moving-on

Even though it's only been 4 or 5 days since the epic race, it's time to move-on and focus on the next big one. Jay. That course handed my skinny butt to me last year and i've sworn to hammer it this year - no mercy for that course. The mud will be crying. Yeah right!

Anyway, the point is, i've been on the bike everyday this week with the exception of Monday, as the bruising on my posterior wasn't having any of that - and the last 2 days have been surprisingly good. I re-discovered the joys of Neosporin as it has helped heal-up the wounds faster than anything else i've used ... since neosporin - and the industrial sized-tube Jenn grabbed has me applying... ummm... liberally. But, that's not what i'm senselessly typing about - this is about my legs - they're great! No seriously - they feel really good. Yesterday evening i got fiesty and motored-home with the heart rate at about 150-155 w/o any hard breathing and today just cruised for 90mins in a bigger gear than expected. Interested to see how my afternoon ride plays-out. If it's good, i may extend it and go for a light 60min mtbike ride too. Get a nice 180-200min day in when i expected to only get 90min days this week. I'm still a little feable on the climbs, but those muscles will come around. The high-quality diet i focus so hard on helps build things back-up pretty quick, so by next weekend and Moody Park I'm looking for some fast-twitch to re-develop and be back to "normal." Whatever that is! Getting whipped by the likes of Ben M, Matt B, Dan V, Troy M and others I guess. Hey, i know i'm a small fish in a big pond, but i sure like to make ripples in the water from time to time.

24hr Endurance MTB Race, Dalton, MA - The Story

Let's start at the beginning... January. Doing another 3hour session on the indoor trainer while watching Gladiator for the thousandth time. That Russel Crowe is dreamy... Ok, that is too far back... Let's start with Thursday and Friday before the race. I found myself racing around greater Boston, getting all the gear in order. Jamie did a last minute drivetrain switch on Wednesday (support your local bike shop!), then Andy brought it down to me on Friday, making my life a lot easier. Of course, it was then that we noticed the heavily leaking shock. Too late to do anything about it on Friday, so it had to fly w/o oil for this one. Anyway, all the errands, packing, etc, may have been the most stressfull part of the race and by saturday morning, we were still behind schedule, with Jenn peeling and boiling salted potatoes for me at 6am, while i sat in bed in a haze, trying to force-down 2 packets of instant oatmeal...

10:45am - we arrive at the race site - an hour late, so i had to hunt-down Stu Dorland, founder of the series, to point me in the right direction and get my race packet and number. This left me all of 45mins to get myself ready for the race... but hey, it's a 24hr race, so it wasn't like i had to warm-up or anything... just pedal slow... for a propesterously long time. Andy furiously worked on the bike and got it in tip-top shape for the race while i brainlessly pulled my clothes together...

11:58a - i'm jogging from the pit to the starting area. why be early when you can be just on time?

12:00p - we're off like a herd of turtles - camelbacks flopping around on our backs, bike shoes trying to get some grip on the ground as we run the 400meter "le mans" start section, then through the transition tent, onto the bikes and off... the first thing I noticed was the dust. clouds and clouds of dust, but i also knew it would settle once the pack broke apart over the first couple laps. and while it was a hot one, over 90 degrees by my estimate, there was a light wind which made a few open sections of fireroad a little more bearable.

1:52p - Finished my 2nd 8.4 mile lap and took a 5min breather to get the heart-rate down at the pits. The 2 mile sustained climb in the middle of the lap was a real killer, but i was taking it easy and pouring water over my head at the mtn-top checkpoint each lap. After each lap, Jenn would put some ice on the neck and back... and i took my 2nd dose of electrolytes and ibuprofen. A 2-hour schedule was set for these suppliments which would last for the entire race - and prove to be my salvation as i didn't cramp once, even though i knew i had lost pounds of water in the first couple hours alone - and while my back ached for the first 4 hours of the race, it felt better than it ever has in a race for the remainder of the event. VITAMIN I!!

4-5p - rode the 2 mile downhill section (what goes up, must come down!) faster than i've ever ridden a mountain bike, somewhere near 40mph. thom parsons riding for independent fabrication (on a 4-person team) was hot on my heels and as we reached the bottom swung around me with a big smile on his face and said something about me being insane or "how can a soloist ride like that" or something to that effect. it was a big pick me up when i needed one as the heat had been working me over and my head was in a bad place. having a guy i respect give me some props was just what i needed... but that got me into the night and by then, thoughts of dropping were replaced with "how many hours left?"

5-6p - A few folks had been showing serious signs of heat sickness for a couple hours, inlcuding a guy i was rooting for, Nathan Smith, who is a top calibar athlete - who had his eyes on winning this race since january. Harry was also having a hard time with the heat and would DNF as well... At this point, it started too cool down just a tiny bit - but when your heart-rate is running high and you've been working in the heat for hours, you notice small changes. I began to get energized and ready for the cool night. Nathan began peeing blood and from what Jenn said, he didn't remember portions of the course or how he got back to the pits after his 5th lap. That is scary, scary stuff and i'm just glad he's healed-up and un-injured.

730p - my pit crew strapped my lights on, but it was my goal to complete the lap without them and save the batteries for the 6 or 7 night laps. I only had 2 batteries and with Andy's help hoped we could get through the night on 'em without having to use the other lighting system, which would take precious time to switch. My stomach had been boiling all afternoon and felt full, but i continued with the fueling plan, sipping the perpetum and chasing it with about 25ounces of water per lap, plus my big splurge - coke. Nausea had plagued me all race, but it hung under the radar, so we just keep on the same plan, with Darrel suggesting i skip an electrolyte pill as they may be making my stomach turn... my legs then almost cramped on the next lap, so i went immediately back on-schedule with the suppliments - and the light naseau.

845p-1a - Just kept hammering away at the night laps, with a clean change of clothes (thanks jenn!) and renewed energy from the cooler air. My pit crew told me to stop taking breaks longer than a couple minutes (if i wanted to be in the hunt for the podium) and i agreed as i was in 5th place out of the 28 registered participants at this point. From here on out, i would not stop for more than 3mins (and usually for less) except for one 5min "luxury break" at around 5 or 6am. It was on!

1-4a - i moved into 2nd place while Chris G, Chris M, and others took a much needed rest as they pushed harder during the daylight hours than i had. As soon as i got in front of Chris however, it was on and we exchanged the "lead" for 2nd place a number of times. Since results were always about 2hours behind, it was hard to know exactly what was taking place out on the course... but he and i had a pretty good idea what was happening. the 1st place rider, Rob L, was stronger than the rest of us and unless something tragic happened to him, the race was his to win. I blocked him and the goal of winning the race from my mind and focused on staying ahead of Chris, keeping my lap times consistent, my breaks short, and my legs a'pedalin' all night long under a blood-red moon...

5a - the sun broke the horizon and i thought to myself - "almost done!" - then i realized i still had 7-8hours of riding left! Agghhhh!!!!!

6-10a - just kept riding consistent laps, in a lot of pain by this point, but stayed on the fueling plan and fought to stay ahead of 3rd place with s-t-e-a-d-y riding. i don't think i need to explain the rash and bruises on my bum for folks to get the picture...

10-1230p - the hardest couple hours of my life. the heat shot into the 80's by 10 and was near 90 by 11. the last lap was a struggle for survival, my vision was blurry, i was hallucinating slightly and everything hurt so very much, but this was it - the final miles, the final laps... one pedal stroke after another, trying to turn the brain off enough to not focus on the pain, while also staying alert enough to keep the pace up and not crash!

1232p - Crossed the finish line in 2nd place, 23hrs of actual pedaling, with twenty, 8.4mile laps and 24,400ft of climbing under my belt - very, very happy to be done - and to have done as well as i did. This being my biggest priority race of the season, everything else is just gravy from here! Rob L, rode 21 laps to take the win, but in the a.m. hours it looked like he had a lot more gas in his tank than i. i didn't ask him, but that was my perception... that guy is an animal!

130p - stood on the podium - and got a set of tires for my efforts. A set of f'ing tires! is this a joke? apparently not...

I can't say enough about how awesome my support crew was. Andy Sanidas, the guy who deals with me being chronically behind in technical rides (and always late) once again did spot-on perfect bike mechanic work as well as charging batteries, etc, etc, etc; Darrel Edmondson (one bad-ass Explosive Ordinance Diver - hey, if there was a bomb scare, we had the solution!) took immaculate notation of times, fueling, etc - as well as doing anything else that needed to be done; and of course, my lovely wife Jennifer, getting the food, ice packs, handing-out pills, taking care of me, you know? Anyway, they were incredible in the pit! As Jenn said, they were the brain, I was the legs.

I followed a fueling plan of ibuprofen galore, liquid non-dairy carb/protein drink (Perpetuem), electrolyte pills, salt tablets, medium-to-high glycemic index solid foods (but no processed sugars except my splurge - coke!), 25oz of water per hour plus the water in the carb/protein mix, coke, and later in the night, some additional caffeine to keep me focused and on the bike! This mix was relatively benign, but i still struggled with nausea for most of the race - but kept it at bay - just barely sometimes...

I am totally mentally whipped from this one, so it could be a while before i do another solo 24, but i needed to do another one well to vanquish the demons from last year's World Championships. this seasons more intense training plan has been a success and i'm looking fwd to some more great races this year!

Take a look below to see some pics and "the numbers." Once offical results are posted online, i'll add that info as well...

24hr Endurance MTB Race, Dalton, MA - The Pics

And it begins...

jenny


darrel


andy


riding along


darrel again (and some gear)


done! that's rob l (1st) in the middle and chris g (3rd) on the right

24hr Endurance MTB Race, Dalton, MA - The #'s

Here are the numbers. A race report to follow...

1045) when we arrived on-site
12) start time
8.4) lap distance
93) high temp on sat
3) pit crew (darrel, jenn and andy)
1220) feet of climbing per lap
100) lbs of ice in our pit
12) electrolyte pills consumed
26) ibuprofen taken
720) ounces of water drank
834) sunset
14) cans of coke drank
9) ... by me
288) ounces of beer "missing" from cooler
15) squirts of pedro dry lube
0) times chain was cleaned
2) times bike was cleaned
518) sunrise (thank god)
62) low temp on sun
100000) pedal strokes
2) lbs of dust breathed-in
9) mins of longest stop
1) mins of shortest stop
20) laps
5) times jenn told me she loved me
3) times i slopped bag balm on my ass
1) clothing change
168) miles
24,400) feet of climbing
1) # of times the pit crew told me to speed-up pit breaks
4) potatoes brought
40) est top speed!
12) water bottles of nasty-as carb/protein drink drank
80) times i thought i'd throw-up
21) laps winner did
23) mins between 2nd and 3rd
28) mini-cups of water dumped on head at checkpoints
1) ...times someone did it for me
6) miles jenn ran making sure nathan was ok
112,595) feet to be climbed in le tour de france
2242) miles to be raced in le tour
6) est lbs lost 2 days after race
270) cost of entry fee
1231) when I stopped pedaling!
2) place!
50) value of podium prize

Bravest Woman in the World

I was about to write a race report from the Dalton 24, but when i opened explorer to navigate to my blog, i saw this story on Google News:

http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1268&storyid=3359511

I had heard of this woman's plight a couple-few months ago and at the time, just thought, "how could there be such barbarism in countries we call allies?", but other than that, let it fall from my mind, until i saw this again today. Evil of this sort seems to always be pushed by people who believe in what they are doing... but it is impossible for me to get my head around their thinking. From the child sex trade in India and Indonesia, to the civial war atrocities in West Africa, to our own invasion of Iraq, our world is still in the grips of brutality. Once again, i think "what if." What if the United States and our allies utilized the same resources we do for war, to bring peace, food, and as much security as possible in these brutal and war-torn areas of the world? It is a much more complex issue than this and cannot be successfully commented on in a few paragraphs, so i will not even begin to try... this blog was more to honor Mukhtaran Mai's courage and strength in the face of such impossible odds. Sometimes, one person can shake the world.

hotter.

Well, the threat of rain has subsided for the weekend and has been replaced with temps in the mid 90's. Crazy hot. Riding on the face of the sun hot. From weather.com: "THE COMBINATION OF THE INTENSE HEAT AND HUMIDITY SATURDAY AFTERNOON WILL RESULT IN HEAT INDEX VALUES OF AROUND 100 TO 105 DEGREES." Well, at least it's not 50 degrees and raining. Given my experience with heat sickness at Bradbury, I'm certainly wary of the heat, yet also smarter about it - as i've had good races in the heat - and bad. Learned some good lessons past 2 years. The only thing I wished I'd tried was a water-retention tool, such as Liquid Endurance from Hammer Products. Maybe next time i do a solo 24 and it's 95 degrees i'll give it a go, but for now, it's a mix of old-school and new-school solutions. In the past, I've avoided a lot of the endurance fuel and replacement products as they have whey in them... but i've found a couple things to try... nothing like testing-out a new fueling plan during a race, but at the same time, it's hard to test what will happen to you at hour 12 or 18 without actually riding for 12 or 18 hours. Would also like to find an electrolyte replacement product that doesn't have whey or processed sugars - and isn't a powder to be added to water. Just the minerals please.

This week I decided to keep to my normal rutine, am at work today - and will be packing-up most of the gear this afternoon. Jenn's been on fire, taking care of many details, creating shopping lists (and then grocery shopping for me/us at like 7am!). Since my brain function is slowly deteriorating as race time approaches, she's also just keeping me together. Talking to Andy, Darrel, Rob is solid too, as those guys know what's up and that I'm ready - and sometimes all you need to hear is that you're ready. I'm ready.

the taper continues...

A big weekend for us at 121 Fern with the family visiting. Had some good times, good food, saw some old friends (my parent's friends too) and on Sunday night ate a couple lobsters bigger than a Chihuahua! It was good to see my folks and have them check-out our scene.

On Thursday Jeff Sr and I went for our first road ride together - a 90min low intensity ride on the roads around the Fells. Early in the ride, as I eased-up on the pace, my pops shot by - he wasn't out there to dink around! It's hard to believe that he and i could go for a ride together - considering he hadn't been on a bike for who knows how long before getting into the gym for spinning classes late last year... We had to skip the Tilton to Campton, NH ride due to weather, so instead on Sunday we went for a medium duration and intensity "father's-day" ride to Concord, MA under thick and ominous cloudy skies - so much for postponing our ride for better weather. Anyway, it was really cool to ride with my dad - and i'm really proud how far he's come in cycling so fast - hitting the weights and the spinning classes hard definitely did him a solid.

For me, at this point, it's just about maintenance rides, building glycogen stores properly (which sometimes involves depleting those stores through a hard, steady effort), and getting good rest (sleep). The rest part didn't really happen over the weekend or last week, so making-up for it this week by ignoring the house projects and focusing on relaxing with some red sox games on tv. Just trying to get the legs feeling good as they haven't really been "right" since the high volume week ended 8 days ago... don't want to not ride enough, but also want to give the legs some R & R.

nice.

this is still a long ways off, but it's worth mentioning...

Jun 23 Thursday
Light rain. Highs in the upper 70s and lows in the mid 50s.
Jun 24 Friday
Mostly cloudy, chance of showers. Highs in the upper 70s and lows in the upper 50s.
Jun 25 Saturday
Cloudy, periods of rain. Highs in the low 80s and lows in the mid 50s.

first ride with my dad on sat...

Last week really put a hurtin' on me. By last friday's afternoon ride with Rob, i had had enough, but knew that Friday and Saturday were the keystone workouts of the week - and this training cycle for Dalton... but i'm paying for it this week. Been sore and tight since sunday, but it's getting better - and was able to pull-out all the stops yesterday for a hard effort - which left me pretty drained. After some java and easy pedaling on the indoor this morning, though, the legs feel decent and am focused on trying to not ride as much for the next 10 days - which may be harder than riding for an endurance athlete as I haven't done so well at the 'not riding' thing so far this week...

I've got a ride i'm really looking fwd to this Saturday with my dad. He and i haven't ridden together yet - and i've got one of my favorite routes planned for us. Jenn's sister Carole owns a dance studio in Plymouth NH and is having her end-of-year recital on Saturday (which we attend yearly - then a party after). Sometimes when we head to their place in Campton, I have Jenn drop me in Concord or Tilton and I take the route on the map to the right. 60-65miles from Concord and 45 from Tilton, but i've never had a computer on my bike for it, so that's just a guess. It's a quiet and scenic ride with plenty of small to medium sustained climbs. A great ride for an experienced rider, but also very doable for someone new to the sport. And when you get past Plymouth onto Route 3 and see the Pemi River flowing along side, you're more than ready for a dip - which is one of the great benefits of Carole's house - it's 100 yards from a nice shallows in the river (besides their hospitality). Anyway, with my folks coming to visit this weekend (and my dad packing his bike in a bike box for the trip) and Carole's dance recital on Saturday, how could we head north without taking the time to do this ride!

Jenn and I had planned on getting some huge tasks done on the house by my parent's visit tomorrow, but between the weather, work, training and the like, we have run-out of hours in the day... If we only had a couple 26 hour days, we'd be all set! But, even though we haven't gotten everything completed that we'd hoped, we've made huge strides in getting our yard in order (after years of neglect at the hands of the previous, elderly owner, it needed a lot of work). So, it's all good and we're looking forward to taking it easy for a few days as the last couple weeks have been non-stop action. You know shit's getting done when you haven't watched more than a couple hours of TV in weeks...

volume

saturday's ride went just as it should. we left andy's around 845, cruised 5miles up the road to gordon college and it was all singletrack until 1p when we hit-up the food and water cache andy had planted in the woods (pimp!). of course he planted it on top of decent little climb (but with a view of cape ann) and by this point we had both been out of water for a while - and were stumbling around like drunkards. after snorting-down a couple pbj's, oreos, water, red bulls and of course - a beer, we powered-back to south hamilton, which was great as the legs had gotten worked so hard all week, then in the heat all day, but they still were able to come alive at the end when needed to save my ass from jenn's wrath at me being so damn late! a 5 hour ride always turns into 6.

after not riding today, my hamstrings are crazy tight. jenn and i crammed a week of yardwork into today, so my back is pretty wrecked from that, then being pulled in the other direction by my hammy's. sweet. just took 4 vitamin I's, which i never take, so that should loosen something up, or burn a hole in my stomach... which is currently being protected by a tasty Porter as i have just gotten home from a server emergency at my office - the 2nd of the day. the excitement never stops at 121 fern.

now that i've completed my highest volume week of cycling, with the exception of a 24-hour race week, how to take this training into the next two weeks is taking shape... easy day tomorrow, good morning hill work tues, then hard ride in the afternoon, and then i'm getting pretty close to being in full-out taper mode... so many rides focused on being ready for this race... and i just decided that even if i do well at dalton, i will skip World's as there are so many kick-ass races out there that i need to do - just need to pick one... then jenn and i can go for a week-long backpacking trip somewhere sweet-as with all the money we saved from not going to world's. it's been 3 years since i've been on a backpacking trip for more than 2 nights. that's just wrong. epic trips change your life.

last couple days have been sweet!

My legs are en fuego! I've had to cut-back this week's plan a bit as my original plan was too aggressive, but i've found the sweet spot. 2-2.5 hrs hard followed by 3-3.5 hours easy, split into 2 and 3-a-day workouts, so never really on the bike for more than 60-90mins at a time. Recovery is so very key. Have an awesome 5-6 hour technical mtbike ride tomorrow morning with the freeride/technical guru himself, Mr Peter "Andy" Sanidas, so i'm pretty stoked about that. riding with andy is great as he picks the best line through unmanageable stuff, BUT he also has a tendency to fly through the air off huge shit, so his line can get dicey. I think of full suspension as the best way to keep my tires on the ground while Andy sees full suspension as liberation from the ground. He makes it all look so easy that by mid-season i'll try to take to the air again... and probably crash hard like usual. Why did i wait to start mtbiking so late in life? Anyway, it'll be a good one tomorrow, even with Harry bagging-out on us to go to his own graduation party. I think it would have been great to get wicked lost in the woods and have Harry like 2 hours late for his own party. That'd be classic... and talking about Harry, here's an 18 year-old guy who's training hard day-in and day-out, while his friends are ... partying!? as that's what people do when they're that age - but he seems to always be doing the right thing. Got a lot of respect for that brother.

Yesterday was Jenn's 29th birthday! Yippee! Great excuse to have more wine than we should. We had a great dinner and relaxed, didn't worry about all the stuff we need to do, it was perfect. I did manage to mow the lawn before we left, but that's nothing in comparison to the dreaded paint-chipping project i've been avoiding... and only 5 days left to start and finish that one. But the stone steps are done - and jenn says they look awesome (direct quote), so my avoiding one project has led to the completion of another. That's cool, right? We've been putting-off sanding and painting the myriad of steps and porches at our house since we bought it - and my parent's visit has been the "drop-dead" date for this project for a long time... then it rained for 6 straight weekends, then race season began... then... then... does anyone care about my steps besides me? No? Of course not, so why do i keep babbling about them? 'cuase it's my blog! Wow, there's the narcissist in me, not that blogging isn't inherently narcissistic.

17 days

17 days till Dalton 24 hour mtbike race. 17 days to rid myself of these saddle sores so i can get some nice new ones. as i read back through my training log, i see some good patterns, but also notice a lack of long rides during the month of may. i had lowered duration and increased intensity for 4-5 weeks during first 3 EFTA events and am now wishing i had done a couple more long rides... but all things being equal, even if i'd done a couple more epic rides, i'd be wishing i'd done a couple more. So, with only 17 days left to prepare, it's finally time to focus on what i need to do to take what i have into this race in the best possible condition versus think about what i didn't do!

My 20-days out plan was to increase duration by as much as 75% and maintain a decent intensity level for first 10-12 days, but the heat has been draining my batteries (and having to recover from Sunday's debaucle) - and i've only managed 5 hours in the past two days. While it was my plan to finish-up yesterday's training ride(s) with an easy 90min mtbike spin in the Fells, my legs were shot, it was 92 outside and i laid on the floor for almost that long, just beat from the day & hot bike commute home. By 715, it had cooled-off, i felt better, got some quality food cooking and headed outside to continue work on some stone steps until it was pitch dark. I'm supposed to be chipping paint off our worn front and side steps, but that job sucks, so i'm building some stone steps on the side of the house where i hose the bike-off. Much more creative work, but if i don't get cracking on the paint chipping soon, Jenn is going to loose patience with me. I digress.

I had to take it pretty easy this morning and am hoping an easy intensity ride home will allow me to get that mtbike ride in i wanted to do yesterday... but at this point, while i really want to work my legs, i don't want to risk stress or injury, so it's a take-it as i feel kinda thing (rob's advice yet again). Thursday morning I'm riding in the early morning (545a), a tough adjustment for me as i usually get-up at 645, grab some java and pedal on the indoor trainer for 30mins while the caffeine works its magic... but, if the sun's shining i might as well make use of it and wake-up earlier and ride outside versus on the indoor trainer... Friday is a wild card day, Saturday is an epic mtbike ride, then Sunday will probably be a rest day. Then the following week i'll get-in as many hours as i can mon-wed before lowering duration and increasing intensity for 8-10 days leading into Dalton. That's it. That's the master plan. Of course, how i plan to race the race is still a "secret" (pedal!) but what i'm doing to get there isn't. I'm sure 5 or more soloists have ridden more yearly hours than i, but this race is so much more complicated than that. All I can do is keep bringing the quality and keep having fun. That's the biggest key to any of this.

EFTA #3, Bradbury Mtn Challenge

Wow. This one didn't go exactly as planned...

Had a super-relaxing day with Jenn on Friday, we met-up with Rob, Stacey and Olivia Follansbee in Boothbay that evening, then pretty much did nothing except relax, which was great break from - well, everything. Rob and I went for a 75-90min ride on Saturday to stretch the legs for Sunday and while my legs didn't feel stellar, they felt good enough to have a decent race. A 15min "ice-bath" in the ocean was a nice way to cool-off and prep the legs for the race too - cool (the pun is intentional) benefit of being invited to stay in Boothbay! Never thought i'd be happy that the Maine ocean is so damn cold. Anyway, the Follansbee's place was fantastic, sitting right on the water in a secluded ocean cove... and Jenn and I got another lesson on life with children - good training for us as we plan our family... olivia is very cute, smart and endearing, but she is also 2 years old and that equals a lot of work for Rob and Stacey - but they do a great job of alternating who's hanging with her and who's taking some downtime... like i said, good lessons from the Follansbees for us.

So, to cut to the race, everything felt good in the morning, my legs felt good, the sun was beating-down, but in our (Rob, Jason Achlich and his buddy) warm-up everything seemed okay (heat-wise). After the start I moved into 3rd or so in Expert Senior II and while it kinda felt like i was riding with the brakes on (my rear disc brake rotor is rubbing a bit - need to buy a new one or get it flattened-out 'cuase it's pissing me off), I was confident I'd be in the front of Senior II for the entire race. By mile 2, my stomach cramped-up (3rd race in a row!) and it was hard to breath. I had to let guys by while I stretched it out - but was still confident I could reel them in when i pushed through the cramp - at this point I didn't realize it had to do with the heat and not what i ate for breakfast... By mile 4, the cramping was reduced enough i could push again and began moving back-up. Then i just started melting. Everytime my heart rate would go up, my head would feel on fire and then my legs would just turn to jello... then i'd ride easier for 10mins, someone would go by, i'd grab their wheel and speed-up, feel okay, then 2-3mins later just fall apart again. Over and over and over. It was horrible. I wanted to drop-out, but you just can't, you know? By the start of the 2nd lap, i didn't know or care what place i was in and was focused simply on conserving strength and making it to the end of the race as my body was screaming "STOP", but my mind was telling me to "push through it punk!"

For the next half of the race, Jenn dumped water on me as i passed through the center of the figure 8 the course cuts (6miles of rooty singletrack on one side and 5miles of rocky, hilly stuff on the other) and I'd be able to rev the engine for a couple mins before overheating and falling apart. By the last 5 miles of the course I was vomiting, my legs were cramping bad and had to walk some climbs. Very, very humbling stuff. I've never had trouble in the cold as I train outside year-round, but have consistently needed time to acclimate to heat - and was concerned going into this weekend... and for good reason. After the race, as I laid in the fetal position, throwing-up everytime i moved, i thought, man, i'm screwed! I'm never going to be ready for dalton... my mental outlook was bad... but thankfully jenn was there to say the right things, help pack-up my stuff and my body - as i could barely move much less drive. I was dieing of thirst, but couldn't drink anything as i'd just get sick again... but 2hours after we left, when jenn got us into medford, i felt better and grabbed a 2-liter of ginger-ale. An hour later and 5lbs of giner-ale down the hatch, i was almost a new man. jenn made a great recovery dinner, then good foods for lunch and dinner the next day - all great ways to recover. She's been really awesome through this...

When i began writing this blog yesterday, my head was in a bad place - felt like i has missed a couple key endurance workouts to be ready for EFTA races and having things go wrong on Sunday just threw me off-kilter... but then on my ride home yesterday, the clouds of doubt melted-away. My legs were strong and i was happy to be riding. The weeks of cold rain that had begun to burn me out have been replaced with plenty of sunshine. It would have been nice to finish in the top 5 of Senior II at Bradbury and score some NECS points again, but oh well, them's the breaks. You can't win everytime (unless you're Edwin Moses and he was a hurdler, not a mtbiker!).

Now it's all about getting some quality rides in over the next 10 days, then taper for 10 into Dalton. I have a good plan worked-out and am listening to my legs to adjust as needed (rob's usual advice to me, which is always good). I've begun riding in the mornings now as well, which is an interesting change... a good change. Summer's here. Snuck-up on me, but it's here!

day off

legs were on fire earlier this week after taking last weekend off... got some quality rides in this week and legs are pretty beat-up now, so just going to enjoy the sun today. jenn and i skipped-out of work and are heading to maine to chill. maybe head to camden first, hike-up that little mtn by the ocean, then enjoy some dea dog's at the brewhouse... nice one! (if i don't say so myself). rob and stacey have been cool enough to invite us (and bronte, which is cool) to stay with them in boothbay, so heading down there later today, should be a great weekend, nice weather's here - and a great race to look fwd to on Sunday. the heat could be a factor as it's been so cool here, but gotten through that stuff before. and it's not the 24 hour nationals or anything. interesting story in that link - heat just decimated the field. we rode through that stuff in source burn 24 last year and it was tough stuff, but once the sun went down, it was great riding. anyway...

i got some photos and short video clips from the highland games from melissa - post those when later as i'd rather be drivin' up the coast than sitting here typing!