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.