Iron Mt Man Race Report

Well the first race of the year is officially in the books! And boy was it a hard, fast, and fun.

It all started Saturday morning when the alarm went off at 7 am. I knew the group I was meeting with would not arrive in Arkadetha until sometime after sunset, so I decided to take my time eating and loading up the car, before starting the 4 hr drive down.

Flash forward 4 hr and I had arrived at the race location and started to figure out what all was going on. A few riders here, few riders there, official looking people by the finish, hum what to do. I decided I would figure out what time packet pick up was then see what the trails looked like. The people by the finish line did not know what time packet pick up was and told me that they just set up for these types of events. Well, strike one. So I decided to head around the bend to see if I could not find some single track. Just as I found something that looked like single track a group of riders came riding up to me. They all had big grins on their faces and were talking about the trail. I politely asked how the trails looked and they informed me that they where bone dry and fast. I quickly returned to my car to swap out my front tire for something faster (went from a Ground Control 2.3 to a Fast Track 2.2) and went out searching for the start. After grinning from ear to ear for an hr on my pre ride, I decided I should save something for the race.

I came away from my pre ride knowing two things. 1. The race is going to be extremely fast, 2. I wished these trails where in my back yard. They found a way to build a trail that has the best features  of the Headwaters trail and Kessler Mt!

My friends from Mississippi finally arrived at 7pm and we all went out to eat. I've never seen a downtown area of a college town dead at 7pm on Saturday. We decided to hit up Cracker Barrel, and preceded to stuff ourselves  stupid. 

When looking for a motel I decided on a slightly more expensive one thinking that I would be able to sleep better. While the rooms where indeed nice, I had troubles sleeping because someone in the building was having a party of some sort with loud music.

After not much sleep the alarms started going off at 6 am sharp. A bowl of cereal quickly eaten and a cup of coffee, followed by loading up the car. Then off to the race!

After what seemed like the longest 15 min ever we finally had the racers meeting. (I heard them announce the racers meeting in "15 min" 3 different times while getting ready to go) Once all the specifics were done we were told we had 10 min to the start. 5 min, 30sec, 15 sec, 10, 5,4,3,2,1, Go!

I've never seen such a nervous start to a MTB race. We had 2 miles of road before the single track, and for good measure this section contained two 3/4 mile climbs. After the first climb I have Kevin ride up next to me asking if there was another climb before the single track. "Yes, just like the one before." At this point the pace quickly picked up. I started to go with the leaders, but decided it was way too early to put in that big of an effort.  (Not to mention I was already pegged out at my LTHR)

Finally on the single track, we had a long flow-track style downhill that had a dash of rock garden thrown in for fun. The large group I was in started to get annoyed at the pace the leader was keeping. It got so bad that one of the riders started to yell at the leader to "Pick it up, you have a train going. Toot Toot!" This is not something I would normally condone, but even I was wanting to go much faster on this fun section of trail.

At the bottom of this section the trail turned into a double track that looped back around to the finish of the start loop. About halfway around this double track Ross swung around me. Lets go...No wait, we have along race to go. Just real him back in latter.

I kept looking down at my HR to confirm that my legs really did feel this good. The answer was NO! I spent the first Hour and a Half at my LTHR. Something that in the past would of caused me to blow up big time. I kept telling myself to back it down a little and, somehow, my HR came down and I started to feel more comfortable. It was about this time that I started to see people appearing in front of me. One by one I would close the gap and pass them.

About halfway around the first full lap I pull around a rider and hear a surprised "Zach?!?"  I slowed down a second to look back to see who it was and was shocked to see Frank back there. I held the slower pace for a bit, to recover and talk to Frank, then decided it was time to go again.

After passing a few more people I was finally passed for the first time since the start lap. Mr. Kurt Searvogel came flying around me. I felt good and decided to latch onto his wheel until I detonated. To my surprise this detonation never happened. We pulled through the reminder of the first lap at what felt like a stupid fast pace. We would quickly catch and pass rider after ride.

I pulled around him on the first real climb of the second lap and preceded steeped deep into my pain cave. At the top of the climb I looked back to see a clear trail. What just happened? By this time I was hot on the wheel of a Single Speed rider and decided to keep the pace high.

I spent most of the first half of the second lap trading spots with the SS. He would let me by on the down hills, I would let him by on the up hills. It was working great.

That is, until my third Hour ended. My fastest, strongest riding always happens during my third hr of riding (between 2:00:00 and 3:00:00). At this point we started a climb and I told him "Good Race" . He replied "I'll see you again on the next downhill", but I knew this would not happen.   

Well off in No Man's Land for the first time in a while. You only have 45min left. Eat what you can, drink what you can, and when you start to come around just relax and "Embrace the Suck"

This plan did not work out the way I thought it would, because as I crossed the road for the last time  saw Kurt hot on my hills. I attacked the last downhill section, from the start loop, hoping to get my gap back. I never did see him behind me as I went down, but as soon as I hit the flat road section I looked back to see that there was a gap, just not a big one. I tucked in aero and put out everything I had left. But not even halfway through the last bit of single track he was asking to go around. I congratulated him on a good race and pulled the plug on my race, but managed to pass one more person before the finish.

So how did I wind up? 20th overall. Finished in 3:26. Me and Kurt talked for a bit at the finish, and I figured out the Single Speed guy was Boomer Leopold, then it was time for some food.

So lets sum up the race.

Good:

1) I never felt like I completely blew up during the race. This is a big thing for me.  This is literally the first race I've ever done that I did not blow up. Part of this is better fitness, but most of it is listening to my father. Last time I was home he explained to me that a Horse Jockey's main job is to pace how fast the horse goes. He continued to state that during my races I have to play the parts of horse and jockey. Words of wisdom that I repeated every time I wanted to jump on a wheel.

2) My nutrition was spot on. I stuck with my normal routine with one major difference. I learned at Skool of Hard Nox 50 that once the stomach shuts down its better to lay off the water and food. There were several times the clock said to feed, or I knew I "should" be drinking, but I did not because the stomach was not ready for it.

3) 90% of my passes were on, or just after, climbs.

4)(Not training related) For the first time in a race like this I never spent more than 5 min in "No Man's Land". I was always chasing or running. Never really relaxing into a pace.

Bad:

1)My speed was on par on down hills, and I was passing on up hills, but was losing time to people on false flats. I think this is a factor of me having ok Power/Weight but lacking pure power. More road riding is in store soon to remedy this issue.

2) Ross beat me. Not cool.

Just 3 more weeks before Spa City 6 Hr.

As always I just need to Ride More, Ride Harder, and Get Faster.

Nerves 2 Weeks Out

I'm sitting here in my living room, with just over 1 week before my first race of the year, thinking about the training I've put in over the past 3 months. The questions of " Have I put in enough work?" "Have I put in the correct type of work?" "What will everyone else look like at the races?" will all be answered soon enough.

These questions, and the nerves that come along with them, started up last week. I had some issues the previous week with some knee tightness during my trainer workouts, so I decided to take the week off the bike. This gave me way too much time to think. Looking back at Strava I've logged 100hr over the past 3 months. This is not a great amount of time, but is fairly good for the winter. In fact it is by far my best winter ever on the bike.

But even with this proof I find myself questioning if I've really gotten that much faster? I'm about 6 lb over my goal weight, but I know that my weight will sort itself out as soon as the race season gets under way. Only racing will sort out my questions.

This week I took it mostly easy, I've done a little weight lifting and worked on my bikes. And I've been eating whatever I've been having a craving for, just trying to let the body recover and be preped for the race season.

On to the first race of the year! It's shaping up to be a warm (60F) and very wet race. Not only do you have the snow/ice and rain that is already fallen on Iron Mt, but now they are calling for rain the night before the race. Now I've never ridden at Iron Mt, but if its anything like the Nox or Sequoyah its bound to be a very slow sloppy race that drive nightmares for months to come.

So what about that review I've been saying I would put out about my new Epic? It's still coming, but I wanted to get in an Endurance race before I did a review. But  I'll give you a short overview of my feeling on the bike. Paraphrasing my favorite Epic review I've ever read:

No matter how you look at it, it's still a Specialized product. You can talk about how it climbs, descends, corners, and how it rides. But it's still a Specialized bike, you either love it or hate it. Somehow they have made this bike able to be race day fast, but all day comfortable. You can climb steep up hills, then bomb down a downhill course without changing a thing.        

As always I just need to Ride More, Ride Harder, and Get Faster.

"Hey Zach, What's going on?"

Well let me start off by saying that I've been trying my best to keep things rolling as the new year starts to get some age into its skin. I've been clocking time on "the bike that does not move" and been trying my best to get out into the sun when it's not too cold.

But how cold is too cold? Here lately it has been anything under 35F. Yes, I know that in December I braved 16F, but I've come to realize that I can control my workout so much better when I'm on the trainer. 

This is my typical Weeknight Trainer Workout set up.

So I've been completing  all of my week night rides on my trusty wind trainer. But there are issues with the trainer I have. For one I have to start my ride before 5pm to insure I complete my rides before my neighbors get home at 6pm. The most annoying thing about the wind trainer (in combination with my current gearing) is that as I'm getting stronger, it becomes harder (if not imposable) to get the resistance I'm looking for. O well, First World Issues.

I can say, without a doubt, that I'm currently more focused on improving my fitness than I've ever been. This includes my time training for the "Junior Olympics" in Judo. (There may be just a handful of people who know how scary that actually is) I've been getting my workouts in on a regular biases, I've started to clean up my diet, and I'm starting to get to bed early enough to get in 9 hr of sleep. I'm enjoying the struggle and the fitness gains I'm starting to see. I'm about a month away from kicking off my session and I am looking forward to having a packed March/April.

There have been 2 rides of note during this new year. You remember me saying that I rode for 21hr over 8 day with only 5 rides. Well I really did get in that much time, during the time of the year that most people are enjoying time with their families and getting fat. I knew it would take a toll on me, but I did not know how long it would take me to recover to a "normal" state. I took 5 days off the bike before getting back into training. I felt fine during my "weekday rides of no movement" and thought I was fully recovered on that Saturday.

Well that was not true, as I found out in a very painful way. I decided to do the TBR Saturday ride and quickly realized that my fatigue was on a much deeper level that had I realized. As soon as we left town I was struggling just to stay in the draft. What was going on?  It only took 15 mins and my HR was way over my LT, my legs and lungs where burning and I started having cold sweets. Not a good sign. My legs were not tired in a normal since, it was a DEAP stress like I've never experienced. It felt like my bones where hurting, the muscles down deep by the bones where still overly stressed.

Hurting bad up a hill early on the ride. Thanks Robin for the Photo.

Some-how I stuck with the group (we had a few regroups) and I started to feel allot better. I actually started to feel "normal" during the last 45 min of the ride. Boy what a relief.

One of the many regroups. Again, Thanks Robin for the Photo.

The next day I woke up sick, probably the most sick I've been since I moved to NWA. I knew it was time for a brake and took the day off. It took me a long time to do anything more than lay on the couch, even then it was little more than doing a load of laundry. 

Flash forward a week and I got invited to the most elite MTB group ride I've ever been on. I was worried that the same deep, lingering stress would slow me down. Well it was not too big of an issue on this ride. Yes I could feel the stress in my legs, but it did not slow me down this time. As we took off, I quickly realized that this was going to be a fast hard ride. I was playing jump-rope with my LT HR right from the start. After about an hr, my body started to come around. I was no longer off the back into no mans land., instead I was having to give myself space to see and react to the trail as the person in front of me cleared objects. After 2 hr of riding the group called it quits, I had something left in the tank, but felt like I had just finished a XC race in the heat!

Having fun between the rocks!

Then Sunday, Heath took me out to Lake Leatherwood. Man, those trails are so awesome!  We took it easy, but looking at Strava we were still moving along at a good clip. After 4 hr on the trails it was time to call it a weekend. Just last month, a weekend like this would not be possible. One hard ride a week was all I could handle. Now I'm able to put out high power for those short rides, and still be able to do a good, quick endurance ride the next day.

Almost home! Just one more down hill!

To me, I see that as results! Big results in small ways, but everything should add up to a fast, fun, and jam packed year of racing.   

BTW if you want to keep track of the rides the fast people in Fayetteville are doing go check out Robin's Blog.

As always I just need to Ride More, Ride Harder, and Get Faster.

2013 In Review

I know I'm late on this bandwagon, and I have been lazy about blogging lately. Can't promise that I'll be blogging more, but I can try.

So to understand where 2013 stared, I must first recap 2012. The first half of 2012 I was on a no PT profile during my last 5 months of training at Ft Gordon, GA. During this time I gained nearly 25 lbs. I hit my all time high weight at 163 lb during that time. Once I was home I tried my best to get back in to cycling, but found it very hard to start cycling in a area that I knew very little about. In July I moved to Fayetteville, and started to get my head screwed on straight.

But as soon as I started to enjoy cycling again I had to move back to Little Rock. After getting accepted into school and moving, I was told that I could not use my education benefits the way I had planned. This started the downward spiral of spending all day applying for jobs, interviewing for jobs, and being left on the hook. I was starting to get really depressed by my situation.

But then 2013 started! What a change of course! I finial started working again, and  started back down the road to being a bicycle racer! At first it was just riding 1 or 2 hr on Saturday and Sunday. But at least I was hungry to get fast again. In late February I did my first race in nearly 2 years. The Crosswinds Classic Road 

Race down in Little Rock. A mid pack finish after only 30ish hr back on the bike was not too bad!

Then came March, I went to the Spa City 6 hr to be a pit boy for one of my close friends. Being back in that atmosphere really  reignited my desire to race long distance MTB races. After the race ended I drove to Fayetteville and found a safe place park my car. I bought my new car with one thing in mind, it had to be big enough for me to sleep in the back. That night proved it could be done, but I might need to change some things before I do it again.

Why was I in Fayetteville? To race Hells Kitchen. With maybe 50 hr into my legs this was a very bad decision. I was dropped from the pack on the first climb of the day. I pulled myself from that race, and it became my first ever DNF by choice.

In April I decided to go to Memphis for the Crank It Up Mountain Bike Omnium. This was my first time doing an Omnium on the MTB. And boy was it fun, I did not do too well but had a blast!

Thank you  Brickhouseracing.com for the photo.

In May I attended Cane Creek at Timberland. Again, very little time on the bike, but trying it out anyways.  I defiantly bit off more than I could chew.  5th out of 7, but I felt bad all day long.

 In June my unit went AT, but just before we left, I traveled up to Fayetteville for an interview. During my time in Fayetteville, in the summer of 2012, I fell in love with NWA. So with that in mind, my search for a job in NWA never ended. I was offered a position and jumped at the opportunity. Best decision of the year!

Once in Fayetteville I stared to ride a lot more! It was just so easy to go do a group rides, or ride the MTB right out my front door! It was at this time that I sat down and decided to race Skool Of Hard Nox 50. I set my mind to training for that race and never looked back.

September was a good month for me, despite my explosion atSkool Of Hard Nox. I finished that race 7th overall and only 15 min off my goal time. Then came the NWA Championships/Devils Den race. 3rd in my category with enough left in the tank to do another lap.

In mid October I bought my new bike, a 2014 Epic Comp! A review of it is forth coming. Over the past 3ish months I have put over 600 miles into this new bike, including several KOM around Fayetteville (Heath has taken them all away now).

 In November I raceAttila the Hun down in Hot Springs. I made a mess of the race and have not been happy about it.

That just leaves my snow adventures in December. And my mini "Hell Training block" I finished during the last week of the year. It consisted on 21 hr on the bike, and 20000 ft of climbing in only 5 rides!

I took a picture exactly like this (same location and everything) in 2009, only 6 months after starting to ride MTB. I'm sad I cant find that photo to do a side by side. 

So here's to 2014, and what will it have in store for me. I'm not sure exactly what will happen, but I do have some aggressive plans.  My early session goals are as follows:

Finish in under:

Iron Mountain Endurance Race                          4:45 hr

Ouachita Challenge Race                                   5 hr

Slobber Knocker                                               4:45 hr

Syllamo's Revenge                                             5 hr

And complete 7 laps at the Spa City 6 hr.

I'm throwing around the ideal of also racing Rouge Roubaix and Tour De Hills, but nothing is firm yet.

Late session was going to be focused on racing XC, but the current AMBCS schedule places most of the races on Guard Drill weekends.  So I'm thinking about looking at doing some road racing along with some more endurance MTB races. I'm currently considering Berryman Trail Epic, Skool Of Hard Nox 50, and the 100 Miler on Oak Mountain. 

Long shadows late in the year. Good by 2013, hello 2014!

As always I just need to Ride More, Ride Harder, and Get Faster.