Sanford Mountain Bike Marathon "ride"

This is technically only a training ride, but most ride it as if it is a race. Has a unusual format where there is a 6 mile singletrack loop then 21 miles of dirt and paved road, then another 6 mile singletrack loop. Usually the road section is longer, but one of the main roads had a bridge that was underwater with all of the recent rain. I rode out there with Alex and Steve R. Wasn't really sure what I was getting into. They have about a 1/2 mile paved start and I stuck on Alex's wheel into the singletrack and followed him for the first loop. I remember thinking it was XC not endurance pace. When we came out for the road section Alex turned off to switch bikes. I saw stranix up the road a couple hundred yards and initially thought I would close the gap, but no. Hit the dirt road section and Alex and a few others caught me, so I started pacelining with them. Interesting to pace line in the dirt following a guy with fenders on. There were 5 of us after we climbed the dirt road back out we dropped 2 guys, then on the first significant paved climb, Alex and the other guy dropped me. I rode alone for the rest of the road other than, when Charlie caught me with a couple of guys on cross bikes that will pulling him back up after a flat. Attempted to hop on the CX wheels but they weren't having it. Got back to the singletrack with a decent gap on the guys behind me, but early on the "humps" of the singletrack I broke my chain. It had be clicking and acting shitty the whole ride so made sense. I used my lesson from CNF and tried to stay calm and took a link out and got going again. 3 guys passed me while I was hanging out, but I got a little rest. I passed 2 of them back during the first 3rd of the singletrack but didn't catch the other one. Was a fun race. Don't have any pics. Would have been good to get one of the bike afterwards, completely covered in mud.

Stats: 4th of 18 in master men 35-49, 9th of 38 overall, 33 miles, 152 mins (146 moving), avg speed 13.4, avg HR 165, max HR 173, bike Anthem

TORC Endurance - 6BC - Rocks and Pain

This one was full of rocks and pain, but still fun. The atmosphere and people were great, lots of encouragement from the other riders etc. Would have liked to do a little better than I did. The SSers who beat me are especially motivating for next race, since I was on a full squish geared bike :). This was second race of the TORC endurance series was done at Briar Chapel. TORC crews have been building trails there for about a year or so. The race course had about 4 miles of singletrack and 2 miles of doubletrack and dirt road. The singletrack has some smooth flowy stuff, but a few sections of very rocky but flat stuff. Lots of upper body work. They also included a crazy rock garden that I hiked. The rocky stuff was not a big deal (other than the giant rock garden). I had more trouble pacing on the doubletrack and dirt road. In hind sight I should have taken some "salt" tabs, but I didn't and I had minor cramps for a good part of the race. I went out a little too hard the first couple of laps, with a avg HR around 162. I backed off some, but in the end I just continued to slow HR and pace. 

I jumped with the lead group from the start and stayed on the back of it. Didn't know it at the time, but it was full of heavy hitters. Backed it down about 1/3 of the way into the lap and let the leaders go. One interesting part of this course is there was longish 2-way doubletrack part, where you could see where people were ahead and behind you. Even on the first lap the leaders had a good gap as I went down the doubletrack to the creek. I cramped in this race some, more than LRRP for sure, so I would back it down. I swapped places with Jimmy Bean several times. He would get a huge gap on the doubletrack and dirt road and then I would catch him in the woods. Good fun. I fell off the last 2 laps and avg HR was slightly lower than LRRP. Brinn came out too, but bent his rear dérailleur and hanger so bad on the 2nd lap he couldn't ride it anymore. He switched to my XTC for the last few laps.

Lap  Time    Avg HR
1    38:17   162
2    31:36   162
3    31:45   163
4    31:59   162
5    32:27   160
6    32:48   161
7    34:06   162
8    34:01   158
9    35:24   154
10   35:03   151

Stats: 4th of 14 in division. 9th of 58 overall including teams, 61 miles, 335 mins, avg speed 10.9, avg HR 159, max HR 175, bike Anthem

Grumpy toward the end.

Rolling to the start/finish. The magic B in the background

Last lap, crusing in with Randy

TORC Endurance - Cry Me A River LRRP - Beginners Luck

After the XC season I wasn't sure what I would do over the off season. The local MTB club TORC puts on some endurance races over the winter so I thought I would give it a shot. I had never done an endurance race before. These are 6 hour races where the XC ones are usually an 1 and 1/2 or 2. The longest MTB ride I had done this year before prepping for this race was around 3 and 1/2 hours. The strategy is different for these longer races, basically lower effort and food and water intake are important to keep from cramping or "bonking". I talked to a few people who had done the longer rides and started doing longer rides at CNF. Quick semi-tangent.. I did a 5 hour ride on the bike I did the XC series on, which is a carbon HT 26er. It was fairly brutal, beat my hands and feet and upper body up a lot. I decided to get a new bike and went with a short travel FS 26er. I rode the same course, same distance on the new bike ... wait for it ... more that 26 minutes faster. Insane. Anyway, the FS has become my endurance bike. 

I rode Little River (LRRP) a few times which turned out to be great. The lines there are a little tricky at first, but if you find them you can flow a lot of it. Also helps to know where the real hurty parts are. Got to the race and prepped as best I could. Had 2 camelbaks, which I would switch 1/2 through, my gel "bomb", some clif shots and for the end some turbo caffeine gels. The vibe of this race was great, everyone is low key you don't really care about the hole shot so it is pretty relaxed in that sense. The start went fine. I wasn't pushing and probably went into the woods around 10th or so. I was watching my HR and had planned to try and run around 150-ish but was running 158 or so. Used other riders for pacing several times and ended up riding with a couple of other guys for several laps. As the laps went on my HR was right around 160, but I felt good. Anytime I was breathing hard I backed off. Trying to keep momentum everywhere I could to conserve energy. Coming around the 5th lap I planned to stop and change up camelbaks and it was perfect timing, I had drained the first made a quick stop and grabbed the second one. Hopped back in the singletrack. As I passed people a lot of times people asked what cat you were in etc. I came up on a guy who was going pretty good and turned out he was in the same cat. I sat on him for a bit and observed. He looked fast but a little fatigued. He stopped for water/food near the start/finish and I kept trucking. I slowly cranked it up for each of the remaining laps. Wondering if that guy might catch up too. Last lap I attempted to let it fly and did run the fastest of my laps. Came around at 5:30 ish which is past the 5:20 cut off, so I was done. Rolled over to the lap postings and to my shock saw I was the fastest solo up to the 8th lap. No one passed me on my 9th lap so I had won. Beginners luck :). I did pretty much stick to my plan which I was proud of and my lap times were pretty consistent, which was great. 

Stats: 1st of 11, 52.2 miles, 5 hours 30 mins, avg speed 9.8, avg HR 161, max HR 175

 
Lap Time    Avg HR
1     37:00     159
2     37:15     158
3     36:43     159
4     36:35     159
5     37:26     158
6     36:48     160
7     36:01     165
8     36:27     164
9     35:48     165

No pics for this one, but here is a video another guy did. You can briefly see me on the far left side of the road around 0:20. I have a blue and white jersey on with a white helmet.

SCS - Dark Mountain Race - NC XC2 30-39 State Champ

This race was the last of the series. I knew since the Fontana race it was between me and Brad for the NC state championship in our group. The scoring is complex enough I built a google spreadsheet to run "scenarios". Basically as long as we were in the top 5 (which was probable), Brad could beat me by one place, but not 2 and I would win the series. Brad and I talked crap in email for weeks before the race. I came out and rode Dark Mountain once before, which is a fun course so I had a decent idea of the terrain. It does have some elevation, but nothing like Fontana and is mostly smooth and bermed. A couple of fun downhills, especially the one that dumps out in the the grass field at the end. Brad and I went into the woods around 5th or 6th. We slowly passed the rest of the pack and I was in first and he was in 2nd as we came around from the first lap. This is us coming out of the singletrack. You can see Brad's number plate coming around the tree.

Went back in the woods and Brad fell off about 1/2 way through the lap. I would see him by switchbacks but after the last climb I hadn't seen him in a while and was looking for him. There is a doubletrack section from the top of the last climb to the last section of singletrack, which is pretty much all downhill. Somehow Brad caught me on the doubletrack, we cranked big ring and were in a drag race to the singletrack. Some poor slower guy from another class was about to get on the singletrack. We yelled "on your right" and must have sounded like a freight train and both of us passed him right before the singletrack. He may have stained his drawers. Brad managed to get in the singletrack before me. There are a few rollers and then the downhill. I keep with him until the downhill and he absolutely killed it. It was spectacular to watch. I knew I had won the series at this point if I could stay on the bike so I "laid up" on the downhill and stayed in control. Brad hit the field probably 75 ft in front of me. I sprinted after him, but couldn't close the gap. He won the race, which was great since he had like 5 2nds in the series but no wins. I got my best of the season 2nd and won the state championship. rock on. So what did I win for the 2nd place and the NC state championship? 2 crappy pairs of socks, some expired energy drink mix, a tire, a red tailight and a small "state championship" gold medal. hehe. It was all worth it though.

Stats: 2 of 14, 15 miles, 79 mins, avg speed 11.5, avg HR 165, max HR 173, bike XTC

SCS - Fontana Race

This was the farthest race from where I live, but I knew I was up in the series points, so I thought I would go out. I drove out and stayed in a hotel overnight. Driving to the race in the morning it was pouring rain, the radio said there were flash flood warnings, very wet. I knew there would be a lot of elevation here and there was, but I didn't know everything would be covered in 2 to 12 inches of mud. Registered and thought for a bit that Brad wasn't there (who was the serious threat for the series), but he got there late. They cut a lap off the race due to the conditions. Got a decent start but not great, probably 6th or so going into the singletrack right behind Brad. We passed a few people and he and I switched places a couple of times. Seemed like this course had no flats, either up or down and most was fairly steep. There is a 1.2 mile downhill at the end of the lap where they do downhill races that would probably be wicked fun if it hadn't been so wet. I was cautious on the downhills. Lots of approximate lines and letting it "float" through stuff. Brad had a small gap on me as we came through the start/finish to start the second lap. There is a road you ride for couple hundred yards and then take a left into singletrack. Brad for some reason took a right on one of the other roads. I thought he was bailing from the race. Didn't know why since he looked pretty strong. Turns out he just took a wrong turn. The first part of the singletrack has a 1/2 mile or so switchback climb. I heard him yelling from the bottom when I was about at the top. Didn't see him for the rest of the race. That was the only race I beat him in and only due to his route error. 

Stats: 3rd of 11, 14.6 miles, 110 mins, 7.94 avg speed, avg hr 163, max hr 174, bike XTC

This gives you an idea of the conditions.

TORC XC - Huck-a-buck @ Crabtree - How not to run a race

I went into this race over confident. I had ridden the course a few times and new it was "easy", with not much climbing and relatively smooth. Of course it was easy for everyone. My wife and kids were out of town that weekend, so I stupidly rode the day before at a pretty good clip (not the best idea in hindsight). I figured there wouldn't be too many heavy hitters at the local race anyway so why not? 

It was pretty warm maybe mid-nineties. Had a huge field. I went out fairly hot, was in the top 3 or so and just burned out in the last 1/3 of the race. 2 or 3 guys passed me and I couldn't hold on. You could see I lost 2 mins on each lap. Pretty disappointed in the performance, but the upside is it wasn't in the "big" series and I took away some hard learned lessons. 

Stats: 5th of 31, 17.25 miles, 90 mins, avg speed 11.5, avg HR 168, max HR 179, bike XTC

SCS - Sizzler Greensboro Race

This was the first SCS race I did this year, where I pre-rode the course. It is about 30 mins from where I work so I made a few trips out there and did one 3 lap run at speed in attempt to replicate the race. The pre-rides definitely help, mainly in identifying the fast and slow sections and lines to some extent. This course is pretty wide and fast in most section and not much climbing. I really like the use of a large grassy area in each lap. You probably do about a 1/2 mile around it. The grass itself probably has the most difficult climb which isn't that bad but burns a bit at speed. Got a decent start and went into the woods in top 5. Quickly worked through the field and rolled with a group of 4 guys. Led after the first couple miles for through the first two laps pretty much, probably should have let others set the pace (maybe). 2 guys passed me in the grass at the start of the 3rd lap and I couldn't hold on going into the woods. Looking at the results the guy who won, laid down a 25 something on the last lap no way I could have run that fast I was 2 mins off. Ended up with 3rd. The average speed was a ridiculous 14 on this course, by far the fastest of the season. I think overall this was my best SCS race performance, even though I got a 2nd later. I had three friends from work come out and race this race also. Two of them had never raced before. They all seemed to have a good time. Good fun overall.

Stats: 3rd of 21, 19.5 miles, 83 mins, avg spd 14, avg HR 166, max HR 174, bike XTC.

Coming out into the grass at the end I was near I guy that I knew was in the younger age group that started before us, but fun to chase him down to the finish anyway.

This is probably my favorite race pic of this season. I am on the right, my buddy is running beside us tour de france style (the tour was going on at the time). He was yelling "I love you man" and other stupid stuff. Trying to pass me a diet mtn dew. The guy I was racing said something like "you better keep going man". Hilarious

Nothing like sprint finishes with racers that aren't even in your race group. Completely worth it anyway.