So last Saturday I rode the
Sandwich 50 Enduro mountain bike race. There was concern about whether or not the race would go on because it was raining most of the Friday before, but it ended up stopping and started to dry out.
The race didn't really go how I wanted it to. The other day I read this article on
Endurance Corner (link). It's not anything I didn't know, but it's a good reminder to use a bad performance as a learning experience.
Anyway, I had a plan to go hard and hit the singletrack in the top 10, keep a slightly hard pace for the first lap then back off for the next couple laps, and then try to ratchet it up at the end.
The race started and my
preferred start position helped with my placement into the prologue lap and into the singletrack we went. But then I made the most basic rookie mistake. I overlapped wheels with the rider in front of me when we went into the first corner and I went down. In an instant, I went from a top 10 position to a top 20.
Next mistake was to try to ramp up my pace and try to make up some positions. I knew I was going too hard, but I must have had some extra adrenaline going cause I felt pretty strong.
I swapped bottles at the first lap pit stop, and threw down the arm-warmers I stripped off during the lap.
Next lap (lap2) was at about the same speed, with a tiny bit easier effort, but not as easy as I should have made it.
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| Second time through the Hobo Camp (bacon hand ups!). Image stolen from Drew. More in this album. |
Next pit stop I made the mistake of riding through without grabbing a bottle, so I ended up trying to conserve the amount I was drinking (lap3). I was still keeping about the same speed, and I think the effort was even a little less because the dirt was really tacking up. But even still I was averaging higher then 80% of max heart rate reserve.
I went in for the next pit stop and kinda knew I was in a bit over my head at this point. I grabbed something to eat, swapped bottles, stretched a little, and hopped back on my bike. I could tell my legs weren't really gonna give me the strength I wanted any more. But I figured if I made it through this lap (lap4), I'd be more then halfway done.
I was able to complete this lap, but by the time I went back into the pits, my back started cramping. I stretched a bit more at the pit, ate, drank and headed back out. For this lap (lap5), my pace and effort became very low.
At this point I was suffering. My back was really cramping, my legs seemed to be barely turning over the pedals. Never the less, I finished the lap.
At this pit stop I contemplated pulling out, but I figured I'd just take this next lap (lap6) section by section. The first section was slow, going up the long straight, I was pleased to see the family drive by as they were going to the park to see me race a little.
The next section I was feeling ok, untill I hit the 3 climbs. I'm not sure what the actual name of this section of trail is, but I keep calling it the 3 b!tche5. And they were really b!tche5 this time. It was the first time I used the small granny ring out at Eastwood for a long time.
My back was really killing me at this point, I went through the next section crawling along, thinking about just getting through it.
When I came out, I decided I was done. I took the ski trail back to the start/finish/pit area, told the lap counters I was done, and coasted over to my family.
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| In this chart, split 1 is the prologue, then lap 1 through 6, then the ride to the start/finish/pit area.
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In the end I completed 5 laps. I would have loved to have done better, but this is the longest I've ridden a mountain bike in one race. Next time I'll have a better idea of what I'm in for, and stick to my plan. I think if I would have backed off to the effort I was at during lap 4 starting with lap 2, I would have been able to finish the race.
So what did I learn? Don't overlap wheels. For an endurance race, stick with a plan, keep a pace. And swap your bottles.
Now to think about possibly doing Afton or Red Wing, and getting the Pork Chop started with the kids race.
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