KRYPTONITE

Earlier this week I was convinced that the 12 Hours of Branched Oak race was going to be one of my most triumphant landmarks this summer while training for Leadville. I didn't expect to win, and I really didn't figure I would place much better than the 8 or 10 range I have been in for the Psycowpath marathon races so far this year... I did however plan to ride strong for 12 hours and demonstrate a new level of fitness achievement.This race certainly was a showcase, but it was an Anti-showcase, instead of displaying all my achievements, it showed every weakness until I was reduced to nothing and wondering if finishing Leadville is even possible. As the race started, I found myself riding harder than I should but not at a damaging pace, mostly I was unfamiliar with the trail and was struggling to conserve energy and ride smoothly. Just coming off of a recovery week I also knew it was going to take some time for the legs to get warmed up and not feel lathargic as they always seem to feel after a rest week. That was pretty much how lap 1 went, the weather was a nice 67 degrees and as laps 2 and 3 progressed I fell into a nice rhythm. Several miles of new trails had been "mowed" for this race, and when I say mowed that's literally how they were built, they were in an open field of praire like grass and a swervy path was mowed through them. It was done nicely, but they were rough, I was really thankful I had chosen the full suspension now, these trails were already making my lower back hurt by lap 3 and can't imagine having to ride them on a hardtail. In the middle of lap 3 I realized that the temperature was dropping, which I knew it was going to so I took a quick break, grabbed some food, more water, and put on my second layer of clothes. With an expected low of 36 degrees I knew I would need more clothes later on, but thought I would be fine for the time being. Lap 4 and 5 were ok, one noteable thing on lap 5 was that this is when I was passed by the leaders, they were rolling like a freight train through these trails. I decided to chat with them for awhile and rode their pace for about a half a lap with them. This was a good experience, my bike handling skills were immediately improved as I followed their lines and relearned old skills I had forgotten. Also, I realized they weren't riding at a pace that was that far out of reach for me. At best I could have only maintained that pace for maybe another 2 hours, certainly not 12, but after a half lap with them I let them go and went back to the pace I had chosen that I did feel I could do for 12 hours. Lap 6 was when every thing started to go bad, primarily my feet got cold and amazingly felt numb. Not beleiving this was possible I ignored this reality, but did decide to stop and put on another layer of socks and my winter shoes. As I jammed my feet into the winter shoes I realized they really were numb, but figured they would warm up in those shoes. About halfway through lap 7, I hit one final bump as I came out of the singlestrack and then heard and felt a massive crack right under my rear. Something in the seatpost had moved and the seat now angled up, it was still rideable so I figured I would stop after this lap and fix it at my basecamp where I had all my tools. It took probably 20 minutes to get the seat figured out and back to the right angle. So one problem fixed. Next I needed to figure out what was going on with my right foot, my left foot did actually warm upon the last lap, but my right big toe was numb and felt like your tongue after a novacane shot. I ended up burying it in my sleeping bag and rubbing it to get it warmed back up, finally it was pretty much back to normal, I mustered up all the mental strength I had left, put on more layers and got back on the bike. This whole ordeal took at least and hour probably more... It was somewhere shortly after midnight now and headed out for lap 8. Now I experienced an opposite problem, I had put on too many layers, it's a strange thing being hot from too many layers, it's worse than 100 degrees of sun. With my toe warmed up, I had put on everything I owned for foot protection. 2 layers of socks, winter shoes, and IP shoe covers. This lap was miserable, my feet felt almost warm enough and the rest of me was too hot, my back was starting to kill me. One strategy I had maintained this whole race so far was to use a high cadence, this was not only very efficient at conserving power, it also was much easier on my lower back, and other than the rough trails had worked well so far. On lap 8 I did realize I was out of power to keep this method up, (while still in the middle chainring), so I did have to drop down to the granny gear for climbing, I was hoping to make it much later into the night before this would be necessary. After checking in after lap 8 I made my final mistake of looking at the overall race standings, my 8 laps was pathetic, and I was probably in 40th out of maybe 50 riders. This was the final blow, despite losing all the time to fix the seat and the foot incident, I didn't expect to be so far behind.. It really was obvious why I was so far behind; of the 6.5 hours than had passed, I had only been on the bike for 4.5 of them and at 6 miles per lap, I hadn't even done 50 miles yet, and this terrain was by far easier thanwhat will be encountered in leadville... I was tired, cold, my back hurt, and I was mentally drained. It was a devastating blow to quit, but I did it. I packed up, drove home, and was in bed before the race was over. So I figured I better end this summary with a few positive thoughts as this whole experience has been rather depressing to say the least:


Click Here to see the Data at Garmin Connect

This whole time I thought this comeback was about training, losing weight, and updating bikes and gear, the last thing I had considered was the mental strength that I never realized I had lost. The upside to this whole thing is that I have never done well in the cold, and I don't expect I ever will, depsite everything that happened this night, my legs and conditioning weren't the weak link, yes they were getting tired but they would have made it to hour 12. Also, 48 miles in 4.5 hours does get me to the finish line at leadville, maybe not in 9 hours but certainly the 12 hour finish is possible. Fortunately the race isn't next week, and hopefully this day is as low as I'm going to get on this rollercoaster ride, that I'm calling a comeback.