2011 Teva Mountain Games

After leaving the Ironhorse Classic in Durango, we dillydallied our way towards Vail where Annie and I would partner up for some racing there the next weekend. In between, we hit up a few places that we hadn't been before, a few nights at the Pagosa Hot Springs resort, Great Sand Dune National Park, a few nights camping, and then wrapping it up with some R&R (racing and relaxing) at the Marriott Vail Mountain resort for the weekend's events at the Teva Mountain Games. Will detail the in between stuff in a later post. In the meantime, here's the detail and footage from the Teva Games. I suckered Annie into doing the trail run, making a solid case that it would be best for the team - she'd seen me running around without my shirt off at the hot springs resort the few days prior, and quickly agreed that yes, it would indeed be best for the team if I didn't do the run.

Kayak - This went smoother this year, in large part to having done one prep outing on the Green River with some of the guys a few weeks back and having to execute a few rolls in some fairly large rapids on that trip. Wasn't near as sketchy as a few years ago, and had some confidence that I could keep it upright, and even if not, could get back up right without having to bail out. The only problem with the kayak leg this year was fitness. I've mentioned on here before that unlike some of the endurance type stuff where you get some decent crossover of fitness from discipline to discipline, the only way I know of to get into decent paddling shape is to paddle, a lot. I paddled hard for about 5 minutes, and was blown, completely, shoulders and arms. It was to the point of being concerned near the bottom end of the course that I wouldn't have the strength to paddle away from holes/obstacles if something came up that needed to be avoided. You'll see the soft paddling at the bottom of the course in the video, my strength was reduced to the consistency of wet bread. Side note - the Stand up paddle boarding seems to be catching on fairly rapidly, lot's of them there this year. I have since entered my first paddle board race - coming up this weekend....

Mtn Bike - They had to keep us a little lower on the mountain this year due to snow, which cut out some sections of both the Mtn bike course and the run course. Among the sections cut out of the bike course was most of the more technical downhill stuff, and some climbing mileage that they seemed to consolidate into a nasty pitch that capped off the climbing each lap. The kind of pitch that required you to slide up and put your seat tip right where the sun don't shine, and try to keep momentum just high enough that you don't stall out and tip. Missing or hesitating for even half a pedal stroke on those steeps meant you were off the bike and walking. I was actually able to race hard that afternoon, and the race was short enough at 3 laps just under 5 miles each, that the lack of training and fitness didn't get a chance to manifest itself to the extent it had the week previous at the Iron Horse. Came away fairly pleased and a little surprised.

Trail Run - Despite this course also staying a little lower on the mountain, I'm fairly certain they had that same guy, you know him from last time... yep, that one, the bastard - set the course again. It went straight up real early, just like last time. As in redline walking efforts straight up. Annie nailed it though, ran a great race that included running across and down snow banks, mud, double track, singletrack, and no track - everything a trail race should be, and did so quickly. Her motivation? To hammer my time from a few years back, which she did easily. I told her it was because the race didn't go as high up the mountain this year, but just between you and me, I know better.

Hill climb TT - Very similar time to last time I was out there, which translates into being a little slower this year given my legs hadn't had to do that run a few hours previous. Rode the first 6.5 miles real well, but didn't have the gumption to keep going hard once on the upper section of the route and faded some. But again, was somewhat surprised and pleased that it hadn't been worse. I also enjoy TT's, at least once they're over. Really the truest measure of oneself on the bike, both physically and mentally.

So, once it was all tallied together, team Wasatch Pilates (sponsored by Annie's little Pilates biz) finished 4th of 10 in the coed division of the Ultimate Mountain Challenge. More importantly - it seemed to light a little bit of the spark that's been missing from the motivation this year. We'll see if we can parlay that into some better focus and effort going forward. We're hooked on the team racing - its' a blast to team up with Annie for this kind of stuff.

Spectating - this was the kids first year out there so we made sure to catch a little bit of everything. They didn't get near as excited about the climbing or the slopestyle riding as we did. They're fascination - the dog jumping..., they could have watched it for hours.

Overall it was a great trip - great to get away with the family and just screw off for a while, these kidlets just keep getting more fun every year.

Video hightlights:

1 - my buying a gopro camera, with the kayak race specifically in mind for it, only to reach up and turn it on, I mean off, just prior to going in the water - no on board race footage, notta, nil, zilch.

2 - Brock having a hard time getting going on the kids race. Kid's race was also brutal for the little tikes, hard course for their little legs to climb up, and they all grinded it out - proud of them.

2011 Teva Mountain Games from Jason White on Vimeo.

2011 Iron Horse Classic

This annual post always starts out the same..... rave, rave, rave about how fun the Iron Horse Classic is. I'll get to that.

As has become tradition, I raced it again this year, but fairly miserably. I began to wonder within minutes of the start, when the pace was already in my brain - Geez, Are we going faster this year, this is causing more distress than usual this early? Hung on to Shalona Hill, then had my answer when I fell off the back rather abruptly. Went really slow for the rest of the race, I mean really slow. Insights? Yes, I have one. Slower is harder. When your going slow in a race, it's generally not because your trying to race slow, no, it's because your genuinely slow - but the effort to go slow isn't any less than the effort to go fast - your just stuck out there longer when the effort generates less speed. It was the slowest and hardest one I've done, with nothing to blame the day on other than my own limited capacity, indeed it was a perfect day for a mountain race. Despite the slowness, I enjoyed the heck out of the classic route from Durango to Silverton.

Mixed it up this year, skipped the other road Omnium events to do the Mtb race Sunday morning. And, contrary to what I expected, had a little more snap in the legs for that race. Finish was still poor, but slowness wasn't the sole factor, this was an important course to preride, and I hadn't. Critical sprint section going into the final stretch of downhill 1track, and here's another insight - when your the last one to know it's a sprint, your not gonna catch it. I realized I'd made a mistake the second the wave came up when we hit the pavement, and there was no catching it by the time I tried to accelerate. Was happy with how the legs and effort felt though, for the first time this year I felt like I was managing and thinking during a race vs. barely hanging on. Small positive from a punishing weekend.

So back to these Iron Horse organizers. Mentioned they added a Mtn Bike race to the mix this year. Good course, nothing great or spectacular......... until the pro race. That's when, after coming down off the mountain section, they moved the fences inside the restaurant, ran a ramp through a window, and detoured the course through the Steamworks Brewery..... check it.....

Course entered through the front window.....

Here's the exit ramp.....
Deadly Nedley in hot pursuit of the 16 or 17 year old kid that won the race.... Ned had his day the previous morning when he won the road race... again....
The kids races were awesome again... Brock's the Spiderman dude in blue, head down and charging like a bull...
Chesney's into the standing pedal lately, and spent a lot of her race out of the saddle...
Along with Kylie who also came out of the saddle to hammer the short climb.
Racing is only half the enjoyment of the Durango trip - simple stuff like setting out nickles and pennies on the tracks to get flattened by the train, and skipping rocks in the river from the railroad tracks are also among the enjoyments. We always love this trip.
In Silverton after the road race... one positive about riding slow is that you don't have to wait as long post race before they open the road back up to return to Durango.

This was the first of two weekends of racing in Colorado, with some touring of the rockies in between.... more to come.

Iron Horse Classic 2010

Fantastic time in Durango again - if there's a better weekend for both bike racing and family vacation time anywhere else, let me know. Hard to imagine it being better than the Iron Horse in Durango though.

The racing efforts were a small success - went in this year 8-10 pds heavier than last year so wasn't sure how it would go and was a little scared I'd be slower, but went a few minutes faster than previous in both the road race and TT and rode better in the crit. So, either paced a little smarter (less smart on the TT, was late to my start) or am a little stronger. So small positives to take away, despite still going pretty slow. One of our top local pro's, Burke Swindlehurst, won the race - it's a big time event and it's the 2nd time he's won it. Maybe the longest stretch between win #1 and win #2 at the Iron Horse?

Bunch of random photo's from the trip....

Went through here late at night, but, I like these, so seems like it could be a cool town...

Soaking in the hot springs pools in Ouray post race weekend.... soaked for about 4 hours.... still coming unwrinkled.... kids would have stayed another 4 if we let them.

Think I've mentioned before that Durango is a hardcore town when it comes to the outdoor lifestyle. This set up's pretty indicative of the crowd there....

Lunchtime at the Telluride stop on the way home had a place for the kids to do a little scrambling on some climbing features.

The kids dug the free Gondola up the mountain in Telluride on the way to lunch.

They also dug feeding the fish and turtles in the Koi pond next to the hot springs in Ouray.

They also dug the abundance of waterfall hikes in Ouray...

And hiking around the Amphitheater area of Ouray

Here's the crit scene at the Iron Horse... super fast corner and those tires got some action that day. I'm the dude in the middle.

A little earlier shot of the same corner, different lap.

Managed to win the group that got shelled sprint, coming around the muscles in the Jackal kit about 30 yards from the finish.

Brock spent most of his race giving the crowd his thumbs up, which was a nice distraction from him being pissed the only helmet we had that fit him had flowers on it.

Any guesses as to what this is...? And no, I didn't find it in the town of Areola, I mean, Arriola.

Chesney setting up for a corner in her race.

Me and the kids after finishing the race from Durango to Silverton... such a cool race route.

The kids watching the train roll through camp. The Iron Horse Classic got it's start when a couple of dudes decided to race from Durango to Silverton - one driving the train, one driving his bike.

Can't say enough good things about this race and trip - one of our favorite getaways every year, and should be even better next year with a dirt race being added.

The longest and luckiest day - LOTOJA 09'

It was a long day, a tad over 13 hours, which may translate into a long post - be forewarned.


First item of mention, to stick with what seems to be the overriding theme of the race reports thus far - how on earth does an organization that pulls off a massive undertaking in putting that race together, let some ridiculous suggestion at some meeting that all but one person had to have been sleeping at, come to fruition by having boxes full of clothes hangers - that's right, clothes hangers, to hand out to the good folks who had put in a grueling 206 mile ride as a congrats for their finish. Would poke fun at the guy who invented the stupid thing, but he's trumped on the bad idea scale by the guy who bought boxes full of them. Suspect maybe a family favor or something, don't know how else it could have happened. Those things don't even qualify as a decent swag bag item.


But I digress - the ride...

Lined up with the following intent given the circumstances of my summer and the implications they had on this race/ride (see the "gimp" category). Priority 1 - finish. Had no intention of starting and seeing how far the hand would hold up, or how long the legs would last after the month off. The inner argument all week was knowing that if I started I wouldn't quit, and trying to decide if the wouldn't quit part was going to be a reasonable thing to do. Priority 2 - Race it as far as I could, then get home from there.


There were some things that went great, relatively. First, the hand held up really good for about 70 miles, a good bit further than I had thought best case scenario would be. Had guessed it to be 40 miles, so my attitude was that I'd gotten a 30 mile hall pass in dealing with the hand. Part of the deal with myself was to go au naturel, no pain killers or other aids for the hand - let it be what it be, so the 30 mile bonus was a blessing. Second - the legs held up all right for about 50 miles, until the pitch turned permanent for a time. Rode with my start group until then, felt good and was really enjoying being back on the bike. It wasn't for lack of trying that I peeled off early on the Strawberry climb, the legs just weren't there, and probably the more pronounced weakness from the time off, was the lack of capacity to recover - I just couldn't, at all, so when I blew, I didn't bounce back - ever. So that was my race, it lasted 50 miles, and was really enjoyable, and I gave it all I had in me that day.


With priority 2 out of the way, the remainder of the day reverted to nothing more than sticking to priority 1, regardless of how bad or miserable it got.


Steve, Mark and Sam came by fairly early on Strawberry, leading a massive group up the climb. Adam came by not much later, told me to jump on his wheel and come on, and I was sorry to have to tell him I couldn't, and to have a good ride.

For a 206 mile ride, there were relatively few highlights, but here are a few of the moments that defined my limp home to the finish line.

• Mentioned the hand lasted till mile 70, from there it slowly deteriorated and had gotten to that worthless state I've mentioned before by around mile 76-77. Worthless may be a little dramatic - I could find positions on the bar where it could bear weight with pretty minor discomfort, so long as the road was pretty smooth. I had lost all capacity to shift, brake, squeeze hard enough to hold or grab a water bottle, or reach into a jersey pocket with the left hand, or hold the handlebar steady with the left hand so the right could grab a bottle or reach into a pocket for food - with the exception of really nice stretches of smooth road - and there were some.


• Biggest joke of the day - me having Mussette bags. Rachel had been kind enough to make a few extra for me, and pre race I actually loaded them with my food and intended to use them. By the first time I came up to Annie in Montpelier - I had absolutely no intention, nor physical capacity, of riding through and grabbing it out of her hand - Didn't have a spare hand, and I was looking forward way to much to the stops to waste one. Mark's dead on - if your slowing enough to put a foot down, the mussettes are unnecessary and kind of an embarrasing public display of how much you overestimate yourself. Maybe useful for me in a much shorter race, but plain stupid and vain of me to have them in this one.
• I had the completely counterproductive desire to avoid people and ride alone. In part because of handling challenges with the hand along with the accordianlike behavior of most packs I did ride with for a few minutes - the constant surging then braking can be more taxing that riding alone. But it was mainly due to attitude. You know how sometimes animals, when injured, leave the group and wander off by themselves to suffer in isolation and die a lonely death. It was weird, but I get that now, I really wanted to be by myself, so I was, with the exception of the first 50, a few miles coming out of Afton with EB and ER, and maybe another 5 miles of cumulative group riding throughout the afternoon/evening - and for whatever reason, I liked and preferred the loneliness that day.
  
• The luckiest seconds of my entire life....

My biggest fear in cycling is a high speed crash on a descent. What you see in the photos happened at 50+ MPH going down the backside of the Geneva Summit. I had just gone by Taylor Wiles and the three girls she was bombing the hill with when it happened in what felt like slow motion... the sound - It didn't just start to soften, it blew, instantly, tubies are loud when they blow at 160 psi, the realization of what had happened, the immediate fishtailing - you've seen PBR on Versus, the bike bucks just the same at 50 MPH on a blown rear tire - whipping the rear end back and forth, the several things that flash through your mind - a few of which are completely unrelated to the moment - just like you hear in the stories, the huge surge of adrenaline that hits as you prepare for the inevitable - it was surreal, and I didn't think for a second that it would end any way but very badly. And then....... I clipped out and put my foot down as it rolled to a complete stop. I don't know how many, or the summation of all of the things that had to go exactly my way during the episode, but I know a few..... 1 - Taylor and her train, along with the rest of the folks descending that hill doing a hell of a job handling their bikes at speed to get around the guy that looked to for sure be going down, the lightest of contact would have been disasterous. 2 - having tires glued and having them stay glued to the wheel, would have been a much different story had that happened with a clincher. I've replayed it over and over and I still don't know how the bike managed to stay upright, I can't begin to tell you how bad it would have been had it not. That shredded tire will be my momento for this race/ride - not the stupid hanger.

• Insult to injury - so the hand was what it was, I knew what it would be going in and was prepared for it. That, along with the sheer distance of the day should provide plenty of suffering right.? I agree. So explain to me why the hell 1 - I even start the day without chamois cream and 2 - how the hell I manage to forget, every time, to tell Annie to bring it to the next feedzone. There were no open wounds by the end, to the credit of Pearl Izumi's fantastic bib shorts, but there was no need to ride that far without the salve either - stupid, stupid ommision and contributor to a long day on my part.
• Did anyone still like their shoes at the end of that race? If so, what kind did you ride in? I hated my Nike's by Afton - my feet hurt, bad... sat and rubbed them at every stop from Afton on in.
• The road from Afton to Alpine was the roughest part of the day on my hand, and by default, my right arm and shoulder which bore the brunt of it. I felt lucky that the road up the canyon/river was nice and smooth for the most part, I really needed it at that point.
• From Afton in, stops at feedzones were measured by remaining time till darkness, not wanting to leave any earlier than necessary, but leaving a little cushion for a brief mishap or two. This was absolutely the right way to manage my day - I think I needed every bit of the rest I took, as much for my brain as for my shattered body.
• I made a conscious effort, once we turned off the highway near Jackson, to forget the struggle of the day behind me and try and really enjoy the rest of the ride in. And I did, that tree lined road is a place I'd go ride to relax any day, and in the condition I was in, I thought it was a really great stretch of the course to enjoy at the end of that long day. I was grateful for it.
• There was no big sprint, hard push, rush, sense of exhileration, any of that stuff for me at the finish. There was a small sense of winning the contest I'd made up in my mind with the hand and not letting it prevent me from another race/ride, but it was mostly a sense of a really long day, and a pretty pathetic, broken and crumbled man being really glad it was finally over.... and I'm still glad it's over...
  

Capitol Reef Classic 09' race report

Time Trial - Sam and I rode to the start from where we were camping, which gave us a look at the entire TT course in reverse and a good 8+ mile warm up. It also gave me the opportunity to mislead Sam in regards to where the finish line would be. Race officials had changed the course contrary to what they'd published in the race bible, and the spot I'd suggested would be a good place to floor the gas ended up being the finish line, they'd cut the course about a half mile short. Sorry Sam... The ride over also provided time to test and fine tune the set up with any necessary adjustments. I'm yet to get out on course and not notice some tweaks I want to make to the bars or seat set-up. It's a process getting it dialed in.

My tendancy on the time trial is to go out a little hot to the point where I have to spend a little time recovering before settling into top end pace. In my case, it's better to start out less hot and ride up into the right workload - but I'm a slow learner and apparently still need a few more of these to learn how to start correctly/efficiently. I told Sam on the way over that I thought maybe 27-28 mph may be the desirable/necessary pace on the course. Once out and settled in, I pushed it up to 30 mph to see how I felt there, and it was too much. Backed it right back down and after the finishing hills ended up averaging a little over 24 MPH. It was a good ride for me, average HR was right at my 175 threshold - but need to develop the fitness that will allow me to go faster at that number - 27-28 MPH would have been about right. Watched Steve, Mark, and their dad Dave come in, and then rode back to camp to find some shade to hide in until the afternoon circuit race stage.

Circuit race - Brutal hot. First half was real mellow, got a chance to meet most of the guys in our group, then, just past mile 8, the speed kicked up and the selection was made. There were a few short, but stiff climbs here that split the group, 11 of us in front, 7 off the back. We had just finished the last hard climb, and descened down the last big hill before a relatively flat last few miles, when I felt a slight slip of the seatpost, then a large one as it fell all the way down. I wasn't carrying any tool, so pulling over to fix it wasn't an option. Needless to say, in my new position that facilitated some nice, skiwampas pedal strokes with limited power, I fell off the back. It was now a game of trying to limit the damage. Staying in the saddle to pedal was a pretty bad option, so I got into a little bigger gear, and went into a stand and pedal hard, sit and coast til momentum dropped, stand and pedal hard sequence the rest of the way in. I was the wrench in this case so nothing to blame but myself. Deduced that I didn't get the bolt tight enough when switching out the aero seatpost for the road set up (or, maybe the small amount of grease, which bodes the question, do you put a light amount of grease on the seatpost?) - was pretty fortunate it happened as late in the race as it did, as I was able to stay ahead of the back group, and limit damage from the front to about two minutes - it could have been much worse.

I did witness, shortly after begining my limp home from my position off the back, a pretty impressive breakaway up ahead. I couldn't tell who it was at the time, but thought it must have been a heck of an effort to create the gap off the front of the group. Found out at the finish line it was Sam, and he'd held it all the way home for the win - awesome.

Road Race - Again, fairly mellow for 85-90% of the miles. Typical Cat 5 with some foolish attempts to get away, some sketchy riders in the group that you had to watch closely or ride in front of to stay safe, and some good time to visit. There were a few spots where either a hill or short lived acceleration would stretch the group out a bit, but it always came back together. There was a final climb within the last 5k that we knew would be the spot where the race would blow up. In my rookie mind I began to formulate a plan that could have two potential good outcomes, one neutral outcome, and one poor outcome. The plan was to attack a few miles ahead of the big hill, hoping to instigate the following in order of importance/desired outcome:

1 - Get the Evo guys to chase and work a little prior to the hill, expending some energy that Sam could then hopefully capitalize on and gain some time on the leaders on that last climb.

2 - If not chased by the Evo guys, try to stay away on a breakaway, not an overly difficult idea given the pace we'd been riding.

3 - If the breakaway prospect didn't look good, sit up and rejoin the group.

4 - Underestimate the impact the attack would have on me, not recover quickly enough, and have to work hard to stay with the group to the hill.

I got up front and took a long pull to test if outcome #2 was a legit possibility at the groups pace (needed two positive potential's to justify the effort), it was, so I went. I got a mix between 3 and 4. I got the gap I wanted, but no chase and hit a stiff headwind that I wasn't about to take on solo, so sat up to wait for the group. But, I had a hell of a time getting back on with the group when it came by and then had to work hard to stay there. I managed to do it, but was a little gassed at a time when I needed to be preparing for the last climb. Needless to say, for the first time during the weekend, I wasn't able to match the acceleration when the hill hit and the group shattered, and dropped another couple of minutes in the last 3 miles.

Good race for me, made some silly errors that I'll learn from, and gained some confidence that will help going forward, so all in all, pretty satisfied with the weekend. Congrats to the Evo guys who rode a good team race all weekend, and congrats to Sam for posting the win on the Circuit race, which I thought was the hardest stage of the weekend.

Overall and stage results are here: http://www.capitolreefclassic.com/2009_race_results.htm

Race report - Teva Mountain Games 2009

Kayak Sprint - Race #1 in the Ultimate Mountain Challenge was a 3 mile kayak sprint that started 3 miles up Gore Creek from Vail Village, and ended just before the Covered Bridge down in the Village. It's run in a format similar to a time trial, with race personnel holding your boat in the water and letting you go in 1 minute intervals. I was nervous about how well I'd be able to maneuver my boat to begin with, and it helped a lot to stand on the bridge and watch the first 10 racers hit a tree within 25 yards of the start and get their faces raked with branches. Fortunately, those of us with later start times got to see a few successes in dodging the tree and had the starting current figured out by the time we had to put in - cut across the white stuff and get out to left middle.

One of the choppy sections in the first half of the course, much nastier than the one that did me in a bit later.

As expected, I was a little sketchy in the boat. Not as bad as I'd thought I might be, but enough to take the easier lines vs. fastest in spots, which ultimately led to my undoing in this race. About half way down the course I was looking upriver and saw that the main current led into a rough hole that may be better for me to avoid at my current state of paddling confidence. I opted for a line river right, vs. the chute down the middle where the fast line was. It was an error in reading the water here that was the problem, moreso than the rusty boat handling. The line I chose was turned back toward the middle of the river by a large rock, which will kind of slingshot you back into the main current if ridden right. But, if your late getting off the outside edge of the current, the force of the water is going to push you right into the rock vs. slingshot you by it. I got caught being more worried about staying away from the main current and the rough drop, than getting off the outside line of my current and avoiding the rock, and... hit the rock, and was upside down before I knew it. If you've never swam in 36 degree water, I don't recommend it. I made one vain attempt at a roll before I had to pull the hatch on the skirt and unwedge out of the boat while floating head down boat up down the creek. I had to bail.

They had spotters up and down the creek who were there to help retrieve boats, paddles, and people, and in theory get them warmed up, and back in the boat to finish the race. They got my boat quickly, but missed my paddle, which meant the end of my race. I couldn't finish without the paddle. I was up the creek without a paddle. I was really dissapointed, but probably got what I deserved after not putting in any preparation - but it still stings to go out over a stupid, avoidable mistake. The fast guys finished the course in 17 minutes, you could float it in 25. I was actually assigned a time for the purposes of the overall competition, 1 hour and 21 minute time, which is better than what I earned - a DNF. Maybe the 1 hour 21 minutes has to do with when my paddle showed up down river asking for help finding it's dad, the wet bald guy.

MTB XC race - The big dogs were here, watched Craig, Wells, Trebon, JHK, Overend, and others hammer up the hills in the morning, fun to watch. We (both Annie and I) went off later in the afternoon. This was Annie's first mountain bike race, and it didn't take long into Friday's preride for me to feel guilty about helping persuade her into racing this one. It was not an easy course, typical ski resort layout with stiff climbs, which she can handle, but the single track coming back down was really tight, fast, technical stuff with little room for error, big punishment for a miss, and scary as hell to a girl doing her first race. We picked out the spots where she'd jump off and walk/run around, with the main goal being to have fun and stay safe. It was a major gut check for her and she went after it - she's a pretty cool chick. I told her after it was over that I wouldn't have let her sign up if I'd seen the course first.

My race went well. I raced the sport class, which was a 2 lap race around the 5.6 mile course with 1,200 ft of climbing per lap. The climbing was hard, but the downhill was a riot - see previous post for description. Finished 28 of the 80 starters, and similar to the Iron Horse, there were some really fast cats at this one, even in the sport class. I felt good at the end of the race, and think I'm going to bump up to racing expert starting this weekend at Deer Valley. Not that I'm ready to be competitive there, but think I'm ready and need to extend the duration of these race efforts to accelerate my conditioning.

10K run - The guy who built this course is a bastard. Spent the first half of this brutal event crawling up the mountain, almost literally in spots. Not a hint of exageration in my telling you that there were a few sections that redlined me just walking up them, I'm hurting again just thinking about it. 6.5 miles of trail, with 1,800 feet of climbing translates into not much flat, and steep ups and downs. Unlike doing climbs like that on a bike where your hard effort on the climb is rewarded with a fun descent, running up a mountain means one thing, it's going to be harder on your body going back down. 10% was the average grade on this course, and running a 10% grade downhill sucks much worse than running 10% uphill. Uphill makes for sore legs, downhill makes for the bottom of your feet catching on fire from the friction. I finished in 1:16, the winning time was 49 minutes. That's a lot of time to hemmorage in a 10k. I finished about where I deserved to. It was actually a decent run for me, but true to my form, I'd put one 6 mile run and one 3 mile run in the week prior to departure and this race made me pay for that. I would be hurting by the time the hill climb rolled around a couple of hours later.


Hill Climb time trial - Annie went first, and rode fantastic, despite being rattled at the start by some confusion with the line up. The gal they lined up in front of Annie get's up on the start ramp, clips in and is ready to go, when with about 8 seconds left in the countdown they announce her as AnneMarie White. That sets off a chain of events that has them rushing around figuring whose supposed to be going, figuring out it's Annie, and rushing her off about 10 seconds after her countdown had counted down. She rode great and had a lot of fun. Finished 5 of 10, not too shabby!

I left a little on the table here that I'll attribute to not knowing the course. Legs were sore, but rode well given the hell I'd been through in the 10K a few hours earlier. Fairly flat with rollers for the first 5-6 miles, then it turns up. Had a good kick at the end and had more in the tank, but ran out of real estate. Not sure the aero seatpost/seat was the right choice for that amount of climbing. Not sure it wasn't either, just not sure. Finished this one in 38 minutes, 9.6 miles with just over 1,700 ft. of climbing, mostly isolated to the last 3 miles.

Quick lesson from the guy working on his bike in the video last post - talked to him when he got to the top and he said he's skewer had gotten caught on the guy holding him up at the start. Seems odd, especially watching the video after the fact and seeing that it's unlikely that the starters shorts could have snagged on, but one of those flukey things to learn from at the poor guys expense.

Overall - fantastic weekend with Annie and fantastic weekend at the races, think this one will become an annual event for the White family.

Next post - Leadville Recon

Teva Mountain Games

We're headed back to Colorado this week for more racing. Vail this time. Never been there, but suspect it will be a cool place, and even if it's not, there's going to be plenty going on over the weekend. We'll be racing in the Teva Mountain Games, and this one will be the most gear intensive race of the year - I'll be doing the Ultimate Mountain Challenge and Annie will be making her debut as a mountain bike racer, road bike racer, and mud runner (can't wait for that one). Here are the gear piles...

Shoes & helmets

Race vehicles

Race kits

I know, I know - your thinking "dude, your wife's cool without, but I've seen you run - and since it's probably most important of all, need to point out that you left your running helmet out of the pile". Last time I wore it I got laughed at, seems not that many folks need/wear them, so I'm breaking away...

If nothing else, we should stay busy changing clothes and gear - and it all goes down over the course of two days. Should be a riot, can't wait!

Iron Horse Classic Race report

I'll start with what was really good, maybe even perfect:

• Durango, CO - you've heard me rave about Suncrest as a home for the mountain type folks that like to live and play there - it's a pretty great neighborhood. Well, Durango is an entire town made up of that exact demographic. I mean really, I grew up in Moab which is a bit of an outdoor mecca in it's own right, but Durango takes it to another level. We've been there a few times, and like it more and more every time. It may be the perfect town.


• Iron Horse Classic race organizers - 1,100 racers and 1,400 touring riders and I didn't see a single problem or hiccup, nor talk to a single person not having a fantastic time. The guys/gals putting this one on are pros - and so is the community - suppose that's why the race has been around for a while.


• Race routes - all 3 were fantastic.


• Scenery - consider Durango and the surrounding area to be some of the prettiest country I've ever seen.

Onto the racing:

We'll start with the strongest performances in the family...

The girls:

Chesney lit up the crowd lined streets of Durango with her little permagrin and matching giggles that lasted her entire race.
Mom upgraded Kylie a few categories from her 5 yr old age group and she threw down with the 7 year olds. Held her own just fine and was happy to show off her medal.

The kids raced down town on a portion of the crit course. The organizers and encouraging crowds lining the street made the kids feel like rock stars. They loved it!

My races:

Road Race:

This was the major event of the weekend. 47 miles from Durango to Silverton up and over a few mountain passes with a few big descents, including the finish from the highest point of the race - Molas Pass at just under 11,000 ft. down into Silverton.

I'd gotten some good beta on the route and typical race flow from Steve with the Porcupine club, so had a game plan going in. Had also driven the route Friday night so had seen it first hand when we left the start line at 7:30 Saturday morning. I found Steve's input to be dead on as the race unfolded. We had a decent sized cat 4/5 pack, 105 finished, not sure how many started. The first 12 miles are pretty flat with a few rollers. This was the first large (more than 20 or 30 riders) pack/pelaton I've ridden in aside from the crits, so it was a new and pretty thrilling experience to be clipping along at a good pace, on the open road, in a group that size. There were a few dynamics - i.e. someone punctured a tire a few riders ahead of where I was positioned and just the sound of it triggered the groups immediately scattering wide right and left away from the noise. But for the most part, it was a fun and eventless ride out to Shalona Hill at mile 12.

The two mountain passes get most of the attention in regards to the routes fame as an elite stateside climbers race. But the climb up Shalona Hill, which is the initial ascent/approach to Purgatory and the higher mountain passes is a critical point in the race. Steve had given me a heads up that the first and usually winning selection of the race would be made here, and so I'd gotten into the front 15-20 riders and went with the initial group when we hit Shalona Hill. It wasn't a violent attack by anyone in particular, but it was an immediate and definate acceleration that broke about 30 of us off the front. And so, for the next 5 or 6 miles, I would ride with and feel like a part of the lead break and winning selection in my first road race. This was painful, but really cool, and had only one problem - my 5 or 6 mile redline effort climb to stay with the fast guys came on a hill that was 10 miles long. I didn't blow up, but had to fall off the pace a bit to prevent one. I rode the next 5 miles alone up the hill, which was fine. Kept the lead group in sight and the 2nd group behind me. Once we crested Shalona Hill we had a short break from climbing with some flat road and a few little downhill sections that weren't quite steep enough that you could stop pedaling down them. It was here, between Shalona and the start of the Coal Bank Pass climb that I had my only mechanical mishap of the weekend. I dropped my chain going into a little roller - leaned right, took a few more pedal strokes hoping I could get it to catch without having to get off, and then had to get off. Chain fix took 5 seconds thanks to plenty of practice during cyclocross season - but here's the stupid one - my helmet strap had somehow come unthreaded from the buckle, so I started a quick fix on that, wasted some time fumbling with it with my gloves on, then a little more time stripping the gloves off and doing it bare handed. Estimate it took between 2 to 3 minutes which was really minimal impact in regards to final loss of time/placing, but it allowed the 2nd group to ride by and seemed to be even more of a negative in regards to my being able to settle back into a good place where I could suffer happily and find a sustainable rythym.

Coal Bank Pass climb: It was at the bottom of this beast that I started yo yoing between going too hard to a level the body wouldn't hold, and backing off too much to a level where I knew some effort was being left on the table. Took about 20 minutes into the climb before I finally settled in and got the brain and the body in the same ballpark. This was a hard climb, felt similar to North Suncrest but longer and without the brief breaks - although there were a few short sections where the incline was less severe that would lend themselves to a brief recovery if needed. It was on the Coal Bank climb that a guy who was 59 years old and apparently pretty well known locally rode by the group I was with at a pretty impressive pace - several in the group hollared at him to go hard, and I listened to a few exchanges between gasps for air about how the guy is a local favorite (no, it wasn't Overend - he was way up ahead laying wood to the young cats - finishing 15 in the pro division). It was pretty inspiring to watch this guy climb that mountain like that at his age. It was also on this climb that we encounted the dude dressed like a devil waving his pitchfork, it was a fun distraction from suffering. I just sat in my rythym and worked my way to the top. It was here I learned I'd made another error. I took one bottle to the start of the race, assuming I could swap it out at one of the aid stations. The weather was nice and cool and that first bottle lasted me until the Coal Bank summit, which was the last aid station (was told by a few people later that you should increase fluid intake when racing at elevation? Don't know that I felt any difference). The bad news was they didn't have replacement bottles, just cups - so I grabbed one and took in my last water for the day at mile 35, with Molas Pass yet to come. The happy ending to this error is that I seemed to get away with it - didn't feel low on fluid the rest of the way in. Only other food I took in during the ride was a First Endurance EFS liquid shot, which will for the most part, replace gels, blocks and beans as my on course food intake - it worked well for me. Probably undershot the calorie intake by a bit, but the race was short enough that it was over before I paid for it. I need to work on this prior to Leadville as I have a strong tendency to not pay attention to this aspect of longer distance riding/racing - would be a critical screw up to do it at Leadville.

Coal Bank Pass descent: Fast, white knuckled, tested the hell out of the glue job on the tubulars, and pretty intense. Descending in a road race is like descending on a road ride in most ways, but different in a few - such as more risk taking on the sweeping corners - where I'm pretty sure that I wasn't the only one that was past the point of confidence that the tires would keep sticking and was hanging it all on hope. Makes a guy feel alive in ways not a lot of other things can. It was some pretty hardcore fun - once I was down safely.

Molas Pass: Steve's input here was that if you had much juice left in the tank, Molas Pass would feel easier than Coal Bank, if you are out of juice, it's going to suck. I got a mixed bag - I got into a good rythym right from the base, invigorated a bit knowing that this was going to be the last big dig of the day. But about half way up I started to slow pretty dramatically and spent the last mile on the verge of cracking hard. Would like to say I'd ridden myself all out to the verge of cracking, but have to be honest and say it was more the mountain beating me down to the verge of cracking. Suppose your at the same point either way, but there's some glory in aggresively riding yourself to that point, and not so much when you've been beat down to that point. It was at the point of near cracking that we came around the corner to the bikini girls. It must have been mid 40's temp up there, yet there they were, in a lot of skin and a little fabric, giving the guys one heck of a sideshow. All the grimaces turned to smiles for a few seconds, and then it was one last dig to the top. Although the race wasn't over, it was a pretty great experience coming up over that summit - even moreso than crossing the finish line for me. How's this for a race emotion - I almost felt like crying as I saw more steep asphalt finally give way to a view of the Silverton Valley open up below - there was still some work at hand to get down - but coming over that crest was where the satisfaction from the days effort hit, and I felt like I'd left nothing out there in those mountains. My lower back and legs were absolutely cooked, and I'd been breathing through a straw for a couple of hours.

Molas Pass Descent: What a great way to finish a race - it's a big descent, 6 miles or so, fast, but not so steep you can just tuck and go, it allows for and requires some hard pedaling if your pushing it, and the roads in rough shape in places. Needed the whole road on several of the corners. The beta here was that if your a good sprinter, get on a wheel after the switchback at the bottom of the descent which leaves about a mile to the finish, if your not confident you can win in a sprint - that's the spot you want to try and make your get away. I had one guy ahead of me by about 50 yards that I began to reel in here, got up to his wheel and saw he was not in my class, and sat up and enjoyed the ride up the crowd lined street of Silverton through the finish line. It was an awesome race and an awesome experience!

Criterium:

The criterium was exciting - barriers are brought in and downtown Durango is transformed into a race course for the entire day. I would not have the legs on this day, but it was fun nonetheless. Of all the weekends races, the criterium is the only one I was not making a debut in, having done a few out at RMR here in Salt Lake. I was pretty sore that morning from the road race the previous day, but got things loosened up and feeling fine by the time my race started - thought I was going to be ok. That thought lasted about two laps at which point I had to ask my legs to take their first deep dig to match an acceleration - and they said hell no. Hadn't given much thought prior to that morning, but I've done nothing to try and condition myself for hard efforts on back to back days, and you can guess the outcome - I wasn't conditioned for it. A big gap opened between the lead group and my group, and as my group came around the last corner, there he was - laying limp on the right lane of the course. Didn't see it happen, but heard the violence with which he went over the bars had people thinking it was a wheel brush with a possible foot/pedal into his front wheel from another bike, or a hard grab on the front brake that tossed him. They were just getting to him the first time we rode by. The second time around they were working on him, he was still limp, and there was a pool of blood forming - we went into neutral laps. The third time around it was more of the same, only the pool of blood was now fairly large. Fourth time around they had him on the backboard and were loading him up. Scary stuff - it shook Annie up a bit, not sure she's real cool with me doing crits after seeing that. After they had him off the course and cleaned up the blood, they stopped us back at the start/finish line. I was thinking that they would tell us we had 10 minutes+3 laps to go, which would have been favorable for me, the guy with no legs. It didn't happen - they informed us we were starting over, a fresh 35 minute clock + 3 laps. There are a few differences between RMR crits and the Iron Horse Crit. 1 - The Iron Horse is run really well and RMR is pretty hokey. 2 - The Iron Horse had two moto's on course - one that stayed ahead of the lead group/rider, and one that rode sweep, pulling people off who were close to being lapped or deemed out of contention - similar to a short track race in the mountain bike world. I spent the first 10 minutes of the second start racing other cyclists, spent the next ten minutes racing the sweep moto whom my legs were cheering for, and around minute 23 was pulled. To be candid - he probably let me ride a lap or two more than he had to, I was out of contention - not lap meat yet, but would have been as the group I just couldn't latch onto ended up being lapped a few minutes later. The results show me in the DFL spot, but there were several who exited the race prior to me - not sure if they quit and therefore didn't get an official finish, or if there's some magic point of time you need to hang in the race in order to get the finish. Either way, I was the DFL of the official results, but not of all the starters. Not that it matters - but seems to enough that I'm trying to explain it away, smile. Quote of the day comes from Kylie - who sees me coming around the corner no longer at race pace after being pulled, who yells out "come on Dad, you can go faster than that", much to the delight and laughter of all within earshot, including me.

Time Trial:

This post is way too much already - readers digest version of the TT. It was a 40 minute wrestling match between my brain trying to ride the body deeper into the pain cave than it wanted to go. Managed it well for my first go round and felt ok about my time which was middle of the pack. Legs felt dramatically better for this stage.

Brock and Annie on the Animas which has some prime kayak sections right in town. Awesome weekend, awesome race, and awesome town...

Race Season is here - Iron Horse Classic

While most of my friends will be defending home turf at the Icup race here in Draper next weekend, we'll be heading towards Durango a week from tonight for the Iron Horse Classic. I'm signed up for the Omnium so will race all three events over the weekend. Saturday is a 47 mile road race through the mountains from Durango to Silverton - roughly 6,600 feet of climbing. Here's the route and profile.

Sunday's event is the crit - 35 minutes +3 laps around a downtown circuit.

Then Monday's the TT, mostly flat course with a little climb the last mile or so.
This will be my first road race and time trial - not sure what to expect but will try hard and probably suffer a lot. Looking forward to a little getway with the fam - remember the ruins at Mesa Verde and the train whistles and pouches of fools gold in Silverton from when I was a kid, should be fun to make the trip with my own kids now.