MFG Nine 2 Five Race Report

I raced the MFG Nine 2 Five this weekend solo, having no idea what the trails were like out at Gig Harbor 360 park across the sound from Tocoma Wa. My team had a solid group of 4 men competing Solo and one man on a mixed 3 man team. 

With a 9 am start, it was quite easy to make the 1.5 hour drive in the morning of the event. Having run a 5k 2 days before for the first time in 8 years and my legs still had a dull ache. I hoped 2 days rest would be enough but it wasn't. I well, race day is here, time to ride! 

There were only about 10 solo staters as most riders were racing on teams. I accidentally got the hole shot at the start as I simply ramped my heart rate to what I expected to hold for the day as the other riders held off on intensity for the first of many 7 mile 800 foot elevation laps. 

The nature of the rout was tight singletrack with short power climbs and loose sandy corners/descents due to the dry summer we have had. This type of terrain lends it's self to big and powerful riders that can carry momentum and power up the quick kicker climbs. Not my style at all, and especially not today with less than snappy legs. 

About 4 hours in, I was lapped by the leader of the solo riders. At my average of 42 minutes a lap, I was nearly an hour off the top pace. That was a bit deflating. I well, bad body day, push on! 

I had hoped to complete at least 10 laps but I was really suffering and sitting in last place. At the end of 9 laps, I called it a day and became a spectator. I'm not used to being this slow but it had been a perfect storm of sorts for me. O well, win some, loose some. It was still a fun day of racing and great to see my team makes tear it up with Dodi winning the 45 and over and Chris placing 2nd in open. Way to go guys! 

Hopefully this is my worst result of the season. Till next time, enjoy the ride! 

Training Plateau

I have reached a major plateau in my fitness. My short term goal is to increase my leg strength and power ahead of cyclocross racing season but after the last 3 weeks I have noticed significant loss in my leg muscle and my power has decreased to match. Perhaps I have logged too much volume for too long and my diet has not been able to keep up with my energy requirements. I feel like I'm trained to handle the volume, but I need to increase my consumption to match. 

I'm definitely frustrated by my shrinking weak legs. I have been doing strength specific workouts including high gear power starts and weight lifting but the results have been opposite of my goals: estimated 25% decrease in size and power. I don't have any data to back that up, just my best guess but not the profess I wanted. I have been eating a lot of health made from scratch food and nearly no junk food/fast food/soda and obviously I'm falling short on my consumption. Time to use My Fittnes Pal to try and get an understanding of my consumption. 

I have taken the plunge and bought running shoes followed by my first running workout in probably 8 years. I ran a 5k in about 30 minutes. It was brutal! My legs need to toughen up a lot to haddle the riggers of running but over the past 2 years I have noticed one thing in common with the most powerful and dominate cyclist I have met and that is, they run. My main motivation is to become efficient for running sections in cyclocross races. 

I have much to learn. How do you bring water on a run? The sloshing of s bottle in hand is not ideal. 

Seattle to Portland 2015, 204 miles, one day at 20 mph!

My riding friends in Snohomish were training up for riding STP in one day and they had already bought bibs and made shuttle arrangements. We had a group of 6 or 7 very strong riders to paceline together and a Ford Excursion with a 3rd party driving available to shuttle 6 bikes and 6 riders back home. The whole ride was planned out with a red carpet laid out for me so I figured it was time to make it happen! I bought my a number second hand off someone on Criegslist 3 days before the big ride and I was set to go.

One of the biggest challenges of the ride was getting to the 4:45 am start. I slept over at my friend Chads house who was also riding to make the morning faster and less stressfull. 

Anticipation building, 4:40 am!

The start was really crazy. Lots of inexperienced riders bunched up and riding close together with low lighting and lots of city road features to avoid including mini roundabouts and curbed medians. The one close call I had was for an old guy trying to point out an obstruction and in doing so cutting a corner to tight and squeezing out the rider in front of me. Mind your front wheel, first and foremost!

We quickly settled into a paceline of our group plus some stray riders totaling about 20 or so in all. We were cooking along around 24 mph after the first little hill climb. We didn't make any of the stops durring the first 50 miles to get ahead of the masses. 10,000 riders on one rout is a lot! One of our crew got a flat and I was too concerned about safety and time to pull off so I just kept goining with one other guy from our crew I had never met. We rode through to the 50 mile mark which was the Air Force base and it was obvious we were the first to arrive. I waited for 15 minutes for my crew but they did not arrive so I continued on with some other strong riders.

I didn't make this photo op, but this was the crew. 

At about 75 miles I picked up a tack on a rural stretch of road which someone went to the trouble of scattering thumb tacks over several miles in hopes of spoiling our fun. As a result I lost the paceline I was on to repair my flat. Now I was solo. 

I was pushing hard to keep my average over 20 mph and then I missed a turn. I got 3 miles off course before I ralized I had missed a turn. I backtracked to find a course marshal at an intersection but no markings at all. He wasn't there 30 minuted prior..

I continued on solo to the rest stop at 87 miles in and took in serious calories. I was starting to feel a bit under the weather.. Which is funny because after that, it started raining for the first time in about a month! 

This picture was taken at about 90 miles in. I was feeling a bit cold, saturated, and alone at that point. Boo. 

I took another solid feed at the 100 mile mark and hung out for about 30 minutes. I had completed the first 100 in just over 5 hours but at this point the ride hadn't been all that much fun.  I was wet, cold, and getting a tired.  I was hopping it would take a turn.. And it did! As I was rolling out, Chad and the crew were rolling in (got a text on my phone) so I turned back and waited for they guys to re-fuel before we continued on. 

From that point on we road in a solid well matched group rotating though the paceline like clockwork. Solid riding at a fast pace, and the weather improved to be quite pleasant. We rode fast and stopped often. 

The last part of the ride in Oregon along the Columbia River was scenic but heavily traveled. 

The bridge, and Portland! What a sight! We all felt quite strong and snappy, despite the previous 190 hard miles. No ride is complete without a sprint finish! 

Ride done in about 13.5 hours including stops. Not bad considering my previous distance record was 150 miles in 12 hours. What a great ride and a great accomplishment for us all.

Thanks Chad and company for making this ride possible! 

NW Epic Capital Forest 100 mile MTB race

No matter how I look at it, this was the most strenuous and challenging bike ride and race I have ever done. 100 miles, 90% of which was single track trail, and over 12,000 vetical feet of climbing. What a ride! I can honestly say with 4,000 miles under my belt in the pervious 6 months, I was sufficiently trained for this event. 

This was the start group. If you look closely to the far left you can see my front wheel right behind the red bike. Not a big turnout for the 100 mile version and the 6am start. The 8am 50 mile start had much more participants. 

There I am at the start, about 30 minuets out of bed, a bit flustered because I was struggling to get my lenses clean using the spandex of my shorts, with marginal success but I was ready for the effort ahead. 

The start was fast considering the distance involved. I tried to stay with the lead group for the first hour or so but eventually settled into my own pace about 12 spots back, stopping at every aid station for water and a quick bite to eat about once every 12 miles. I had Hammer Propel mix in my bottle and water in my camelback. At 270 calories an quite a bit of fat per bottle, the Propel would be my primary fuel for the ride. I had another serving of powder in my jersey for a 25 mile re-mix and another pre mixed bottle and powder pouch waiting for me at the end of the first 50 mile lap. 

I ended up forgetting to pack the powder in my jersey as I was distracted by my mid race chain lube application. The chain lube was definitely needed after 50 dusty miles since the first application but i really could have used that drink mix. .As a result of forgetting my mix, I ran out of Propel and was feeling tired and starting to really drop my pace at 75 miles in. It was getting hot with temps in the low 90's by this time of day. Good thing most of the race was well shaded but the heat was definitely slowing me down and making me a bit uncomfortable.  My next rest stop I threw back a bunch of shot blocks and a shot of cola, which brought me a second wind. Time to start going for the easy quick energy. I only had a couple more hours to go. 

The descents were quite rough, as shown above. For the pre ride I miss understood my GPS and rode up this rough and steep stuff but for the race we were riding down it. 85 miles in I was at the top of the major climb and actually felt quite alert and well so I bombed Dow the terrain even faster than the first time and made some significant gains on my competition. Training though the winter was paying dividends! 

At the end of the day I had not only finished, but had a fairly flawless race with no flats, mechanicals other than sluggish shifting, and no Bonk! I finished 4th in male open, 12/32 overall with a time of just over 10 hours. 10 was my goal, close enough! It was a good way to compare myself to to some of the other highly trained competition. I filed in OK but missed the win by an hour and a half. Not there yet, but very happy with where I am. 

I was running a home made11-42 cassette with wolf tooth 16t replacement cog and a single Raceface narrow wide 34t chainring up front and I did not need the 42t the entire day so it's time to throw a 11-36 on and call the 1x10 drivetrain done. I resorted to shoe gu to keep my seatpost from slipping in the frame and keep the seat angle where I had set it. The shimano rotors, also a recent change, were flawless and didn't make a single squeal. With 300 miles on the bike, most of the bugs are finally worked out. 

I seriously expected to be Able to drive 2hours home after this but I was far too tired. I crawled into be about 4 hours after finishing my race. Good thing I never broke down camp this morning! I slept 12 hours, out cold. 

After the race i picked up this 11-36 shimano xt cassette. The shifting is much better and it's a lighter setup than running the 42t. I dig it. 

Washington Ride Report, Snohomish, Goldbar, Index ride

I didn't have any solid plans going into my 3 day weekend other than logging around 180 miles on the bike. I started the weekend with a mountain bike ride at Tokul. The trails there were fun, although a bit more enduro oriented than I prefer on my hard tail. It was great so ride some new trials with friends (including the 4 legged friends). Between the 14 mile trail ride and riding to the park and carpool on the road, I logged 50 miles on the MTB. It was a hot 91 degrees as I took the road home but my body handled the heat fine. Always a concern for me ever since I had severe heat stroke in 2002. That day was 105. 

Saturday was the 4th and I joined a very large group at Snohomish Bicycle shop for a late morning ride. We spilt up into A and B group and then the rather large 30 or so rider A group split into several sub groups. Tim on his aero recumbent and Jeff, the road racer on the Starbucks team broke away early and, working with another road racer, John on the Audi cycling team up the climb, I was able to catch them, snagging a KOM on a 12 minute hill climb in the process. The 5 of us in the lead group then proceeded to haul ass the rest of the ride. It was a bit painful but fun. Glad my legs were up to it! 

The ride on the 5th of July ended up being a real treat. I wanted to get one more solid endurance ride in before the Seattle to Portland ride next weekend and Chad was up for guiding anyone willing out east off highway 2 past Goldbar and Index for a 70 mile out and back with about 4,000 vertical feet though some of the most scenic roads around. I went to bed before the fireworks around 10 pm to rest up for the crack of dawn start. I left on my bike from home in Snohomish at 6am for some bonous miles.

With the post fireworks smoke in the air and the sun rising, The three of us set off. 

This ride had some notable climbs on some of the most scenic and secluded roads I've been on in a very long time. 

To our delight, Index was far enough out that the air was clear enough for some great views. 

These are the same two rides who plan on riding STP with me in less than 10 hours (one day) so it was good to get some paceline time in. 

Chads front deraillure ran out of power before the mid point of the ride and I broke my chain.. But no flats! Another benefit of doing this ride ahead of STP. I replace my chain with a new Ultegra and Chad re-charged his batteries after the ride. Hopefully no more issues for STP!

Eventually we came to the end of the road, literally, and it was time to turn back.

The return was smooth sailing, other than Chads REAR deraillure also running out of power. He still kept coasting by me down the hills at 30+ mph! 

This ride was hard to beat and the three of us were a good pace match overall. I managed to squeak 100 miles out of the day before I was through with the temperature soaring past 90 degrees. My heart rate was running very low all day which means my body has had enough traing for a while. Time to rest up ahead of my longest single day on the bike yet, 206 miles next Saturday! Super excited for that. 

It was a 4th to remember!