MNSCS #6 Red Wing

It was a fine day for a HOT and HUMID race. Temps we're in the 90's, there was a mix of clouds, sun and little rain. I could say the Wednesday ride of 5 hours in 90' weather affected me, but not so much....been working up to 5 hrs all year. My strategy for Comp race was to get to the woods first to enable expert passing opps before others. Once in woods, pedal at a reasonable pace then determine heat and competition factors. Getting to the woods first, mission accomplished. The heat was scream'n. I decided to lay off sooner than later. Lap one I saw Bart, Corey and many others 30 seconds off or right on my butt for a while. Cool, it was a race!!! Lap 1, a third complete, Corey passed with a convincing speed, actually took me by surprise. I caught him bit later and decided to counter right away, didn't see Corey again but he finished strong. On the second lap, just before the quarry Truman snuck in fast. He must have been flying through that meadow to catch me and time the pass. I chased but as we exited the quarry climb he was gone. Very fast, very nice move. Bart caught me and stuck with me most of lap three and passed middle of lap 3, I gave a weak attempt to chase. From there it was a lonley lap 3. Mark caught me middle of lap 4. I was cheering him at the start of lap 4 as I saw him coming for a while. Funny thing was when he caught me on the big hill, he passed then slowed up. I think the cruise control paid off. I stood up, flew by and was off again. The rest of lap 4 went quite easily. Now I know why the water folks we're cheering me to go go go, I was withing seconds of Bart. I pedaled slowly to the finish with Duncan running beside me. I told the water guy, spray him! Done. 3rd overall at 1 hour 50 minutes. Can't complain. Duncan had a great race. He was in second most of the race and didn't know it until he was passed by an age groupie. Once that happened he countered and drove home second in convicing fashion. Right on. Nice work in the heat little man!! Next Buck Hill - then Leadville. Later!!! Red Wing Citizen start video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3071845262592617138 Red Wing Start Pictures: http://new.photos.yahoo.com/heath4143/albums/

HOT TREATMENT

Yesterday was HOT, near 95 degrees. But Leadville is calling & I plotted to ride distance, again, & that's what I did. All to satisfy my spreadsheet (I mean goals). Ride time of 5 hours, road & dirt on my MTN Bike. To Lebanon, multiple laps then back home with a few lakes. Damn HOT! I stopped pedaling 4 times (8 minutes tl.) to eat bananna & refill camelbacks. No lie. Although I consumed 120 oz of water, it wasn't enough. I lost over 3lbs!! How will I ever complete Leadville 100? Perhaps not carring all my food and water for duration will ease things a bit, HOWEVER, the altitude.....

Below is the fuel synopsis for Wednesday's ride. Next a few secret pre-race rides, then Red Wing.

MNSCS #5 Mt. Kato "WIN"

Start of Mt. Kato Comp Race Duncan and I headed out Saturday afternoon and headed to Mt. Kato. We pulled the pop-up camper, camped, had a campfire and a swell time Saturday eve. Oh, and Wal-Mart saved the day with $8.48 sleeping bags!! First, let's recap Duncan's race day. He placed 2nd again behind Shea. He said he felt better & thinks he's getting closer... His chain came off twice over the cassette top, into the spokes, and once in front. Hmmm, I better get the hammer out again and fix. One time it was really bad where an adult rider helped untangle for him. Thanks. Also, Duncan was bragging about his over-the-bars, land on his feet trick. Glad it all worked out, no injury, another race completion!! The Comp race was, well, I won it. That's right!! 1st place overall Comp. Unreal. Since this is my race log and diary of sorts I'll do a play by play. I went hard out of the gate but not for gold. This is starting to work for me. I was 2nd and then 4th but forced myself back into 2nd again at top of first climb. Then through prolouge and up again remained 2nd behind Tom T. By mid lap two I caught/passed Tom at the top & headed down torward backside lifts. Both Mike & Tom we're reeling me in on the bottom flats. On the climb up we were 1,2,3. I was leading & rolling up slow, thinking about the two more laps ahead. Neither of them challenged. Once above the staircase I noticed Tom & Mike started to fall off, so I pushed it hard. At the start of lap three it was Mike & I. Mike challenged and took the lead, but I caught him & passed him at the top. Mike & I stayed 1,2 all the way back to the staircase. At the staircase Mike said he had hamstring issues & had to fall off. I told him 3rd place was coming and then proceeded to hammer it up feeling darn good. On the start of lap 4 both Mike & Tom were in sight below. With that, I went a bit harder and started to gap them more. I finished 1st overall w/ Tom about 30 seconds behind. Mike had more cramping & ended 4th. I'm thinking the endurance training for Leadville is paying dividends in overall strength and fuel smarts. I have a whole new ability to recover during the race. Perhaps race strategy changes are helping too, hmmm need to evaluate all of this for a few days....still evaluating... Red Wing is next.

Buck #10

Great race tonight. The whole clan was out tonight, all five of us. Even Alta with her broken leg said she had fun!! Leo was tooling all over and having fun. Duncan did the ride-the-bike-skid to the podium for his award, freak-a-zoid kid. The crowd loved it. Mom is itch'n to race I just know it. She had a good time talking to peeps she knew. Duncan, Mua, Todd, Joel, Deb, and others made it a good spectator race for her. Duncan placed second in beginner and said he was racing fast. Great job! Although I was coming off two near 70 mile days this week I actuallty warmed into the advanced race ok. I thought I'd drag like a dead minow, but actually came on strong enough. Only 34 racers in advanced tonight, I placed 12th of 34, not bad. Should be fresh and ready for Kato Sunday.

Bonk Training

Ok, today I went for the bonk train method. I wanted to see how long I could go before bonk. Call it mid-season change-up, 6 weeks to Leadville experiment. Left the house with 60oz of water, of which the camelback(from fridge) had remnants of sustained left over. I'd say maybe one scoop worth was in the camel before I topped off with water. To make a long story short I biked to Leb, did a lap and was on my way home before the brick hit. I felt it coming. I thought maybe it was a mental game or two days after a 70 mile ride...nope...bonk. I was pretty close to major slowdown at 2.5 hours in. I squished a single goo in and felt actually good at times for the remaining hour. 3.5 hours on mtn bike, on one gel....perhaps a scoop of sustained too....not bad. Good learning. I was never so happy to drink endurox when I got home!! Buck on Thursday may hurt a bit. Hope to recover by Sunday for Kato.

Mammoth

Nice ride this am. Picked up Joel at 6:00am and hit the trail shortly after. First we did a full lap of all loops except final stuff after RR tracks. Then we did an extra skull loop and exit climb to highpoint intersection. 1hr 45min of pure fun. Love that place. From now on it's SS there. I'm taking Monday off.

House to Leb & Back

Today after the early storm cell passed, I was pave trails bound for Leb. I left at 6:00am instead of the 5:00am plan...but all worked out. The paved path from St. Louis Park around the lakes was nice, even though a bit wet from morning storm. Once on Minnehaha it was dry as was Mendota to 494 and South on Pilot Knob. Leb was dry for lap 1 then it rained hard for 3 minutes making lap two a bit slippy sliddy. All good. It took 4 hours total ride time compared to 4.5 hrs earlier this year(says the sreadsheet log). Nice progress toward Leadville.... Too bad I couldn't leave at 5:00am as planned cause that extra hour was so in me. I did the Mendota route there and back. Mammoth tommorow.