ultraracing – Jen Orr – Ultraendurance Cyclist

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.

HooDoo 500 Relay

After months of races being cancelled or going virtual due to the COVID pandemic, I was really excited to be able to participate in an actual race again at HooDoo 500 last weekend in St. George, Utah. My friends Rob, Dee, Phil, and I had planned much earlier this year to race the challenging 512 mile HooDoo 500 course as a four-person relay team. At the time, I had planned it as something fun to do after finishing RAAM. Then RAAM was cancelled and it just became something fun to do. We came up with the team name “We’re Fine” as a play on my usual slogan of “It’s Fine”, and picked up a couple of crew members to help us out during the race.

While I am familiar with the HooDoo 500 course after doing the race solo last year, this was an entirely new experience for me altogether as I’ve never done a race like this on a relay team. I’m used to jumping on my bike and pacing myself to ride for a really long time. Here I would need to push myself much harder for a shorter period of time, rest and recover while my teammates took some pulls, then jump on the bike and do it all over again. I was a little worried that all the starting and stopping and sitting in a van would make it difficult to pace myself properly. My coach Rachel has been having me work on higher intensity efforts since finishing VRAW back in June, so I went in feeling prepared to put in some work on the short pulls. We also figured this would work well into my training for the 6-12-24 Hour Time Trial World Championships coming up at the end of October (assuming the permits go through and the event doesn’t get canceled).

We had a few virtual meetings on Zoom leading up to the race. Our coaches, Rachel and David, joined forces to help us put together a general strategy for the race – how long we should be taking pulls, how we should try to get some rest at night, etc. We had a meeting to discuss our strategy the week of the race, and another meeting with our crew to finalize all the details. I was a little apprehensive going in as we didn’t seem to have a detailed plan laid out in terms of how we would rotate and what sections of the course we would each be taking, but I had a lot of confidence in our crew chief Curtis, who had extensive knowledge and experience with the course and sounded like he would have no problem taking charge and putting the right people on the course at the right times. Regardless, I was just looking forward to traveling to a race again, seeing a bunch of my ultracyling friends for the first time in months, and having a fun ride with my teammates.

All four of us along with our two crew members made it to St. George on Friday afternoon without incident and got ourselves checked in for the race and settled in at our condo we had rented for the weekend. We had a nice pre-race dinner at the condo then settled in to get some sleep before our 9 am start on Saturday morning. We woke up Saturday morning to cloudy skies and a few sprinkles and wondered if we might get some rain. On the plus side, we didn’t have the triple digit temperatures we had been expecting.

Our full crew and team at race check-in Friday afternoon. Curtis, Dee, Rob, me, Phil, and Megan

We decided to let Phil roll out for the neutral start while the rest of us drove out to the first exchange location about 9 miles away. I was scheduled to take the second pull, and it occurred to me that this meant that I would be the first one riding once the actual racing started, so I was a little nervous about that. There were five teams in the 4x relay division. I waved to my friend Shane Trotter as he flew by just before I took the handoff from Phil. He was on the team “Soaring Coots” and I knew they were going for the course record and that would more than likely be the last I would ever see of him. I wasn’t sure where we would fit in with the rest of the teams, but I was hoping we had a good chance of winning the race for second place.

Our team had spent a few minutes practicing exchanges when we got together for hill repeats on Glendora Mountain Road last month, so I hoped my first handoff would go smoothly. When I saw Phil getting close I started riding and held out my left hand so that he could hand off the GPS tracker (attached to a small spatula with electrical tape). Once he was close enough, he placed the tracker in my hand, I yelled “got it” once I had it in my grasp, he let go, and I placed it in my pocket while trying to accelerate and not collide with Phil as he slowed down to be picked up by Curtis and our van. It all went off without a hitch and I started looking to dial into my steady effort for approximately 25 minutes. I hadn’t kept track of how many teams were ahead of or behind me, but I could see another cyclist trying to catch me in my rear view mirror. Within a few minutes he had dropped back and I didn’t see him again. I passed one other team, and could see another rider a little bit ahead of me for most of my pull. I probably put in a slightly more intense effort than planned in an effort to keep my position, but I tried to keep reminding myself to save my energy for the rest of the race. I was basically about to do a 30 hour interval session.

After about 25 minutes, I saw our van pulled over and Dee waiting to exchange with me. We had another flawless exchange and we got in the van to keep an eye on Dee and get Rob ahead for his pull. I knew I would have about an hour or so before getting back on the bike and knew I should probably take in some fluids and calories, but once again I was in unfamiliar territory and wasn’t sure of the best strategy for fueling. I figured I was best off taking in small amounts shortly after getting off the bike and tried to stick with that strategy for most of the race.

Setting up for a well-timed and efficient exchange of the tracker

Rob took the handoff from Dee and we made our way out of Hurricane, Utah, where Rob tackled the first bit of substantial climbing of the race. He also managed to pass Team 303 Gruppetto and put us solidly in 2nd place. Once I got back on the bike taking a handoff from Phil, 303 Gruppetto was closing in and I could see their rider in my rear view mirror. After a few minutes the storm hit and I spent most of the pull riding in the rain. I tried not to let the sight of the rider behind me force me to push beyond my limits. I kept my effort steady and just hoped that he was pushing himself outside his comfort zone trying to chase me down. I handed off to Dee again and we made our way into Arizona for a short portion of the course before going back across the state line into Utah. We maintained a bit of a lead over 303 Gruppetto as we headed towards the first Time Station in Orderville.

Rob took over just before the Time Station, where the rest of us stopped for a restroom break and to chat with the volunteers. We hadn’t been there long when two frantic texts came through from Rob that he’d had a flat. We all rushed back to the van to get to Rob to help change his tube while putting the next rider on the course. We lost about five minutes getting to him, but I believe we got Phil out on the road before 303 Gruppetto caught us.

As we got closer to Bryce Canyon, we started figuring out our plan for the unsupported zone on the bike trail to the next Time Station. Because the van would need to gas up at the Time Station, and the course flattened out at that point before a long descent, we decided that I would take a long pull and climb up the bike trail then take the descent into Tropic. I knew 303 Gruppetto was not too far behind and am always worried about getting caught on climbs, so I was constantly looking in my mirror to see if anyone was coming up behind me on the bike trail. Once I reached the flat section, I breathed a sigh of relief and started flying across the flat section. Just after exiting the bike trail onto the highway, I saw that I was about to catch up to both of the two solo female racers, Seana Hogan and Tami Kearns. I cheered both of them on as I passed them, just before bombing down the long descent.

Waiting to take the handoff from Phil and start my ride through Bryce Canyon

Once I hooked back up with the team, we started making our way to the third Time Station in Escalante. I was getting ready to ride again when we saw our friend Brook Henderson about to get back on the course. He started four hours before us as he was riding in the Voyager (solo, self-supported) division, and was having a really rough day. He perked up when he saw us, and we got to cheer him on for the next hour or so as we leapfrogged him a few times. It was really cool to be able to see him at that point, as it was the exact spot where he passed me last year and helped me through a rough spot in the race.

I took a bit of a longer pull out of Escalante while the rest of the team grabbed some food and went on an unsuccessful search for coffee. After that, Rob and I started resting a bit to get ready to tag team Boulder Mountain, the first of two big climbs on the route. We took turns riding 10-15 minutes at a time, and I was shocked at how quickly we tackled the climb compared to my slow grind last year. We were building up a nice lead on 303 Gruppetto but kept crossing paths with their RV leapfrogging us. I bundled up at the summit and rode most of the long descent towards Bicknell, where I was looking forward to seeing my friend Brian at the Time Station and finally getting some coffee.

Unfortunately, we had a miscue at the turn to Bicknell and Phil turned right towards Capitol Reef National Park instead of left. By the time we realized he was off course, it cost us around 20 minutes to get back on track and 303 Gruppetto had taken over 2nd place. We stayed calm and had a good sense of humor and figured it just made the race a little more interesting.

We made it to Bicknell and once again I found no coffee. Rob and I got to spend the next few hours resting in the back of the van while Dee and Phil took turns pulling. I don’t know that I slept much, and it definitely was a little cramped in the back of the van, but at least I got to rest my eyes for awhile. Still, when it was time to get ready to ride again and go out in the cold dark early morning, I wasn’t really feeling it. I think my first pull was a little weak, but I started feeling a little better on the second one. We even had our first glimpse of the 303 Gruppetto RV for the first time in awhile, and not long after that I could see the lights of their rider ahead of me. I was starting to close in on him towards the end of my pull and Curtis asked me if I wanted to catch him first. I had no desire to push myself beyond my comfort level to pass them, so I let Rob take over and he made the pass. Then the pressure was on me to hold the gap. As we got closer to the next Time Station in Panguitch, Curtis let me know I would need to ride through Panguitch and then take a long pull up the steep climb towards Panguitch Lake while the team stopped for gas and ice. We only had a six minute lead at the Time Station and I kept looking behind me to see if they were closing in on me on the climb. I managed to hold them off and was relieved to finally see our van pass me and set up for an exchange. And they had coffee for me!!!

All lit up with reflective gear riding through Panguitch

We started tackling the second of the two big climbs on the route as a team as Phil and Dee woke up and got themselves moving again, and made our way to Duck Creek Village and then the summit at Gooseberry Point at nearly 10,000 feet. Once again, I was amazed how quickly we put the climb behind us after the slow slog I remembered from last year’s solo race. The team let me take the long descent into Cedar City, which I thoroughly enjoyed. We then put Phil on the bike for a long pull while we stopped at the Time Station to get ice. By the time we caught up to Phil, he was struggling and 303 Gruppetto was quickly closing the gap.

I think I hit my lowest point of the race right around that time. I was waiting for my turn to pull again and remember sitting there thinking that I was exhausted and just didn’t care about the race anymore. I felt like there was no way I could get back on my bike and keep working at the same intensity I’d been putting in up to that point. Somehow, I managed to rally by the time I got back on my bike and found that my legs were still willing to work for me. We kept up a strong rotation of 10 minute pulls in the headwinds heading back to St. George and starting building back up a healthy gap. By the time we reached Veyo we knew that barring some disaster, there was no way they could catch us. We decided to ride the final segment through Snow Canyon and back into St. George as a team and took it nice and easy to the finish.

Riding back into St. George to the finish as a team

I have to give a lot of credit to our coaches, David and Rachel, for helping us put together a great racing strategy that worked out well for us. The team we were battling with the entire race seemed to be sticking to a rigid approach of trading off long pulls and it seemed to be exhausting them. Our rotation was much more fluid and our crew chief Curtis did an amazing job of reading our body language and adjusting for the terrain and race situation. With each of us putting in 20 or so pulls, Curtis also had the exhausting job of getting out of the van about 100 times to unrack one bike for the outgoing rider and then racking the bike of the incoming rider. And huge kudos to our driver Megan, who managed to stay awake and behind the wheel for us for the entire 30 hours of our race. It definitely was a huge bonus for us to be able to relax in the van between our pulls without having to take over shifts driving, especially towards the end of the race when we were all exhausted.

Big shoutout to Planet Ultra for managing to put this race on during the crazy times that we’re now living in. I think everyone involved was excited to be at a real live race again. We were still able to have a fun outdoor celebration at the awards breakfast on Monday morning before heading home. I’m really enjoying getting to know the HooDoo course a little better and definitely plan to continue participating in some variation of the course whenever I have the opportunity. I’d love to go back and better my solo result from last year, as I know I could have improved on a lot of things. But I’d also like to try out some of the other race divisions, like the stage race and the self-supported versions of the course.

So I’m back home and back into focused training for the 6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships (WTTC), which has been pushed back to the end of October in hopes that the permits will come through. We’ve also been given the news that support crews will not be allowed at the race, so I’ll have to spend some extra time organizing and strategizing how to minimize my time off the bike while riding self-supported. The hopes I had of coming back after last year’s dismal race and taking my course record back are most likely gone, but I still plan to put it the best possible mileage under the circumstances, and am keeping my fingers crossed that we get to race this year.

Collecting our 2nd place award at the breakfast on Monday morning. Phil was given the “wrong way” award.

Virtual Race Across the West

I’ll do my best to break down twelve days and 950 miles of riding on an indoor trainer into a readable report. Bear with me if it becomes a bit long-winded. I was quite transparent going into the event that I had no intention of racing VRAW to be competitive. I knew it would be difficult to take the week off from work as my company is still short-staffed while recovering from the hit we had taken at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, the challenge I had set for myself was to complete the 950 miles of VRAW around my 8-5 work schedule and finish within the 12 day cutoff time. Additionally, I had been experiencing some knee pain that had become debilitating on my recent long trainer rides and figured it would not be worth the risk of making that issue worse by attempting to ride 950 miles in one continuous stretch. Apparently I’m not the only one to experience such issues, as we saw one of the top ultracyclists in the world, Marko Baloh, abandon VRAW while in first place about 200 miles from the finish. He made the wise decision to save his knees for some of his upcoming non-virtual events which were a higher priority for him.

Although I did not have the goal of winning VRAW or obtaining a spot on the podium, I was taking the race seriously and had my own personal goals on which to focus. Even though my race was broken down into shorter sessions, I hoped to keep a steady race effort as if I was riding the course continuously. I also hoped to work out my nutrition and hydration strategy to avoid some of the GI and fluid retention issues that I’ve experienced in the past. And finally, I wanted to make sure I put some of my mental training to use by staying positive and working through the inevitable tough spots.

The Routine

In the few days leading up to the start of VRAW, I tried to prep as much as I possibly could to save time during the race. I bought a massive amount of groceries hoping that I wouldn’t need to go back to the store until after the race. I prepped enough meals in advance to get me through most of the twelve days. My bike, trainer, TV, charger cables, fans, water bottles, nutrition, and snacks were all set up at a permanent station in the garage. It wasn’t quite as decked out as a few of the “pain caves” that I saw a few of my fellow racers using, but it worked for me.

The VRAW “course” consisted of 83 rides on the FulGaz platform which varied in distance from 1.6 miles to 56 miles. The rides were sectioned into eight blocks which consisted of a sequence of 3-5 rides which would be repeated 2-4 times within that block. The rides had to be completed in the given sequence. I had put together a conservative schedule that would allow me to finish within 12 days while allowing enough time for for sleep and recovery so that I would be able to stay focused at work.

My daily routine on work days didn’t change too much throughout the race. I woke up at 3 am just about every day and tried to start pedaling by 4 am. Although I am very much a morning person, I always seem to need at least an hour to get myself moving. I would complete the rides I had planned for the morning, which would typically leave me just enough time to get ready for work. By the second week, I was eating my breakfast while on the bike to fit in extra ride time. I worked from 8-5 Monday-Friday and tried to spend my lunch hour relaxing and taking a power nap if needed. I was typically able to get home from work and get back on the bike by shortly after 5:30 pm. After finishing the rides on my evening schedule, I would eat dinner while using my Air Relax compression boots, wind down, and get to bed as quickly as possible without distractions. Towards the end of the second week, I started using the compression boots for about 15 minutes before my evening ride to help with some of the mild fluid retention I was experiencing. I also started taking an Epsom salt bath immediately after my evening rides, primarily hoping to alleviate the irritation in the saddle region that became progressively worse during the second week.

Looking back over my experience, I found that my VRAW experience can be broken into 3, maybe 3 1/2 distinct chunks of time.

Week 1

The courses for Virtual RAAM, Virtual RAW, and The 60 (a 12 day challenge to ride 60 minutes each day) opened at 6:00 am Pacific Time on Tuesday, June 16. About 200 cyclists representing 29 countries were all able to start riding their respective races at that moment. Because I knew the first segment would take me a little over an hour and I started work at 8:00 am, I opted to wait until after work to ride. It is possible to end a ride early and finish it later, but I wanted to ride at least that first segment all in one session. A big reason for this was because the first segment was the first 20 or so miles of the actual RAW course out of Oceanside, CA. Due to the time constraints in putting this event together, it was not possible to recreate the entire RAW course on the FulGaz platform, but they did get GoPro footage from a cyclist riding the first section of the RAW/RAAM course to at least recreate the race start, which was really cool.

That first Tuesday was not a great day for me. I was feeling a little depressed knowing that in a world without COVID, I would have been starting the real Race Across America that day. It was also a little frustrating to be sitting at work while many of the other racers were already on their bikes. Also, I just simply never feel that great when I don’t get in some form of activity before work. By the time I got on my bike just before 6:00 pm, it had been about 36 hours since I’d had any type of exercise, my legs were feeling heavy and lethargic, and I was just not in a great mood. It was kind of unfortunate, because I really wanted to enjoy riding that first section of the actual RAW route, even if it was virtual.

I was able to hold my goal effort of about 65% on that ride, but it just felt like I was working harder than I was. I tried to just let myself have fun with the ride and enjoy watching the very familiar sights of the actual race route on the TV in front of me, but it never took long to start feeling frustrated again. I was happy to finish off the ride, clean up, and hoped that I’d feel better the next morning.

Fortunately, I felt back to my normal self the next morning and throughout the week. I was holding about a 65% effort on my rides and spending 3.5 to 4.5 hours per day on the bike without feeling completely thrashed. I was tired, but definitely able to function just fine at work. I was quite happy that my knees were feeling pretty good so far. I had turned the trainer difficulty down to 50%, which simply means that the terrain does not feel as steep as it is and I don’t need to mash the pedals to get up steep climbs. The same amount of power is required as when the trainer difficulty is set to 100%. It’s basically the same as putting a larger cassette on the bike. I went into the weekend on track with the schedule I had set for myself, and felt ready to tackle the long weekend hours.

The Weekend

I debated a few options for how to get the weekend rides done while allowing myself to get a bit of a race simulation experience. I opted to sleep in a bit on Saturday to get some extra rest, ride all day, take about a four hour sleep break, then start back up again early Sunday morning.

After sleeping in a bit and spending some time in my compression boots, I finally got around to getting on the bike around 8 am on Saturday morning. I was feeling pretty good and maintaining my 65% effort for a few hours but by mid-day my power started gradually dropping as fatigue set in and I started some of the more difficult rides. I spent most of Saturday afternoon working on the longest ride on the VRAW course, “The Cheaha Challenge”. It took me about 4.5 hours to ride the 56 miles with 7,500 feet of elevation gain. It wasn’t a terribly difficult ride. It just had a lot of small climbs and was a long ride. On the plus side, we actually got a few downhills on that ride. If you read the reports and comments made by almost anyone who did VRAAM or VRAW, you will be sure to hear complaints or comments about the constant climbing without downhills. The 950 miles of VRAW included 83,000 feet of elevation gain (compared to about 50,000 feet on the actual RAW course), and many of the rides were climbs without the descents. It took me until about 9 pm Saturday to finish the rides I had scheduled for myself, and I was averaging between 55-60% intensity. The next ride on the course was a repeat of The Cheaha Challenge, and I couldn’t bring myself to ride that beast again before getting some rest.

I spent 2-3 hours winding down from the ride on Saturday night. I ate dinner, showered, took an Epsom salt bath, used my compression boots, and finally went to sleep around midnight planning to wake up at 4 am to start my Sunday ride. I was attempting to simulate a RAAM sleep break to some degree, but obviously I would skip a few of those steps before going to sleep on RAAM.

My second time through the Cheaha Challenge on Sunday morning was even slower than the first, and my power was down to about 50% or lower. It was a little frustrating, but my main focus was just to stay on the bike and keep making forward progress. I believe I was experiencing difficulty with power output because the saddle area irritation was starting to set in and it was just difficult to sit on the saddle comfortably while climbing. I took a short break around mid-day to change my kit and use my foam roller for a few minutes. I got back on the bike for a few hours of flatter rides and my power was back up to 55-60%. My coach Rachel ran over (and I mean, she literally ran 15 miles from her house) and kept me company for about an hour, so that cheered me up for a bit.

After finishing the flatter block, I had a few hilly rides that I planned to finish before the end of the day. My power output was back down to around 50% on the climbs due to the saddle discomfort. As I started the second of the three rides, I realized it was going to be at least 8 pm by the time I finished and was contemplating whether I would be better off trying to make up the last ride on Monday. About halfway through the second ride, my rear derailleur cable blew out and I had to spend time changing bikes. By the time I finally got the second ride done, I had spent over 13 hours on the bike on Sunday and 24 hours over the course of the weekend, so I decided to play catch up during the week.

Completely drained after 13 hours on the trainer and a bike change, with the knowledge that I only had about a six hour break before starting another arduous week of work and pedaling.

Week 2

On Monday, I managed to make up the ride I missed on Sunday by spending almost six hours on the bike before and after work. That was probably the roughest I felt throughout VRAW, stumbling around at work like a zombie all day. But I realized that if I stuck to the conservative schedule I’d been following, I would put myself in a position to have an even longer Saturday ride on the final day before the VRAW cutoff on Sunday morning. I started advancing my schedule to get ahead, preferring to put in more miles during the week to avoid another long day on the trainer on Saturday. Rachel came over again on Monday after work (in her car this time) to pick up the bike in need of service and also brought me an awesome dinner.

Even though I was spending more time riding the second week, it was at a much lower intensity than the first week (mostly around 55%) so I felt like I was actually recovering throughout the week. I wasn’t feeling sore or terribly fatigued, and by the end of the week I was able to start increasing my power again. I was amazed that my knees were actually feeling better than they did before I started VRAW. The only discomfort I was experiencing was in the saddle region, as I mentioned earlier. This primarily affected my power output on the climbing rides, but I was able to adjust my position and cadence more easily on the flatter rides to work around the discomfort. Also, many of the climbs had a constantly changing gradient, requiring me to shift gears every few seconds, which just became fatiguing both mentally and physically. As soon as I would shift gears and adjust to a 6% gradient, it would suddenly jump up to 10% and I would have to shift and adjust again.

On Friday morning, my legs were feeling stronger again and my power was back up to about 60% for a couple of easier rides. After my morning ride, I figured I had about nine hours of ride time left to finish the race. My plan was to eat a light meal after work before getting on the bike, then pull an all-nighter to finish it off.

The first two rides were difficult climbs, then the remainder of the course was pretty flat. I struggled again through the two climbs as I had the night before. My overall feeling was pretty crappy by the time I got done with them, so I decided to take a two hour sleep break before taking on the final stretch. It was not easy dragging myself out of bed and back onto the bike, but once I started pedaling I felt great. I was able to bring my power back up to 60% or higher for most of the final block of rides, and powered through the last six hours or so with hardly any breaks. It felt great to be able to push myself again and see my heart rate higher than it had been in a few days. During the last hour I was even starting to feel my legs on the verge of cramping up.

During the last 10-15 of the ride, I went live on Facebook so that several friends were able to watch me finish the race and send some encouraging comments. It was definitely an odd feeling to cross a “virtual finish line” while sitting on a trainer in a garage by myself. I managed to get it all done by 7:30 am on Saturday, almost a full day ahead of the cutoff, and leaving myself most of the weekend to rest and recover before going back to work.

Finally a genuine smile after finishing VRAW and knowing I could climb off the trainer for good.

Mental Miles

Anthony Gordon, the creator of this sadistic event, used the tagline “mental miles” in reference to its goal of creating awareness that regular exercise is one of the most important elements of a healthy mental health profile. The tagline just happened to be an appropriate description of the course for anyone who opted to take on this challenge.

Most sporting events, and most certainly ultracycling, require a solid mental strategy for success. Even more so in a virtual ultracycling event in which one has the ability to jump off the bike at any moment and have immediate access to a shower, food, and bed. Then there’s the monotony of sitting in a garage for hours on end without any air movement or ability to coast or recover on downhills. How does one continually convince oneself to stay on the bike for all those miles?

I spent the majority of my weekday mornings in the winter training indoors the last two years, and would often listen to podcasts and occasionally audiobooks. For longer trainer rides, I occasionally watched movies. My goal isn’t to completely distract myself, as I do want to stay focused on my ride, but it does help to have some background noise and entertainment. I did listen to a few podcasts during VRAW, but I eventually found that movies and documentaries were a little more helpful. As I promised at some point, I’ll give a rundown of what I was watching throughout VRAW (to the best of my recollection).

I really enjoyed catching up with the live RAAM show that George Thomas and Rick Boethling recorded each morning throughout the twelve days of VRAAM. On weekdays I was working during the live recording so I would start my evening ride watching the recording from the morning. I didn’t typically have time to stay caught up on social media throughout the day, so it was nice to get a quick recap of what was going on in each virtual race and to hear from several folks in the ultracycling world. I even got to make a quick appearance myself while I was riding on the weekend! It was really cool to see ultracycling racers and fans from all over the world coming together virtually to follow these events and continue the tradition of following RAAM each year as best we could.

I believe the first movie I watched was Top Gun in honor of Phil Fox, who took 2nd place overall in VRAW and was the first American finisher. I noticed that he referenced the movie several times in his social media posts and when he appeared on the live show, so it got me thinking it was time to watch that classic again. And it was situation-appropriate as the movie is set near the RAAM start in Oceanside, CA. I believe I watched Top Gun during my first Friday morning ride, and was surprised at how well it kept me entertained, so I planned to keep finding more stuff to watch over the weekend.

On the first Saturday, I found myself going through all the RAAM documentaries I could find. Even though I’d seen almost all of them at least once or twice, I still found them to be motivating. I watched all of Anthony Gordon’s movies (More Than Miles, 3089, and RAAM Bam Thank You Mam). I also watched Race Across America, Godspeed, The Longest Journey, and Bicycle Dreams. Most of these can be found on Amazon Prime Video. I believe I also fit the classic cycling film Breaking Away in on Saturday before wrapping up.

For some reason, I’m drawing a blank as to what I was watching on Sunday. Even though it was my longest day on the bike, I don’t believe I watched many movies, if any. I think I listened to some podcasts, appeared on the live show, and had Rachel keeping me company for at least an hour.

During the second week, I watched the movie Patton one morning simply because it was a movie I’d been meaning to watch for awhile. While I am rarely able to sit through an entire movie off the bike without getting distracted, I was finding them much easier to watch when I was on the trainer in need of distraction. The next few days I switched to sports-themed movies for inspiration and watched Rudy and A League of Their Own.

For my final stretch of riding on Friday night into Saturday, I found myself going through a bunch of documentaries on Amazon Prime Video related to sports and endurance. These included Fully Charged, Shackleton’s Captain, Boston, The Ultimate Triathlon, Touch the Wall, and a Bille Jean King documentary. The documentary about the Boston Marathon was probably my favorite of the bunch.

Nutrition and Hydration Strategy

As I mentioned above, one of my personal goals in doing this event was to dial in some nutrition and hydration strategies to carry into my future training and races. Over the last few decades, the industry of sports nutrition and hydration has been very successful in marketing to endurance athletes. The importance of staying ahead on hydration and never allowing glycogen stores to be depleted has been drilled into our heads. For those of you who have participated in endurance events lasting several hours or longer, how many times have you experienced GI distress that has prevented you from performing at your best? It could be as severe as a crippling bout of diarrhea, or simply an upset stomach that prevents you from maintaining your race effort. In ultracycling, fluid retention seems to be a very common problem. I experienced pretty severe edema on two occasions last year – first during my weeklong pre-ride of the RAW course and then during and after racing RAW. Additionally, I’ve experienced milder issues with edema, fluid retention, and GI distress during both indoor and outdoor long rides and have been trying to isolate the cause and find a solution. Combining some reading and research with my own personal experience, I’m convinced that I’ve more often than not been overhydrating and taking in way too many of those electrolytes that we’ve been told are so important, especially when I’m working at a lower intensity. One of my goals with VRAW was to take the opportunity of doing a long event in a low-stress, low-consequence environment to pay more attention to my physical sensations to guide me in my fueling and hydration. Additionally, with so much time spent off the bike in comparison to other races, I was careful to stick to clean nutrition between sessions and tracked my nutrition as closely as possible.

For hydration, I used primarily water and only occasionally supplemented with electrolytes when I was working at a higher intensity. I drank when I was thirsty and didn’t obsess over staying hydrated while I was at work and between sessions on the trainer. I was pleased that I only noticed some mild fluid retention on a few occasions throughout the race, and it was typically at the end of the day when I got home from work. During the second week, I tried cutting back on my salt intake and that seemed to help. I’m still trying to find the right balance when riding outdoors and taking different temperatures into consideration, but I feel like I’ve made some progress.

For nutrition, my goal was to stick to a low carb regimen off the bike and to limit my intake of sugar. I’ve used so many sports nutrition products loaded with sugar over the years and just find that they’re inflammatory and cause me to crash if I don’t keep taking in more sugar, which leads to GI issues on longer workouts and races. I instead used foods and products with carbohydrates in the form of starches rather than sugars. As I mentioned, I did my best to track all of my nutrition on and off the bike for the entire twelve days. The ratio and amount of carbs was a little higher on the days I spent more time on the bike, but I took in a daily average of 170 g of carbs, 122 g net carbs, 40 g sugar, and my average macronutrient ratios were 17% carbs, 18% protein, and 65% fat. I consumed an average of about 3,800 calories per day. Looking back over the data, I realize I probably could have balanced that out a little better by eating a little more the first week and a little less the second week. I’m not sure I have an accurate measure of how many calories I burned, but I’m about 10 pounds lighter than when I started VRAW, so obviously I burned more than I ate. I never felt depleted of energy either during the rides or while I was at work (aside from the one day that I mentioned after the weekend long rides).

I still need to work on fueling and hydration for events in which I will be on the bike continuously, but this seemed to work really well for me. My key takeaway from this was that nutrition and hydration needs are going to be different for everyone, and will change for each person in different environments. It’s important to experiment to figure out what works for you.

Post-Race Wrap-Up

My official finish time was 10 days, 13 hours, 47 minutes, and 29 seconds, which obviously included many hours spent off the bike. My total time in the saddle was 70 hours, 44 minutes, and 48 seconds for an average speed of 13.4 mph.

There were both pros and cons to participating in this virtual version of an ultracycling event. The costs and logistics of a virtual event are obviously much simpler than with an actual race, which led to a large number of people from all over the world being able to participate in both VRAW and The 60. There were only a handful of people interested in taking on the entire VRAAM course, and I tip my hat to those who managed to continue riding for all 12 days, whether they were official finishers or not. Aside from the need to keep my race area well ventilated, there was no need to worry about adverse weather conditions. With the exception of my long weekend rides, most of my riding was done early in the morning while it was still cool or after work as it was cooling back down. The virtual event also created an environment with a lot less anxiety and sense of urgency than an actual race, at least the way I was doing it.

On the downside, without that stress and urgency of the real event, it was a little tougher to stay motivated for a virtual race. It also would have been nice to have a virtual version of the actual RAW course as opposed to a long list of random rides strung together, but I can appreciate that this event was put together out of necessity in a very short period of time and applaud the efforts of Anthony Gordon, Revolve 24, and FulGaz for the work they put into the race. And finally, while a bike saddle is never going to feel terribly comfortable after riding on actual pavement for several days straight, it’s even worse when those hours are spent on a trainer. You have to pedal almost constantly so it’s difficult to coast to alleviate pressure. You can’t move the bike like you can on the road to change the muscle groups you’re using. The lack of air movement makes it impossible to keep the saddle area dry so I feel like saddle sores were more of an issue than they would have been in an event on the road.

Overall, I’m very happy that I went ahead and participated in VRAW and am excited about what I got out of the experience. I was able to gain some insight in my nutrition and hydration needs as described above. The physical and mental stresses involved were certainly different from racing RAAM, but I felt like I was giving myself at least some degree of a simulation of the fatigue of RAAM by stretching the miles of RAW over the RAAM timeframe while working full-time. I would have liked to have been able to keep my effort level a little more consistent, but I was pleased to find that I was still feeling pretty decent by the end of the twelve days. I took off some unnecessary weight and rode myself into a level of fitness that I hope to maintain for some events that will hopefully be able to go on later in the year.

So that wraps up a pretty detailed account of my VRAW experience. Thank you for reading it if you made it this far. And thank you to everyone for their encouraging messages and comments on my daily updates. For some reason, it was surprising to me how many people realized the challenge I was taking on by doing this race around my full-time work schedule. I certainly underestimated myself how grueling it would be when I signed on.

(Virtual) Race Ready!!!!

It’s kind of a bittersweet time for me right now. If 2020 had gone differently, I would be in the final phases of preparation for RAAM right now. On the one hand, it’s a bit of a bummer to look back at memories from this time last year when I was getting ready for Race Across the West. On the other, it’s also sort of a relief to not be going through all that stress right now and know that I have another year to get ready.

I did decide to participate in Virtual Race Across the West (VRAW) on the FulGaz platform, and that will begin on the original RAAM/RAW start date of June 16. I’m back to work full-time now and will not be taking any time off for VRAW. I figured I would treat VRAW as more of a challenge to put in the miles between my work hours than as a race. It’s only been in the last week that I’ve been able to sit down and put together a schedule that I’m realizing what I’ve got myself into.

This weekend I finished up a four week training block that I am really happy to be done with. Planet Ultra put together some mileage and double century challenges over the last couple of months to stay afloat during the pandemic, as they’ve had to cancel several events. I spent the last four Saturday’s completing solo double century rides as part of these challenges, three of them to earn credit towards my California Triple Crown total, which I believe now stands at 20. Each challenge had a minimum requirement for elevation gain, which forced me to look for hillier routes. Most people know I’m not afraid of climbing, but it would have been easy to choose some flatter routes for the double centuries just to get them done quickly.

It’s been a whole new mental challenge to start doing double centuries solo and unsupported, but I think I got the hang of it pretty quickly. I also learned a lot over the course of the last few long rides about how to balance my nutrition, hydration, and electrolytes. The physical challenge of the fatigue building up week after week has been good as well, as each long ride I’ve had to stay focused to keep pushing through.

I opted to do my last double century on the indoor trainer yesterday as a final preparation for VRAW. I had some concerns about how I would hold up for longer distances on the trainer after struggling through a few big rides a couple of months ago. Physically, I think I held up about as well as I did on my double century rides on the road. The monotony of sitting on the trainer for so long, along with the knowledge that I could just stop at any moment and call it a day, was a mental challenge that I was able to handle pretty well. It was also good to be reminded of some of the things I need for long indoor rides. I must have placed 3-4 Amazon orders over the course of my ride.

All told, in the last four weeks I rode nearly 1500 miles, climbed 82,000 feet, and worked anywhere from 32-40 hours each week. I know it’s a big cliché, but I always love being able to say that “the hay is in the barn” at the end of a training cycle. I anticipate that I will feel like crap for a few days this week as I start to recover from the hard block of training, but I’m ready for it.