Tag: borrego springs

6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships Race Report

24 Hour Time Trial

As has been the case with many people, the last year and a half or so hasn’t gone according to plan for various reasons. After a long year of working through various issues including a chronic injury to both knees, I was finally able to get on my new Specialized Shiv TT bike and start training for an ultra-distance race a few months ago. My training mostly went according to plan, minus a couple of frustrating trips to Borrego Springs for long training rides on the race course that didn’t go well. I tried not to dwell on those setbacks and was able to put in a solid three week training block leading into race week.

It was a bit of a mental challenge going into the race knowing I wouldn’t be able to ride nearly as many miles as I have in the past. I was fairly certain that I could hit 400 miles if everything went smoothly and conditions were favorable. I had a solid crew coming out to help with Rich and Terry Walsh and Pat Hurter. My friends Susan and Tim were also planning to come out on Saturday morning for backup if needed. All of them have either crewed for me in the past or are familiar with the race so I felt very comfortable that they knew how to take care of me.

Overall, I felt pretty calm leading up to the race start. They placed me in the first start wave based on my previous results, but I knew there was no way I was going to be able to keep up with anyone in the group. Despite all my mental preparation knowing this would happen, I still struggled to get into the right headspace for several hours, feeling like I wasn’t living up to everyone’s expectations. It took awhile, but I finally got there and was able to focus on enjoying the race experience and riding for no one but myself.

Lining up at the start with a bunch of people I had no intention of trying to keep up with (like the overall winner Marko Baloh directly in front of me)

As anyone who did the race has already mentioned, the wind was brutal for the first 10-11 hours of the race, and blowing in the typical direction from the west so that we were fighting a headwind up the steady 1-1.5% grade on Borrego Springs Road. In spite of the wind, I was keeping a steady pace and staying on track for my goal of 400 miles. I was also staying on top of my race nutrition and hydration, which seemed to be working really well for me. My plan was to take in a 600 calorie bottle of Spiz every two laps and to take a new water bottle every lap. I knew Rich would give me a hard time if I was handing back Spiz bottles that weren’t empty, so I made sure to finish them off before coming into the pit. It seemed to be working well – my stomach was feeling good and I was surprised to find that I wasn’t really craving any solid food.

I knew that the key to hitting my goal would be to stay on the bike as much as possible while keeping my pace steady. For the first 12 hours, I did a great job of both. I had only stopped for about five minutes for a pitstop and my lap splits were pretty consistent, but the wind had taken a lot out of me. My legs felt decent because they were well trained for this, but the rest of my body was feeling strained from the effort it took to keep the bike upright against the wind. I promised myself a short break at the halfway point and looked forward to getting off the bike for a few minutes and lying down to take some strain off my back and neck. I had asked for a PBJ during my break, but I found that I still wasn’t really wanting to take in any solid food. The only thing that sounded appetizing at all was plain street taco flour tortillas so I ate a few of those while I rested and my crew gave my bike some TLC and Rich worked some of the knots out of my back and neck.

Getting back on the bike, I was a little disappointed to see that I’d just burned about 20 minutes off the bike and my goal was to keep my off the bike time to less than 30 minutes. I figured I could stay on track if I just took one more short break after another six hours, but didn’t make any effort to increase my pace to make up the lost time. I’m not sure I could have if I wanted to anyway. After another hour the sun came up and I looked forward to feeling more awake and a little warmer. Unfortunately, it got a little warmer than I was hoping for within a few hours. But on the plus side, the wind had definitely died down.

I was feeling pretty miserable, but all things considered I was in better shape than I typically am at the halfway point of a 24 hour TT. I had been battling hot foot on and off for a few hours and was occasionally feeling like my legs were on the verge of cramping up, but I was working through everything pretty well. My stomach still seemed to be tolerating the Spiz just fine. I had brought a whole bin filled with fig bars and Clif Z bars and I ate exactly one of each, a few flour tortillas, and a handful of grapes. Other than that it was just Spiz, a few gels, an iced coffee drink, and a few small cans of soda.

Susan and Tim made it out around mid-morning to cheer me on and give my tired crew a little help. It definitely gave me a little boost as well to see them in the pit. I was still on track to hit 400 miles with about six hours to go, but it was really starting to get warm. I really wanted to stick to my plan of staying on the bike, but with about five hours to go I found myself feeling a little disoriented and nauseated. It was early in the lap, so I figured I’d take it easy and see how I felt when I heard from the crew toward the end of the lap and tell them I needed another short break if I still wasn’t feeling so great. I was trying to troubleshoot to figure out what I might need. I wasn’t terribly hungry or thirsty and figured I’d probably just feel more nauseated if I tried to force down more calories or fluid. I decided to come back in for a short break when I got back to the pit. I spent about 15 minutes lying on my back with my feel elevated and an ice sock cooling me down. I knew the 400 mile goal was slipping away from me, but I had also known all along that the conditions might not allow that goal to happen. I was confident that my fitness level combined with the race conditions necessitated more time off the bike than I’d anticipated and I was at peace with that.

A short pit stop to take in some extra fluids between laps towards the end of the race

The break seemed to help me feel a little more comfortable, but I was definitely starting to feel like I was running on fumes. Although the wind had changed direction and was now pushing us up the shallow grade, it was also about 10 degrees warmer on that section of the course so I still dreaded getting onto that stretch of road every lap. After another lap, Rich let me know that they would be switching to the short loop with two hours to go, so I really only had time to do one more long loop. He encouraged me to just take it easy and then come in for a short break again before going out to finish on the short loop, where it wouldn’t be as hot. I took his advice and I think that was by far my slowest time on the long loop, then cooled off for a few more minutes before finishing strong with about five laps on the short loop.

My total for the day was 388.8 miles, a bit shy of my 400 mile goal and even a few miles short of my mileage from my first 24 hour time trial in 2017. Despite that, I’m very happy with both my performance and the outcome. I maintained the speed and effort I had planned for when I was on the bike. I just spent more time off the bike than anticipated, which I feel that the conditions necessitated. I may not be back to my peak race fitness, but I feel like I put together an almost perfectly executed race for where I’m at right now. And it was great to be back at a race again and to see lots of familiar faces. It was a huge emotional boost to hear so many people cheering me on as I rolled through the pit almost every lap.

My crew got my car packed up and got me back to my hotel within about an hour of the race fitness, which was crucial as I only had about 17 hours to rest up and recover for my next event, the 6 hour time trial on Sunday…

6 Hour Time Trial

I registered for the 6-12-24 Hour WTTC about a year and a half ago, as it was supposed to occur in October of 2020 then was cancelled due to the pandemic. It was the first time they were putting on the 6 hour time trial on a separate day and making it possible for someone to race in two events. I decided to go ahead and register for both because it sounded like an interesting challenge. Registration for both events rolled over to this year when the race was cancelled last year, and I decided to go ahead and stay on the roster for both events even though I wasn’t sure earlier this year whether I would even be healthy enough to do the 24 hour event. Leading into the race, I had been feeling pretty good on the bike. I wasn’t sure how it would feel to get back on the bike the day after a 24 hour race, but I was willing to give it a try.

The plan was to prioritize rest, hydrating, refueling, and spending as much time in my Air Relax compression boots as possible between Saturday night and Sunday morning. I took an Epsom salt bath in the hotel room and put the compression boots on while I ate some dinner. After I finished eating, I was struggling to keep my eyes open and it wasn’t comfortable enough to get to sleep with the compression boots on, so I only spent about 15-30 minutes in them. But I did get a pretty solid 6-7 hours of sleep. I think I woke up and ate a snack at some point. I naturally woke up a little earlier than I needed to, so I was able to spent a full hour in the compression boots before leaving to park in the pit area. I got there with plenty of time to get all my gear and nutrition re-organized before the race started at 10:00 am. Aside from a couple of people who were doubling up the 12 and 6 hour events, I was the only one crazy enough to show up for the 6 hour race after finishing the 24 hour. It was an entirely different crowd of people for the 6 hour race. None of them had any idea who I was or that I had just finished racing for 24 hours the previous evening.

I was placed in the first starting wave once again, which felt kind of silly since I had no intention of trying to keep up with anyone in that group. I had made the decision to ride my Cannondale System Six aero road bike with clip on bars rather than the TT bike. I was more concerned about being comfortable than being fast, and it was definitely the right decision. My legs did not feel fantastic as I left the starting line, but it didn’t take too long for them to warm up. I was also feeling a cramping sensation in my right side that lasted for an hour or so. I wasn’t pushing myself hard at all and opted to switch over to the screen on my Garmin that only shows elapsed time, heart rate, and cadence so that I wouldn’t even think about any other data. Because about 95% of my training the last few months has been on my TT bike, it took me almost the entire first lap to remember that I had drops on my road bike, which gave me a whole other position to use.

I carried a water bottle and a Spiz bottle on the bike and figured I would need to stop each lap to refill the water bottle. I was riding self-supported, so it meant taking a couple minutes each lap to ride over to my car. I found myself trying to think about making it through two laps before stopping, but realized there was really no point in killing myself just to save a minute or two. By the end of the first lap, I realized the Spiz was going to get too warm on the bike, so I’d be better off carrying two water bottles and either eating solid food on the bike or chugging from the Spiz bottle between laps. I was riding at such a low intensity I wasn’t sure I’d need that much nutrition anyway. I figured with two water bottles, I could probably go two laps without stopping, but I ended up draining both bottles on the second lap and went back in to refill them again. I also realized that I definitely needed to keep taking in calories even riding at the lower intensity.

After a few hours, I was surprised to find that I was actually feeling really good. I felt like I was able to start increasing my effort just a bit and my heart rate was actually going into Zone 2. I knew I could bonk at any moment so I still wasn’t pushing too hard. When I came in after the fourth lap, I saw some other cyclists coming in from the short loop, so I was glad I wasn’t going to have to make the choice to go back out for a long loop or kill time until they made the switch. I started trying to crunch numbers in my head and wasn’t sure how accurate I was, but was pretty sure I could put in 100 miles before the time limit.

The field for the 6 hour race was pretty small so I didn’t see too many other racers out on the long loop – mainly a few of the faster ones who lapped me on my 3rd or 4th lap. But on the short loop I was starting to pass a bunch of people who looked like they had gone out too hard and were falling apart. It felt surreal to see all these people in salt-soaked kits fighting off cramps while I probably could have been holding a conversation with someone the entire ride and was just starting to get into a groove.

I finished my final lap with less than 10 minutes on the clock and had just hit 100 miles. As I was packing up my car, another racer walked by and sounded annoyed as he made a comment about how I had way too much energy to burn when I flew by him on that last lap and that maybe I should have used that energy earlier in the race. He obviously had no idea what I’d just done and was probably more annoyed about the fact that he had gone out too hard and blown up, so I just let it slide.

Overall, I couldn’t be happier with how things turned out this weekend. I felt as strong as I could have hoped for both events and it was a huge confidence boost that I am going to be able to continue racing ultra distances. As I started my way up the Glass Elevator (Montezuma Valley Road) on my way back home on Monday, I thought about how defeated I had felt the last couple of times I’d made this drive after aborted long training rides. I smiled with satisfaction that I’d faced my demons and put together a great weekend of racing. I haven’t made a firm decision about what my plans will be for 2022, but I definitely think I will be putting at least 2-3 races on my calendar and hope to have a good plan within the next few weeks.

Thanks to everyone for the encouragement and support over the last week. It felt great to know that so many people were cheering me on virtually and to feel so much support at the race itself. I am extremely grateful to Pat, Rich, Terry, Tim, and Susan for working together like a well-oiled machine to keep me on the bike. Thanks as well to my coach Rachel for putting together a training program that got me to the starting line as fit as possible and for talking me through a couple of rough patches during the race. Also, I would never have been able to put in the training that I have in the last few months without the assistance of Paraic at Cyclologic in Scottsdale, AZ in setting up my bike fits so that my knee pain is almost completely eliminated. Thanks once again to The Bike Shop for their support and for keeping my race machines tuned up, to Vertix Ultra for an awesome communication system, and to Randy Ice at Spiz.

24 Hour World Record Attempt

Borrego Springs, CA

November 7-8, 2020

The idea to plan an attempt to break the World Ultracycling Association (WUCA) 24 Hour World Record came to me at some point in the last few months as I realized that there was a very real possibility that the 6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships (WTTC) would be cancelled. After the cancelation of Race Across America in June, my focus had turned to getting myself as fit as possible for the WTTC originally scheduled in early October. When the race was rescheduled for later in October to allow more time for the permits to go through in the midst of the COVID pandemic, I knew I needed to start seriously thinking about a backup plan. After all the work I’d put in this year, I couldn’t bear the thought of watching another “A” race being cancelled and just deciding that racing was done for the year and hoping things would improve in 2021.

I began looking into the WUCA certification process, which was initially very daunting. Yet the fact that I had already beaten the mileage of Nancy Raposo’s 24 hour solo female record of 439.65 miles, set nearly 30 years ago, when I rode 456 miles at the WTTC in 2018 gave me the confidence to start planning. When the WTTC was officially canceled on September 25, I spoke with my coach Rachel and settled on the date of November 7-8 for the attempt, started communicating with the WUCA to begin the application process, and began recruiting support crew. My original thought was to keep the plan somewhat under the radar, do my best to coordinate the record attempt, and figure that worst case scenario I could just go out and do a self-supported or minimally supported low key 24 hour ride that may or may not go down as an official record. I realized over the next couple of days that the more I talked about it, the more I wanted it to happen, and started blasting my plans across social media. I’d made a big enough deal of it that now I was committed to following through. Within days, I was overwhelmed with the number of people offering to come out and be on my support crew. My friend Dee Mann had offered to help manage the crew to take some of the work off my hands. I was also able to appoint Curtis McPherson, the crew chief from our HooDoo 500 relay team, to be the crew chief, and Mark Weidhase had demonstrated to me that he knew enough about the officiating process to be my head official.

Next up was the task of settling on a course for the record attempt. A lot of factors went into the decision, but ultimately I decided to use the north half of the 18 mile WTTC course to create a 10 mile loop. Having spent many hours on the 18 mile course training and racing, it seemed that the north portion of the course didn’t seem to be impacted by the potentially fierce desert winds and also had less elevation gain/loss. Once the course was surveyed and approved by the WUCA, I just had to spend another month wrapping up my training. I tried to spend as many weekends as I was able to on the course in Borrego Springs, acclimatizing to the dry desert air and getting to know every turn and bump in the road on the 10 mile loop. Looking over my training rides, there really wasn’t any question that I should be able to maintain the 18.31 mph average needed to break the 24 hour record. Unfortunately, as race day approached, the weather forecast appeared to be working against me. I kept hoping the projected wind forecast and possibility of rain might change. When we were 48 hours out and a full wind advisory was in effect projecting 20 mph winds with gusts of up 50 mph and a very real potential for rainstorms, I realized that breaking the record would be much more difficult than I’d originally anticipated, and that it would require all the mental skills I’d be honing this year to stay on my bike for 24 hours.

I made the trip to Borrego Springs on Thursday and checked into my Air BNB rental by myself. Most of my crew planned to arrive Friday afternoon or evening, so I had about 24 hours to relax a bit and get some of the final organizational tasks completed. Once a small group including Mark and Curtis arrived on Friday afternoon we went out for a quick pre-ride of the course to test the communication system (Vertix Ultra between the follow vehicle and myself, and two-way radios for communication between the follow vehicle and the rest of the crew and officials). Rachel made dinner for the crew that was able to arrive on Friday evening. Many of the crew members were meeting for the first time and so far, everyone was getting along amazingly well. I was able to get to sleep early feeling confident that I was physically and mentally prepared for the ride and that my crew had everything else under control.

Jairus and Rob doing some final checks on my bikes while awaiting my arrival at Christmas Circle on Saturday morning

On race morning, I woke up feeling good physically and focused mentally. It was a little nerve-wracking to hear the howling of the wind outside the house as I tried to relax while my crew went through final preparations. Rachel drove me to the start at Christmas Circle shortly before the ride was scheduled to begin at 9:00 am and I could feel the car being battered by the wind and watched dust storms swirling around in the distance. When we pulled up to the start I could see a sign being whipped around. I did at least enjoy the less stressful environment of my own solo ride compared to the frenzied activity happening just before the start of a race with dozens of other cyclists.

I started pedaling away from the start at exactly 9:00 am and braced myself for what I knew could be a very long and frustrating 24 hours. The race plan that I had discussed with Rachel was based on maintaining a steady power output while keeping my heart rate under control, rather than attempting to maintain an average speed. I found myself settling into my race effort very comfortably on the first lap and the wind didn’t seem to be blowing me around too much initially. But I could tell by the time I was halfway around the loop that the wind had affected my speed. When I made the final right turn back towards Christmas Circle I had to ride directly into the wind for the last 1.5 mile of the course. I did my best to stay in the aero bars, put my head down, and keep my effort under control to avoid overexerting myself early on.

A picture taken by my friend Tet in the first several hours of the ride, in between the periods of rain.

The wind seemed to pick up a little over the first several laps, and it was raining on me intermittently. At one point, a gust picked up that almost blew me off the road and caused me to instinctively clip my left shoe out of the pedal. It passed before I had to put my foot down and I was able to stay upright, clip back in, and continue. As miserable as it was, I kept telling myself that I had to keep riding because I would kick myself if I stopped and the weather improved once the storm passed through.

My friend Rob and Dee Mann were in the follow vehicle for the first six hours of the ride, with Mark Mitchell riding along to officiate. We were able to communicate through my Vertix Ultra system, and we could hear each other perfectly despite the winds. They were communicating with Curtis and Mark Weidhase at Christmas Circle via a separate two-way radio so that the crew always knew when I was approaching and were always out and ready to take some pictures and cheer me on as I rode through. As we hit the six hour mark, Mark Weidhase came on over the radio to let me know I had just broken the six hour world record. I had purposefully not bothered to look at any of the records aside from the 24 hour record as I wanted to stay focused on that one number. But I was surprised at the sense of relief I felt upon hearing this news. Knowing that the 24 hour record was far from a slam dunk at this point, I felt like even if I achieved nothing else on this ride, I now had something to show for it.

Rob and Mark keeping me safe in the follow vehicle and using the Vertix Ultra for communication

After about six hours, there was a crew exchange as Nathan took over driving the follow vehicle, Simon took over as the official in the vehicle, and Tina and Rachel took turns riding in the back and getting water and nutrition bottles ready. It was starting to get colder around this time, so I made a very quick stop at Christmas Circle to put on my vest and some arm warmers. Or more accurately, I stopped so that the entire crew could surround me and put all that stuff on much quicker than I would have been able to do it myself. Just before dark, I made another longer stop for a bathroom/hygiene break while the crew checked out the bike and put lights on for the long ride through the night. I believe I also put on a rain jacket and knee warmers as we anticipated another storm coming through.

Understandably, people weren’t pulling their phones out to take pictures while the rain was pouring down. Riding through Christmas Circle after putting on the rain gear for a brief period of time.

Not long after dark, the storm hit and this time the rain was much heavier and colder. At one point, I remember it going through my head that I couldn’t believe the crappy luck I’d had in choosing quite possibly the worst day for this ride. Fortunately, I was able to put a positive spin on it and think about how I would most likely be doing something very similar to this during RAAM next year. I won’t be able to quit then, so I’d better not quit now. I mentioned that to my crew, laughed it off, and kept pedaling.

The rain stopped after a while and I made yet another clothing change to put on a dry jacket and gloves. The winds had finally calmed down but they had done some damage as I’d expected from the beginning. I had my crew asking me for my heart rate and power numbers every hour throughout the ride. For the first 8 hours or so, I was putting out numbers like a machine. There was very little variation in my average power, heart rate, or speed and I felt like I was riding at a fairly comfortable effort. Once I started to get cold and the fatigue set in, the numbers slowly started dropping. I was starting to hit some of the intermediate world record distances and was breaking more records – 200 km, 300 km, and 200 miles. But when we hit 12 hours, I knew I was slightly off pace for the 24 hour record. As my crew got ready for another exchange, I was feeling motivated and promised Rachel that I would keep a steady pace and avoid stopping so I could make up those miles while she was getting some rest before the final stretch.

The crew huddled around for a quick bike change after fixing a flat while I chugged some warm coffee

At some point in the night my front tire went flat. Yet another time I had to shake my head and laugh. I had ridden thousands of miles in the last few months without a single flat and put new tires on my bike a little over a week before the ride. Fortunately, we had already discussed the plan for a flat. The crew jumped out of the car to get my backup bike off the rack, switched out lights and the Garmin, and I was moving again after only losing a minute or so. I had settled on my Trek Speed Concept as my primary bike a couple of weeks before the ride, and the Cannondale System Six aero road bike was my backup. After the hours I’d spent on the Trek, I thought the change might actually feel kind of nice, but I immediately wanted to be back on the Trek. Though I usually love riding the System Six, right at that moment it felt awkward and squirrelly. We had to drop the Trek off as we rode through Christmas Circle on the next lap so the crew could change the flat, and ride another 10 mile loop on the System Six before picking the Trek back up on the next lap. Another 1-2 minutes was spent switching out the bikes while I downed a cup of coffee and I was back on the Trek. The crew noticed an immediate change in my posture and cadence once I got back on the Trek. As Rachel pointed out, at least the unfortunate timing of the flat allowed me the opportunity to realize that I’d definitely made the right choice of bike to use.

As much as I had wanted to stay focused on maintaining my steady effort through the night to make up some miles and push to break the record, I was finding it more and more difficult to maintain the power output. In addition to the fatigue, I was struggling with heartburn and some GI discomfort that made it difficult to maintain the power I’d been pushing earlier on. As I hit the next two distance records of 300 miles and 500 km, I once again broke the world records but also realized that I was too far off pace to hit the 24 hour record distance.

Rob and Dee were in the follow vehicle at this point and offered me two options. I could commit to setting the not yet established 500 mile record and plan to continue riding an extra several hours beyond the planned 24 hours, or stop riding right then given that we knew I wouldn’t be able to break the 24 hour record. I wasn’t happy with either option and asked for Option C. We were about 18 hours into the ride and I had come out here to ride 24 hours. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I quit six hours short of my goal, record or not. I really had no desire to stay on my bike for what would likely be an extra 6-7 hours, nor did I want to ask my crew to commit to spending the extra time supporting me when most of them needed to get some rest before driving home and going back to work on Monday. This information was being relayed to me from Curtis and Rachel indirectly, so I asked them to put Rachel in the follow car on the next lap so we could discuss the options. My understanding was that she didn’t want me to put more stress on my body if I wasn’t going to break the record anyway. My counter argument was that I had nothing left to save myself for at this point. All the big things I wanted to do this year had been cancelled. Being unlucky with the weather more than likely cost me the 24 hour record. I needed to finish what I started, regardless of the outcome. I had all these arguments ready to fire at Rachel once she got on the other end of the radio. Fortunately, none of it was necessary. As soon as I told her I wanted to finish the 24 hour ride, she was completely on board and so were the rest of the crew.

I was in a pretty dark place for the next few hours. Even though I’d insisted on staying on the bike, the physical and mental fatigue was definitely setting in. I think I started complaining about how tired I was, but Rachel was pretty adamant that I’d asked to keep riding so now we were committed and they weren’t going to let me stop. The lowest point came around 4:00 am on what I’m now calling “the hotfoot lap”.

About a mile or so into one of my laps, I became more acutely aware of a burning sensation under my right big toe. I started playing with the tension on my BOA laces to see if loosening them helped. Then I went the opposite direction and tightened them up all the way, which didn’t help either. I was barely pushing on the pedals, unleashing a string of F bombs, and complaining about how drastically my power had dropped, while Rachel was yelling at me to stop looking at my numbers. I stopped to take off my shoe covers and put some lidocaine lotion on my foot, but Rachel wouldn’t let me take much of a break. After soft-pedaling through the pain for another mile or two, I decided to put the frustrated energy into my effort on the bike and started pushing my power back up to my original race effort. Whatever the reason I’m not sure, maybe getting my heart rate back up helped get some circulation back to my feet, but it seemed to be helping. I kept this up for about 15 miles before making what I promised would be my last pitstop just after sunrise. While I stood in the bathroom with my crew helping me with my gear, I realized the effort had really taken its toll, as I could barely stand on my own and had to rest my head against the bathroom stall to stay upright.

Heading back out for the last few hours while crew chief Curtis keeps an eye out for traffic on Christmas Circle

I got back on the bike for the final few hours and settled into a less aggressive effort. I just needed to survive another 4-5 loops. If I really focused on my effort, I could keep a pretty decent pace, but it was becoming more difficult. I was in better spirits, but without the carrot of a record to chase, it was tough to keep pushing myself. Part of me was a little disappointed and wondering if I had it in me to put in that strong hour of riding I’d just done, if I could have done that earlier and not fallen so far off the record pace. I tried not to let those thoughts take over, and just focused on the fact that I was getting closer and closer to being done, to being able to get off the bike, celebrate with the crew, take a shower, and get some rest.

Knowing that Mark Weidhase had been on duty officiating since the ride started nearly 24 hours earlier, I’d offered to let him go off duty and just end the official record attempt a few hours early. He refused and insisted on making sure I had an official distance for the 24 hours. In order to have an official distance, I would have to complete whatever lap I was on at the 24 hour mark. As that drew closer and I started doing the math in my head, I realized I would be best off doing a “cool down lap” for my final loop, taking it easy so that the 24 hours would elapse just before I came back around to Christmas Circle. I managed to time it just right, so that I hit the finish at 24 hours, 6 minutes. The wind and rain were about to start back up again, another reason I had no desire to continue riding another six hours. On the plus side, the incoming weather provided a nice rainbow backdrop for some awesome finish pictures.

Mark proudly wrapped me in his American flag for some awesome finish pictures. I found out later on about the sentimental value that flag has for him and am bummed we didn’t get a picture together at the finish.

My takeaway thoughts from the experience:

  1. This was one of the best executed rides or races I’ve ever done, from the mental and physical preparation to the completion of the ride itself. Focusing on the process rather than the outcome that was affected by factors out of my control, the ride was a huge success.
  2. There are only a few things I maybe wish I could go back and do differently, wondering if the outcome would have been different. While it was a big morale boost to learn that I’d set the intermediate records, did that knowledge give me an excuse to dial back my effort when I got fatigued? As I mentioned before, if I was able to start pushing myself again when I got frustrated 19-20 hours in, why couldn’t I have kept that rhythm going hours earlier? If I’d put on rain gear earlier and avoided getting wet and cold, would that have allowed me to keep the steady effort that I’d been pushing all day long? Do I need to continue tweaking my nutrition strategy to avoid the GI discomfort that seemed to be another factor contributing to the decreased effort?
  3. My support crew was absolutely amazing. My officials and crew were 100% committed to keeping me safe and helping me to stay on the bike. Every time I needed to stop for any reason, I had several people surrounding me to make sure I was back on the bike as quickly as possible. Even in the rain, wind, and cold the crew was out cheering me on every time I passed the start/finish at Christmas Circle. It warms my heart when I look back at the pictures and video of the crew and seeing how committed they were to my success. Another consideration that factors into my seeing this ride as a huge success is that everyone on the crew seemed to have a great experience and most of them were thanking me afterward for allowing them to be a part of it. One of the keys to success for an ultracyclist is crew selection and management, and I feel like I’ve really turned a corner on that aspect with this ride.
About half of my crew is represented in this picture at the finish, as several of them were packing things up or preparing breakfast.

Finally, the official numbers and records broken for the ride are as follows (still pending WUCA certification):

  1. Six Hour Timed: 113.11 miles, 18.85 mph
  2. 200 KM: 6 hrs, 35 mins, 56 secs
  3. 300 KM: 10 hrs, 26 mins, 36 secs
  4. 200 Miles: 11 hrs, 15 mins, 05 secs
  5. 300 Miles: 16 hrs, 55 mins, 47 secs
  6. 500 KM: 17 hrs, 33 mins, 18 secs
  7. Official 24 Hour Distance (not a record): 410.88 miles at 17.12 mph

With this ride behind me, I plan to spend at least a few weeks recovering before ramping the training back up for RAAM in June. I’ll need to start focusing on getting my crew together for RAAM and beginning the planning process, and hopefully take advantage of some new achievements on my resume to secure some support for RAAM. Rachel and several of my crew members were talking about “next time” within hours of the 24 hour ride, wanting to go back for another shot at the 24 hour record. I think the plan will be to pick a date in early 2021 that balances optimal weather with optimal timing leading into RAAM and set the 500 Mile and 1000 KM records which have not yet been established. Without a specific time to beat for either record, it would work well as a training ride for RAAM. I would have a shot at breaking the 24 hour record again, but the focus would be on pacing myself for the 1000 KM.

Acknowledgements:

Curtis McPherson, Dee Mann, and Rachel Goyette put in a ton of work leading into the ride making sure the crew was organized into shifts and planning meals. And of course I am always thankful to Rachel for going above and beyond in ensuring that I am adequately prepared both physically and mentally for all of my events.

Mark Weidhase had the officiating down to a science and went above and beyond to ensure my safety during the ride by sweeping debris from the road before and during the ride. He meticulously did all the math to ensure that we had all the numbers correct. Without his encouragement, I probably would have kept things simple by only putting the 24 hour record on my application and wouldn’t have ended up taking six intermediate records. Mark Mitchell and Simon Horton joined him on the officiating crew to keep solid records and ensure my safety at the tricky intersections.

We didn’t have a single dud in the rest of the crew. Everyone was giving 100% even in miserable conditions to make sure I had my best possible ride. Thanks so much to Karen Feld, Beckie Vickers, Russ Sportsman, Rob Mann, Nathan Goyette, Pat Hurter, Thomas and Mary Sol Cassidy, Eric Lewis, Jairus Ciocon, and Tina Parker for giving up their weekend so I could play bikes.

Thanks to everyone else who made the trip out to Borrego to cheer me on at some point. It was awesome to see so many familiar faces out on the course – Lisa, Terry, Tet, Rick, Cori, Jack, Liliana, John, Eric (who made the drive from Corona to Borrego Springs TWICE in less than 24 hours), Joe, Donna, Hannah, Sherry, Adam, Elisabeth and Tom/Gumby. Forgive me if I’ve forgotten anyone else who was out there.

As always, thanks to the Bike Shop of Temecula for their continued support. Both bikes were spruced up and race ready despite their mechanics being slammed with repairs and maintenance. They also took my bikes back in after the ride to clean them up after spending 24 hours in the elements. And thank you to Vertix Ultra for providing me with a reliable communication system that allowed me to easily stay in constant contact with my crew for 24 hours.

10,000 Ways That Won’t Work

The last few weeks have included a few misadventures that led me to think of Thomas Edison’s quote: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

I (hopefully) have two actual, real events coming up in the next month or so and am looking forward to my first chance to attend a non-virtual event in about six months. I participated in both events (HooDoo 500 and the 24+6 hour time trial at the 6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships) last year with less than awesome experiences. As my coach Rachel reminded me a few times, hopefully the bad stuff has already happened in training and now I’m set up for some great race experiences.

With a bunch of events going virtual this year, I’ve enjoyed taking the opportunity to use them for training and working out race and nutrition strategies in a low consequence environment. Last weekend, I planned to tackle the Southern Inyo by Moonlight Double Double Century (double centuries on back to back days). Weeks earlier, I had what seemed like a great idea in theory. I booked a couple of nights in Borrego Springs and planned a massive training weekend that would work for both HooDoo 500 and the 24 hour time trial. I would do both rides at night to stay out of the heat and also allow me to get more experience riding at night. I mapped out a modified version of the challenging Borrego Double Century for one of the rides, then planned to do loops on the 18-mile time trial circuit in Borrego Springs for the second double. Perfect, right?

As anyone who lives in Southern California knows, we’ve been hit with a massive heat wave the last couple of weeks along with horrible air quality from all the wildfires. The desert is probably the last place I should have been riding, even at night. But I stuck to the plan. I drove out to Borrego Springs after a half day at work on Friday, dropping off a couple of water caches on my way. After unpacking and getting my bike ready, I rested for a bit and waited for the sun to go down, which brought the daytime temperature of about 120 degrees all the way down to 111 degrees. Figuring I’ve always done pretty well in the heat, I just need to get myself up Montezuma Valley Road (the Glass Elevator in RAAM-speak) at an easy pace, then it should be cooler for most of the ride.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. The heat, horrible air quality, windy conditions on the climb, and a body that just didn’t want to cooperate quickly led to a DNF. I’d started to get a headache earlier in the day and had to take my migraine medication, which is never a good way to start a big training weekend. As I made my way up the climb, my head started to feel heavy, my knees started hurting, then my back started hurting, then I just could not shake the feeling that all I wanted to do was get back to the bed in my hotel room and go to sleep. There really was no easy spinning on the climb with the conditions and the way my body was feeling, so I was working a lot harder than I wanted to be. I started texting Rachel, who agreed with my assessment and “gave me permission” to call it and head back to Borrego Springs. I’d been on the bike about 90 minutes and was fairly close to the top of the Glass Elevator.

I figured I’d get a good night’s sleep and stay inside during the heat of the day on Saturday and try again the next night. I had taken Monday off from work, so I figured I could still get in the double double if I extended my stay an extra night. Around mid-day Saturday, Rachel encouraged me to change plans and just do the loops on the Borrego time trial circuit Saturday night to build some confidence. Unfortunately, spending all day laying around and “over-resting”, with too much time to think and allow second thoughts to creep in led to me not feeling spectacular about heading back out into the heat by the time I was planning to get started again. I ended up compromising with a very early start to an easy century ride on the time trial course and managed to finish just before the temps hit the triple digits on Sunday morning. I headed home discouraged, but fairly certain I’d made the right call.

Derailed by the desert heat in Borrego Springs. Hoping for better conditions in early October…

I spent the week very much looking forward to my plans for this weekend. Rachel has been working on building her running mileage up over the summer with a goal to run 100 miles solo from Temecula to Long Beach. I offered to be a bike escort during the night hours. After getting home from work, I quickly got ready to ride and raced over to Rachel’s house just in time to start with her at 8:00 pm. Her husband Nate ran with her for a few miles before turning around to head home and then get in the car to SAG for her through the night. After a couple of hours, we were joined by our friend Sarah in Murrieta and she ran with Rachel for 15 miles through Wildomar and Lake Elsinore. Then we had about 25 miles to cover before meeting up with her second crew at the Santa Ana River Trail (SART) entrance at Green River Road at about mile 55.

Rachel had similar luck in picking the date for her run as I did with my double-double. The weather and air quality was not optimal for an ultra-distance run. Even at night, the temperature hovered around 75 degrees with humidity, so that she was sweating a lot more than she should have been and was struggling to stay cool by the time we hit about 30 miles. She tried icing herself down, showering herself with the water from her Camelbak, and eating popsicles and icees. We were looking forward to the sun coming up so that she would feel more awake, but knew that the sun would bring more heat. We were hoping that getting closer to the coast would mean cooler weather.

I dropped Rachel off with her second crew around 8:00 am and rode back home. The rest of the crew was surprised that I didn’t take Nate up on his offer to drive me home, but I knew that I needed to do some actual riding (as opposed to rolling alongside Rachel at 5-6 mph). I also knew that pushing myself in my fatigued state would be some of the best training for ultra races I could get. I actually felt pretty decent for the first couple of hours and got a PR on the big climb up Foothill through Corona (after convincing myself not to detour around it and take a flatter route). I was running on fumes by the time I got home. I managed to shower and inhale a quick snack before falling asleep.

Unfortunately, the heat and humidity never let up for Rachel and she made the difficult choice to finish her run at 81 miles. Much like my choice in Borrego Springs, it was the right call and I’m happy that I got to participate in the effort.

Also on the topic of finding ways that won’t work, I’ve been struggling to find a nutrition strategy that works for me for ultra distances. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m trying to keep my sugar intake low, which eliminates a lot of sports nutrition products on the market. I thought I had something worked out during VRAW, but have found in the last couple of weeks that my stomach just won’t tolerate the current regimen. With my two events coming up quickly, it’s a little discouraging to go back to the drawing board, but I’m confident that I’ll figure it out.

As for the upcoming races, I’m excited to go back to both events. I’ll be heading to St. George, Utah with my friends Dee, Rob, and Phil to take on the HooDoo 500 route as a four-person relay team, along with our crew members Curtis and Megan. It should be a fun weekend, and the relay format should be better training for the 24 hour time trial (as opposed to racing solo). My workouts since VRAW have been targeting higher power intervals, which has been fun but exhausting. Hopefully all that work will pay off in the next few weeks.

Dual Event Training

I’m finding myself in a bit of a unique position where I (hopefully) have two very different events coming up that are only six weeks apart. I’ll be participating in HooDoo 500 in Southern Utah on a mixed 4x team with my friends Rob, Dee, and Phil at the end of August, followed up by the 24 hour solo time trial at the 6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships (WTTC) in Borrego Springs, CA in early October. Both events involve riding at night and are likely to be hot during the day, but the similarities stop there. The HooDoo 500 course will have a lot of climbing and I will be riding short, more intense pulls with breaks in between, and I’ll be riding my Cannondale Synapse, an endurance road bike. The WTTC will be 24 hours of constant pedaling on a relatively flat course with as little stopped time as possible. There is the potential for the weather to be very hot and/or very windy, and I will be riding my time trial bike in a much more aggressive position.

The strategy over the next few weeks will be to divide my weekends into long hilly rides on the Synapse and long flat rides/loops on the TT bike, while taking advantage of any opportunities to get acclimated to the heat and ride in windy conditions. I felt really great this week after last weekend’s double double and was able to put in some good efforts after a couple of days’ recovery, so I hoped I would be able to nail my training rides this weekend as they were relatively short compared to last weekend’s epic adventures.

My workout for Saturday was six hours consisting of repeats of 45 minute higher intensity efforts with 15 minutes of easy riding to recover. Despite the forecast of temps above 110 degrees in Borrego Springs, I decided to head there to ride loops of the race circuit for the first time since last year’s event and get started on my TT training. Last year I used a combination of laps on the Santa Ana River Trail (SART) and loops on the Borrego circuit for the bulk of my long training rides, which I felt was perfect for getting used to the constant pedaling and monotony of riding in circles for 24 hours straight. The SART has been so crowded that I didn’t feel comfortable trying to do my more intense efforts out there, so I opted to go where there would be a lot less traffic in Borrego. While I figured some heat training would probably be a good thing, I didn’t want to put too much stress on my system, so I drove out there in the middle of the night on a few hours’ sleep and got started while it was still cool at 4:30 am. This actually worked out well, as it also allowed me to put in some time riding the course in the dark and in a somewhat sleep-deprived state.

I headed out for my first lap and found that although I’ve done this loop dozens of times, I still needed a lap or two to get comfortable with the roads and the corners again. I swear the roads on the north half of that course have gotten worse since last year, which is probably why they’re planning to do road work in a couple of weeks. I’m hoping that won’t interfere too much with my plans to train out there, or with the race itself.

I definitely don’t want to worry about 15 minute delays happening during my training rides, or the race itself which is scheduled for October 9-10. Hopefully this means the roads on the north end of the course will be a little smoother by October.

It was apparent even from the first attempt at higher intensity that my legs weren’t completely recovered from last weekend, but I managed to stay on pace for the first few intervals. Knowing it would be getting hot, I tried to stay on top of my hydration and nutrition, remembering the trouble I had on last Saturday’s double century. The temperature stayed pretty comfortable for about four laps, but I really started to feel the heat for the last couple of hours. As I made my way through my fifth 45 minute interval, I found that I just could not will my legs to push hard enough to hold the effort, but my heart rate was climbing. It may have been my body’s self-regulatory mechanism for protection against the heat. It may have been fatigue from last weekend. It may have been my low-carb nutrition regimen catching up to me. Maybe it was a combination of all those things. I don’t believe I was terribly dehydrated as I was drinking plenty and stopping at my car every lap to refill bottles. Weighing myself before and after the ride, I lost about 4% of my body weight, which is perfectly reasonable for a six hour ride in that heat.

I can also mention that this was my first time putting in a long effort on my TT bike in several months. I mostly stopped riding it once RAAM was cancelled and didn’t even have access to it for a month or so while some issues were being worked out with the power meter. After a few hours, this occurred to me as I started to feel very uncomfortable in the aero position and had to start sitting up frequently. This was extremely unusual during my training for the time trial the last two years. But then again, this is probably the longest I’ve gone not riding that bike in 2-3 years. So I’m sure this was a factor in the fatigue as well, and getting tossed around by the rough roads probably didn’t help matters.

So it wasn’t the perfect training ride, but I was able to put in a pretty solid six hours with some intensity, while putting in some time acclimating to the heat and riding in the dark. The wind was pretty minimal, and when it did start to pick up it was mostly a favorable wind (meaning it pushed me up the only “hill” on the circuit). Hopefully there will be some opportunity for wind training during some future rides.

For Sunday’s ride, I had a four hour hilly ride at a steady, easier pace. Because I didn’t hit my pace targets on Saturday, I had it in my head that I might even be able to ride at a slightly higher effort than what my training plan called for. As much as I figured I could use some more training in the heat, I opted for another early start in the dark so I could finish up meeting my Cycle Relic friends for coffee at about 8:30 am. I got rolling at about 4:15 am and headed south for the hills in Lilac, Bonsall, and Fallbrook.

I gave myself 15-20 minutes of easy pedaling before I felt ready to start pushing the effort. I found that I was struggling just to hold my prescribed intensity so I didn’t even bother trying to increase it at all. Part of the reason I struggled a bit is because most of the climbing was on the back end of the route, so trying to hold my effort on flats and downhills was challenging. Still, I was able to spend a solid hour or so riding in the dark and even got a nice windy descent on Rice Road done in the dark, which was great training for the HooDoo 500 route.

Once I had to start doing some climbing, and after my legs had a couple of hours to warm up, I found that I was able to increase my power output a bit and bring my average up to where it was supposed to be. I pulled into Ryan Bros for coffee just as the Relics were finishing up their orders and got to spend an hour or so BS’ing with them before putting in some easy miles to ride back home. It was definitely worth getting out for the early start and having a chance to do something social after the long solo rides last weekend, with plenty more slated for the weeks to come.

So overall, not the perfect weekend of training, but I got in a good mix of everything and had some fun. Oh, and incidentally, my mileage total for 2020 hit 10,000 miles after Saturday’s ride, which is a nice milestone. It’s only been the last two years that I’ve hit 10,000 miles for the year and both times reached that number by June or July.

For what it’s worth, I fully realize that there is a chance that the WTTC won’t happen this year. Even if it does, the field may be very limited due to travel restrictions, especially for international athletes. Just as I did with my training for RAAM this year, I will continue training as if the race is happening until when and if it isn’t. Even then, I might just go ahead and do my own 24 hour time trial “for fun”. With so many races being cancelled this year, I’m finding it helpful to have virtual events and personal challenges to stay motivated. And everything is working into my training for RAAM 2021.