Sittin' on my butt, eating and losing fitness.

Go me! I'm in a cycling funk right now; the weather doesn't help. I've been doing a lot of extra work lately, but I'm really digging what I'm doing right now so that's OK. Does writing software 60 hours a week make you a fast cyclist? I'll find out for you.

Terror of Teaberry

Went up alone today to do the 23 miler. I've did pretty well in a couple of the races last year (a 5th and a 4th) and I'm in better shape this year so I decided to hit the last race in the series. Before the start of the race I was wandering around looking at everybody and thinking that there looked like some really fast people there. I need to stop psyching myself out before a race; looking fast doesn't necessarily mean that they are. We lined up and waited for the start. When the word was given the front people in the pack just went crazy sprinting up the fireroad. Damn! These people obviously knew the course; after the fireroad you get into some singletrack that turns to a congo line if anybody boofs. After that blisteringly fast start I was probably in the woods around 7th place or so. The top people in my category probably put 2-3 minutes on me at this point. I ended up passing almost the entire class that started in front of me to finish 2nd in Vet, and 4th/5th or so overall (not sure of the start time differential between the classes). It turns out that first place was less than 3 minutes in front of me. I was told early on that the lead guy was super fast and was going to smoke the whole field. Would I have been able to catch him had I known he was so close? No idea; I felt like I was going as hard as I could, but there's always the possibility I could have dug a bit deeper if I had realized I was so close. Perhaps if I'd sprinted harder at the start and not gotten caught in the singletrack? Who knows. Regardless I was really pleased w/ my results. The cool temps meant no cramps (unlike last year) so I was able to hit it hard the entire time. Great trails, good trail conditions and perfect weather = fantastic day.

SM100

Finished. Carlo and I rolled across the finish line in the dark, after almost 14 hours. I was dreading the race somewhat; I was still fighting off the lingering effects of a nasty cold that only started to get better on Friday. I was hacking and coughing up crap the entire day. Despite all that I felt somewhat OK, and the riding conditions were perfect. We couldn't have asked for a much better day; dry trails, low humidity, temps in the mid/low 70's and slightly overcast. This was borne out by the blazing fast finishing times; almost everybody I know set personal bests on this race. The only downside was the dust. By the end of the race we were coated with a mixture of dust and sweat.
In short I had a blast. I wasn't originally planning on doing this race, as the W101 was the one I had targeted. Well, the W101 sucked; tons of rain and mud led to a not-so-fun race course. I was pleased w/ my time but couldn't really say I had fun. I decided to sign up with the plan of taking it easy and riding w/ Carlo. He had trained pretty hard this year, so I knew he had a really good shot at finishing this year. I really wasn't in the mood to hit another 100 hard, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to kick back and spend a day in the woods.
I can honesty say I enjoyed every single mile of the ride this year. I rode close to 3/4's of the first nasty singletrack climb until I ran into a train of walkers on a really steep section that I couldn't get past. I had always assumed that this climb is a hike-a-bike during a race, but I think if you get there early enough w/ enough fitness it's doable even for mere mortals. I ran into Timmy and Trevor and a few other people I knew while waiting for Carlo at the top of the climb. The downhill off the mountain was fantastic. Hankey mountain was as steep and long as I remembered. The downhill on the backside was even worse than I remembered; I guess the dry conditions and 400+ riders before us had really done a number. I dropped down into the first chute and basically surfed down broken bits of shale for the next quarter mile. What a hoot. They've done a lot of work on the off-camber section of the downhill after Hankey and it's fantastic now. After fueling at CP3 we headed off on the road. Most people think that this next section is one of the worst on the course. I actually think it's my favorite section. I love the nasty singletrack climb, and the downhill off the mountain is actually one of my favorite downhills anywhere. I think the climb was one of the low points for Carlo. He had been fighting stomach problems all day and he was starting to suffer. I would ride for a bit and then wait for Carlo to catch up. Stomach and all, he just kept cranking. I also noticed that Carlo was doing really well on the descents. I guess he was getting too tired to overthink the descents and was just letting it roll. After CP4 it's the looooooong climb up to CP5. 17 miles or so on fireroads, but only the last 4 or so are steep. We threw on our iPods and settled down for a grind. This section is a lot more fun when you're with somebody. About halfway there we ran into Eric, one of the MORE regulars. We would end up riding w/ him for about the last 25 miles. Carlo was just setting a steady pace and we got to CP5 just 20 minutes after the lights cutoff. All day long I'd been thinking about the Pizza @ Cp5. Of course they were out. I decided to not put my lights on, but just tucked them into my pack when we left. I had warned Eric and Carlo about the miles after CP5; about how much they sucked, about how they crushed the soul. Mile after mile of uphills through meadows. I kept telling them that I thought we were almost there; after a few times of being wrong I was told to shut the hell up. Heh. We eventually arrived at the downhill after close to an hour. We started the downhill, and after a couple of hundred yards I got in front of Carlo and went off by myself. He was starting to get really tired and it was slowing him on the downhills. About halfway down I realized that I was going to be in trouble if I waited much longer. I have TERRIBLE dusk vision and it was starting to get dark. So, with two miles left I just let it go. I _flew_ down the rest of the way, and there was just enough light. I waited at the bottom and put on my helmet light. After a few minutes I started to worry. After 10 minutes I was positive that somebody had crashed and I was getting ready to start climbing up the hill. Just then I saw a couple of lights. Everybody was OK; just taking the downhill a bit slow due to fatigue and lighting conditions.
The next 15 miles or so are pretty easy with the exception of one climb. I told the guys that they were basically guaranteed of finishing now; worst case you walk the nasty climb. That's just about what we did. Walk some, hop on the bike, walk some more. At this point we had hooked up w/ another rider and I spent a good bit of time w/ him chatting about college football to pass the time. At the top of the Hanky climb Carlo was a bit in front of the other guys. I told him he had a chance to break 14 hours and he should just nail it from this point. I think that fired him up because he was cranking for the last few miles into the campsite. We rolled into the campsite and it seemed like everybody was cheering for us! Wait, what are they saying? We're off course and going the wrong way? Damn. I was following Carlo and somehow he rode right off the course. We hop off the bikes, scramble over the yellow tape and a few seconds later we're done. Greg rolls in not a minute later. Wow. Gotta admit I was pretty impressed w/ Carlo. He was having stomach issues, and was clearly suffering out there at times but he kept on cranking. It's gotta feel good to finish one of these. It's amazing the difference it makes when going at less than a race pace. When you're out there riding hard it's difficult to really appreciate how great the trails are.
The rest of the group did great as well. Jody finished in 9:40, Angus was 11:01 and Greg was 13:46. Based on our similar W101 times and ride we did together the week before I'm guessing I would have been right around Jody's time had I been well and racing hard. Next year I'm going to do this as a race, and I'm going to shoot for a sub 10 hour ride. Hopefully conditions next year will be as good!

Fuck.

I'm getting sick. Every time I do one of these things I think I'm getting sick right beforehand. This time I really am. I feel like crap and I'm blowing snot everywhere. And it's just getting worse. Nice. Hopefully I can kick it before it's time to race, but somehow I doubt it.

Getting close

The SM100 is less than a week away. Even though I'm not "racing" this time, I still managed to get in some quality riding the last few weeks. Hopefully the weather will hold out and I'll get a cool/dry race. It's been great for me the other two times I did it, so hopefully my luck will continue.

Really looking forward to this one.

Signed up for the SM100

Yup. I'm going to be riding it w/ Carlo, so it should be somewhat laid back for me. I'll make sure to bring lights this time; I'm guessing we'll finish in 14+ hours. Probably be riding quite a bit of it w/ Greg as well. Should be a lot of fun this time!

W101 in the bag.

This race has been bothering me for the last few years. It's the one race I've done where I didn't finish. I know I made the right decision last time based on my physical state, but it still ate at me. So, I've always said I'd go back to finish this race. I didn't want a repeat of the last time I did it (~95 degrees and high humidity) so I was carefully watching the weather report before pulling the trigger on the race. The forecast read: rain, rain , rain, rain, sunny (race day), rain.

Huh. Well, I'm not a big fan of mud (slight understatement) but mid 80's and partly cloudy is probably as good as you're going to get weather wise.

I headed out around noon on Friday and quickly drove into this:



Yeah, it was going to be wet. I rolled in, set up my campsite and kicked back to read a little bit. I rolled over to the starting area and I saw Jonathan and Trevor. After chatting a bit they mentioned that they we're heading to dinner in a cafe up the street and kindly invited me along. A pleasant dinner ensued in which they tried to convince me to race cross.

After getting back to the campsite I called Jody to see where he was at. He got a late start, and he didn't arrive until after 9. After signing in we kicked back a bit and relaxed and then hit the sack. I still had the ear-plugs that Frank gave me for Big Bear so I had a decent nights sleep.

Morning comes, I grab some coffee and food, kit up and head for the starting line. I get there and Trevor looks at me and asks me if I'm planning on racing w/o my helmet. Crap. I hustle back to the car and make it back w/ time to spare. Jody and I start out together and hang together on the first climb. As soon as the downhill starts my glasses fog up and I have to slow to a crawl; he's quickly gone and people that I passed on the uphill started blowing past me. It was a common occurrence for the first 4 hours and for the odd downhill later in the race. He finished one spot in front of me; it's a shame I was having so much trouble w/ my glasses as it would have been a lot more fun to ride w/ someone.

I know from past experience that the first 40 miles are easy. I had folks blowing past me on the flats that I would eventually beat by 2+ hours. It's all about the pacing. After checkpoint 2 the pain begins. Last time I did this race the climb right out of the checkpoint was a granny gear/walking climb. This year I was in the middle ring for most of it, and only popped down in the granny to save my legs in the steep portions where I was walking last time. I could already tell that this year was going to be a lot better.

Finish the climb, head down a nice rocky downhill, a bit of rolling fireroad and it's back to climbing. I'm heading up this hill and as I come around the corner I see this guy in a Trojan costume beating a drum and cheering for folks as they pass. He bangs the drums and hops out to give me a push in the back as he tells me that I've almost crested the climb. Sweet! I hunker down, and really start pedaling hard. I turn the corner and see that the climb isn't anywhere near finished. WTF? Probably 1.5 miles and 700 feet of climbing later it's actually done. The rest of the course to checkpoint 3 goes smoothly.

Straight out of CP3 is the Sassafras climb; I have horrible memories of this from the last time I did the race. I remembered it as being an unclimbable hike-a-bike. Well, long story short I rode the whole thing. Passed ~20-30 people in this time. The rocky singletrack at the top that I was too tired to enjoy last time was fun. I was in a groove. Didn't last long though. There's one obscenely steep downhill after the rocky stuff. The type where you're hanging off the back of your bike still barely able to keep control. I was good for most of it, but right at the end before a sharp turn I hit a bump and smacked my nuts on the saddle. At that point I skidded off the side of the trail and proceded to slowly topple over to the side. After a few minutes I collected myself and finished the downhill. Some more singletrack and then it's the fireroad downhill into CP4; this is where I bailed last time with horrible cramps.

I've always wondered if I could have finished the race last time if I'd just been stupid enough to keep going. After doing the last 25-30 miles I'm positive I would not have finished. The section from 4-5 was HARD; lots of climbing and rocks. About halfway through this section I caught up to a guy right as he was coming to a stop. I thought his tire had a leak, but I quickly realized that it was a rattlesnake. This guy was stopped just staring at the thing. I waited a bit and then told him to keep going. He didn't want to go past it. I told him to either move over or keep going; we're in a fucking race you know! That finally got him moving and I passed him a short while later. There were a bunch more up and down sections that were surprisingly hard but nothing too bad. Once you get to CP5 you really are good to go. It's probably 12 miles; 6 of which are flat road and rail-trail. There's one more nasty climb but you know it's the last one, so you can really hammer it. At the end of the downhill it pops you into a singletrack section next to the river. This is a total hike-a-bike. Damn; that was a real kick in the nuts 4 miles before the end of the race. Once it turned up I hopped back on the bike, briefly got rained on right before I hit a dark tunnel and finally sprinted the last mile or so to the finish. Final time 10:28. I was really pleased with how I held up out there. In retrospect I think I could have gone harder on the hills, but I was afraid of a repeat of 2006. I finished strong and really wasn't that tired. I didn't have to walk any of the long climbs. I'm sure I would have been sub 10 hours if conditions had been dry, but I'll take it!

Will I do this again? No. The course simply isn't nearly as much fun as the SM100, and since the campsite is located inside the town of Coburn it's not nearly as much of a festival atmosphere. I'm glad to finally put this one to rest.