24 hours of Rocky Hill 2018

My last RHR24 attempt in 2014 ended at ~8 hours due to a very tight back.  Since then my training time has been reduced significantly (kids will do that), probably to about 50% of the volume I was doing in prior attempts.  In 2012 I finished 16 laps which put me in 6th place.  Since then, I've done the Dirty Dozen a couple of times, broken my ankle, and mostly just ridden for fun with friends (maybe done a couple of TMBRA XC races and a couple of Capital Racing CX races too).  I definitely have not been riding my P29er singlespeed bike as much, or at all, mostly due to how much easier the full suspension is for my ankle.  So this year, having done the Dirty Dozen, I wanted to try the 24 hours and get the Dirty Duel award.   In spite of the reduced training time, I felt I was in pretty decent shape, until the rains started this fall.  That meant only a handful of off-road rides in about 2 months.  Because of this, I was really worried about my upper body holding up during the race.  In sharing this worry with @johnnyjmotox, his reply was that everyone is in the same boat.  Because of the constant rain threatening a muddy race, I got my P29er ready.  I did exactly 2 road rides on it in the week prior to the race, mainly to check and adjust the fit (and I don't think I had any rides in it, in at least a year before that).  I used the P29er to do the pre-ride and that confirmed that I didn't want to use my geared bike in that mess.  However, I was still really afraid to burn out pushing a hard gear on the climbs. 

On Saturday, the ground was still saturated, but I felt eager to get started.  I was having stomach pain (@johnnymotox told me it was likely from nervousness), so once the start sounded, I felt better.  I did the run and felt OK.  The first lap felt like a sprint race, mostly because I never recovered from the run, but also because I don't warm-up quickly and that's how my body reacts.  I walked the usual spots: the last climb to the top of Fat Chucks, and several of the steep and slick short climbs through the course.  Some I skipped to save my legs, some because I just couldn't get traction while pushing so hard.  My hands were going numb as usual, and my legs felt like they couldn't keep going at this pace for 24 hours.  My back was starting to tighten up (a sure sign of too much torque, not enough spinning for me).  I had no idea how I was going to even finish 3 hours, let alone 24.  I finished the first lap, I stopped to pick up a bottle and stretch out.  Laura told me @johnnymotox had done about a 45 minute lap, while it had taken me something like 1:10.  It is hard to fathom how fast he must have gone on the climbs to do that.

Thankfully in the 2nd lap, my legs loosened up.  My hands were still numb but there was some improvement overall.

By the 3rd lap I was feeling much better all around, I was thinking I could make it.  I was still stretching after every lap but doing consistent lap times.

By the 4th lap, I was starting to have doubts I could make it.  I just couldn't go slow enough and still ride most things.  Walking everything is no fun at all.  I still thought about my lesson learned at last year's Dirty Dozen:  apply power strategically to save power.  That means to spend a little extra power to keep momentum up, rather than slow down and expend more energy re-accelerating, or dismounting and mounting.  So I kept riding about the same, but by now my stops were longer.  My calves were cramping and my back was getting sharp pain when I walked or applied power.  Laura Neighbors helped me out by hitting some muscle in the back (nailed the spot on the first shot--wow!  That hurt, but it helped at least for a half a lap) and also hitting my left calf and showing me how to use my knees to massage it after every lap.  That helped quite a bit, at least for a while...

I honestly don't know after this what happened in what lap, when I put my lights on, what I said, etc.  All I know is that at some point, I reduced my goal from a podium in the 40+ class, to a certain number of laps and let the chips fall where they may.  Things were looking more than good as far as pacing.  At a later point, I was sure I couldn't make it the full 24 hours.  What I couldn't decide on was:  When do I stop?  Should I stop now, shower, and start again in the morning with some fresh clothes?  At this point my back was killing me--in spite of Laura's best efforts to restore normal function.  It was getting worse, and now it was affecting my bike position, my wrists were killing me with every root I hit (and there are a lot of them!)  I was seriously worried about how I was going to go to work the next day.  I think the biggest thing to cause me to stop is when I was riding stupid.  This is, hitting a tree on the inside of a turn with my shoulder for two laps, then over-compensating and hitting the outside tree with my handlebar for the next two laps.  After 7 laps I wanted to quit, but Laura and Shawn told me I was moving up, and they were totally encouraging me, and helping me get over my pains.  The last two laps were done 100% thanks the Laura and Shawn.

I think it was in my 9th and last lap in which Bill (Dirty Dozen 2018 winner) passed me while I had dismounted for some reason.  When I saw who it was, I got on his wheel, and we chatted for quite a while.  I could see he was also running into the same issues I was, namely hitting those slick roots and catching the bike just in time which saps your energy.  (This got worse after 11pm or so when the dew started dropping and everything got very wet again.)  We chatted for a while and he encouraged me to keep riding through the night to get a good spot.  At some point we hit a climb and I lost him.  This is when I had decided it was time to quit.  I didn't have a chance at a podium in the 40+ solo class, and I was in extreme pain and worried about being functional for the coming work week.  I had also decided that I would stop even if I was informed that I had climbed up in the rankings again.   Sure enough, Shawn informed me I was in 3rd place when I stopped since it seems like everyone else had stopped to rest.  I was sure if I could do 9 more laps I had a chance not only for a podium, but of winning.  However, I listened to my body. 

I still thought about maybe riding again in the morning, but struggling to stand-up, sit down, or walk kind of moved me away from that idea.  I'd stay and support and cheer for @johnnymotox as best I could.  I also got to hang around the fire and talk with Shawn and Laura.  I gotta say that all of John's friends are beautiful people and a pleasure and a privilege to know and to hang out with.  I got a chance to talk with Bill and also with Jose Bermudez, I got to meet John's brother and also his childhood friend, and see Dani and Dan Pedroza for the first time in a while.  Of course, all the Terra Firma crew are awesome.  (I don't know what they are drinking but I'll have what they're having!)  Their enthusiasm is infectious.  I just love the whole endurance MTB vibe.

In the morning, Kathy informed me that I was the 3rd of 3 singlespeeders and I was eligible for an award. If there'd been a 4th person in a singlspeed I would have declined, but I'm as happy to take this award home as I have been any other award in the past.  I'm never doing this race in a SS again (4 days after first typing this, I'm having second thoughts, what's wrong with me?), but I definitely want to give it another shot with a geared bike.  Maybe next year.

(Pictures courtesy of Terra Firma Racing)

The Dirty Dozen 2018

The Dirty Dozen Race hosted by Terra Firma Racing is one of my favorite events and is one that for one reason or another (sickness, work travel, adoption, etc.) I’ve only had a chance to do once before, and I loved it.  My first time racing the Dirty Dozen was in 2017 after my broken ankle and with low expectations, but ended up doing well, being really close to a podium.  More details on last year’s race are here 2017 Dirty Dozen To summarize that report:  I had regrets, I wanted more from myself during a race and I used that to drive me in 2018.

It's so rare to catch me not grimacing on course

The biggest challenge this year has been staying healthy since the kids bring home bugs from school.  It seems like clockwork that come last week of August or first of September, the whole family gets some kind of cold, and usually the kids get over it in 2-3 days while the adults take weeks to recover.  My performance chart shows the starts and stops from this (or just life and work sometimes getting in the way.)  So, my goal in the past year has been to ride more with friends and groups and have more fun on the trails.  I have work buds Brian and Hawkins and we do regular rides of the Brushy Creek Trails or Walnut Creek Park, sometimes venturing to other places but we try to hit the trails at lunch at least 2 times a week.  They are usually fast paced rides so they’re always a good workout.  There were also the Bicycle Sport Shop Thursday MTB rides and rides led by our MTB captains Jeremy and Wes.  I also rely on advice from my endurance racing friends Dave, John, and Tony when I have doubts about how to proceed when I hit an obstacle.

My race started almost like last year:  late to the start, I got there as the runners were taking off, so I just rode slowly behind the last walkers then I took off.  And now the mental routine started.  This year I burned more energy passing people because I remembered John saying about how the 12 is almost a sprint pace, and I also remember how it felt missing out on the podium last year by a minute, and how I almost hated myself for doing a 2-hour lap at Rocky Hill in 2012.  All of that fueled me during my weakest moments. 

I had what would have been a fast first lap until the climb after the bridge toward the end at which point my SRAM master link decided to give up the ghost.  I just shook my head as I thought of Dan’s master link failure about a week earlier.  It looked like a plate failure with no shifting involved.  I’d never had a problem with master links before.  I spent way too long digging for the replacement at the bottom of my seat bag. I lost about 7 minutes unfortunately but I’d like to think that at this point my race was pre-disastered.

By the roughly 6-hour and 30-minute mark I’d done 8 laps which was a better pace than last year.  I really thought I’d be in a podium position so I was shocked when John’s buddy Shawn told me I was in 4^th and a couple of minutes back from 3^rd.  I felt a bit deflated but at the same time more driven.  I had thought I could slow the pace down for the 2^nd half but this meant I couldn’t.  I had some caffeine and got going again.

I had my bad lap in #9, but it was all mental because I really didn't have a terrible lap time considering the few longer stops I had.  At this point I saw my wife and the kids as I came out of the barn.  I had moved up and got new gaps and the kids looked really excited about how I was doing.  That totally gave me a bunch of energy. 

A little aside…. So much of this type of racing is mental!  There was one section in the course that kicked my ass for about 3 laps:  after the downhill berms almost at the end, you hit a muddy section before you pop out into a bit of pines then the BMX section.  That mud felt like it was grabbing my wheels, and I just went slower, but in the last 2 laps, I told myself to dig deep, hop over the mud (by that point, I wasn't as concerned about energy conservation) and guess what?  It didn't kill me and I went faster and it actually felt easier. Seeing my family, hearing my BSS teammates cheer me on as I crossed start/finish, John encouraging me every time he lapped me, all of that makes an impact.

With about 1hr 52 minutes to go, I figured I could do 2 55-minute laps, but I had to do a 55-minute next lap before I decided to do a last lap.  I got a 57-minute lap in leaving me with 55 minutes and I just didn’t feel like I had a 55-minute lap left in me with the slick conditions and my problem with my bar light (which I didn’t know of until I stopped but I kept hitting slick roots and almost falling and I hadn’t figured out why until after) so I pulled the plug there hoping that was enough for a podium. It was at that point that Shawn told me I’d secured 2^nd and that made me very happy.  Being on the podium felt great, but shaking the hands of my competitors was the best since I had no idea who I was racing against during the race.  I finished 13 laps in 11 hours and 5 minutes.  Next year I want 15 laps!

My first ever MTB podium!

Now I want to go back and do another endurance race this year, but I'm going to have to really think about whether I want to do another Solo 24 (Going for a podium there would be cool) or train for the Enchilada Buffet.