Hot August Nights Solo 2010

Its a bit late coming, but here is my race report on HAN Solo.

Pre Race

I think this years race was doomed from the begining. Some faimily health problems kept me off the bike for about 6 weeks leading up to the race. Happily everyone is doing well now and it was only me hurting over the 24 hrs of racing.

Due to the hectic going ons I was only getting the trailer ready for the road a couple of days before leaving, on Monday. I ended up with a leak in the plumbing which would elimnate the use of shower,toilet,sink, which was the primary reason for bringing the trailer. On top of this I was borrowing my Dads new truck and we had some trailer light connection problems.

Managed to get this fixed and put together the day I wanted to leave. So much for being packed the night before and ready to roll early.

Julie and I managed to get rolling about 2 hours later than planned and headed off to my sisters in Kingston Thursday evening to cut the trip down. About 20 minutes out of Kingston at around 11 p.m. the trailer tire blew out. Tons of tractor trailers rolling by on the 401 so had to really pull over to be safely off the hwy since it was the drivers side.

I was hoping to be in Albion Friday around noon and be through Toronto evening rush hour traffic. Since I had to get the trailer tire replaced we only ended up on the road around 11ish or so and we ended up in rush hr traffic. Not too bad but took us about 50 minutes to go 6 kms on the 401 to the 400 turn off.

We finally made it in to Albion around 5:30. It was a bit late to do a pre-ride lap now since i wanted to be all set up to go to bed around 10 to give me 12 hours of sleep for 10 the next morning.

We quickly made friends with the other Solo riders on the site. The pit crews had the beer flowing as soon as the coolers came out, which were conviently placed to be the first thing to unload :). Camp set-up went well and we had our couple of canopies up for the shade as it was to be a scorcer of a weekend. The pit crew, Julie, Paula(my sis) and Keith(my cousin) were having fun by the fire by dark and I got the beds together in the trailer and made it to bed at a decent hour despite the horible week of events.

Race Day

I woke up around 10 a.m as planned and had myself a blender filled breakfast and slowly got all geared up for 11:30. Headed up to get in line and wasn't to far back at the start line. Maybe 75 riders back. I figured this was about where I wanted to be. Ahead of some of the slower starters but behind all the fast teams that where bound to be close to the front.

It was pretty hot. I think the temp with the humidex was in the 40's.

3.2.1..... we were off. There was a crash a 100m out of the start with a few guys looked like they were stuck in the crowd. Didn't really slow the start pace. Within 1 minute everyone was in an orderly single file. This was a bit surprising as typically the start loop of grass double track is 4 people wide with people darting in and out of everywhere.

The track was nice and fast and dry. They didn't have the big monster climb in this year and I was actually a bit dissapointed. The still did have a fair bit of climbing in the last 5 kms. There were a few short steap sections and some longer climbing on the single track. I think I would have liked just the big monster climb . . .

If you were racing on a team I think most of the gang would have broke the 1 hour mark fairly easily. My fast lap was my first lap @ 1:03:29 which includes the extra km or two, some bogging down behind traffic in the single track, and a stop in the pits for a new bottle and a bit to eat.

By the second lap I was hurting pretty bad and the heat was getting to me. I was also getting a pain in one of the musles behind my left knee, which I hurt on a ride 2 weeks prior on a Gat loop. My one training ride since Summer Solstice. It nagged me te last 2 Fortune races, my only other rides since Solstice.

By lap 3 I was freezing for about 2 laps, probably from the extreme heat. I was holding onto 8th place out of 16.

I flatted on lap 4. Was a weird one with a cut at the valve stem. I was having a not bad lap but flatting and watching two solo guys go by while I replaced the tube really took the wind out of my sails. I also crashed 2 times on this lap. Mentally and phisically was my worse lap. Going too slow on a tight switchback climb, stalled, wheeled and fell on the inside DOWN the tight steep corner. Later in the lap on a fast switchback decent braked for a left 180 bend and as I was coming out of corner tire slide away in a huge groove off the edge of trail. Kinda went over the bars as I layed it down on the inside of the corner. On one of these two crashes I managed to bang the front of my sore knee so it was hurting on the front and the back.

Somehow I managed to hang on to 8th place after all this.

I was planning on taking my break at this point but decided that I had my pacing down to my heart rate was not of the charts and did another lap. I finished around 7 p.m. and I had moved up to 6th. Humm... maybe I should keep going. Its amazing how mentally uplifting being in a good position makes you feel and how much a poor position crushes you. But I felt I had enough and need a rest and maybe suffered a slight bit of heat stroke earlier on. I was feeling pretty crappy. Legs were heavy and week. Decide to come in, eat, shower and take a nap til midnight.

I managed to get up shortly after midnight and ate beside the fire. I think I headed out around 12:45 with the lights on. All in all I wasn't feeling to bad except for my knee, which was now swollen a bit on the front and a bit of pain in back.

My little nap had me down to 13th place. Yikes! Showed me 3 hours behind 12th. I think I was miss reading the Solo results which they had posted of the side for Solo rides in a Fast lane :)

At any rate after finishing this lap I was up two places in 11th. Huh. I think the results area bit skewed as you don't know if the rider in front of you scanned 3 hours ago but maybe they stopped on this lap and were now not on the course.

I did another lap and was feeling great except my left leg/knee. It was hurting pretty bad and was ok pedaling but on any downhill section felt like it was about to go into a painful knot. I was also mentally down about being so low in the placing. I had a goal of 15 laps after doing 12 last year. I had had a great start to the season and had been on more training loops in the Gats this year than the total riding for the two years before. I figuired this was a reasonable goal before the all the problems hit before Solstice. I knew my lack of training would hurt and I had hoped to do 12 or maybe 13 laps. At this point I had my doubts and the pain in my knee was bad. I figured my original goal of 15 was long long gone so no use doing any damage to my leg now. I wasn't really thinking of coming back Solo next year at this point. I finished up my lap and alkl I wanted to do was crawl into bed with Julie :). I did manage to force myself to shower and eat before dozing off.

I didn't even bother with an alarm. I think it was close to 9 and Julie was up asking if I was calling it quites. She said I may as well from the way I was sulking. At that point something got me going again and I figured I'd have time for 3, maybe 4 laps, to put me at 10 laps. I was in good spirits the lasp laps and going pretty good for the shape I was in.

It was starting to get hot and I decide to ride the plank and get hosed down to cool off. I ended up doing it twice and the hosing was really refreshing.

I finished my 9th lap with 2 minutes to spare. This ment I would need to do an 1:02 lap to get the last lap to count. With my knee hurting a lot and the last two lap times arounf 1:14 and 1:19 I figured it would be a long shot and decided not to. I think if I would have had 1:10 I wouldda went for it. I also didn't grab another bottle for the next lap as I already figured it would be too much.

So that ws it. 9 laps. Thats what I did in my first year. So lap total was the same as my worse but I was finished about 1 hour sooner than before and the distance per lap was about 1 km more each lap. So not actually my worst lap.

My feelings of not coming back ever for Solo were already wearing off and I was actually a little pissed at myself for stopping the second time.

A big thanks to Julie, Keith and Paula for keeping me going and the positive thoughts even though for me it was a struggle before I even started the race.

Congrated to Glenda Martin from our site who made a 3rd place podium. Also hope to see Drew Quarrie from our site back next year. I think he had 3 times the beer the night before than he did laps haha, but he still gave it a go. Lots of mechanicals on his new build.

Tanya Martin was another Solo rider from our site. She did Trans Rockies and said this 24 hr Solo stuff was way harder.

I took a nap after the awards and I was dreaming this strange dream of doing both Summer Solstice and Hot August Nights solo next year on a Single Speed :)

Cheers,

Paul

New Blogger

I decided to start a fresh new blogger for my racing, riding and training.
The old blogger was sparatic at best.
Hopefully will be able to keep this one up to date.
Cheers,
Paul

Roller Training Day

Been a slow start to the winter training. Been fighting a cold and cough for weeks. Nothing major but just don't feel 100%.
Tried to do a 5x(5 min x 2 min rest) interval set but legs felt heavy and tired after a poor attempt at the first 5 minutes. Turned it around an did 4x(2 min x 5 min rest).
This worked out much better and I was actually surprised when the 'Cool Down' came up on the computer with 55 mins done.
Turned out to be a not bad workout all things considered.

'B' Crit Report

I've only been involved with MTB a couple years and this is my first year Road Racing.

I made it out to the 'B' Crit last night.Was a small crowd of around 20 riders. Race was around 20 minutes plus 5 laps. Ross made it a point/sprint night and would occasionally ring a bell at the start/finish line to indicate the next lap was a sprint lap. Points were 5/ for 1st and 2nd.

Course was the old course that they used for 15 years, so I was told. This would be turn 3 not at the warm up lap first corner but the second corner, which is at the stop sign.

I have had only 1 ride since the Aug 22 24hr MTB race. Was feeling pretty good all things considered. I was the lone Euro-Sport rep There was a decent head wind on the start/finish leg which would make it interesting on the sprints.
On the first sprint lap I was pretty much at the back. I pedaled through all corners unless someone in front of me was slowing. I had some decent speed sprinting out of corner 4 corner so for some silly reason I kept sprinting. I managed come come from the back up to 4th, and I was inside the rear wheel of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. I was pretty stoked as I was in the wind all the way from corner 4.Ross had instructed everyone to regroup after the sprint so I sat up to recover. After the recovery lap, if you could call it that as the speed didn't drop much, I got popped off the back! Doh! So much for being stoked haha.
After one more lap for me I was recovered but the group was close to being out of site. One rider that was also off the back caught me so I jumped his wheel for a lap. By now I was fully recovered and the two of us took half lap pulls for a couple laps then Allen jumped on with us. We did about two laps like this and then the group was on us with perfect timing down the front straight. I jumped back in only to have the bell rung. Great! SoI managed to hang on to the group until the last lap.

I learned a lesson last night. If you know you are not the strongest rider and are just hoping to stay with the group til the end, don't do a mega first sprint ! ! ! or get into a good position on the first sprint and lay it all on the line for your one minute of glory Was a fun night and the temp was perfect for racing. I am hoping to make it out to the next two and final crits as they are 'OPEN' crits.
Last races of the season so hope to see ya all there

Cheers,
Paul

Back to Blogg'n

Well its been a while since I have did any blogg'n. I guess now is as good a time as any to start back.



The one major development since last year is that I have been diagnosed with Diabetes. It was on Feb. 4,09 and I ended up staying in the hospital for observation. Doc said it will take 6 months to sort things out. So far I am on some medicaion that seems to be working.

For far resuls have been promising and it looks like its not the end of the world as I first figured :)

Cheers,

Paul

Sunset Series 08 XC Race #1

DNF . . .
Well that could be my race report for my first XC race. The End ....
Two flats put me out of the race. It was not a long race, about 5.25 kms a lap, 3 laps, so a single flat will certainly hurt your placing. No results yet posted but my guess from the sheet a la course showed an average lap of around 25 minutes for my category(40-49). I had brought 1 tube and a patch kit. Next race I will bring 2 tubes. At least if I get a second flat I will be able to ride back to the car instead of doing the long walk after pulling out :(

Quick Bio. I turned 40 this year. 5'4" and about 145-150 lbs. In the last 8 years I slowly gave up all my sports(Hockey(ball,ice,roller), broomball, and Slo-Pitch) due to starting a family and building a house. About 4 years ago I started commuting to work. It is about 40km round trip. I was doing the ride summer and winter in the snow and this is how I got interested in MTB'ing. I have always been very competitive in sports so the commuting was keeping me in shape but I was missing the sporty part. So I started riding with some beg/interm rides last summer and ended the year riding with some very experienced riders. This is how I got on a team, or gang. I did one race in August, which was a 24 hr solo effort, just to see what its all about. I'm hooked and signed up for two 24 solos this year.

I was looking forward to doing my first XC race all winter. I even got rollers and did a little training for about 6 weeks before I got the damn flu bug.It was about a week before the first O'Cup. I was off work for about a week. It was like having a 7 day headache along with every muscle in my body aching with fever. I lost about 10 pounds and I am only normally around 150lb (5'4"). Of course I managed to get the cough they said is common to have for 1-2 weeks after the flu which, heeding the advice of friends and forum members, caused me to skip O'Cup #2. It was probably a wise choice for many reasons. So last night ended up being my first race.

Race Recap

I got to the race early, signed up and got my plate just before the big rush came. My licence came in the mail the day before even tho it was seeming to take forever. I took this as good
karma :) I had lots of time to check over the bike, get dressed, and warm up. I chatted with the guys on the team(or gang) and was very relaxed.

I did a warm-up of about 15 mins and then went to the start and lined up with the guys. It was a delayed group start of about one minute delay between groups. I think Sport was 3rd to go. I was very relaxed and sat near the back of the group chatting away with a couple teammates. There is a long steep climb to the single track so no need to bolt off at the start. Your fitness level will quickly be shown too all :) . The first 200 meters are fairly flat, the next 200 meter are around 9% grade and the last 200 meters before the single track are around 14-20% grade!
On the first lap I was feeling a bit of hurt and weak on this climb and my heart rate was between 170-180(180 my max,40 yrs). On the second and third lap I felt that I was going at least as fast as the first lap and my heart rate was almost 10 beats lower.

I feel that technically I am very good for only one summer of experience. There was no spot on the course that I didn't clear when not blocked by another rider stalled out on the good line minus one technical rooty, soft soil, rooty climb. I picked a bit of a bad line and my tire spun. It was the third lap and I was a bit tired. I know for next time I need to get more speed up for this section.

That said I learned quickly in the first section of singletrack that its not good to be behind riders in any tight, technical section. Can you say 'Log Jam!'. And I think the odds are good that the farther down the pack you are on a climb the more chance you have of getting stopped from a guy in front of you not clearing a section. This could simply be being out of steam from the climb to do that half rotation that always seems to elude you on a little steep, rocky section shortly after :). So I had to actually stop for 10 seconds and wait for a few guys to push up through a tight rocky section.

My first flat came about 15 minutes in. It took about 5:30 seconds to change. It was a real bummer to watch the couple guys on the team go that I figured where around my caliber. Would make for a more fun race and better gossip afterwords since we would be watching each other. I think by the time I got rolling again I was dead last out of all of the groups. The good thing was that I had lots of tight single track all too myself :)

I did find my calfs cramped a bit two times but went away once I had some sports drink. I usually ride with a pack with two bladders, one with drink and one with water. I have only one cage on my GT i-drive so I only took one bottle. I figured it would be marginal, but enough. I was planning on two laps according the guys and them saying the first race of the season would not be as long, but it was 3 laps. I will carry another bottle of water in my middle jersey pocket for next race an I am sure I will be fine.

I caught a few people in the second lap. One was a team member who I figured would do well. Turned out he flatted in the warm-up and fixed his flat at the car, but missed the start. He passed me while I was fixing mine. He was aout to call it quits when I came by. I stopped to kick his butt in gear when he told me the story and that he lost his tire irons at the car. I gave him my set, told him to change the tube and try and catch me! I don't need irons for the Kenda Karma DTC's I am running.

I passed a few more people on lap two, but I was pretty sure they were not my class. It was on the start of the climb on the third lap that I saw some people that I new where in my class. I tried not to get too excited to catch them at this point. I knew I was reeling them in and had a whole lap to go. I was feeling pretty good at this point. It's a nice feeling to see you are catching someone and confident that you are gonna do it. I think I was hurting more on the climbs with no one in site feeling like I was at the back of the pack :(

After the first climb is a technical rocky singletrack section, the a little bit of double lane switchbacks to a fast but rough singletrack section. After this you have one more nasty fire road climb(small gravel and sandy, so bit loose, but energy sapping). You are almost at the top of the mountain by then. The kicker here is you turn back into the singletack to another really tough and steep climb for about 200m. If you went to hard on the fire road you would be in serious trouble to climb this section. Lots of rocks and roots so you need that bit of power to clear the bigger ones.

I passed one person on this fire road section and pulled up to the wheel of two other guys at the turn in of the singletrack climb I mentioned. The second guy hit a root and stalled and I passed him here. The guy ahead of me turned out to be pretty good technically and was pretty fast on the downhill technical stuff. I held his wheel out of the singletrack climb but I wasn't sure if I should do a sprint pass here or wait. I decided to follow and we went down some steep rocky sections in the open hill and back into the woods for some fast downhill singletrack. I was keeping about a 10 bike length lead on the downhill in case he went down and I figured I would close that gap back in the woods. He seemed to pull away a bit, as I said I under estimated hill climbing ability with technical skill. Oooops! I was determined not to let him get away so I kinda let it a bit loose to to close the gap. I knew there was a small rock drop coming(can you say endo!) that split into two for about 5 bike lengths. He went left and I went right with wreck less abandon and made the pass. After this I pulled away from him. I wondered if he was pushing himself a bit harder than he should cause I was on his wheel?

It was getting close to the end of the race and I was feeling great. I knew the end was coming so I was really starting to push it. Then Psssst! Another front flat! WTF ! ! I was pisssed. I decided to run out of the last of this singletrack as it opens up to the open ski hill and lots of room to change the tire. I ran bit more into the open pushing the bike while fighting in my mind if I should just run with the bike to the finish or fix the flat.

I decided to fix the flat. It was a real bummer to be there on the open mountain, right in front of the chalet with people on the balcony, trying to put a patch on a tube. Again I had people start passing me. I think the first person to pass me was my teammate who had fixed his tire after all. I don't think he would have caught me as I was less than 4 minutes from the finish(gotta get a dig in haha). Seeing Iggy go by did lift my spirits for a few seconds as I tried to pump up the damn tire I patched. I couldn't get it to pump up. I could hear the air leaking out. I pulled the tube out and could see that I didn't let the glue dry enough and had the patch on the edge of the double snake bite flat. A few more riders went by and the guy that I figured was in last place goes by saying "at least I'm gonna beat somebody". Oh I wanted to get my tire pumped so bad at that moment ! ! ! But alas my tire was phsst'ing away with every stroke of the pump. IT was at this point I hung my head down, stuck the flatted wheel back on the bike and walked off the course. At least I only had 100m or so to walk to the chalet.....

Well I got a DNF for my first XC race. But I have to say I really enjoyed it and plan to have lots of fun racing the SS series this year. Evey other weds. Next race I will bring two tubes and will be running a bit more pressure from the start to hopefully avoid any flats in the first place.
My average lap times without flats I figured would be around 27 minutes a lap using data from my GPS. I found out I was not the only one to flat. Our fastest guy got a flat his first lap on Mens Expert. Had some fun chatting with the guys after over a beer and a burger. I think they keep points from 4 of 7 races so all is not lost !!!

I have a few questions.
1.) What happens when you blow up?
I ask this cause my heart rate was in the 170's(MAX 180) on the climbs. I don't mind holding it there but was wondering what would happen if I gave it a bit more on the first climb and held it closer too or at my max HR on this climb. I think I could get in front of several people this way but don't want to do it only to get passed again or slow people in the singletrack ahead cause I am toast.
2.) How do I get to be a better climber?
Maybe 10 hours a week to train max, including 3 hour MTB technical, hilly group riding Sundays(intense for me)


Cheers,

Still Snowing!

Well we are nearing the end of March and we are still getting snow. We are very close to beating the record snow fall of 1972. We are second place right now. Worse part is we've not had one huge storm to get close to the record, but rather snows a bit every day it seems.

Now with the sun getting stronger the roads in town dry out pretty fast. My country roads are still messy and my dirt road I live on is now starting to be one slick' o' mud. I have been riding indoors cause I'm to lazy to clean the bike afterwards. Its easier on the rollers for me these days.I have been renovating the basement so been busy.

I think the hardest part of the training is getting enough sleep. I haven't been riding or sleeping enough of late but cracking down starting this week.
I think I am going to try the Ontario Cup races this year.
http://www.tinyurl.com/yrxeq8
The first race is only about 6 weeks away,April 27, 2008 - Mansfield. Looks like I will not be as ready as I would have hoped to be but going to train hard the next 5 weeks and taper the week before. Hopefully there will be a few others that haven't gotten it together either. I would imagine most people doing these races are at least semi-serious racers. My goals for the beggining part of the season will be not to be DFL. After a few races I will see how tough these races really are and if this will be my goal for the year or if I have a chance of finishing in the top 20 and accumulating some points !

My main goal would be to podium at Hot August Nights as a solo rider. This would be tough but I think if I train hard I might just have a shot at 3rd. I guess it depends on who shows up.
I just turned 40 so not racing with the younger crowd. Its not that the 40 plus crowd is easy, its just that the field is not nearly as big :)
Cheers for now,
Paul