Crested Butte Leadville Qualifier

Not getting into the Leadville 100 Mtb race is pretty much the norm. Last January’s lottery was no different than any other year, I didn’t get in. Despite this depressing news, there was still hope: Lifetime Fitness bought the race series and announced that there would be 3 qualifier races, each race awarding 100 entries. 50 of the 100 entries would be earned by the top finishers, I knew I wasn’t in good enough shape (yet) to win an entry, so instead I decided I would sign up for the race and take my chances at getting one of the other 50 entries that were to be given out by lottery to all race finisher’s that met the predetermined cut-off time.


Even though the odds were small, I decided it would be a fun race to do anyway and gave me a goal event to train for. Crested Butte doesn’t look to be all that far away, but due to mountain roads it ends up being about an 11 hr drive from Grand Island. However, the drive is well worth it as it sits in a Valley and has an amazing view of the mountains around it, adding to the scenery all the wildflowers were in bloom, and all the trails were surrounded by fields of yellow. Besides the plentiful selection of singletrack, the town itself is very cool place, like most mountain towns it has tons of character and lots of cool shops and restaurants. I wish I had taken more vacation to stay and ride more trails and just enjoy hanging out there.
The race started at 6:30am on Sunday. It was 100k long = 62.1 miles. It was actually a bit longer than that with the neutral start. The course was designed to simulate the Leadville course so it was mostly fire roads and just a few short miles of singletrack. The climbs were brutal, one particular spot had 20% grades for about a half mile. I was glad I installed a 12-36 cassette for the race, it was slow but at least I was able to keep my cadence up. The rest of the course was a flatlander's dream, long straights with rolling hills, this was perfect for me, as I could really put some power down and the effort to crest the rolling hills didn’t tax my system too hard. The race was going well until I had a tubeless tire failure, actually it was the sealant, for some reason it wasn’t sealing to the rim, after refilling it once, it went flat again and I was forced to stop and put a tube in it. This whole ordeal cost me about 15 minutes, but I was still making good time and at least I was still in the race. (Note: I foolishly did not use Stan’s when I put new tires on the bike last week. I have never had a problem with Stan’s and from now on that’s all I’ll ever use again! )
The cut-off time was 8 hours and I came rolling in to the finish line right at 7 hours, better than I thought I might do and best of all I now had a chance at the lottery! It's always interesting listening to the announcers as you cross the finish line, besides mentioning that I ride for Joyride, I recall them noting I was the only racer representing Nebraska.

It seemed like forever waiting for the awards ceremony to get over, and it was forever again as they handed out the 50 spots to the top finisher’s, and then finally it came down to the remaining 50 spots for the lottery. Amazingly there really weren’t that many people left standing around, so the race promoter just asked everyone to come down to the stage that was waiting for a lottery spot, and if you can believe this there was only about 30 of us. The promoter took a head count and announced we were all in! Next we all registered for the race on the spot and now I have a new goal event for the year!
While I was at the race, I learned that Crested Butte will host the first 3 years of the Colorado Qualifier, and they have the right of refusal for the next 3 after that. So mark it on your calendar for next year, because this is going to be the key event for our area for most anyone that wants into Leadville. Next year the series expands to 5 qualifier races, which I assume means even fewer spots in the general lottery. I have no idea where the two additional races will be held, maybe one will be closer than Crested Butte, but in terms of an awesome destination, no way they will be comparable.
There was another couple things about this race worth mentioning, Dave Weins and Rebecca Rusch held a Q & A session on Saturday, where anyone could ask questions. That was really cool and very interesting. I learned a few good training tips there. Lastly, I should mention that Lance Armstrong showed up for the race also, this is the second time I have competed against the 7 time TDF champion, same race, same age group, just me and Lance a head to head battle. Well maybe that’s not exactly how it went, perhaps Lance was way up front and I never actually even saw him, but none the less it was a great weekend!

Omaha Cycling Weekend

After being out of town all week for work, I just barely made it back in time on Friday to get registered for all 3 events. (I had 15 minutes to spare before missing the registration for the TT & crit) The way it turned out, it would have been better if I had missed the registration for these events… The trip for work was no picnic, after working 16 hr days in hot Kansas wheat fields, I was tired from the week and not well prepared for a weekend of racing. So here’s how it turned out: I was looking forward to the TT on Saturday AM, I had just got my Powertap back after being rebuilt and I needed to do an LT benchmark test and this TT was the perfect opportunity. I had also recently bought some aero bars and borrowed a helmet from a friend so in terms of equipment I was as ready as I could be short of buying a TT bike. My performance in the TT was a disaster, I was slower than 2 years ago when I did this TT Eddie Merck style. Besides being tired from the trip, I also assume that I have done too much dieting and that is affecting my performance a lot more than I thought it would. There was no need to hang out for the crit. The way I was feeling I would have been off the back in less than 2 laps. Instead I went home and got my bike ready for the road race and got some sleep.




After Saturdays performance, I didn’t expect much for this road race. The race started off well, I felt comfortable in the pack, my bike handling skills were solid, and best of all, I felt good about reading and reacting to the ever changing dynamics of the pack. Around mile 7 we were facing our first ascent up the hill. It really doesn’t even look all that bad, but halfway up it my legs were screaming. So it hurt, but I made it through and was super happy that I would now get to ride another lap with the group. The next lap I also made it up the climb with the group, but barely. Today was shaping up to be a good day on the bike, at least much better than yesterday. The third ascent of the hill, I knew was going to be troublesome and it was. I lost contact with the group and there was nothing I could do about it, I put forth every ounce of energy I had into that climb and it just wasn’t enough. Once my legs recovered, I was off the back of the pack by a good 200 meters and for awhile I was delusional enough to think that I might catch back up, but it wasn’t going to happen and the gap kept getting bigger and bigger. I put so much energy into the chase, that on the 4th ascent of the hill, I barely even made it, but after this I settled into a sustainable pace and cranked out the rest of race by myself.



All things considered, I thought the road race went well, not being able to climb with the group is disappointing, but not unexpected as all the training I’ve been doing is for long and steady rides, I’m basically right on track for the Crested Butte race at the end of the month (I’m still hoping to qualify for the Leadville 100). Next year, I won’t be focusing on this kind of racing, so I’ll be doing more high intensity intervals to be ready, but for now, it was a good day.



Last thing I’ll note is that the advertised distance for the race was off, the flyer said 52 miles and it was only around 45 miles. Despite the heat and humidity, I was mentally prepared to ride 52 and when it was over at 45, I was actually disappointed and decided to ride another lap to get 52 in. Other than the distance issue, Team Kaos did a great job of running the race and had some great volunteers handing out much needed water each lap. Many thanks to all those that helped put on this great event!

2011 Firecracker 50

Breckenridge, CO


7:30 Monday morning, the temperature was 52 degrees outside. This was a nice relief from the hot weather we have recently had here in Nebraska, but it was short lived by the time I checked in at registration and got geared up it was already getting close to 80 for the start of the race. Even so I could have cared less, once I was on the bike and rolling the day just kept getting better and better! For anyone not familiar with this race, the sold out race of 700 riders line up on main street for a neutral start to be part of the 4th of July Parade. It’s tradition to high 5 all the kids and well wishers during this ride down main street. Once out of town the pacer drops off and the race is on!



The race is two 25 mile loops and while there is over 3000 feet of climbing per lap, it’s well worth it as the single-track trails are super fun. A good majority of the single-track is relatively flat, so it’s not over too quick and yet doesn’t require huge climbing efforts, it’s easy to just enjoy the ride, which as many spectators, other riders, and volunteers pointed out: the Joyride! Since, I'm new to the team and this is the first race I've done with the Joyride jersey, it was a nice surprise to find out how many people like the jersey and seem compelled to ask whether or not joy applies to the current situation? I replied "Always" all day to anyone who asked, even at the toughest moment of the day, it just doesn't get much better than this, forget the mud, the cold creek crossings, the thin air, the 6000+ feet of climbing... I'm on my mtb giving it all I got and loving every moment!



Lap 1 was awesome, I was riding strong, felt good, and the single-track was flowing. I really thought I was on track for a new PR. Yet somehow my first lap time was 3 hrs even! Hmmm, that’s no better than I did 2 years ago… OK, I didn’t race at all last summer, but I have been doing some training and I sure feel a lot stronger. That’s when I noticed the distance: This year should have been called the Firecracker 55, the course had to be altered as some of the trails were still snowed in. A quick survey and many other riders thought there was more single-track too, which would make the lap times appear slower also. Wow, so yes, I’m on fire this year!



Lap 2 didn’t quite turn out how I expected, to start a slow leak appeared in my rear tire. Actually it was really low when I stopped at the aid station to fill it. I’m sure it cost me some time, but no worries as it was a slow enough leak I was sure I would finish just fine. What happened next though, I guess I should have assumed could happen, but caught me off guard. Somewhere around halfway through the second lap, my legs blew up. Perhaps bonk is a more familiar term, but it's the 4th and things should go boom. So for the rest of the race I was riding to survive. I ended up a half hour slower on the second lap, but even so, my overall average speed was still better than 2 years ago! Sure would have been nice to have maintained the pace I was riding the first lap, all the way to through the second, but still hard to complain as overall it was a great race and more importantly great training for some upcoming events later this month!

Calamus Half Century

For the past couple years since I moved back to Grand Island, I've listened to everyone talk about this ride and how much fun it is and the monster cookies at the sag stops.  Last year, I skipped this ride as touring just doesn't make sense to me: pay to ride, and have to drive 80 miles to get there?  If I have to drive to ride, I'd rather go mountainbiking in Omaha...  Well this year I gave in to peer pressure and did this ride.  Pretty much everone from GI does this ride, in total there were 8 of us from GI at least of the people I know that ride from GI.

OK, so it was a lot of fun and it turned out to be an awesome day of training!  Mark and I drove up Friday after work and got a nice 20 mile ride in.  Added bonus of being in the Nebraska Sandhills so we got in some climbing efforts through the rolling hills.  Longest hill was about a mile with 235 ft of elevation gain.  Not bad for Nebraska...  That night, Burwell opens up the high school gym, so we had showers and an indoor smooth surface to camp on.  Unfortunately I slept terrible in the gym, despite the cool breeze I was just too hot.

Next morning the ride started at 8:00am.  After everyone regathered up at the first sag stop, we headed off again.  This is where the games began.  Mark squared off with Mike from Kearney and as they casually talked the pace accelerated to 24+ and battle was on.  I recognized this situation forming immediately and knew to grab a wheel and try to hang on because this was going to be fun.  Troy did the same and the four of us were off.  Thank goodness I've been losing weight!  I don't think I would have been able to make it through the rolling hills otherwise.  Troy ended up getting shelled off on a steep climb, and although I was near redline (LT heartrate), I managed to stay on.  Just when I thought, I was about to blow up the course changed direction and they relaxed the pace.  Although the pace was now around 22mph, I was in the yellow, but figured I could manage for awhile longer (drafting only - no way I could push that kind of speed).  I am pretty sure I just stared at Marks wheel for the next 20 miles and finally on the last 12 miles I was nearing the end of my endurance, but I wasn't giving up.  A gel shot later, I had some energy restored, but it was minimal.  I'm pretty sure I was crying in pain on one of the last rolling climbs, maybe even a tear or two, maybe it was just the wind, but either way I was still hanging on and fianally we were there.  I made it. 
Next we turned around and rode back a few miles to regroup with everyone else.  Final miles for the day was around 55.  Besides the awesome monster cookie they provide at the stops, there is free pizza dinner a the Pizza Palace in Burwell, even if I hadn't been starving it was awesome pizza!  Drive home wasn't bad and then I turned into a vegatable for the rest of day as I was shelled out!  Looking forward to next year already, I guess sometimes there are things more fun than mountain biking and I get to tell stories for the rest of the year about this ride.

Norfolk Criterium - State Championships

After Durango, I was feeling pretty good on the bike (especially after coming back down to Nebraska elevation) and the next weekend was the Norfolk State Championship Road Event, I had to work on Saturday, so I figured that I would do the criterium on Sunday and see how it went. After doing this race two years ago and getting shelled off the back when I should have been able to hang on for awhile, I decided on the following race strategy: Get close to the front early to avoid the accordian effect at the back and also to get well within the draft. A good warmup was also very important so I was ready to put forth hard efforts right away.
I executed my plan perfectly. I warmed up for 40 min on the trainer and tapped into all HR zones, then when the race started I got a good start and was positioned perfectly in the front 1/3 of the pack. From here, my conditioning shown through like a shining light, or more appropriately a black hole. There were 8 turns per lap and on the acceleration out of each one of them I was losing a spot or two and by turn 7 I found myself at the back of the pack... Lap two, I thought one more effort and I can get back on, but that was wishful thinking, my HR was already in the red and I was maxed out.

So from here on out I was doing a Time Trial effort and just hoping to minimize the number of times I got lapped. I ended up getting lapped twice which guaranteed me last place. While I had hoped I would do better than this there were a few positives for the day. For starters, I have not lost my mental toughness, never once did I even consider quitting or any sort of thoughts along those lines. Second, it was a good training day and I would not have been able to duplicate that effort on my own.

Really, when I consider how much riding I did this past winter: "What the heck did I expect?" I raced as well as I trained, maybe even better! Lastly, the result today was irrelevant, doing this race was still fun and gives me a big taste of the excitement and passion I have for cycling. This year, my comeback journey will be completed, It's game on!

Silver Rush Pictures

These pictures are backward if you start from the bottom and go up then they are in the right timeline...

Pictures by Sandra Halverstadt

I look as bad as I felt in this photo, barely able to even conjure up a smile. Only thing I was happy about at this point was that the race was over!
Finished 293 out of 357 with a time of 7:01:37

The sad thing about this photo is that I'm not leading the pack, I'm about to be passed by all these people...

Top of the hill, just got on the bike after hiking up the hill.

Here's looking down the ski hill at the mass start, there was no riding up this hill, you had to carry the bike and hike!

Silver Rush 50 - Mental Fortitude

I talked my coach into letting me do this race as I felt it would be a really good training day and not all that hard. Looking at the altitude profile for the race compared to the Firecracker 50 it had less altitude gain so I figured it would be an easier race and good chance to get more exposure to climbing and 10,000 ft plus elevation.

I never once thought it was going to be the biggest mental challenge I would face thus far this year! This race could have very easily have been another disasterous DNF for the 2009 season, but just when things were at their worst I decided I would be hauled off the course in an ambulance before I added another DNF to my comeback!

So many things went wrong in my preparation for this race and even during the race that today's success was 100% mental strenth and shear determination. After the beat down I have suffered for most of this year, this victory of just finishing this race is a major accomplishment. I knew I would regain the mental strength I had years ago when racing, but I just wasn't sure when. It's nice that I can actually say today was that day, because I really figured that it would just happen over time and maybe months from now I would just randomly realize that it had happened. There was no celebration though. I was so physically exhausted, mentally drained, and actually in physical pain that I was really just glad the race was over. I knew once I recovered and the pain disappeared this race would go down as a great defining moment of the 2009 comeback!

This race was actually a good slap in the face before my ultimate goal of the Leadville 100, (coming up in just 3 weeks), as I'll soon describe in a more detailed write up, the poor preparation and over-confidence I had was not a combination of mistakes that I could afford to make for the 100...

Click here for the Garmin 705 GPS Data link on my Garmin Connect website

Stay tuned for my next posting with more details of what actually happened during the race...!

Omaha Cycling Weekend

10 mile Time Trial - Ave 22.0 mph, 00:27:30, ~31st out of 35, no aero equipment
Criterium - if you call getting pulled finishing then I guess I placed somewhere close to last...
Road Race - DNF

Don't really feel like writing anything about any of these....

Firecracker 50 Pictures

2009 Firecracker 50 Pictures by http://www.vastaction.com/

Firecracker 50 Success!

Click Here for the GPS/HR Data at Garmin Connect

July 4 in Breckenridge, CO doesn't get much better than that, unless your one of the lucky 750 registered mountain bikers for the sold out Firecracker 50 mtb race! As most everyone knows that is following my blog, this year has been a roller coaster ride of a training comeback. Although last weeks CTS Leadville Training Camp went really well, so far this year results have been very sketchy and not at all how I thought they should have been. Going into this race I really had one goal and that was to just finish it. Normally this would be the least of my concerns and pathetic goal, but as said its been a long haul getting back into shape and worse than the physical pain has been the rebuilding of my mental game.

The starting of the race was a lot of fun, I was racing in the Sport 35-39 division, our category (#13) was also staged with the Clydesdale riders, so there was well over 60 of us in this stage waiting our turn to start the race. Each division was started in a neutral rollout that went right up main street as part of the 4th of July Parade in Breckenridge. We were treated like celebrities by the local kids as everyone was lined up along the sides to get their turn at giving high 5's to all the racers. This was a lot of fun, but after about a mile or so the crowd disappeared an it was time to get to the task of racing.

I didn't do a warmup on purpose as I suspected it was going to be challenging enough to just finish, let alone have extra energy to warm up...! The first climb out of Breck, hurt the worst as it always takes a good 30 min for the legs to loosen up and find a race pace rhythem. It also took my heartrate quite awhile to calm down too. Due to the altitude and adrenaline of the race my HR was 105 bpm just standing at the starting line. On this first climb my HR was in the upper 170's, which was much higher than I would have liked it to be at this particular time.

Despite the high HR I quickly found a pace that I felt I would be good for the race. Unlike the local races in Nebraska, I had never been on this course, so everything was new to me, only thing I had done was study the altitude profile to understand how many big climbs there were. This didn't really help knowing when they were coming and when they were going to end though, so the first lap always had a new surprise around the corner! One that that was super nice about this race was the Aid stations that were well stocked with gatorade, water, and Clif bar products. There was an aid station every 6 miles and with kind of support I didn't even bother with using a camelbak. There was just no need for one.

Lap 1 went by rather quickly, if you call 3 hours quick, but hey when your having fun time passes by fast! Some of the highlights were the side by side traffic on the second steep climb, (barely room for two wide), the single track was amazing, but always went too fast, and then there were the descents, usually descents are a time to rest, but not so much in this course, some of them were so steep and rocky that I was glad to be safely at the bottom. OK thats probably over-exageration, especially if you're aware that I have some pretty good bike handling skills, but none the less they weren't a section of the course that I could rest on.

Lap 2 started out really well, I felt good, and I was just hammering up the first climb, I was actually going faster than I thought I should be but my perceived exertion was right on track so I just kept on riding at that pace. Next the second climb went really well, I'll admit my lower back was starting to feel some fatigue and my knees were getting a bit sore, but probably due more to the rain/colder weather (typical afternoon at altitude) than dehydration or fatigue. It was the final climb when I finally started running out of energy. I never completely ran out of energy and had to go to survival mode, but I was getting close. Once past the last climb it was all downhill to the finish line.

Finishing this race was great and then to do it in 5:58:39 was better than I expected! This finish placed me 30th out of the 49 riders that finished the race in our division. As an overall this finish is probably just average, but for the journey I've had this summer, it was a phenominal landmark to getting back in shape and making my comeback!

Lastly there was free food and beer waiting at the finish line. Didn't take much to convince me to grab a glass of Porter and enjoy some BBQ chicken!

Norfolk Road Weekend

Road Race - DNF

Criterium - 15th

No summary to be posted don't really feel like writing anything about these...

Lewis & Clarke Kanesville Krusher

There was no marathon category for this race so I decided to enter the Cat 2 Open class, this is the old Sport class that I used to race in many years ago, despite being old enough I refused to enter the 35+ category. I didn't really have enough time to preride the course so I just checked out the beginning to see what it was going to be like at the start. This was somewhat scary as there was a pavement section that was going to rocket speeds above 30mph and then a hard right into the trails. If that wasn't bad enough, the trails kept going down until you ended up at probably the lowest part of the park, and there was some tricky logs that would not be play very nice as a crowd of riders came screaming over them...

A lot of this turned out to be a non issue as the race was started on a gravel road with a big uphill climb, this sorted out the pack quite well, it's also where I was smacked in the face with the reality of my low power and high weight, I watched the pack speed away and found myself near the back of the 20 riders in the open class and sadly there was nothing I could do about it. None the less I was right about the chaos that was going on in the trails, even though I was probably 30 seconds behind there were several guys that had bit it on those logs/roots and were just picking themselves up as I came by.

The first lap was painful, I was actually probably in 8th place at one point, and the pace was killing me, finally when I could bear it no longer I looked down at my HR monitor and quickly discovered why it hurt so much; my HR was at 191. Good in the sense that my conditioning is coming along well, but bad for this race because there was no way I could sustain that pace...
At this point I just started letting riders by, the worst part was that there was guy with a Tshirt racing and he was in front of me, only a beginner races in cotton. Still battling the mental defeat of the 12hr race, I found myself mentally weak in this race again, I had no plan of quitting, but the thought did cross my mind.

The second lap was an interesting one, it still hurt, and since the race was being ran "backward" on the trails it felt like the whole thing was uphill, there just didn't seem to be any spots to rest and if it did go downhill for awhile it didn't feel like it. On one of the uphills, I noticed a $10 bill on the ground, I was already going so slow anyway I stopped and grabbed it without even noticing I slowed down. This seemed like a good find until I thought about the fact that I paid $20 to suffer like this... The next thing I noticed was that riding this far back (I actually had no idea what place I was in by now - I assumed last) most of the guys I was riding with had minimal trial skills, not smooth at all, but it really didn't matter because as soon as we started climbing they just walked away from me and one guy literally was walking away, he was getting off his bike, and hopefully running, faster than I was riding. After noting the terrible handling skills of all the other riders, I decided to join the crowd by tackling a tree, this is first time ever I have hit a tree so hard, thank goodness is was only 3 or 4 inches in diameter, being so small it moved when I hit it and therefore probably saved me from breaking my shoulder on it. The funny part was that the guy behind me was following my lines exactly and he ran right into the tree also, I guess that will teach him for following me.

Lap 3 was really rather uneventful and the race was finally over, my time was somewhere around 1 hr 20 min, which if I were to have guessed I would have said each lap was 40 min long, I remember thinking on the first lap it was going to be a 3 hour race...

I actually finished 13th out of the 21 guys that started, better than I expected, but not the result I was hoping for.

Click Here for Garmin Connect Data - Lewis & Clarke

My day didn't end there, next I was off to Swanson park to get some more riding in, I put in another 2 hours there, grabbed a bite to eat and then went over to Tranquility for another hour before I ran out of daylight, and drove home exhausted.

Click Here for Garmin Connect Data - Swanson

Click Here for Garmin Connect Data - Tranquility

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.

Platte River Crash

This sort of sums up the day at Platte River, In my previous race summary write-up, I neglected to mention that I crashed on the last lap of the race. Mostly because it wasn't that note worthy of a crash because neither the bike or I got hurt, but as I was searching the web looking for photos this is all I've found so far... That's me taking a dive. The guy beside me is the reason I crashed, he was walking his bike through the rocks, I figured I could just ride around him, but when I got to where he was at I realized he was standing in the line and when I looked for an alternate path I couldn't find one quick enough.

Psycowpath #2 - Platte River Battle Royale

47 degrees is what the temperature gauge of my 4Runner read as I arrived at the race. It had already been a long morning as I really didn’t feel like getting out of bed at 5:30am, now I was at the race and it was cold. I thought about turning around or possibly just parking somewhere else and taking a nap in the car, but instead I walked over to registration and paid the entry fee, after all I was here to race. I was certainly not as excited about it as last week, but mostly I was still exhausted from that race last weekend. I didn’t even warm up, I just made my way to the starting line and decided I would follow the pack into the trails and warm up on the fly. It was interesting that this was the first time I have ever went into the single track so far behind, of the 20 guys in this race I must have been in near last. It actually took some effort to not get carried away passing guys on the first climb, not that I really felt that good it’s just that they were going so slow, especially for the first lap. The first half of the race was worse than any other race I have ever done; I was physically tired and mentally fried. This is a bad combination, nearly every 5 minutes I was thinking I would just call it a day after this lap and throw everything in the car and drive home. I never did of course, but I really wanted to… For lap 1 I wore all the clothes I had with me, I knew they would be too hot for the race, but it was just too cold standing at the starting line to take them off, so I stopped for a few minutes after the first lap and shed the extra layers. For the second lap I then cold, but by lap 3 it finally warmed up to be a nice day. I really thought I must have been in last place by now as my performance seemed terrible, besides the mental issues I felt terrible on the bike, I had no power, and was navigating the trails like I had all the skills of a beginner. Speaking of first times, I did have my new Top Fuel 9.8 under me. Extremely nice ride, the sizing felt good, and I was even using the lockouts on the climb.

Click Here to see my race data at Garmin Connect

Lap 4 is when the race took a turn for the better, this is when all the Sport and Expert riders started. The experts were already gone, but the Sport guys were just starting so I waited for most of them to get into the trails before I rounded the turn back in. At first it was nice to have people to follow and chat with, but I quickly realized they were slowing me down, so I had to start passing. Most of the guys I was passing were in the 40+ Sport category, and every time I passed a guy there was a new rabbit just ahead, this made the last two laps more fun and I rode them much faster. Where the energy came from I really don’t know, I still didn’t feel powerful, but at least I was riding at a reasonable pace.

It took forever for the results to be posted, but when they finally were I noticed that my last lap was missing… I talked to the judges and evidently it was cleanly missed, but they were gracious enough to give me a 5th lap time based on my 4th lap, and when I checked my Garmin with my lap times that was really close to what I actually did. So instead of being in 16th place I ended up 8th, which really seems a lot better than how I felt I rode.

So that was it for training race #2, now I definitely need to start resting and getting mentally prepared for the 12 hours of Branched Oak race next weekend.

Psycowpath Swanson Rivercity Shootout - 2 May 2009

Turned out to be a great day for a race; it warmed up, the sun came out, and the trails were very fast!
Approximately 20 of us started this race (see photo below), I didn't go into the trails too early as I knew I wasn't in that good of shape, so as it worked out, I went into the singletrack in 6th place, which seemed reasonable based on how everyone was riding, it turned out I had one over motivated idiot in front of me who had no trail skills and couldn't hold the pace. He dropped back pretty quick, but I lost maybe 500 feet on the leaders. About halfway through the first lap, another couple guys passed me, so I was somewhere around 8th place, the leaders were long gone and there was a guy not too far off my tail. This first lap was brutal. The term marathon really does not describe this class, it makes it sound slow and long, when in actually I quickly decided this race was going to be more like watching an olympic caliber 1 mile runner (it's a long sprint) and besides that 3 hours really isn't that long of a time anymore in today's endurance/adventure racing scene...

First lap was completed in less than 30min and already I could see the 3 hours going by rather quickly. I quickly realized there was no strategy for this race other than go as hard as possible until it's over. On the second lap I was glad I decided to go with the full suspension bike as my lower back was sore already. That pain was irrelevant compared to how my legs were feeling. I forgot about my love-hate relationship with Swanson; I love the trails, fast, lots of twists, and steep rollers, very smooth, just a great place to ride, but I hate the homefield advantage everyone in Omaha has, I have never done well at Swanson and I always decide the homefield advantage is the biggest reason, midway through the second lap I realized I was using the brakes too much, being too timid around unknown corners, and having to power out of the turn to keep speed -it was rapidly breaking me down!
I tried to focus on smoother turns, and less brakes, but this isn't a skill you develop in an hour. I really just need more seat time on the bike, and it would help if I had some new tires under me that trusted.

In case I didn't mention it; I'm riding my 2000 Trek Fuel, as the guys at the shop didn't want me to break in the new Top Fuel 9.8 in a race, (which is very smart, race conditions are too extreme for break in and if something goes wrong I could potentially damage something really expensive on the bike).
By lap 3 I was settled into a decent pace, the only thing I didn't like was that I was "running" the whole time or being chased, I had a guy about 1000 ft back that was not losing ground on me, normally not a problem other than I knew I was gettings slower due the power loss issue, mentally this was very taxing, but it kept me riding hard as I didn't want this guy catching me. On lap 5 I noticed I was putting time on him, so I thought he would soon be out of sight and out of mind, but then on lap 6 he had some great comeback and was all the sudden 500 ft behind me (or I was slowing down). Everything would have been fine if the race had ended on lap 6, but the way the rules worked as long as you crossed the finish line befoe the 3 hour mark you could ride another lap, it was 8 minutes before 3 hrs so I was on to lap 7, my final lap. What happened I really can't say for sure, but I was not only caught by the guy behind me, but about 2 more riders, and I had no answer to hold them off or even try to keep up. The only couple notable incidences on this lap was a hamstring cramp due to stopping for the Experts to go around and stick in the cassette, neither one cost me much time, so I can only assume my power was just depleted and I was in survival mode to make it to the finish line. I ended up finishing around 12th out of 20.
However I look at it, it was a great day, I have to keep in mind this was a training race, and that is was, my mtb skills are better, I found some new aerobic capicity, which is evident by my smoker's cough, and I got to hang out with some good friends I hadn't seen in awhile.
Sadly, I was so tired after the race I didn't have energy to take the new bike out into the trails for a maiden voyage...