Burned Out? Time to Reset.

It's been 3 weeks since Ouachita Challenge. I've had a few post that where up-beat since OC, but I've had something lingering issues. The week after OC I did 2 days of Zone 2 riding followed by back to back 3 hr days down at the Nox. A low volume, low intensity week for me. But I never got to feeling "normal." The next week I started off by hitting it hard and long. On Tuesday and Thursday I did a long hard rides (zone 4 or low zone 5) followed by group rides (3 hr total). On Wednesday I did WNW.

Saturday I did 2 hr of just riding. At this point I should of steeped back and took some time off. I was tired, bad tired. On "just riding" days I usually ride at zone 3, on this day it was Zone 1 peaking Zone 2 on hills. Then on Sunday came my Mini Burn Out. Waking-up at 5 am I was tired, very tired. My legs, my brain, everything. I pushed through my tiredness and got on my way to the trail. Less than 20 min into my drive to the trails my car started to have an issue of 5th gear poop-out. This was the last straw, I quickly turned around, drove home and slept till I awoke naturally.

After this Mini Burn Out I made a deal with myself to not touch a bike until WNW. Rain started on Monday and did not let up till Friday morning. No WNW, no early start to my Peaking Block.

Friday I went on a nice group ride with David and Kevin! We met at 6:30am and rode out to the Noxubee Refuge to do hill repeats on Bevil Hill, the biggest hill around Starkville. 100ft of climbing in 1 mile. The ride to Bevil Hill, 5 repeats, then the ride back totaled 3 hr. I finished out my ride by doing an additional 1 hr solo. A good 4 hr ride with a several hard race pace efforts.

Bevil Hill

Seen this guy more than a few times out at the Refuge

 I'm feeling good again. My Peaking Block started good and will continue up until 7 days before Syllamo 125k. The plan is to do a 4-5 hr ride every-other day (with the exception of graduation day and the day I move). What caused the Mini Burn Out? I would like to think it was the stress of graduation, moving, and searching for a job. I hope that I will be able to avoid Burn Outs once this school thing is done and I get a chance to settle down.

Tomorrow will be fun, 5hr out at Lake Lurleen!           

I Have Tasted The Cool-Aid That Is An Epic 29er. And Now I Want A Pitcher To Myself!

Over the past few years I have been able to test ride several bike at my local trails. And during this time I have never found a bike that I liked more than my 09' Stumpjumper HT. Well I finally found something I do like more.

Last year I try the 29er cool-aid but was not excited about the results. I test rode the 10' Stumpjumper HT 29er test bike that we had in the shop. At 2lbs heaver than my Stumpy it felt sluggish. It was not just the extra weight, it was also the 29er wheels. Being an Engineering student I understand that even at the same weight it will take more energy to accelerate the wagon wheels around turns, up hills, and across flats. More over I was use to running 20-25 psi in my tires but had to run 30psi in the test bike. I believe that the difference in tire pressure negated most of the advantages that people associate with 29er wheels. This one test ride turned me off to 29ers completely.

Then this year I had a chance to test ride the new Specialize Camber. I was highly impressed with the way that the Camber rode. Quit plush while still having quick and snappy handling. It felt like it was much faster than my stumpy, but the stop watch said otherwise. At more than 3 min slower over a 3 mile loop it was clear that, although a great trail bike, this bike is not designed to be a race bike.

This Wednesday I got a chance to ride the shops Epic 29er test bike. Boy that little test ride opened my eyes. Even after Ouachita Challenge, I've always thought that a 29er full suspension bike was overkill. If I was able to ride that trail, at speed, on a 26in HT then why would you ever want/need a full suspension 29er? Well it's simple, there bad @ss!

I did my test ride on the first Wednesday Night Worlds that Starkville has ever had. During my ride over to the trails I notice one of the small quarks that the new epics have. While seated the suspension boobs though its suspension sag. Nothing major just different than my Stumpy. Then during the parade lap I notice another quark. This quark involves the brain in the rear suspension. The brain engaging and disengaging was noticeable over small low speed bumps. Again nothing major, just different.

During the "race" I never notice either of these quarks. I was able to stay on Kevin's wheels though some really tight trails and was able to pass him for the "win". The momentum that the 29er wheels produce was very welcomed (and noticeable) and was produced without slowing the steering. This momentum helped me keep speed and smoothed-out my power output. This quality would be very welcomed during an endurance race. As I followed Kevin, I told him that the Epic seamed to force me to ride smoother. "Smother? Are you crazy?" Maybe, it's just the feeling that I got during my short time on the bike. Could I Monster Truck over everything on the trail? Sure. But did I? No.  I was able to produce the same time over the same trails as I use to on my Stumpy. But this was on a longer course and the day after pushing myself for 2.5 hours just under LT.

So do I want a Epic 29er? You bet. Even at 5lb heaver than my stumpy, and having wagon wheels, the bike never seemed sluggish. Not once, going around turns it felt snappy, accelerating out of turns it felt smooth, and it hid it's weight quite nicely up the hills.

The only things I would change about the bike I rode would be the handle bars (replace with my carbon ones), the grips (replace with my Ergons), the wheels (build up a light weight racing wheelset), and replace the crank with a XX unit. I think that with these upgrades that the bike would only be 2lb heaver than my Stumpy, but over all a better endurance racing weapon.

       

Ouachita Challenge Race Re-Cap

As noted in my last post, me and Kevin drove 7 hr form Starkville to Oden Saturday, then went on a short pre-ride of the staring single tack. 3 miles in, 3 miles out. My legs felt ok at best and my technical skills were vastly lacking. I decided to stick with my racing plan and see what panned out.

The plan was to do whatever was needed to hit the single track at the back of the lead group then find my rhythm for the remainder of the race. On Sunday I tried my best to make this plan a reality.

After the short 1 mile naturalized start the pace quickly picked up to an uncomfortably fast pace. About halfway up the next to the last hill before the single track I decided that it was costing me too much energy to keep up with the lead group, so decided to fall back and start searching for my rhythm.

I hit the single tack about a minute behind the leader and immediately started to get passed by people. For the first hour I would have group after group catch and pass me. Quite frankly I was embarrassed with myself. I felt like I was in way over my head and was going to wind up DFL.

After about an hour I started to feel better about my situation and started riding stronger. Just a few minutes later I blew past Aid Station One.  Then I started climbing up the single track of Blow Out Mountain. After a few miles of climbing I was thinking to myself "This is not nearly as bad as people warned." Less than 5 min later I was off the bike walking up this hill. This hill was extremely steep and coved by nothing but loose rock. Once over the top of this climb there were several sections of ride-able rock gardens that I had to hike-a-bike over due to other riders walking in front of me. After walking for a total of ~1 mile on Blow Out Mountain the trail turned downward.

My technical skills had been improving all day and hit a high point during the descent off of Blow out Mountain. I was quickly catching and passing people on every type of bike: 29er, 26er, hard-tails, and full suspension. This got me pumped as I worked hard to pass several people on the short road section leading to the last bit of the Ouachita Trial.

I had 1.5 bottles of Cytomax left by the time I reached Aid Station 2. I decided to stick with my nutrition plan and take on more Cytomax at this Aid Station. This turned out to be good on the nutrition front, but not so good on the racing strategy front. As I was getting my bottles refilled I was passed by a few of the riders I had passed on the road. I quickly caught up to a slow group of 3 rider going up the next hill. They were going so slow that I was turning an uncomfortably slow cadence in my lowest gear (22-34 on a 26er). I was behind these riders at the worst possible time, the trail was steep and narrow with no room to let anyone by. For 2 or 3 miles I was stuck behind this group bobbling every time I would hit a root or rock. Finally at the top of the hill I made a quick pass and railed a sick downhill to the end of the Ouachita Trail.

I was happy to see the Ouachita Trail end, but sad at the same time. It was a stupid hard and fun trail, but its end brought ~8 miles of road leading to the Womble! The road section was not a time to rest at all. Sunday saw strong winds that seemed to always be right in your face. I took it easy on this section hopping to be caught by a group. With a few miles left to the single track I joined a group of 3 riders and took short turns pulling at the front.

Blowing through Aid Station 3 I knew the Womble was just a few minutes away. After about 10 minutes of hammering gravel roads I turned onto some sweet single track! The Womble is very similar to what I normally ride on. Show me roots and I can tell you how to ride them, show me rocks and I'm lost. I just could not help but smile as I flowed through the flat section of the Womble (not to mention catching and passing several people on this section).

Then going up the first hill of the Womble I hit a point where I was done (about 45 miles in). My core and upper back was killing me (legs still felt strong) and I started to get a headache (my typical first sign of dehydration setting in). There were several times between Aid Station 3 and 4 that I thought I was going to quit once I reached Aid Station 4.

Then just before I reached Aid Station 4 I popped my first caffeinated Gu. Once at Aid Station 4 I asked for water in my bottles and had some cool water pored over my head. Boy what a boost a little caffeine and a cool head can give you. The thoughts of quitting were firmly out of my head.

The remainder of the race was a blur. All I really remember was finding a new corner of the pain cave I never knew existed and dumping most of my water over my head. I finished the race strong with a time of 5:37 and placed 33rd over all. Despite thinking I was DFL most of the race and having some issues, I still met most of my goals and had a finishing time that made me happy.  I indentified some of my weaknesses and had a fun time in the woods!

My nutrition was spot on for a race of this length but could use some tweaking. When drinking just Cytomax I was wanting more electrolytes and when drinking just EFS I was wanting the lactic clearing properties of Cytomax. My core and upper body strength needs working on, as well as my ability to climb long hills. Time to tweak my training and nutrition over the next 6 weeks before my A priority race, Syllamo's Revenge 125k!

On a side note, Kevin killed it all day and placed 4th, less than 5 minutes behind 1st! Congrats Kevin and everyone ells that finished this year's Ouachita Challenge.             

Ouachita Challenge Pre-Race!

Just got done driving 7 hr to Oden, AR. Once here me and Kevin picked up our packets then took a short Pre-ride. We rode in 3 miles from the start of the Ouachita trail then turned around. This section of trail can only be described as ROCKY! Over all my legs felt OK at best, and my technical skills are definitely lacking. Going to stick with my plan of attack tomorrow and see what pans out.

Photo dump:

Spent some time here this week doing taper rides.

Had some break issues on Thursday.

Packing!

Kevin having fun at Arkansas Cycling and Fitness. Maybe we should do something like this in our shop!

Start of Ouachita Trail

Small sample of the rocks!

Only in Arkansas! (this coming form an Arkansas native)

Catching Up: Tour De Tuscaloosa

The week before Tour De Tuscaloosa was the last big training week before Ouachita Challenge. This meant that this week was going to be a hard one. This was the last week of Build 1. Build 1 did not go as planned. Spring break was the first week which only brought 6 hours of ride time. Did plenty of races in during this time (Rouge Roubaix, Tuffburg and Tour De Tuscaloosa).

The week before Tour De Tuscaloosa:

Monday: off

Tuesday: Two sets 10 min cruise intervals, spent just over 20 min just under LT

Wednesday: Three sets 1X1's, spent over 15 min above LT

Thursday: 3:45 min MTBing the Nox. Went XC race pace the last 20 min (to trick the body into thinking it was a longer ride) climbing up Charlotte's Web.

I think I need a bigger car!

Ready to go!

Three Bridges reroute

Lake Choctaw

 Friday: Recovery Ride (RR)

Saturday: Off (was expose to be leg openers but work and weather dictated otherwise)

Sunday: Tour De Tuscaloosa, 30 miles, Cat 5, Hilly

Tour De Tuscaloosa

Love the design, hate the fit!

 On Friday I talked to Kevin about my race strategy. He suggested I just attack early, attack often and make it fun for myself. It's not like I could win money for it, and it was a C priority race. Well on race day I took his advice, and boy was it fun!

The start was neutralized for about half a mile before the racing started. A mile into the race the biggest hill on course started. Everyone in the group slowed down as they started to climb... That is everyone but me. I got spat out to the front of the peloton and people started to draft off of me. Hum, time to have fun! I attacked on the very first hill of the race! As I neared the top I looked back to see the group stretched out in one big line behind me. Heck yeah! Make them work to draft you.

After this initial climb I rejoined the group and the course flattened out as we rode across the ridge of the first hill. Nothing spectacular happened until we started the decent. The decent had "breaking rumple strips" going across the road. Most people had to check there speed as they passed over these strips, I did not. I flew past several people as I was once again spat out to the front of the group. I decided to just take it easy at the front and see if anyone would pull around me.

To my surprise no one passed me until we turned back toward the start finish line. The section of road leading up to the finish had several medium length steep hills. As we started climbing again, the group picked up the pace, so I sat back in 10th place and waited for a break away to form.

The break way formed just as we crossed the finish line for the first time (10 miles in). I bridged the gap as the group started to climb the big hill for the second time. I rode with the break away, exchanging pulls,  until we reached a small kicker hill just before the big decent. My body decided that my climbing legs were done for the day, so I slipped back into the main field just as we started the flat section flowing the decent.

On this flat section the main group could see the break away. With about a mile before we turned back toward the finish line one rider yelled out that "We needed to pick up the pace to catch that break away." No one responded so I went to the front again and hammered away at LT trying to pull the group back up to the break away. As we turned toward the finish we had caught the break way, except one rider that rode off the front to finish first.

Once the climbing started up again the group passed me and left me dangling off the back. Just survive these next few hills and catch back on before the big climb... Yes, back on! 10 miles left, save some energy early in this lap then finish strong.

I managed to stay with the group up the big climb, then sucked wheels across the ridge. Once again, just before the kicker climb, I was spat out to the front of the group. Killing the climb I had open road ahead of me as we started the decent. The lead moto was having trouble staying out of my way as I dove through the turn at the bottom of hill. I had a couple hundred feet lead on the group at this point and decided to attack the flat to hold them off.

The pack caught me as I was turning toward the finish for the last time. I sat in the group (about 20 of the starting 50 where in this group) trying to recover before the sprint. Topping a small roller hill the finishing straight was slightly down hill. I sprinted for all I was worth and was positioned well to win the sprint (for 2nd) until I spun out my compact crank! Once spun out I had a few people re-pass me as I finished top ten (official results have me at 15th, but the person that drafted me to the finish was placed 13th). Not too bad considering that I attacked early, attacked often and had fun with the race!

Tour De Tuscaloosa HR and Altitude Data