Was very disappointed with Ed's Saturday am tweet stating that the 2 way of the devil was removed from the race and that laps would remain the same, in my estimation this changed it from a 2:15+ race to below 1:45. Plus, 2 evil climbs per lap, play to my odd abilities.
So, I went hard on lap one, got passed by Wunder Master Kevin in the feed zone (as he almost took out his feed handler). Later on the service road Sam got by me, and stopped for several seconds t let the other mad dg 40+ expert past me on the one track climb.
Lap 2, as people know was a dark place, where I almost trhew in the towel, luckily, Adam and Aaron caught back up to me at the end of lap 2, so I had new found motivation.
Ended up 4th, first Tweety chair of the year and 3rd overall in the series.
I madea decision in the winter that results didn't matter, having fun did, Then I spent about 1/2 of December-March traveling for work, so not as much ride time in South Utah was had. THe Rampage was a Debacle, Cholla and 5 mile slightly better, Then Lyna and I decided to go to Hawaii in May with Gigi and Ty, unheard of. Missed Sundance (1 day post return) Ended up having an exceptional race the follwing week at Soldier Hollow. Then 2nd places at Stan Crane and Deer Valley, missed Sherwood, 2nd at Jackson (soley due to Chris B's lining up).
Snowbird was an unexpected win, enjoyed it, Solitude was a mistake of preparation, zero stans in front tire leads to flat, bad tube leads to inability to fix flat, DNF, I feel I was on my way to the win. Missed Snowbasin and faked The Canyons.
This year my focus has been on endurance races and my results at them have shown that my preparation has been dialed.
Whiskey Off Road in April, uncharacteristic early season positive result.
12 Hours of Capital View in June, my engine and will proved resilient for 12.5 hours in high heat and humidity.
Laramie Enduro - Even with a few strategy mishaps, improved my time by 18 minutes.
THE PCP2P - TBD
The ICUP is a good training stimulus for endurance, but the same Icup has, with few exceptions, been the only hard efforts I have done in 2010. I have only lind up for 2 Mid week races, DNF'ing one of those. I have had several Saturdays and Sundays that included 5+ hour epics (not conducive to Tuesday night worlds fastness).
Still, with all that lack of speed work, I end up 3rd overall in the series.
The moral of the story is, Years of riding makes a difference, the pian needs less tuning, but specificity, for me, chooses the path I excel in.
I'll likely do even less Icups in 2011, searching for more endurance fixes, they are for more satisfying and trying.
Monday, August 09, 2010
Monday, August 02, 2010
2010 Laramie Enduro
The 2nd time at a given race is usually a dangerous attempt. The lasting memory of the 2009 Laramie Enduro was my aching knees. Well, that and cow shit.
Only 6 of the 'team' got into Laramie this year. I say 'team' since Shannon, Brad and I are not officially on Team Revolution-Peak Fasteners and don't wear the same kit, my schizophrenic team tendencies are stuff for another long, revealing post......
There were several differences leading up to this years version.
1. I have done several Endurance races since the last version
2. My knee has not hurt
3. I have done several 4+ hour rides
4. I have done less mid week races
5. I have eaten less vanilla wafers
6. I weigh more
All have relevance, I'm sure.
So onto the race.
We line up at like 6:45, somehow Boffeli gets me to line up on the front row, next to the guys who end up being the top 3. Not that is matters, at least I stayed upright at the start. On the start up the short FS road to the one track, Kris Arnott was in3 the lead, I was hoping he would get the hole shot, but alas, he didn't. The first 6-7 miles were uneventful, and fun on some single track and some fire road. The promised Hawk attack at mile 6.25 never surfaced, sadly. And at about mile 7, on the legendary, shirt, loose dh of Doom, I realized I was in trouble, no I made it down alright, with no idiots around me to take me out. Therein lies the problem, I had no one around me, which meant........
The next 10-12 miles of open, fast FS road riding were going to be done alone, or spent waiting for a slower group. So, I chased, hard, like XC pace hard, never gaining, but never really losing much ground, the group behind me disappeared quickly, and an hour after that fun, I started passing others who were shelled out of the front groups.
I only stopped at aid station 3 this time to switch out hydration packs, but i got there 3 minutes faster than 2009 when I was in a pace line on the FS road section, strange. So began to wonder how much that chase was going to effect my overall time, plus the temperatures were rising.
Knowing the course can be damaging for a long race, cause sections seemed to be in different places during my race stupor, I was trying to do the math in my head of whether or not I was going to beat my 2009 time or meet my lofty goal. In the last 25 miles this year instead of being passed by a lot of riders like 2009, I passed several, including 5 on the last climb aka, Headquarters, which I cleared this year, and walked most of last year, due to sore knees.
I will say that at mile 45-55 i was figuring out how to transfer my PCP2P entry. Alas, I'll keep it.
In the end, I beat my 2009 time by almost 20 minutes, missed my lofty goal by 00:4:27 and only stopped to pee twice. There was less cow poop bogs and lots of FS bridges over mud and streams to help keep the giardia and e-coli at bay. The race was excellently organized, the volunteers awesome and the post race buffet, spectacular.
I'll likely be back in 2011.
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