The Subaru Cup: fail, win, fail. Part 1: Mayor of Bonktown

This last weekend was my first A-Priority race of the season: The Subaru Cup. Held at Mt. Morris, just north of Wautoma, The Subaru Cup is Wisconsin's big race weekend with Cross-country, short track, Super-D, and Downhill. I participated in the Stage race, which included Saturday's XC, and Sunday's Super D and short track.

I'll say this again later on, but this was the coolest race I've ever participated in. The course was unique (as in I've never raced something quite like it), the course was quite challenging, and the entire event was super fun and put on amazingly well.

Part 1 of my post regarding this race will cover the cross country. In short, it was a train wreck for me. I hope this is my worst result of the year. I got 44th of 67 finishers (81 starting). A few things contributed to this:

In my training I haven't gotten the really long miles in for the last two weeks. The longest I've ridden was probably 2.5 or 3 hours. Also, the weather was in the 80s and I went through the chills after lap two. My body body couldn't get acclimated.

Probably the biggest thing that got me was my Accel Gel: it must have spoiled or gotten frozen or heated up too much, as the consistency was abnormal. Usually Accel Gel is thinner than other brands and pretty easy to take in on hot days, but this new case was thicker than Gu and had a granulated texture. It gave me little to no energy, and made me feel sick after I took the second one. I think I went through five bottles of Accelerade in four 4.5-mile laps.

I owe a big thanks to Gehling, The Cannon, and Bitches for keeping me hydrated through my 1 hour, 41-minute bonk ride. I also want to thank Liz Braun for being a mom and checking in on me after the race.

After lap two my goal changed from winning (which was a pre-seaosn goal of mine) to simply finishing. My head was swimming, I had the chills, and my legs were just not going. It took a lot of focus to keep the pedals turning. When I crossed the finish line I went to the Keanu, halucinated that the ceiling was moving, drank a few bottles of water, and took a three hour nap. Not my best moment.

After nap time, I jumped in and helped Lex and her crew with race support for a bit during the Citizen race, and then rode a four-wheeler up to the top of the hill and did Super-D setup with The Don, his brother, and some of the full-time Subi-Cup volunteers. Those were some cool kids, and they deserve big ups for making this event what it was.

After Super-D course setup, I drove back to Madison, showered, and slept for ten hours. In the morning I felt okay. I'd had about a gallon of water and Accelerade before going to bed, and hadn't had to pee all night.

With some rest, time to compose myself, and an internal pep-talk, I returned to Mt. Morris with one thing in mind: Super-D. I am not as fit or fast as most of the Comp men, but I can do one thing better than almost all of them: descend technical, twisty singletrack.

That's enough writing for now; It's time to train.

Up next: The Subaru Cup: fail, win, fail. Part 2: Super-D Redemption.

A bad week, a great week, one more week.

The week after Rhinelander was a tough one. Work got super busy and the boss and his wife had their second child (which is awesome). However, that means that I have to pick up the slack while he's gone, which makes training a little hard.

At first I was scrambling to keep everything scheduled and covered and wasn't getting on the bike. Then I hit a nice groove around Thursday and it prettymuch came down to this:

-get office stuff done before the store opens
-work a day on the salesfloor
-ride whenever you're not at work.

So last week's training wasn't very hard, but I kept at it. Taking Friday and Saturday off wasn't my first choice, but I've been doing great so far for week 2.

Sunday: Easy ride, one hour at endurance pace to get the legs open and get out that aching feeling.

Monday: Hill sprints on Observatory Drive. I felt great and absolutely destroyed my legs. I tried different sprint tactics, like holding a slower acceleration longer, or making a second jump, and found that I can jump and slow down and jump again and again pretty well. I also tried really hard to carry my speed over the top of the climb, as that is an area of weakness right now.

Tuesday: Practice crit. I rode to the crit, raced, and rode home. I felt awesome, covered a bunch of attacks, pulled in a few people, got 3rd in a pree, was 5th wheel with two laps to go, felt awesome, was right where I wanted to be, then PING! PONG PONG PONG. Broken spoke. I pulled out with a lap and a half left. I was really frustrated, but tried to not let it get to me.

Yeah, I'm still kinda pissed.

Wednesday I went on an endurance ride at Jim's and my legs felt tired. Monday and Tuesday were intense, and it showed in my riding. I couldn't sprint up hills as fast, but I was pinning it on the descents. Then I bent my derailleur and noticed my freehub body wasn't engaging. Time for a new rear der and a new rear wheel.

DANG!

It's been a frustrating week technically, but a great one in terms fo my training. I'm doing the kind of riding I need to do for next weekend's Subaru Cup.

Race #2: Camp Tesomas, Rhinelander.

Preface: I did 40 miles on the road bike Friday with our favorite customers and prerode the racecourse Saturday with Gehling.

Race #2 of WORS: Camp Tesomas, Rhinelander.
2x11 mile laps.
3 water stations, one hand-up from Bitches, 3 Accel Gels.
Bike Setup: Fisher Procaliber, stock. Fox RP23 Propedal setting 1, factory setup up front, 4 clicks from in on rebound and light on the propedal.
30PSI in the tires.

Rhinelander goes like this: Lots of wide open dirt roads, lots of wide open double track, and then some brutal singletrack, some double track, more brutal singletrack, dirt roads. 11 miles.

I had a shitty start position, and got caught behind some slow guys for the first few corners, so I was chasing from the gun. I caught what I thought was the lead group just before the first doubletrack, and hopped on.

The real lead group were the guys who were fast in both the open stuff and the technical stuff. The group I was behind was only fast in the open stuff. So I had to chill.

Then I started racing smarter, and more aggressively. I'd pass any chance I got in the singletrack. It didn't matter if I felt good or not; if the guy (or lady) ahead of me wasn't ripping my legs off, I went for his.

Toward the end of the first lap I got to the front of these singletrack slow-pokes, and got a gap before the doubletrack. After pushing hard to get the gap I looked back and saw nobody in sight, but knew they'd be coming for me. There was also nobody ahead of me. I knew I hadn't caught Brian Braun yet, so I found myself in no-man's land: no visible carrot to chase, and just my own legs as a pacer.

So I grabbed the big ring, tucked, spun and breathed. I was cookin on the road as I went through the lap and actually felt pretty well recovered from getting the gap. Right before diving in to the doubletrack, three guys with huge legs came powering through and I hopped on to draft for the last little open section. I felt awesome when we hit the technical stuff, and when things got really gnarly, they started splitting up. I passed the first guy when the started to drop, and caught the second on a small climb.

(side note: Gehling commented during the preride that my climbing was poppy, but I didn't do so hot a job maintaining it over the top, so if I was going to attack and try to gap people, I'd better go early on climbs.)

So that's what I did to guy #2, and I blew him out of the water. At the top of the climb it opened up a bit, so I set in behind hammerhorse #3 and let him pull me around. I told him we had dropped his homies and he should punch it. He pulled me up to the next group of people and I came around him just before the last nasty singletrack section.

I didn't feel so hot during this race. My legs and lungs were taxed earlier than normal and I haven't been training as much as I'd like between Iola and now. However, I was racing so much more intelligently than I did at Iola that I still did pretty well.

On the final open sections I just drilled it and buried myself, passing at least 10 more riders. I got nipped right at the finish line, but I still felt like I raced with my brain.

4th in my age group, 14th of 78 finishers in Comp. Today marks the first of my goal of 5 top 5 finishes. I made a big improvement over Iola, not just in my placing, but also in how in what Martin Whitely calls "race craft." I was smart, I was aggressive, and I knew when I could recover and when I had to push.

I now have a month off before my next XC race, which is one of my primary goal races for the season. It's time to put on some serious miles.

Memorial day, Tuesday, trying to get back on schedule, stress

Memorial Day showcased the best TBSOM has to offer. We hit up Jim's trails with Pete, Shaw, Jake, MOD, Mary, Bryce, Abbie (or is it Abby?), Dan Coppola and myself. One big lap, including the new sections, and then chicken barbecue.

Tuesday I drove over to the practice crit but apparently it was canceled, as there was nobody there. I then drove home and tried to ride but hit such a mental roadblock that I turned around and went home ten minutes in.

I couldn't get my heart rate up, couldn't focus, couldn't go hard. It was "le disappointing."

Wednesday was rainy and cold and windy and generally the day was shit, so I only rode for an hour. But I made it count. I warmed up for 10 minutes and then hammered for 40 minutes. And I mean balls-out pain-face, hardest-sustainable-effort kind of riding.

There was lightening, otherwise I would have gone longer. This is hardening the fuck up.

le sick, le recovery, le Sunday morning TT

Wednesday I went out to do jump intervals but my lungs felt funny ad my legs were smoked. I couldn't get warmed up so I spun for 2 hours and then went home. Active recovery, anyone?

Thursday I felt like shit. My lungs were rough, my head was swimming, and I was tired. Even after 10 hours of sleep. I guess that's what I get for pulling rookie mistakes (see previous).

So I took some mucinex, took it easy and took a nap. Friday I felt awesome and have been back at it since. 4 hours Friday, and 1 hard one Saturday were a good lead-up to a really hard 1.5 hour ITT Sunday.

I averaged 24 MPH in a 45 minnute 19-mile ITT around sun Prairie. I didn't feel great, but I didn't feel too shitty. Not bad to get in a ride before work. Tomorrow it's off to Jim's trails for 3 hours of XC and grilling with the Shawzam and TBSOM crew. east and West will both be present, and with our powers combined we will become Captain Planet.

Practice Crit, or, Rookie mistakes I've made

Certain things happen when you race a crit on 4 hours of sleep. Like you don't pay attention to the lap counter and totally miss the final sprint. Sure, you are able to respond to the accelerations just fine because your legs are present, but you don't realize when it's 100% go time. Maybe your legs even feel awesome, in spite of the lack of sleep and the fact that you did a comp MTB race two days before, but when you're dumb enough to stay up til 4 in the morning you're not gonna get on the podium.

After the neutral lap, you are able to sit in any time the group speeds up, and you can even stay in the attack group when they go without getting your HR up too high. So once over half the field is blown off the back by the fast kids who are controlling the race, you just kind of hang out in the breakaway.

You notice the preem bell, and you notice what you think is a second preem bell. Because you forgot your watch and aren't paying attention to the lap counter (because you're doing this on 4 hours of sleep) you don't realize that on the 2nd to last corner you should have jumped harder. Or that maybe you should have sprinted instead of waiting for the inevitable regrouping of the Bs field that happens after preems.

So you get pinched off the back and end up in 6th or 7th because you made a rookie mistake and raced on 4 hours of sleep.

Race Report: Iola

This was interesting. I learned many things and know what I need to work on.

6th in age group, 20th of 112 overall in Comp.

My legs felt strong. They've never felt nearly this strong.

I pre-rode two laps Saturday. The first was with the learn-to-race clinic, as an assistant. That lap took over an hour. The second was supposed to be with gehling, but I had derailleur problems and did it on my own. I got the problem sorted out and kept riding, though I think my freehub is a bit jacked.

After sleeping 12 hours Saturday night I woke up to a beautiful sunny day and temps in the upper 50s. Perfect for me!

Breakfast was two bananas, two lattes, lots of Quaker Oat Squares cereal, dry, and some Accelerade. I warmed up with Gehling on the trainers and spun for baout 20 minutes with a few short bursts to get sweating and ready.

Don yelled go(oooooooo...), and we were off.

I felt very focused from the gun. Got clipped in, and stayed with the pack. Up the first climb, around the tower, and back through the start area and into the bowl. Still in the top few of my wave as we hit the second climb before another descent into the bowl.

I kept my hands off the brakes and carried lots of momentum into the short climbs. I also stayed aero on open secotions and passed tons of people without really working. That article on getting aero was spot on.

I've still got it in singletrack, at least compared to most Comp racers. Granted, I felt very focused and was taking risks one takes in races, but I was pinning it. My confidence was way up.

Then we hit the last nasty climb, and I learned that my riding style has changed. I am no longer a super speedy climber, and on the first lap this caught me off-guard. However, I soon learned where I can put the hurt on people and was making up spots.

Any open sections were an opportunity for me accelerate and move up a few spots. I still struggled on climbs, but keeping off the brakes in singletrack and hammering in the open sections made up for it. I kept making up spots on the last few laps and finished strong. Had I known how I needed to race I think I would have approached the first lap differently.

My legs did not get tired, although my lungs did. I think I could stand to lose some fat up top, as I have visible excess still around my stomach. Even though I'm doing the core workouts I'm having a hard time cutting that fat. However, I don't want to lose too much, so I think I won't worry aotu it and just keep riding and maybe watch what I eat a little better. I do need to work on power climbing. Maybe I can incorporate some more climbing into my workouts. I've never had my lungs hurt that badly in a race. While it was dusty, they were taxed before my legs.

Maybe coach Whalen can tell me if I need to do more hill climbs at high cardio effort. Also, I'm not used to having the power I have, so maybe I should just quit bitching an dpush a harder gear.

I ate one Accel gel on each lap, and one in the start chute. I also did one bottle every 1.5 laps.

I felt good. Bring on Rhinelander.