Lotoja 2013 Report Part II

I was worried riding out of Montpelier.  I didn't feel very good and I knew how far I had to still go.  I knew I'd burned a lot of energy trying to catch on the group after my unfortunate stop approaching the Strawberry climb and I knew that last years "dark place" for me was still to come on the Salt River climb.  But I did what I knew I had to do when the doubts enter my mind.  I just kept pedaling.  Soon I was feeling better.  In between the Strawberry Climb and the Salt River climb there is the smaller Geneva Summit climb.  I remember secretly hoping as I was climbing this hill that maybe this was actually the Salt River climb and that somehow I had already done Geneva and this would be my last major climb of the day.  But deep down I knew I was fooling myself and I laughed at myself because I remember thinking the same thing the year before.  Soon enough Geneva was done and I remarked to the guy riding next to me that we only have one more major climb left.  I said this more for myself but the guy did not look amused.

I tried to keep my fear of the next climb in check as I approached it.  It wasn't like it was that hard or long of a climb, it was just the fact that last year this was the hardest point for me.  I remember hitting a major wall both figuratively and literally.  I had to really will myself up last year.  With my struggles up Strawberry already this year I was worried that it would be all the worse on this last climb.  But as I continued up I noticed that I had my strength and I felt okay.  I was also passing people and I wasn't being passed too much.  This was a good sign for me.  I found a good rhythm and worked myself up to the top without too much trouble.  I was grateful at this point not to have a repeat of last year.

I found myself in a good group as we worked our way into Afton.  It took much longer than I expected to finally arrive.  Once there I was grateful to see Jen there waiting.  My arms and shoulders were hurting pretty good and up til then I didn't have to take any Advil but I remember thinking on my way in that I probably ought to get some from Jen at this stop.  But once in Afton I had totally forgotten this until Jen suggested I take some.  I was grateful she did because this made me feel so much better as far as the aches and pains in the shoulders and neck.

I rode by myself for the first part out of Afton until I was caught by 2 riders from another race group.  This was the first I'd seen of this group but I didn't even think that perhaps they were the leaders in their group.  I didn't hesitate latching on and they seemed more than happy that I work with them.   The 3 of us rode hard through Star Valley.  Once in a while we'd get some others in our group that would work with us but soon they'd disappear.  As we raced through the valley I'd often think to myself that I need to eat and drink but it always seemed an inopportune time to do so.  The three of us were working so well I didn't dare interrupt the rhythm of the thing.  I hardly drank and I don't think I ate at all, all the way to Alpine.  Once there I met up with Jen as I watched the other 2 guys ride through grabbing bags of food as they rode on.  I remember thinking they must be the really serious, not even stopping.   I found Jen waiting for me and I began apologizing when she found all of the food in my pockets uneaten.  I think she found this funny that I would apologize but somehow I felt at the time that I let her down buy not doing so.  Still, she cleared my pockets and put in the minimal amount of food for the last stretch.

Rolling into Alpine, the last feedzone for me.

Again I was by myself leaving Alpine until I was caught by a group of about 7 guys.  I began working with them and taking pulls when, after just getting done with one of my pulls, I noticed the guys in the group looked a little uneasy.  A guy at the back then informed me that the others in the group had asked him not to help because they were going for the win in their category and didn't want to get in trouble with race officials accepting help from others outside of their category.   This made me laugh a bit and I told the guy that they weren't in the lead.  In fact, I just rode with a couple of guys who are in their category and they were way ahead by now.  I wondered if I should tell them or not, or maybe they already knew?  Either way, I was happy to let them do all the work through Snake Creek Canyon.  Eventually, other mixed groups caught us and were faster and I latched onto them.  I wondered if the group that asked us not to help would hold to their morals and not latch on to this bigger, faster group.  Sure enough, they latched on.  Maybe by then they realized they weren't in the lead of their category.

We rolled through Hoback Junction and I skipped the neutral  feed zone there.  I still hadn't eaten much but I was feeling better and better and I knew I had enough energy to make it to the end.  Once out of Snake Creek we made the turn towards Jackson I could feel myself getting really happy.  This was my favorite part of the ride and seemed to come quicker then I expected.  As we continued toward the finish the speeds steadily picked up.  There were quite a few from my category in the group I was in and I was still feeling pretty good so I made plans in my head to try to take the sprint out of at least my group.  This would be different from last year as I didn't even attempt a sprint at the end.  I could have but  I think I felt stupid doing so when I was finishing so far behind the leaders.  This time I didn't care.  I knew I would regret if I didn't.

The finish line came faster than I was expecting.  I was surprised to see the 1 km to go sign so soon.  I was further back in the pack than I wanted and guys began sprinting in the front.  I followed a guy who started sprinting just in front of me and used him as a lead-out.  I was able to round him and caught who I thought were the lead guys in our little group at the line.  As I stopped at the finish I realized there was one guy from our category who must of got off the front and finished solo.  Must not have seen that.  Oh, well.  I was happy to be done.

Jen's photo of the finish line.  I didn't see her as I came in this time due to the sprint.

It's a strange feeling to finally stop.  As they make you stand to take off your timing strap I remember feeling that I should be hurrying and that I should get back on the bike and go.  But I was done.  No more hurrying.  I still felt pretty good too.  Better than I did the year before.  And last year I finished strong as well.  Upon reflection I wonder if this means I'm not leaving it all on the road like I should.  But it sure felt like I was going as hard as I could throughout.  It's just that for 2 years running I did much better, especially in the overall standings, in the last 30 to 40 miles of the race.   And I hadn't really eaten particularly well since Afton.  I will have to ponder this some more as I prepare for next year.

Glad to be done.  Perfect riding weather all day.

In the excitement of the finish line I completely forgot to get my finishing medal.  Oh well, I guess they'll mail it to me.

There will be a next year.  I'll have higher goals and hopefully bigger plans.  I've got plenty of time to prepare, right?  As I write this I laugh because I had a dream the night after Lotoja that it was race day 2014.   I thought "wholly crap, didn't I just do this."  I know this dream has some truth to it.

Lotoja 2013 Race Report - Part I

To give you the short version of the race report I'll tell you that I met my goal of beating last year's time of 11 hours and 5 minutes by almost an hour, finishing this year in 10 hours and 9 minutes. (9:58 ride time, 11 minutes stoppage).  This was nowhere near the top riders in my category but I'm happy to have bested my previous year.  The weather was good and I had perfect support from my wife and my bike road without any problems.  That's all you need to know I guess for the short version.





Now for the long version.....

This is my second year doing this.  The second year of training with this race looming in the back of my mind.  The crazy thing is that I'm only 2 days away from finishing but I already know I'll try again next year.  But this year was different from last year.  This year's lotoja race seemed to be just that, a race.  It wasn't a mere effort to just finish like it was last year.(though, at the time I felt like I was going as fast as I could)  This year felt like more of a serious race.  It made it all the more fun, if the word fun could be used in a suffer-fest like this.  In this case, the word is being used loosely.

Jen and I arrived in Logan about 5:30 pm Friday night and went straight to packet pickup.  Lines were short and pick-up was easy and Jen snapped a quick photo of me in front of the start line.

I'm feeling pretty excited.

After pick-up we went to dinner at Gia's Italian Restaurant.  The food was really good but it took forever.  Good thing we weren't in a hurry to go anywhere, but the food was worth it.  After dinner we checked into the Crystal Inn and did final prep on the bike.

I slept well and woke up at 4:30 am to shower and get ready for breakfast.  My start time was 6:15 am so I figured this gave me plenty of time.  Jen slept while I went down to eat.  Breakfast was more crowded than I thought it would be and it took a bit longer than I expected.  Still, I thought I had plenty of time.  I still had to fill water bottles but as long as I left at around 5:55 am I thought I'd be good.

We were out the door at exactly 5:55 am with everything ready to go.  It was still dark and I had a couple of conversations with fellow cyclists in the parking lot about whether or not to use lights on the bike.  I opted to go without and risk the danger of riding in the dark until the sun came up.  Somehow the risk seemed worth the weight savings.  Crazy I know, but it turned out okay.

I unloaded the bike and pumped the tires and by this time it was getting pretty close to starting time.

I think I over-inflated because I couldn't see in the dark.  Good thing I was running tubular's.

 We hurried over to the start line to find hundreds of people there getting ready to go.  I figured I better try to use the bathroom before we left so I left the bike with Jen near the back of the crowd.  The line for the porta-potty's was crazy long and I could hear the announcer saying that my starting group was up next to leave.  I bailed on trying to use the bathroom and hurried back to find Jen.  As I neared the place I left her I realized that it was really dark and that there were a lot of people standing around with bikes and I would be really lucky to find Jen in the next 10 minutes let alone the next 50 seconds as the announcer had just announced.  A feeling of panic came over me.  It reminded me of the feeling I would get as a kid in middle school on the first day and I couldn't find my class.  It actually made me chuckle a little being reminded of that feeling.  I started calling Jen's name in desperation.  The announcer said 30 seconds to start.  I wandered toward the start pack not thinking maybe Jen had brought my bike up there but sure enough in the distance I see her with the same panicked look that I had.  She saw me and with crazy speed she put my helmet on my head and I got on my bike to click-in just as the announcer said go.  Jen was able to snap this photo as I was trying to click in.

That's me.  Number 212.

I laughed with relief all the way out of Logan and couldn't help thinking over and over, "next year I'm getting to the start line earlier."  We cut it way too close.

Rolling out of Logan we had a police escort which is always a novelty that I enjoy.  We get to ride straight through town in the middle of traffic.  It's a neutral start but you can tell everyone is anxious, excited or nervous.  It was dark too.  Especially when not on main roads.  We had a near crash right in the middle of the pack right from the start.  I remember hearing someone comment on how bad of a start that would have been.  I agreed.

Once out of Logan the police pulled off and went one direction while we went another.  The race was officially on.  It was a pretty uneventful first 20 miles.  I wore arm warmers thinking that it might get cold outside of Logan but that wasn't the case.  In fact, it was a very warm morning.  Much warmer than last year and we didn't need anything as far as warm gear the entire ride.  I pulled down my arm warmers early on and never needed them again.  It was lovely riding weather.

There must of been a bit of a head wind into Preston as I remember thinking that our pack was going pretty slow.  I stayed in the middle conserving my energy as I planned but I heard there was a couple of guys off the front and in a small breakaway.  I thought to myself that it was a long ways out from the finish to be in a breakaway but to each their own.

There is a small climb just outside of Preston and then the road gets hilly.  I had no problem staying with the main group as was my plan to stay with them as long as possible.  I knew things would break-up on the Strawberry climb.  A number of riders decided to pull off the side and pee.  I didn't really have to go that bad myself but I thought with the number of people going off to the side this may be my only chance.  So after some hesitation on my part I pulled off to the side as well.  The only problem was I couldn't go.  I sat there and waited for something to happen all the while the main pack was regrouping and riding off into the distance.  The longer I stood there the more I thought I better keep waiting because I've already waited this long and I better make it count.  Still, nothing happened.  Finally, I gave up and got back on my bike cursing myself and my stupid stage fright.  By that time my riding pack was far in the distance and they seemed to be picking up speed.

I dug deep trying to catch back on.  I knew I was burning a lot of energy early in the race because of my stupidity but I thought I better try.  Just as I was giving up I saw another Infinite Team member coming up from behind me.  I guess he stopped as well and we commented to each other on how stupid that was.  We worked together with him doing most of the work to catch back on.  We were catching what I though was a split in our group but as we got closer I realized that is was actually the Pro-1-2-3 group.  That was a surprise to me but we latched onto them while our main group was still further up the road.  After riding with the Pro-123's for a few miles a race referee asked that we back off and not mix in with them.  This was a bummer as I knew it would be very hard to bridge to our main pack at this point.  The Pro-123 group seemed to accelerate shortly after this and I'm not sure we could have stayed with them anyway for very long.

The Strawberry climb came shortly after this and by this point I stopped worrying about who I was riding with and just tried to get into my climbing rhythm.  I'm not a fast climber but for some reason I still enjoy it.  I climb an amazing amount throughout the year so I actually long for the feeling of going uphill.  Strawberry is a pretty canyon as well so I figured I would enjoy the ride up but my legs had other ideas.  They seemed to hurt more than usual almost as if they were cramping without full-on cramping.  This got me worried as we were still considered early in the ride.  I had been eating and drinking according to plan but I thought maybe the effort of trying to catch my group may have hurt me more than I thought.  After reaching the summit I continued to worry as my legs seemed stiff and dead.  There is neutral support at the top of the climb but I didn't stop like I did last year.  I rolled on through and grabbed new water bottles that were being handed out.  That was a first for me.  To grab a bottle without stopping.  It worked easy enough and I was grateful for the cold drinks.

I found a group to ride with on the way down and we began taking turns with pulls as we made our way to Montpelier.  We kept a fast pace and I still wasn't feeling very good but I've learned that on long races like this things change.  If for the better or worse, you keep on riding, eventually, the way you feel will change.

We finally rolled into Montpelier about 76 miles into the race.  I was happy to see Jen at our meet-up point as she called my name.  She asked me how I was doing and I tried to act like I was doing okay but I think it was obvious that I was hurting.  She unloaded by pockets and restocked them according to plan and I was off.  I remember thinking that my stop was way too short.  Even though we planned on making as quick as stops as possible I was shocked at how quick it was and how little I was able to recover.  Oh well, on to Afton.....

Final Prep for Lotoja 2013

So it's officially the week of the big event, and with that, it's officially taper week.  This is the week that training for Lotoja is over and now it's a matter of tapering just right so that the day of the big ride the legs feel fresh and ready to go.  I always enjoy taper week.  I know that whatever I do this week won't help my fitness in any way for Lotoja.  I've already done all I can and in that way it lowers my stress.  I know now that it's basically a "ready or not" type of thing.

Though it's still about 5 days away I can already feel the nerves starting to surface.  I'm doing my best to just relax and soak it in.  I felt last year that it all went by so fast and though it was exciting and fun it was over before I knew it.  This being my second year I hope to enjoy things a bit more.  As for my goals this time around I only have one, to beat last years time.  I'm about 5lb lighter and I feel I'm climbing a bit better but I actually have ridden a little bit less in preparation.  I hope that doesn't come back to bite me.  Also, I realize that the weather was about as perfect as it has ever been at Lotoja last year, hence all the records that were set, so I can't expect it to be the same this year.  Plus, my support was perfect last year so I know it will be a miracle if that is repeated as well.  Still, I have hope that I can do better than my first year.  I mean, you should always do better than year first year, right?

But I've done all I can do at this point.  The bike has new tires and I have a new chain and cassette on as well, (it just needed the new chain and cassette anyway).  Everything else on the bike looks good and it seems to be riding quiet.  I now can only hope for a smooth ride overall.

On an unrelated topic, we bought new skis and binding and boots for the kids yesterday at one of the big Labor Day sales they have every year.  We felt that it was time for them.  Time to get off of their crappy rental gear and onto some nice stuff.  They are at the point were they want to ski powder and have fun in it so we felt it was right.  I think we'll be able to use it for 2 seasons and then sell what can't be reused at that time.  I tried to convince the kids that this was their only Christmas present but they weren't buying it.(spoiled kids) I think I am more excited about the new gear then they are.