Happy December

Wow December 2nd, that flew by. I figured I'd get in my monthly update (ha ha.) Big news, our youngest daughter turned 1 yesterday, hard to believe she's been with us for only a year, i can't imagine or remember life without all 3 of them. So the days of sleepless nights & changing diapers are coming close to an end.

Given that i started this primarily as a training & racing diary, i'll get to it. With Kona, Clearwater, IM Arizona and IM Florida all recently happening, there is lots of talk these days about off-season and rest etc in the triathlon world. I, on the other hand, rested in the month of October (not counting 12-oz curls of Oktoberfest) and have gotten back to full swing in November and now December. We took the kids to Disney the week before Thanksgiving and I caught a cold on the last day (which is still making its rounds in our house) but otherwise I'm feeling good & strong. I blew up at mile 4.85 of the Pequot Thanksgiving Day 5-miler (i think due to my week of coughing) but i ran a great race until 4.85 miles, just below 5:55 pace. At 4.85 miles i just completely detonated, dry-heaved, form fell apart, had to stop & walk for a second, then jogged it in for a 30:36 finish (still avg'd 6:08 for the 5-mile race.) I think that without my cold all week i would have been in 29:30 or so, a bit faster than last year given where i hit the mile markers.

So i'm feeling good. So good, in fact, that I took the leap and signed up for Ironman Arizona 2010. I know Tempe well from going there on business 2-3 times a year and have run the run course (the old one & the new one) several times, so of all the IMs its the most familiar setting for me. So with that race way out 11.5 months away, I'm taking swimming very seriously this winter and being consistent as usual about my bike & run maintenance. I think i can rip 2 minutes off my 1/2-mile swim and continue to improve some increments on the bike & run to be very dangerous & in the hunt at the sprint & olympic distance races. I'm also going to do a half in September next year, not sure which one. But my two goals for next summer are #1- to win some friggin races and #2- to finish Ironman Arizona. My dream (not goal, but dream) would be to race IMAZ in the 9:30-9:45 range and qualify to race in Hawaii in 2011. But I acknowledge its a very long shot given my swim will probably be in the 1:15 range. I think on a good day I could lay down a 5:00-5:15 bike and a 3:30-3:40 marathon, which would put me in the 9:45-10 hour range. Based on my recent performances in the ultra mountain biking races, i'm feeling very good about my ability to keep fueled, hydrated & concentrated for a 9.5+ hour "race" effort. I know the paces & intensity levels that i can maintain and as long as i dont get caught up in the "race" i think i can have a good shot.

So between now & then I'm going to lay down an even thicker foundation of technique, endurance and strength & start to build myself into an ironman athlete.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming

I can already tell this is going to be a recurring theme over the winter. Those of you who know me or have raced against me know that my swim is my achilles heel. I'm a middle of the pack swimmer with a front-of-the-pack bike & run, so in every triathlon I come out of T2 spotting the leaders anywhere from 3-6 minutes depending on the length of the swim.

This summer, LA Fitness opened up a gym just a quarter of a mile up the road from my office and they included a 5-lane short course yard pool. Not as ideal as the 25-meter pool i used to swim in, but hey if i can get there 3 times a week instead of 3 times a month its a no-brainer win. So i joined up. From June to September i saw noticeable improvements in my swim, enough to podium my last 3 races, but as of September I was still a top-20% swimmer at best with a top 1% bike & run.

So into the pool I go, again and again. I usually take the Fall season to ride my bike until daylight deserts me, then run run run until its warm enough to ride again, and start cramming my swim training once the triathlon season becomes imminent in March or April. This year has been different, i've been in the pool 3 times a week since my last race of the season and i'm turning it into a habit.

I'm not making any promises of course, because in the end all that matters to me is that i stay fit and that i'm having fun at this triathlon hobby. But right now I'm already 15 secs per 100y faster than I was last year in September at my fastest. My #1 training goal is to keep motivated with my swimming over the winter so i can set myself up with some opportunities for some good results come June. I may need to remind myself every once in a while why i'm doing it, because running in the woods in October is much easier on my head than being in the pool for an hour.

As Gordo used to say, no easy way.

Pumpkin Picking

October means pumpkin picking in Connecticut. We got a surprise with 75-degree weather and sunny skies instead of the usual sub-40 degrees. I also managed to eek out a 90-minute run in the woods after we got home, a successful day all in.

Week Three

Week three in my end-of-year short course bonanza has come and gone, not with a whimper but not quite with a roar. After a pair of 3rd places at Westport & Fairfield, i was feeling sharp and fit going into my 3rd race in as many weeks at the ITPMan Triathlon in Darien.

Saturday races are great, as they allow me the rest of the weekend to eat & drink a bit more copiuosly and to spend more time hanging with the family in a less-stressed state. After an early rise on a 45-degree morning, i was off to Darien for the 7am start. I had a decent week of "peak" training, short but sweet intervals and three swims, so i was confident i could go hard from the gun and finish strong on the slightly longer sprint course (1/2-mile swim, 15-mile bike and 5-mile run.)

I finally got in the first wave, which was a relief, and once again had a combative swim. I've become much more comfortable swimming in a pack this summer and actually looked for groups to latch onto. I came out in 14:38 which was sub-par on my percentile meter (77th percentile iin the race) but a strong swim nonetheless. No bad spots around the buoys, no off-course detours, just consistent hard swimming where i felt good & strong the whole way.

I bolted out of t1 and fumbled getting one foot in a shoe, while two fast-looking guys passed me. For some reason i started laughing out loud, not a very friendly thing to do but all i could think was that these guys were fast-looking dudes and that i would very soon be leaving them far in my wake. My thoughts were confirmed as I got my foot in, spun out for 10 seconds and easily closed the gap to them. As i approached, I got into my aerobars and then just pulled around & accelerated. By the first turn onto the post road at the 1-mile point, they were 500 yards behind me and I was gone. I continued to pick up the effort and overtook a dozen or so more people, including female Pro & triathlon pin-up girl Jessi Stensland. I gave her a friendly wave & a "good job" on my way by. At about the 5-mile point I came to a turn to start the lolly-pop top of the course. A few volunteers were manning the corner and one of them yelled to me that i was in 2nd place, which was great considering we were only a third of the way through the bike course.

I continued to push hard and by the time I got back to that spot (ending the lollypop) the volunteer told me I was closing in on the leader. Great news again! I upped the effort on the net-downhill return to transition, going 26-27mph in most spots. As i got closer toward the end, i got caught up 3 separate times on cars going in my direction but held up by bikers in the oncoming lane. In two cases i had to coast behind them, whistling to let me by, and in one case i had to nearly dismount to sneak around the car at a corner. There was no fault of the volunteers really, i expect it had more to do with the fact that the leader and I were pretty far ahead of everyone else at that point. By the end of the ride, the leader (tri-coach and Kona qualifier Cliff Scherb from NYC) had actually put 30 seconds into me and was running out the access road to start his 5-mile run. At that point he had a 3-minute lead on me, but nobody in transition was able to give me a split!

I ran out hard on two numb feet (remember it was 45 degrees at the start), hoping that i wasnt breaking my toes with each footstrike. At the 1-mile point a woman was nice enough to give me a split - "you're 6 minutes down on the lead!!" Thanks a lot! I knew she was wrong but when your heart rate is 175+ its hard to think clearly. I couldnt see him up the road with all the turns, and heck he out-rode me, maybe he's a runner stud who just ran a 5-minute mile, and maybe I'm dogging this run? Anyway I went to the redline and kept it there for the duration of the 5 miles. I ended up pulling back 30 seconds to run just under 33 minutes (5th best on the day). 33 minutes is a bit of a dissapointment for me - i've run sub-30 in running races when i was not in nearly this kind of condition - and part of me thinks that I didnt push myself hard enough while running solo with nobody in sight to try & catch up to.

In reality (got to love wave starts) I caught and passed a fast 40-yo Mark Desautelle, who was in the wave behind me and virtually ahead of me by a minute coming out of t2. I out-ran him and finished the race 20 seconds ahead of him for 2nd place overall, so i was pushing at least hard enough to beat someone that i didnt know was ahead of me!

All in all, after 3 consecutive weekends racing i have two 3rds and a 2nd place overall for my resume' - and more motivation to conjure my inner fish over the winter. If i can cut my 1/2-mile swims from 14-and- change to 12-and-change, i will be a little bit further up on the pointy end where i can ride & run with people who will push me, and hopefully I can get some wins along the way.

Trifitness Fairfield Triathlon

I raced the Trifitness Fairfield Triathlon this past Sunday, a race that is in it's second year and that i think has a bright future. Sold out for the 2nd consectutive time, 500 athletes set out from Jennings beach this year. Despite the 2-loop bike format and starting in the 3rd wave (of 5), the course was not all that crowded and I even managed the fastest bike time on the day even though i had to weave my way through the field.

The transition area is at Jennings Beach, the same spot they hold the gigantic Fairfield Half Marathon every year. Plenty of parking on-site, plenty of space in transition, a short run up the beach & over the dune, perfect roads to ride & run on (if you like flat courses, of course) - a perfect venue all around.

I was 3rd wave and decided to start front & center and make people swim around me. I'm typically cautious on swim starts but i've been working hard in the water this summer and i've seen my swim times coming down in relation to the field. Historically i've been a 60-to-70th percentile swimmer, which means i swim faster than 60-70% of the people in the races in which i compete. In July this year I had two races where i was high-70s, and then two weeks ago in Westport i was 85th percentile, so things are looking up. I had a combative swim this time in Fairfield, lots of contact, i was in a group the whole time but came out in about 13:30. With the run up the beach and over the dune to T1 my time to the mat was 14:09, which was 85th percentile for the second week in a row. Great news but still lots of work to do since at that moment I was behind the race leader Ian Ray by over 3 and a half minutes.

After an uncharacteristically slow transition (trouble stepping out of my wetsuit?!) i was on the road. Going into the race I had ridden nothing but the P2C for almost 2 months, i've never felt so comfortable on it. My position was dialed and my tactic was to really push the pace, take back as many people as I could to put myself in a position to run down Ian. I stood up at all the corners to get back up to speed, then i would tuck in and crank. Keep the cadence high, keep momentum high, go go go.

I rolled into t2 with a 35:03 split (25mph), 20 seconds slower than last year but on a longer course by about 1/2-mile. The next closest ride was my friend Mark Foster, who is an absolute beast on the bike and who i've never beaten on a bike or in a triathlon.

T1 was fast. I had a perfect dismount and ran into the corral, the announcer Don Stuart was heckling me over the mic since I hesitated once and it appeared that i couldnt find my racking spot. By the time he had finished his sentence, i had found it & already pulled on my running shoes and was running out... so his sentence was something like "here comes Don Gustavson off the bike with a nice dismount, uh-oh looks like Don has lost his spot and WHOAH there he goes off & running!!"

That was a nice little boost, i was in race-rage mode and was out for blood, nobody was going to heckle me (even though it was very good-natured heckling and Don Stuart is an awesome guy.)

There was a huge crowd at the race, and everyone was right around transition and I blew out of transition at what felt like a suicidal pace. I focused on my keys to having a good run - relax the shoulders, lean forward, get up on the toes and keep a fast turnover. As I exited the parking lot I knew there were guys up the road, one of which was Mark Foster. I concentrated on running as fast as I could at each given moment without blowing up. The side stitch i had off the bike in Westport never appeared and i was able to increase my pace as the run went along. I picked off 5-6 guys, including Mark, but Ian was in the 2nd wave and way out of reach so there would be no catching him. With about 3/4 of a mile left there was noone behind or in front of me, but knowing i was in the 3rd wave i knew i had to keep up the effort, since i might virtually be neck & neck with someone from the under-35 wave or the over 45-wave (like Maneesh Shanbag or Bryan French or Chris Woods or Joe Whelan...) I kept up the effort and had a great run. Coming toward the bridge I started my sprint to go over the dune and into the finish chute on the beach, just as my 3.5yo son Jack leaped out of the crowd to run with me. I slowed down so he could run with me and we coasted across the line for an 18:10 5k.

In the end, Ian finished 82 seconds ahead of me to win and Shane Meehan (who won Westport last week) finished 50 seconds ahead of me for 2nd place. I had my second consecutive 3rd place finish and managed the top bike time & 2nd fastest run (behind the #1 woman Amy Bevliacqua, who ran 18:02!!) Because I like to rub my nose in my own swimming deficiencies, i did the math and could see that if you got rid of the swim i would have won the race by over 2 minutes... I'm very happy with my performance and look forward to taking my 85th percentile up to 95th by next June so i can be in the hunt for some wins.

Next up is the ITPman Triathlon in Darien on Saturday, a .5-mile swim, 15-mile bike and 5-mile run. I'm hoping for a good result based on how i rode & ran this past week.

Short Course of Pain

I never have all that much time to train. I typically go out the door with a specific plan, pacing & effort in mind for that workout. I like to think that i train pretty smart - no junk miles, no wasted effort, i never completely smash myself.

That's why short course racing is my absolute favorite. It is an escape. No time to think, no time to judge effort level, to feel hungry, to worry about missing time with my wife & kids or about being late for work. Its an all-out effort. Go as fast as you can without exloding (puking & falling apart.)

I raced a super-sprint race in Westport yesterday, 1/2-mile swim, 5.5 mile bike and 2.2 mile run. The three legs of the race take about equal time to finish, which is atypical of triathlon where the bike segment usually takes about half the racing time. So Westport favors the well-balanced athletes. I've been working on my swim and had high hopes - and I felt like I delivered while i was racing. It was only a 35-second improvement over last year, but swim times all around seemed slower by 30-45 seconds for other people. I smashed the bike by 30 secs over last year and was the fastest split (they botched the winning guy's splits & gave him a slower swim by 4 minutes and a faster bike by 4 mins) - and i ran through a side stitch for a 30 sec improvement over last year. But when it came down to it, Dave Yockelson (a fast 40-yo out of Westchester) came by me at mile 1.5 and i couldnt respond. He's a fast runner, but I know that if i didnt have the friggin side stitch i could have run with him and taken it to a sprint finish, where I'm mighty confident. Serves me right for not being quite up to that high-end effort, and good for him for having the legs to smoke me and come in 2nd place overall.

Oh, and a relay actually crossed the line second place and they actually counted it as second overall... weird. And then when they got to the M35-39 age group, they didnt list me as winner because i was the actual 3rd overall individual... i didnt want the trophy or anything but my kids were dissapointed... it seems like all too often that race directors are like the keystone cops with getting results right.

Getting back on track

When i started training for triathlon I started planning/logging my daily workouts in an excel spreadsheet, one that now has 8 tabs for the 8 years i've been doing it. Since i'm a bit of a data junkie it allows me to look back & see how much i trained & when, how well i raced and what types of preparations i did for those races. All good stuff and I could go on for hours about the things I've learned by analyzing my training history.

When i looked at 2008 and the weeks following the Wilderness 101, i saw that i jumped back into training fairly quickly and got sick the following weekend with a cold/fever. I remember how bad i felt, i was laid up for 3 days, in August when i wanted to be hanging out with my family in the sun at the beach. So this year i dialed it back after the 101, ran twice for a very short distance, swam twice during the week and once in the lake on the weekend.

Lucky me, as Jack came down with Coxsackie virus, a dirty little virus that is common in kids and spreads like wildfire. It doesnt effect adults much but I wsa up at night with him throughout the weekend so i'm sure i would have gotten nailed if I hadn't proactivelt dialed myself back. He is on the mend and sleeping through the night now, albeit still a little uncomfortable from the rash that comes with the virus.

I started back into the routine yesterday, ran 45 mins in the morning nice & easy to break back into it, then did a hard 2000y in the pool at lunch. Then rode in today. After 8 days off the bike I felt good and i was on par with where i was two weeks ago, which is a very good sign for the weeks to come. Time to build the run volume back up, keep swimming consistently and hard, and up the quality on the bike to prep for racing in September.

W101 GPS upload

My GPS stats from the w101:

11431 feet of climbing, 10.8 mph avg speed, 39mph max speed, avg hr of 138, max hr of 169, 7463 calories burned. GPS said 98.83 miles but on the map it looks like it cuts corners here & there on switchbacks in the woods, drawing a straight line through curves, etc. I love the Garmin Edge 305.

upload here:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/10389754

Oh, and 9 hours, 8 minutes and 40 seconds according to my gps. Not a bad day's work.

And a nice race report and results posted on Cyclingnews.com:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/national-ultra-endurance-nue-series-5-wilderness-101-ne/stages/stage-1/results

Finding Nemo

"just keep swimming just keep swimming..." - Dory the fish

With the 101 over for another year and a solid 2 months bike volume & high quality under my belt, its time to turn the training back to a more balanced swim-bike-run routine.

I've made great progress since May in the pool but I stopped swimming in the the two weeks leading up to the 101 so I could allow my upper body to atrophy like any self-respecting cyclist would. Fortunately those 2 weeks happened to coincide with the pool being shut down for maintenance, probably the only time that has ever been convenient for me. I'm pumped to get back in the pool and in fact got in a quick kilometer yesterday as a starter, followed by 1500 today. I've found that if I work in a few short swims i can get back up to doing 2000-meter workouts quicker, rather than jumping back in & trying to do a tough 45-minute set right off the bat. Today I felt good in the water so i'm confident i'll be back on track in another week.

I had continued to run here & there in the past two weeks but not with the typical duration or intensity. After running my best ever 5k at the Sobe Mossman sprint, an 18:05 off the bike, I'm excited to get back into my rhythm there too.

Ann has been getting stressed with tyhe kids being an extra handful, the weather not cooperating this summer, with me being away for the weekend and having relatively longer days at work (my commute is 30 mins longer each way in the summer.) So, my number one priority is to be sure I'm as helpful as I can be at home. If I want to get in a run, I've got to get up at 5:30am and get it done. I need to get in 4 runs a week to keep my form solid, and early morning is when it has to happen. I'll get in a few more long rides to work before we move back home, but I'm less concerned with getting in 3 days a week now that i've got the 101 behind me. Quality trumps quantity on the bike right now.

I have no races on the calender for August and I might just keep it like that. September has a bunch of good options, including the Westport Sprint, the ITPman in Darien, and the Fairfield Triathlon where I placed 4th last year after running into a car on the bike course (he backed out of a driveway right in front of me...) With my swimming already lightyears better than last year and 6 weeks to go until Fairfield, I'm hoping for a breakout performance on my home course.

Wilderness 101 Race Report

August 1 2009

The big day finally arrived, when the Jackass Adventure Team would pack up and take its show on the road to the hills of central Pennsylvania for the Wilderness 101 Ultra Endurance Mountain Bike race, 101 miles of dirt road, rutted jeep track, 11,000-plus feet of climbing and 30 miles of narrow, slimy, rocky & sometimes treacherous singletrack thrown in.

Mike, Per, Chuck and I met at Mike's house to load up the Sequoia, easily fitting everything into the beast with the 4 Niners on the back, my Thule roof coffin on the top and some gear in the rear. We blew out of Westport in the pouring rain at 10:15am with the hopes of getting a good camping spot next to the river at the Coburn town park where the race starts & finishes. Since Coburn is out in Amish country in the middle of Pennsylvania, nearly all the 350 racers at the Wilderness 101 end up camping overnight there. Its a very good time - show up the night before, camp out, do the race, then camp out again to enjoy the post-race barbeque and kegs of pretty darn good local beer from the Elk Creek brewery in Mannheim (one town over.) Wake up Sunday to pack up & go home.

We made decent time in the pouring rain although we were all scared that the course was going to be a bloodbath (or mud bath) after the soaking it was getting all day on Friday. After a quick sandwich at a highway stop & rob (or bodega as chuck would call it) we rolled into Coburn at about 3pm. Timmy & Tom had gotten there about 20 minutes before us and grabbed a nice spot by the river with enough room for our big tent. Camp jackass was erected and we spent the rest of our evening getting our bikes & gear in order and just relaxing. Good times.

After a fitful night of sleeping due to some punk singlespeeders who love to get stoned & drunk the night before a 100-mile race, we were awakened at 5:20am by the spooky yet awesome sound of a gong, which the race organizer also lets each rider ring when they cross the finish line. Up and at ‘em, I ate a small bag of granola cereal and pounded some water and a big ol’ coffee from the pavilion before getting my gear on and filling up my bottles etc. Had some pre-race nerves (which I rarely get anymore and absolutely LOVE to get) as we got ready to roll out on a cool misty morning with the whole 350 riders at 7am.

The motos revved up and before you know it we were off, a controlled 15mph neutral start for the first mile through town before the motos peel off at the bottom of the first climb, a 2000-foot climb over 6 miles on very good cinder/dirt roads. I started in the 4th or 5th row and needed to pick my way up a bit early in the climb but finally found a group that was going my pace, essential in this race since much of the first 40 miles are on roads and you can get a bit of a free ride if you're in a group. After the first climb, which is done on pure adrenaline and not difficult at all, the road turns down and we're rewarded with a bombing 40-mph descent on the same type of roads. The course remains like this, up-down up-down all the way to aid station #1, where I took a water bottle hand-up without stopping. Shortly after Aid #1 we dove into the woods for the first singletrack, this one very tight & narrow but fairly flowy, with a cooking 25mph descent where the track is literally one tire width wide, with tall grass on either side. All I could do was lightly grip the bars and let the bike follow the track, as the front wheel was glued to this little rut of mud and I was absolutely flying. After a quick pop out onto a road, we dove back in to visit the three bridges trail, where I desperately wanted to clean the three little slimy bridges that are connected by little islands of wet muddy roots. Well I made the first bridge then the guy ahead of me dismounted at the second bridge and my concentration went out the window. I dabbed and did a quick triathlete dismount and ran over the remaining two bridges to get going again. The rock garden thereafter was covered with people so I sprinted through it with my bike in hand to get goign with the faster guys at the front.

Aid #2 came quickly; I grabbed my second bottle of Perpetuem, filled the Camelbak with water and took off onto the beginning of the two biggest climbs of the race, Greenlee Rd and Seeger Rd. Greenlee is a 1300-foot climb over 4 miles, I middle-ringed it and it went by pretty quick. I felt good with my hr around 151 bpm, I was dropping people left and right on climbs throughout the day and felt like I could climb at that intensity indefinitely. After Greenlee was the descent of the Croyle Trail, a very steep, very rocky and very tight downhill that left my forearms & triceps aching from the effort. I had a couple guys blow by me but I was ok with it, my plan was to go conservative on the technical descents so I could avoid the nearly catastrophic fall I had last year.

After surviving Croyle, we popped out onto a fire road again to climb Seeger Rd, an 1100-foot climb over 3-miles, a bit steeper than Greenlee and potentially harder if one was to have gone out too hard to this point. At one point I was in a paceline with two singlespeeders and a geared guy. The geared guy downshifter and popped his chain in half. The two singlespeeders took off around him, I slowed to ask if he had everything he needed and of course he didn’t have a multi-tool (how to jump into a 100-mile mountain bike race without a multi-tool??) Murphy ’s Law got this guy. I gave him my tool and told him to catch me, karma was on my side but if I had a mechanical he needed to catch me quick so i could fix it. Well I never needed it, and he never caught me... but he did find me at the finish and return the tool.

So anyway, we were climbing Seeger Rd and I was again feeling good and caught up to & passed a woman who was marathon national champion last year (she'd finish 3rd overall woman on the day.) She hopped on my wheel and followed me up the rest of the climb, I stopped at the top to water the ferns and she kept going. I would never see her again as she finished in 8:47 I think.

Down off of Seeger was the Telephone trail & Spencer trail, I don’t remember much of this section but its downhill & twisty I think with a short road climb thrown in there a bit, and popped us out onto the road to Aid station 3. Aid 3 I took another bottle of perpetuem, refilled on water and got going fast. I was excited to tackle the only real singletrack climb of the race, Sassafras Trail. I ended up cleaning the climb, with lots and lots of guys walking up this 4-mile, 1000-foot climb on a pretty rough, rock-strewn piece of singletrack. I kept my hr up in the high 150s and nailed it, I was so proud of myself for that one. On the other side was the much-feared descent that nearly ruined my race last year, as we get to descend the full 1000 feet in the short span of less than 2 miles. Part of the downhill is an 18-inch wide dirt rut cut into the side of a hill, with a 60-degree drop on the right - No run-outs, no place to stop & cool down the brakes, just a straight down bombing descent.

Last year my left hand cramped OPEN when I tried to stretch it in this section, and the span of 3 seconds that it took me to close my cramped hand had me going 30mph quickly and the carnage ensued. I supermanned off my bike, did a dive-roll downhill and landed on my back, with my bike landing on top of my left leg. A bad scene but i was able to continue, albeit at a shaken & slower pace. This year was a different story, i knew what to expect and I had no issues, descended it clean and got another confidence boost from defeating the demon downhill that had haunted my cycling nightmares for the past year.

After Sassafras, we popped out onto a road quickly then back into the Beautiful Trail, which is, well, beautiful. It reminds me of Trout Brook in Easton, lots of little steep rocky knolls with mountain laurel and narrow trails. I had a great ride through here as well but was starting to get hot. I felt like I was drinking & fueling correctly though and energy was great. With my concentration working, I cleaned a bunch of tough sections and even passed 1 or 2 guys here.

Aid #4 came up at mile 74, I got another Perp bottle, pounded 2 shots of Coke and got a cold towel with ice water to douse my head & arms. I probably took 5 minutes here, which in retrospect is longer than I should have taken, but I was very hot and didn’t quite see the signs that the wheels might be falling off a bit. I should have grabbed Gatorade and extra water, but hindsight is 20/20. I headed out into one of the toughest climbs of the day up Stillhouse Hollow, an 800-foot climb on eroded jeep track with southern exposure (read hot.) I walked a little bit of this last year and had no intention of doing so again, so I locked in my heart rate at 150 and got a good rhythm going. I made it up in good time without stopping or dabbing, hit the ripping 25mph descent then up another climb to Sand Mountain state park. Sand mountain reminds me a bit of the lower elevations at Lake Tahoe, sandy & rocky terrain with juniper ground cover and evergreen trees above, an easy trail but given the sandy ground it sapped the energy a bit. They also added in some short but steep & loose rollers that weren’t there last year. These were very hard little climbs that spiked the heart rate. This section was fairly exposed and hot, and it was at this stage that I realized the with the combination of the heat & effort, I wasn’t digesting the mix of perpetuem/hammer gel/endurolytes that was in my stomach. I could taste the Perp, I wasn’t sweating and I was having trouble getting my heart rate up, all classic signs of a little dehydration. So I went straight to the h20 until it sorted itself out, but this was a tough 2.5 hours between 4 & 5 where I probably lost a good 30 minutes off my race.

By the time I got to Aid #5 the water had begun to work, I was beginning to sweat again and my energy was coming back. And thank goodness the aid station came because I was out of water. I pounded 4 cups of Gatorade and got a full bottle of the same, and saw that the race time was 8:07 and I had 12 miles to go. Knowing there were some rail bed, a couple tech sections and only one big climb remaining, I tore off on a mission to break 9 hours. I put my fitness to good use here, rolling upwards of 25mph on the rail beds on the way to the climb, a 750-foot climb over 3 miles that isn’t so bad except that we'd been riding already for over 8 hours at that point. Prior to hitting the climb I once again got stung by a yellow jacket (this is three times in the last year while riding my mountain bike!) Little suckers must like me. Nevertheless I had started sweating again, which means that my nutrition issues were solved, and my body was all of the sudden screaming at me "GO."

When I got to the start of the hill, I kept it in the big ring and stood up on the pedals to keep up my momentum. Once I dropped into the middle ring I did not let up, climbing in the middle of the rear cluster (32x19 maybe) and just blowing up this hill, alternating standing for 30 seconds and sitting for 30 seconds to keep on top of the bigger gear. Last year this hill seemed to go on forever and I got demoralized that around every corner it seemed to keep kicking up. This year as I passed one guy, then another, and another, I was begging for the hill to be longer. I was foaming at the mouth, screaming at the trail to give me more, make it steeper, make it last longer. Those 10-15 minutes of climbing might be my best moments ever on a bicycle, not only in terms of the power & energy I was able to put out, but the emotion I felt while doing it. So many thoughts blurred through my mind in the delirium of 165+ bpm, thinking about finish lines, imagining crowds on the side of the road, not even trying to fight off the tears as imagined my kids yelling at me "go daddy." I was completely alone out there on that mountain but it held all the excitement and emotion for me of a Mont Ventoux lined with a million people on the 20th stage of the Tour de France.

I bombed the descent, put my running skills to work through fisherman's path, a nearly unrideable piece of riverside trail that is just a jumble of rocks & roots on the edge of the river. Then I was out onto the rail bed again passing more people, through a pitch-black railroad tunnel that is the signature of the race, and pretty soon out onto paved road for a final mile. It is a sweet feeling to smell hamburgers and to see the pavilion across the river when you come into town. Down around a corner, over the metal bridge and into the town park, applause & cheers came from the crowd as I rolled in to ring the gong. 9:08:57. I didn’t make it under nine hours but I was very happy with the end result. 24 minutes faster than last year and I didn’t have a perfect race. Most of the people i was riding with up to Aid #4 finished in the 8:30-8:40 range, including the #2 and #3 women. The fact that I feel great post-race tells me that I didn’t dig deep into the well during the race. I felt great even that evening, whereas I couldn’t even bend over to take off my bike shoes last year.

I grabbed a Gatorade and went and sat in the ice cold stream for a few minutes to wash off and cool down, worked like a charm. Then I went back to the finish to get some food and sit down. Tom rolled in while I was in the river with a killer time of 10:08, he looked fresh as a daisy and had a great day. Per rolled in at 10:30, a whopping two hours better than last year! I was jumping up & down like an idiot as he came around from the finish shoot. He had a stellar day and a big old grin to match it. Tim finished shortly after in 10:40, almost an hour better than last year though I missed his finish since I was on the massage table.

Tim told us that Mike fell hard after three bridges and broke his handlebar, but last he saw him he was RIDING with half a handlebar! We didn’t know what to think, but given the terrible year Mike was having we all hoped he was ok. Well soon enough, at 11:40, in rolled the Big Dogg! We were all jumping up & down, screaming our heads off and pretty soon crying our eyes out as the big man came in and gave us all high fives and hugs. He had taken the bar in his lower abdomen and had a cut & huge bruise, but was able to get a spare handlebar from neutral support at Aid #2 and finished the race with a bag of ice in his pants. This race threw absolutely everything at Mike and he put every bit of heart & soul into finishing it, injured body, broken bike & all. With that performance, Mike became the unofficial champion of everything and won the much-coveted Fight Club sweatshirt. He may have even retired the trophy.

Chucky O'Donnell, the Zen master who was racing W101 for the first time, came in about 12:30 and looked like he had just gone out around the block. He wasn’t even sweating. We were all hootin and hollering and he almost didn't even bother to cross the finish line. He just rode nonchalantly over to us and said "hey guys, I just had a really nice day on the bike." Chuck Lover, true to form.

We had a great time that evening, reminiscing about the race around camp, talking with other riders that would walk by, eating burgers & baked beans and drinking a few beers. We talked about the fact that we’d probably pass on next year (the race is SO hard that you'd probably sell your bike for $10 at the finish line) - but eventually we all agreed to not decide about next year until a few months down the road. I'm already thinking about where I can make up time to break 8:30.

Mountain High

"It's not a hill, it's a mountain, as you start out the climb. Except for me, I'll be shouting, and your gonna make it all the way to the light." U2

Tomorrow is the day we've been waiting & training for the past several months. Bigg Dogg, Timmay, Retahd, Chuck and I are packing up & leaving Otter Trail in the big green bus to make the drive to Coburn Pennsylvania for the Wilderness 101, part of the National Ultra Endurance mountain bike Race Series - http://www.usmtb100.com/. The guys are in tremendous shape, even when compared to last year. I have never seen Mike climb hills like he has been in the past 2 months, he's somewhere around 215 lbs right now which at 6'5 is getting downright skinny for the bigg dogg. Timmay is lighter than last year and is taking his tech wizardry on a mountain bike with the hopes of bettering his 2nd-place clydesdale finish last year. This guy can ride through things that i have trouble walking through while carrying my bike. Per is down something like 15 pounds off last year, which is significant for his 5-6 frame and he's now on a real race maching with his Niner Air9. Chuck was made for this course, at 5-6 and 140 lbs, he can climb anything and its only his mellow nature that will slow him down during the race. I am pumped for all of them for the work they've put in on the bike, but I'm more proud of the work they've done off the bike to clean up their nutrition and allow themselves to capitalize on their training. Having the discipline to lock down and nail the daily diet & nutrition is tougher than training hard in my opinion.

I'm feeling very good myself and have done things on my bike in training in the past 2 months that indicate I'm very strong, life-best form on my bike. Three long days on the mountain bike (5.5 hrsin Trumbull, a brutally epic 6.5 hrs at Blue Mtn and a 7.5-hour day on the top secret Drago loop) have brought my handling skills and upper body strength to a much better place than last year, when i only did one long ride leading up to w101. I've been riding up things on my commute in the big ring where I'd previously needed the little ring (Umpawaug!!) I rode the EMD on the road to work last week & made the trip in 1:26, only 2 minutes slower than on my r3sl three days earlier. My endurance is definitely there and now my leg strength is there to get me through the power spikes i might need on Saturday.

So i'm hoping for a good day:
#1 goal is to have fun during the race, there will be some times when i'll want to climb off but i'm confident with my head now, i know how to turn my attitude around. keep happy, watch heart rate, enjoy doing something that few people in this world get to experience.

#2 goal is to go fast. I want to break 9 hours. Hell I want to break 8:30. I think my body can do it, if I stay "with it" all day. Fuel right so I dont lose concentration - never let my head relax & risk a fall or mechanical. Pick my way methodically through the hard downhills, tempo the climbs, fuel fuel fuel. In my long days I could tell when I was getting bonky and was able to snap out of it with a gel. I cant let that happen going down the sassafras descent at 25mph. Going fast also relies on some luck & fast conditions. Stay fueled, stay in control of the bike, keep it steady.

Go.

First Day

So here it is, the first blog. I don't have ambition of recording every second of my life here, but i thought this could be my toe in the water to start writing down things that I experience in my life with my family, my work and my training. Wilderness 101 Ultra Endurance mountain bike race is this coming Saturday August 1st - my goal is to break 9 hours (last year i finished in 9:32, after crashing hard at around mile 60.)