Dropping A Few Gears

Wednesday's short track race was probably my last competitive race this year.  Reluctantly, I am going to have to pass by the Park City race in September due to my work schedule ( if you want in, please let me know!).  Disappointed? of course I am because it is an awesome course and I've been racing pretty well this year.  The singletrack is amazing and the organizers are top notch people.  In fact, I remember seeing Jay Burke, the big man himself, out on course last year asking each racer how the course markings were as we rode on by.  Clearly this is the mark of someone committed to providing the best race experience possible and I am sure that will hold true for this event.  I'm also disappointed I won't have a chance to ride with Adam, Keith, and the rest of the Utah riders I've made friends with over the past year or two.  This year has taken a lot out of me with training, racing,  job changes, and a multitude of other things so I'd be lying if I didn't admit to some degree that I am ready to throw in the towel on structured training and competition this year.  I'm satisfied with the Hundo, and Breck 100. Short Track is a new found addiction, and I get to do it all over again in one capacity or another in 2012.  So just like that, my Superfly 100 is retired, hung up in the garage, and  waiting a good overhaul.  My Niner SS is enlisted back into service and on the bike stand getting a face lift.  After throwing on some new Stans ZTR Crest wheels and swapping out a light seat, seat post, and bars I almost have it down to racing weight.

Racing weight?  Ok I may have one more Winter Park race left in me... but it will be on my SS.  I'm dropping a few gears for the rest of 2011.

CU Short Track and Strava

I finally made it back to some high intensity racing/training Wednesday for the 2nd to last CU Short Track race series.  The last two races I attempted were canceled due to rain so I was determined to race this week and talked the student organizers into letting me race the men's B and the men's A.  Crazy I know but there was no way I was going home empty handed this week.  I raced conservatively in the B race finishing up in 10th place.  After a 25-min rest and a quick spin around the course again, I lined up at the back of the A race.  I put in a strong effort but burned out on the last few laps failing to reach my one and only goal which was to avoid getting caught and lapped by Mike West, Bryan Alders, or Brady Kappius.  Last time I succeeded, this time I didn't.  In the end I pulled off 14th place.  

In other news, I've been using connect.garmin.com for over a year now as a way to store, manage, display, and track the metrics from my Garmin Edge 705.  I ride with this device and a HRM almost religiously and it has been a great tool to compare training and racing but there were a lot of things missing from the Garmin website.  Enter Strava.com.  I have had my eye on this site for a few months but I was initially turned off because you had to pay in order to upload more than 5 rides a month.  Until now.   They opened the site up and uncapped the upload limit so I uploaded some rides and took a closer look.  Here are a few things I found that I love about it.

My Men's A race.  Notice the 170w average power?  I don't have a power tap!  Strava calculates an estimated power output based on HR and other available data.  Pretty cool.

Ever wonder how you stack up against other riders on the same trail?  Here you go!

And if you want to watch yourself race the fastest guy on the course?

Or up Boreas Pass on the Breckenridge 100?

Reunion

A few photos of my recent family reunion camping trip to Southern Utah.  Lots of sitting around, fishing, and eating food... and rednecking (see below).

Reese with her 2 cousins.

Reese hiding behind a log railing.

My initials carved into Fish Lake Lodge.

Plenty of Aspen trees with stuff carved in them.

Photo of the family photo.  2 of 3 kids in view showing the "stinky eye".

Pulling Jaxon around the lake redneck style.

2011 Breckenridge 100

My race bike taking a rest after a hard day of flawless service.

I had been looking forward to the Breckenridge 100 all year and the it did NOT disappoint.  It was every bit as challenging and rewarding as I hoped it would be.  For anyone that has ridden the Park City Point 2 Point and would consider that a 10 on the scale of difficulty, which I do, the Breck 100 turns the dial up a notch to 11.  Both races share a common theme: climb, climb, climb, and when you are done with that... climb.  They also share some of the best single-track I've ever ridden, not just a few miles, but in 20-30 min stretches.  For me the dial goes up a notch in Breck for 2 reasons.

1. The climbing is intense and steep in places but the trail is much more chunky on those climbs / descent.  There are huge root sections stretching 20-30 feet, "baby head" rock gardens on steep grades that can stretch for 1/4 mile, and small boulders thrown in for good measure. The trail was rarely smooth so it was a constant fight for each foot of altitude.  There was no shame in using the little ring.  This year there was even an added bonus hike-a-bike through 2 snow fields on Wheeler Pass.
2. The race *starts* at 9,600ft and reaches skyward to 12,320 feet on Wheeler Pass.  The highest point in the Point 2 Point race is around 9,200 feet.  The elevation was noticeable and forced me to dial it back a notch in order to survive the whole 100 miles.  

With that said I still love the P2P and can't play favorites on the overall race experience.  They both have earned a well deserved place in the NUE series.  I rode a strong race, felt great, didn't cramp, and finished in 10 hours taking 6th in a stacked 30-39 group and 22nd overall.   Take a look below for some specifics on the race and some photos of the day.

Elevation profile and HR data. Check out the full ride on Strava.com or connect.garmin.com

The climbs I remember really putting on the hurt.  There were more but these are the major ones.

Peak Road climb up to Wheeler Pass.  We had to traverse a number of snow fields (see below) towards the top of the climb. I pushed it a little hard on this one from the start to clear as many riders as possible. The descent off the back is very technical and I wanted to make sure I had a clear shot back down.  Thankfully I did and rippin' that single-track was a welcome reward for the effort up the front side.

This little section of the Peaks Trail was one of the many chunky climbs rolling endlessly back to Breckenridge to complete loop1. There were rocks, roots, and some sweet single-track sections.  I rode pretty conservatively on this section opting for a smaller gear over mashing the pedals up all of those punchy climbs.

Loop 2 starts off with more climbing right out of Carter Park.  The first is up Barney Ford Hill to Sallie Barber, a short downhill section on the road then the trail unleashes Little French Flume shown above in blue.  "Little French" as it's called is steep, rocky, and unmerciful but it is ridable and I managed to make it up without touching down.  Again, the course hands out some sweet downhill after Little French to reward a hard effort.

This is the North Fork and Colorado Trail section of Loop 2.  The climbing was rough, just like you'd expect from the Colorado Trail.  Descending off of Kenosha Pass one would land just up trail from the green arrow shown above.  I knew from a pre-ride last year that there is some really sweet downhill of the back side but it seemed to take forever to get there. Climb, climb, climb.  I saw a few people starting to crack on this section.  I tried to maintain a good pace but was still not hammering any of the climbs yet.

The blue line is Gold Run Road.  It was an 18% grade in places and sucked. The hairpin section my Mineral Hill in the middle of the map unleashed an awesome single-track descent with swooping turns and a number of sweet little jumps.  Almost fun enough to make me forget the road section I just suffered through.  Again, the course dishes out pain followed by reward.  A love-hate relationship at it's best!

Loop 3 starts off again with more climbing, big surprise.   The line in blue is a steady climb that gradually increases in grade and rough terrain right before it drops riders off onto Boreas Pass Road for the first crossing of Boreas Pass.

After reaching Boreas Pass the course takes a right (your left) and starts the descent down into Como.  There is still a fair amount of up and down climbing on the trail but to offset that is some of the most fun and interesting sections of single-track I've ever ridden (in the red on the left).  You'll have to check it out! Once I reached Como I was ready to unleash all that I had for the second ascent of Boreas Pass.  Looking at the elevation profile in preparation for the race I realized the race really ends at Boreas Pass because everything else, with a few short punchy climbs, was literally down hill.  I was feeling good leaving Como and had just downed my 2nd bottle of CarboRocket 333 for the lap and swapped the 3rd onto the bike.  That's 666 calories and the equivalent of 2 cans of Coke working it's way into my system.  I was ready and my legs were willing so I put it in the big ring and started hammering out of the saddle.  I managed, to my surprise, to reel in 2 or 3 riders up the pass and pushed over the top with empty bottles on fumes.  I recovered just enough on the downhill to make it over the last little kicker, down the single-track and into Carter Park with a smile. Success!

Some Photos.  I'll add more once they become available.

The trail working it's way up to Wheeler Pass. Photo: Les Handy

A very steep "cary-a-bike" section. One slip here and it's all the way back to Breck.  Photo: Les Handy

Wheeler Pass looking north-west. The highest point of the race. Some steep and technical single-track just beyond the horizon.  Photo: Les Handy

How much food does it take to fuel a 100-mile endurance race?  About this much.  Chris Baddick and I split this pizza the night before the race.  It's called the "Gigantor". 

Wheeler Pass on Loop #1

Colorado Trail on Loop #2

Boreas Pass Loop #3

More Photos:  Loop1, Loop2, Loop3

2011 CU Short Track #9

Post Race Team Photo

We raced 11 min today due to lightning... probably a good thing with a big race for me this weekend.  Given most of the pros are out of town for the Mountain Bike XC National Championships the A race was very thin and they decided to run the men and women together.  At least the course was fun.  Plenty of turns with a  really steep kicker (top left).  I'm pretty sure Chris had something to do with this... and the rain.

On the way out of town I hit the trails on Marshall Mesa for an hour.  I've never ridden there before so it was fun to check it out.  Plenty of good views of Boulder and Eldorado canyon.

Eldorado Canyon in the background.