if it existed)and I see John A sneaking up behind and I let him pass to use him as motivation to get back to the lead 4 ahead. This was good and bad. John had a good pace going but a couple of sections held him back and that held me back. Anyway through the S/F line I was 10 seconds back and I figured I'd make it up on the cross hike-a-bike into Little Bear. I did just that and used a lot of effort to hit the runup hard and remounted ahead of him. I stayed on it through Sitting Bear and felt like I rode it a little more solidly. John was still close behind so on the climb up to and through white I attacked. I dropped down by the lake and saw no sight of him the rest of the lap.

Into sitting bear on the 3rd lap I felt like I couldn't find the groove. Actually I never had the groove all day, it just was really bad on the 3rd lap. It felt more like I went to shift to a higher gear and I blew up my clutch. I really didn't feel like I was warmed up at all or could really get my heart rate up. All of the puddles seemed like a black hole to me. I misjudged everyone and they gave me something unexpected every time. I was getting really frustrated. At the end of sitting bear I could see Brian Kelly sneaking up and then I looked back and Matt Miller was through him and coming for me. Great. So Matt beat me to the fire road and into white. Now I wanted to stay on his wheel but I couldn't. I made too many mistakes. So as I drifted back on white Brian passed me. I knew I was fading so at this point I just kept on and tried to stop the bleeding. I rode from there on slipping all over and totally off my game.

Anticipating what the bike would do never happened from that point on. It was totally erratic. I think I hit every underwater obstacle that was out there. But into red somehow Matt was still in sight. So I said to myself that I'll close the gap a little and then on the last climb after the plank bridge I'll attack him and go for the pass. I never made it that far. In my attempt to close the gap after the red trails merged I took some lines in those nasty puddles that literally threw me off the trail. I hit one and launched right into the woods. I got back up to speed and the next one launched me left into the woods. Each time narrowly avoiding death by pine tree. It was ridiculous. In one of the puddles I had to put my feet down while still stradling the bike and my saddle slammed into my tail bone. It's over a week later and still REALLY sore. Probably bruised the hell out of it. I just wanted to keep it upright from there till the end so I kicked it back a notch since there was no one around me. I got up that final climb after the long plank bridge and looked back to see if I was clear and I see John A. right behind me with that "look"....crap. As soon as I saw him I put every ounce of juice I had left into blasting that downhill and making sure he couldn't pass me going into the finish. If he was getting past me, he would have to work hard to do it.

So I ended up in 7th of 11 starters and 2nd in the state. BL told me that it was awesome watching John and I sprint for 2nd place in the state and I had absolutely no clue that's what we were racing for. It was just that competitive edge that wanted to keep him behind me at all cost :-). I was a little disappointed since I think I could have had 5th. Matt was definitely in sight(got me by 7 secs dammit!) and if I did a couple things better I think I could have had Brian behind me. But that's the good 'ol "IF" game. So even though I didn't race that well it was fun to be out there riding circles in the slop. I'm ready for MTB season to end. Hello CX.

Blue Mountain Chainstretcher Recap

After preriding the Thursday before in the rain and slop I wasn't quite sure how good the conditions would be on race day. The days preceeding the race the weather was clear but cool. So I figured the course would be a bit slick but in much better shape than on my preride. I was pretty much right on with the conditions and my course inspection the day of confirmed this. I was ready to roll. I didn't know if my legs would show up but it is my favorite course of the H2H calendar so I hoped they would.

I lined up with 7 of us total - so a small field but some strong competitors. Off the line I sit in about 4th or 5th as I see BL and Greg up the road and I get a stick stuck in my back wheel. Not just any stick, one that was literally 20 feet long. It was basically a tree that was on the side of the trail that a racer in front of me turned and jammed into my wheel stopping me instantly. It took a bit to get it untangled, check out my gear, put my chain back on and get going again. Wonderful, 1/4 mile into the race and I'm starting dead last with a 30 second defeceit. Yippee...

So I kept on and worked my way up to one guy who blocked me a few times and made me unhappy. So I passed him and fell on the ground shortly after...awesome. I rode pretty sloppily trying to get back into the groove and then I passed another. Ok this is getting better. Still fumbling through the normally good techy stuff I started pulling it together little by little. Continuing on I started lap 2 and I got into search and destroy mode. I rode everything smoothly and I had that fire again...YES! This was severely missing for the last two races(not good for a 100 miler and a 50 miler). I put the hammer down and started to see John and BL ahead of me in the twisties and knew I could get to them in the singletrack. I rode up on John and BL as they weren't far apart. I rode on Johns wheel and then got around and looked back as he couldn't hold the pace. So now it was BL and me to set the pace.

BL let me by in the singletrack as I had the groove going but as soon as we got to the fire roads he would hit that high HP and blast right by. Then I'd gap back to him in the singletrack and do it all over again. It was great riding so close to a teammate and pulling away from the competition behind. So we kept this up and at the start of lap 3 BL pulled away on the fire road and as I was trying to close the gap to him I took a hard fall. Sliced open my elbow and bashed my hip pretty good. I had to put my chain back on again, regain my composure, and start cranking hard. I did find the groove later but by that time the course was quickly coming to an end.

I finished 4th of 7, 1:30 behind BL, and it was a great day. Felt pretty good and had some fun doing some dirt surfing. It was a great race and the food afterwards at the Peekskill Brewery was awesome! It was a good result for how I felt and for the few mistakes I made. I put it all out there as I did have some cramping sneaking in for part of the 3rd lap. If things go smoother next time I hope to climb a little higher in the ranks. Hopefully for the next MTB race, the H2H #8 at Wawayanda, there will be more competitors and more fun.

Getting through the blahs...

In the middle of the SM100 I wanted to give up my racing career and sell all my bikes and take up basket weaving. This still sounds kinda nice but I need to get serious and get my head back on straight. The season is just about half over race wise...seriously. I usually end up doing somewhere around the 20 mark and I'm a little over half way there. CX season is on the horizon(yea I know for most it's in full swing) and I'm looking forward to the promise of an hour of pain and playing in the mud.

The spark I had for racing all but flickered out in Virginia and I'm slowly getting it back. With the few MTB races left in the northeast I want to do a couple more and there's some opportunities to do it on some of my favorite terrain so I have to partake. I'm finding the itch to race again and getting some of the pooled blood out of my legs from the crash before the SM100. I did some CX efforts tonight with my team and it felt pretty good but definitely not 100%. The promise is that I put down some good power and actually enjoyed the efforts. So I'm getting there. I'll take it. Let's see what the next couple of weeks hold in store.

Shenandoah Mountain 100 Race Recap

This past weekend I headed down to Harrisonburg VA and got ready for my 3rd attempt at the SM100 and I had high hopes of a new PR and a good day in the saddle. My prep was good it seemed and this time I shared a hotel with my teammate in hopes that would add to my prep and make this race even better. It was nice having a real bed and not deal with any camping woes. The bad side is that it put us a bit further from the race start and made traveling a little more difficult but it was nice to have that bed. So with things all being good I had gamed up for a great race the next morning.

My PR was 8:41 on this course so I was hoping if everything went right I "might" be able to crack 7:59. I went out hot with the leaders and felt good through the first climb and into the second. As I rolled up to aid #2 I started feeling like I couldn't recover well and just pushed through. I hit the next Hankey Mtn. climb and the wheels started to fall off. I just couldn't put power down and there was no recovery. It felt like that climb took forever and it's not the hardest climb. I rolled in from the pavement leading into Braley's and I totally fell apart on that climb. I was so woosey that I couldn't keep pedaling uphill. I kept pulling over and letting people go by as I told them I was taking in the scenery. I felt embarrassed to be riding a bike.

I spent 20 minutes in the next aid station trying to eat and drink and feel better which didn't seem to help. I then used my granny gear to try and climb the 18 miles to aid #5 and could barely turn over the pedals. I didn't even know if I could walk up to the aid station at that point. I was embarrassed as train after train of riders flew by and there was NOTHING I could do to latch on. This was pathetic. I was pretty much debating as to where I would stop and what river I could jump in if I saw the opportunity. It was a battle just to keep moving forward. The worst part is that I know the course really well and know where I could make turns and shortcut the course to get back to the finish and bag the race - but I couldn't get myself to take the turns. I started telling myself that the race was over and just enjoy the trails and the scenery and I think that started to bring me back a bit.

I somehow got to aid 5 and then started to regain some juice as I wanted the day to be over and end this miserable journey. I tried to focus and get through the next painful sections and it all seemed to go by with less pain but still a dreadful pace. I rolled up and over the last climb and was really happy to see the final turn for the descent into the campground. The ironic part was that I was trying to cut off 42 minutes from my previous best and I added around the same to that time. I crossed the line in 9:23 amazed that I actually finished and was able to ride my bike the 100 miles.

As I diagnose things, the first issue was that on my preride the day prior I went over the bars and severely bruised both legs as they smashed the ground and frame. Enough so where I had to ice and take advil all night and hope the swelling went down so I could pedal my bike. Then the 4 hours of sleep the night before probably didn't help. It just felt like something else was off. Maybe I didn't have enough electrolytes in the week prior? I too did the endurolytes/nutrition/hydration schedule and I was right on but something was still off. Maybe it was just a long season and I was cooked. Whatever it was I was not happy. But like they say, you learn more from the failures than you do from the success. Well I have a lot to learn from this one...

SM100 Pre Race Thoughts

It's officially the Wednesday before the race. 4 days till race day. This is a good sign. At this point I'm recovering from CO and the RC50 and the efforts I've done this past week have been solid and I'm really feeling hopeful for the race. On top of that I have both tires sealed up and fully tubeless and I should be able to actually have better control of my race prep than for two weeks ago. I've been sleeping well and a lot and that's a big help. For the last race I felt off and really overwhelmed by the humidity and being back in NJ for a while before this race makes me feel more confident as well.

The next best thought is that I should be more prepared as this is the 3rd attempt at the SM100 course and the 4th time I will be riding it(Rode it once in a non-race scenario). All the climbs and hard sections are burned into my mind and my time goals are already set. For the first run at this I ran a 10:39, then in 2009 an 8:41. This year I'm trying to go sub 8. That was my goal for the W101 and I beat it by 12 minutes but the trail was a bit different. The SM100 is advertised as the exact same route and I want to knock off 42 minutes from my PR. If things go well I should be able to reach that. I remember in my last attempt at the race that I actually got woosey climbing and descending between aid 3 and 4 and actually rolled down the hillside as I was hallucinating as I messed up my hydration/nutrition needs. This time I have been experimenting with that as well and I think I have figured that out a little better. I have been existing on Hammer gel alone and I don't think that's been fueling my body the way it needs. So now I've been using the gel and Clif Blocks and that has been a lot better. Well that and not using Accelerade. Accelerade is good for training but not for racing. I just feel 100% better when I use plain old water. Go figure...

So Friday night I'll be traveling down to the SM100 grounds so I have a nice long relaxing Saturday before the Storm and then let 'er rip for Sunday. Should be a nice long effort to put one last big race in the tank for 2011. After this my focus is shifting to the shorter stuff as I finish up the last XC races on my calendar and then the full CX schedule is ahead. Only 3 more months left to the racing season. Wow that's still a long time!

Rattling Creek 50 Recap

Well after a hectic weekend, nothing I had in my mind to setup for the RC 50 went the way I planned. I wanted a nice warmup on Saturday followed by the drive out to camp for an early bedtime. Then the next morning I'd wake up late after a good night's sleep and put on the number, warmup and roll. Yea.....not exactly.

Life got in the way Saturday and I rolled home Saturday night with a lack of hydration/regular nutrition/and the worst part was I was still at home... So with life true as it is I got to sleep at about 11 pm and I had to be up at 5 am for the drive the next morning. So with packing and breakfast I rolled out with my lady Ant and my buddy Lucky to head out to hit up the 50. The last thing I really wanted to do was drive 3 hours the morning of a race and I had to so too bad. Then the worst part is somehow I underestimated how long it would take so at some point I figured we might reach registration too late as it closes at 9am. Yikes...pedal down.

So we rolled into the registration area with a few extra minutes and got ready. The warmup seemed ok but I was nervous as to how my body would respond. I just got back the Wednesday before from Colorado and the previous week I rode for over 17 hours and waaaaaay too many feet of vert. I was cooked when I left. I was hoping I had some in the tank for RC. As it turns out there wasn't many matches left in the matchbook for this one. Into the first climb I felt ok and was doing well trying to moderate my effort and it went by fairly quickly. As I got into the singletrack I wanted to accelerate hard as I was feeling pretty good. That seemed to work as I was keeping up with the guys in front of me and I was in the top ten or fifteen at this point. I figured I'd just chill there and set a good pace and see if I could pick of the guys that cracked later on in the race. Well I was one of those guys to crack early.

After 10 miles or so I felt kinda crappy and knew the wheels were starting to fall off. I was trying to ignore the signs but there were too many to avoid. Here's the thoughts that were going through my head:

This place is too hot and humid...
I didn't hydrate enough the week or so prior...
My front tire hasn't come off yet...
My front tire has too much pressure...
I can't believe my rear tire hasn't flatted yet...
These trails are nicely techy but annoying to try and race on...
I haven't drank enough...
I haven't eaten enough...
When is this going to end...

In other words - don't mess with tubeless tires the few days before a race and really focus on race prep. It didn't work so well for me this time.

So needless to say I wasn't on my game for this race. I passed the first aid station. Hit the 2nd not really aid station. Then the next one. Skipped the following and then begged for water when I hit the last aid that was the not quite an aid station. The first 20 miles I was really struggling with trying to keep my pace going and then after that I had an epiphany. Just because there is a race number on the bike doesn't mean you HAVE to race. I just rode. Then I tried to kick it up again and my body said no. So I just tried to put down a consistent pace. My best thought was that I may finish by 5 hours and beat the thunderstorms. So I kept on and just dreamed of the finish line. The last aid station that I begged for water told me it was 2 miles to the finish just over the top of the crest of the fire road ahead of me. Thanks goodness! Unfortunately I saw someone sneaking up on me so I had to go now...

I locked out my fork and put everything I had left in the tank into the pedals to get over that hill and get to the finish. I raced down the final hill and crossed the line in 4:41 for 14th place overall of 43 finishers and probably 50+ starters. I was actually pretty happy with how I did for how bad I felt. Still a great training day on the bike and some fun trails to ride - if yer not racin! I'd love to go back and ride some of those in a more chill fashion.

So one I was done I got back to the car to see how Antonella was doing and she warned me that some storms were coming and boy was she right. We wandered over to get some recovery food at the tent and it opened up! It came down in sheets and the lightning was close! Too close! So we got the car and stayed nice and dry as we watched racers finish one by one. Lucky wasn't so lucky as he finished a bit later after an hour or so in the hellish storm that engulfed the entire area. He was a bit battered and bruised but was happy to have been there and finished. Another one in the books...