Crosstober

The end of endurance racing season in early October marked the beginning of cross season and a complete shift in gears. 45 minutes of redlining is so different than 8-10 hours of steady tempo and the training is different too. But slowly I've come to appreciate tabata intervals and microbursts as they do prepare you pretty well for cross racing! Very explosive and brutal, indeed.

I'm doing much better this year than last year and making steady progress towards the top 10. I've snuck in a few top 20s but the fields are competitive and I'm still missing some top end power and skill. But the beauty of bike racing is that you never stop improving.

Plus the post race rewards are definitely worth the effort! If you haven't a clue what I'm talking about just come to a cross race and join in the fun.

I spot a barrel... oh what could be in it?

We're bookin it outta here fast

Post race banter (and recovery)

 

You finish some and you DNF some...

Iron Cross was one of my target races this year and I was coming into it with a brand new super bike (Trek Boone) and some decent fitness. The day started off well with teammate Andy showing up at my house sometime around 5:45AM and keeping me awake for the drive up to the start line in Michaux.

The one thing that no one was prepared for was how friggin cold it would be at the start -- 36 degrees with close to howling wind. We all froze our butts off waiting for the race to start and took off like banshees at the gun. Immediately the pace was brutal and I'm never good at redlining at the beginning of races so I let a big group go so I wouldn't bonk half way through the race. As an aside, I'm not sure if this is mental and perhaps I should just try to redline the first 30 minutes of a race and see what happens. 

The bike felt great and I started working with a smaller group and we kept the front group somewhat in sight. All bets were off as soon as we hit the single track at Lippencote, though. My bike handling has improved by leaps and bounds thanks to mountain biking so I managed to ride pretty much the entire section and gained several spots. Close to the end of this section I came across my teammate Tyler who had flatted and was trying to put air in his tubeless tire with a quarter sized hole in it. I urged that he put a tube in it and gave him my CO2 and inflator. Thankfully he recovered quickly and managed to finish strong.

After this brief stop, I managed to tag onto a super fast paceline led by some Rare Disease Cycling folks who were really pushing the pace on the road section. I was feeling pretty good here and even took a (brief) pull. The climb up to the WigWam run up is tough but the legs were responding well and my switch to Infinit for nutrition was working great.

The run up or rather crawl up on WigWam was a chore and I got a few twinges in my lower back by the time we reached the top. But my resolution at the beginning of the year was to not waste time in races so I kept on moving and just stretched on the bike. Soon I felt fine again and made good time to check point 2 which was also the start line. Made a quick bottle switch and was off for loop 2, still feeling good.

The bombing descent off the ridge on a dirt road was just awesome. I hit close to 45 mph there on my cross bike and passed many folks. The new bike just inspires so much confidence and the hydraulic disc brakes are phenomenal especially coming from cantilevers.

But all good things must come to an end. At the bottom of this descent (and thankfully not halfway through it), I realized my rear brake was completely gone. So I stopped to see what had happened -- turns out my left heel was constantly clipping against the hydraulic line in the back and had knocked the bolt loose that connected the line to the brakes. So all the hydraulic fluid had drained out, doh! This was such an odd thing to happen, one in a gazillion chance and it had to happen to me on race day. oh well.

I knew there were several more testy descents coming up and taking those on a front brake alone would be daunting. But I tried for a bit and took a (minor) header on a turn and just lost interest in the race. Sucks but I couldn't get myself to get back in the game with just a front brake and a history of some bad crashes. So I called it a day and rode gingerly to a radio check in and turned in my number.

Crappy way to end the endurance season but the upside is that I felt great and was about 13-15 minutes up on last year's time at mile 40. Importantly I was feeling good at mile 40 this year whereas last year I was already ready to bonk so more time gains would have been had later in the game had I continued. Oh well. There's always next year.   

Time to switch to 45 minutes of suffering for the rest of the year. Maybe I'll learn a thing or two about redlining the whole race!

Minor Hill Repeats: Shenandoah Mountain 100 Race Report

Pre Race: 
The race was on weeks before the SM100 even started. The pre-race race was to lose some weight and gain back some lost fitness. Basically, I raced the Wilderness 101 at the end of July a good 10 lbs over my race weight thanks to a buttload of work travel and jet lag induced unhealthy eating. I was also desperate to gain back some fitness after being off the bike while traveling.

So the pre-race plan was to live like a monk for a few weeks, eat healthy, and bank some saddle time. For the most part I did eat healthy and managed to drop 5 lbs by the race eve. I was still 5 lbs overweight but that's significantly preferable to being 10 lbs overweight!

In terms of training, I was behind so coach Eric Sorensen and I concocted a brutal weekend of training a week prior to SM100. Maybe too much too late but the counterfactual doesn't exist (for me) so I'm going to confidently say no :)

The weekend consisted of 5 hours on the road on Friday riding no harder than tempo to simulate pacing at the race, 4 hours of endurance riding at the Schaeffer Farm mountain bike race on Saturday (somehow I got 4th riding tempo which boosted my confidence), and 3 hours of Patapsco singletrack on my new awesome cross bike on Sunday. This 600 TSS weekend simulated the TSS I would probably accumulate in one continuous effort a week later (turns out my TSS for the race was 619, so a pretty accurate prediction!) 

SM100 simulation part 1, Friday: 5 hour road ride with teammate Homer

SM100 simulation part 2, Saturday: 4 hour endurance race at Schaeffer Farm

SM100 simulation part 3, Sunday: 3 hours on the new cross bike on Patapsco singletrack. Side note: hydraulic disc brakes rock!

 Rice cakes, gels, and Skratch hydration worked well for me at Wilderness so I didn't mess with the formula. I added some pistachios to Allen Lim's rice cake recipe and they turned out to be quite delicious.
 

Rice cakes, yum!

The one big change I did make from Wilderness was to switch over to bottles instead of a camelbak and to strap my spare tubes, CO2, etc to the bike. Both these systems worked great and I didn't have any significant back pain throughout the race and it was much easier to monitor hydration and refill bottles at aid stations. I feared it would be difficult to drink from bottles on singletrack but it really wasn't that hard -- its a 100 mile race so slowing down for a few seconds to retrieve a bottle didn't hurt one bit.

Race Day: 
I drove down to the Stokesville campground/start line on Saturday afternoon and setup camp. At packet pickup I ran into Erin Conner and her Sticky Fingers teammates and they were all super welcoming and invited me over to hang out at their camp. That didn't last long as I was in pre-race jittery mode so soon retired to my tent.

I must have the worst luck in the world because I ended up camping right next to the loudest snorer in the world and I had forgotten ear plugs! So I was up well before the wake-up gong went off, but on the bright side had enough time to make coffee and eat a significant breakfast.


   

All geared up

Cheat sheet with elevation, distance, and aid station markers

The race started off a bit fast as usual, but my plan was to ride within myself and certainly keep heart rate below threshold on climbs. I felt really good for the first 45 miles or so and rode tempo, catching a few trains here and there on flat sections. The first three climbs all had significant hike-a-bikes but I was in a forward enough position to be able to ride big chunks of the trail, which saved quite a bit of time. 

Around aid #2, I caught an experienced racer, Marc Genberg, and wondered if I was riding too hard. But he reassured me that the remaining climbs weren't as difficult. That's hard to believe with an 18 mile "death climb" on the horizon! 

Turns out Marc was right. The death climb is actually the easiest of all the climbs on this course. Its long but its steady and you can get into a rhythm. The upper reaches get a bit steep and unending but by the time I got there I was having other far more pressing issues. Turns out I simply stopped eating around mile 40 because I couldn't stomach anything anymore. I also fell back on electrolytes and binged on a handful of salt tabs all at once which likely caused even more distress in my stomach. 

By the time I was on the death climb, my stomach was in serious revolt and I couldn't keep my HR up beyond 160bpm. But I found a couple other riders to pace with and we chugged along albeit pretty slowly.

Finally aid #5 showed up and I took an extended break here, mostly because of an urgent need to use the port-a-john. But finally I felt a bit better and managed to eat a bit of pringles and drink some coke.

The climbing wasn't close to being done yet but I managed to get my HR up a bit again. Got some more pringles and scud fries (yum!) at aid #6 and headed out for the final climb. By this time I had lost hope for a 10 hour targeted finish but was gunning to make it to the line by 11 hours. I really attacked the last descent (even when it went uphill, go figure), but missed the 11 hour mark by about 4 minutes. 11:04 is still a decent time and good marker to beat next year! Almost 13,000 feet of climbing is a big day on any bike.   

 

HR and elevation profile for the race. Note the dichotomy of avg HR in first and second halves of the race. I paced well in the first half but bottom fell out in second half. Nutrition and hydration? Fitness? Heat and humidity? Maybe all three?

 Post-Race:
This was only my second 100 miler so a lot  to learn still. As another experienced racer, Greg Rittler told me, it take a while to learn how to pace these races. I think I also have to learn how to eat throughout the race. I think I'm going to try liquid nutrition (infinit) in training and see how that works for me.

I also need to work a lot on my descending skills. I think most other people had way too much fun on the fast curvy descents, whereas I was on my brakes a lot of the time and too timid on many of the faster sections. Practice, practice, practice!


Finally I'd like to give big shout outs to the entire Sticky Fingers crew. They took such good care of me the whole weekend, got me water and other adult beverages after my finish, helped me patch up a small wound, and were super fun to hang out with. Sincere thank yous to Erin, Honey, Dierdre, Angela, Megan, Dave, Bec, Tim, Larry, Isabel, and Faith (pls. excuse if I missed anyone!). You guys rock!

Back next year for SM100 part deux.
    

A Mountain Biking Primer -- for (and by) a newbie

My mountain biking skills have come a long way but I still consider myself a newbie in this sport. My first few months of biking in the dirt led to a broken collarbone and a subsequent trip to the ER for falling on my head (I had a helmet on). So basically, I started with low skills and even lower confidence.

But that has changed over the last year. The single most significant improvement has come in the form of a new, well-fitted bike. My first bike was bought off craigslist, generally in my size, but not really. Perhaps I was seated too far forward, too high, or the frame was just not right for me and this led to crashes.. lots of them. The new bike is awesome. I love the fit, the way it feels, and the confidence it inspires. So my first piece of advice for anyone interested in mountain biking is do not buy your first mountain bike off the internet! Test ride several models and spend the extra dollars to buy something that fits. Get fitted by a bike shop. Performance Bike is not a bike shop. It really really matters on the dirt.

But many people will tell you that. Now lets get into some seemingly trivial tips and tricks that really really help. First, unclipping. You really have to master unclipping. And this is not unclipping with sufficient warning or forethought as in road or triathlon, but immediate, sudden, and unexpected unclipping -- imagine riding through a rock garden and your front wheels jams into a rock... unclip and steady yourself; you're riding in some wet stuff and the bike starts to slide... unclip and avoid the fall; you're climbing at 0.002 mph up a 35% grade and you run out of gears or gas... unclip and hold on for dear life! Imagine any of the above scenarios with the inability to unclip -- the result is never going to be good. A fall on rocks, sliding on loose dirt, or falling backwards down the trail with a bike attached is an awful situation and one that I have experienced.

So, practice unclipping religiously. Note that unclipping from mountain bike pedals can be quite unnatural at first. I have eggbeater pedals and came to them from Look road pedals. For the first two months I could not unclip at a moments notice or at certain angles or crank positions. This led to a lot of falls. But I kept at it and now I can unclip at will. You can't imagine how liberating that has been. You can try riding stuff that you previously would have walked. You can try going over a large tree stump knowing that you can put a foot down on top if need be, whereas otherwise you'd be falling sideways several feet to the ground. You become a better, more confident rider. So practice this over and over, perhaps in your back yard or in a grassy field at really really slow speeds. Have your 5 year old shout unclip randomly, make it a game.

The next most important thing is to trust the bike. Granted trusting the bike is not easy. But the bike will clear rocks, roots, and stumps 95% of the time if you keep pedaling (for the other 5%, there is unclipping). In fact, it is arguably easier to send rock gardens with raw power and speed rather than slow nimbleness and precision. But this requires committing to and trusting what the bike can do. 29 inch wheels really roll over most anything, so trust that they will and go for it. Use movements in body weight to help the bike along (i.e. shift back, lift front wheel slightly to clear a stump or large rock, then shift weight a bit forward to let rear wheel through).    

What else? Oh yeah, look forward not down at your front wheel. This is so critical. My first several months were spent in a tunnel vision focused on my front wheel. I argued that I can see the rocks and roots better if I focus on them. Not true. Look several feet in front and trust your damn bike. It will clear those roots and your forward vision will help you see the best lines to take. If you have an experienced buddy, I've found it helpful to ride behind them and follow their lines. If your experienced buddy is attractive, focus on his/her butt.

What next? yeah, bike weight... but its not what you're thinking. The single heaviest thing on your bike is you. The angles at which we ascend and descend in mountain biking are much steeper than other bike sports. So where you sit on the bike and how you move your weight around really matters. So use body weight as a counter balance. What does this mean? well this means to unweight the front end for a split second while the front wheel clears a large barrier; this means sliding back on your saddle, even hanging your butt back off the saddle, inches from the rear wheel on very steep descents; this means leaning forward at the hips when climbing steep slopes to keep weight on the front wheel so it doesn't hop around. The consequences of not counter balancing can be devastating. Imagine endo-ing off your bike on a fast descent because you were too far forward. Not fun.

Tire pressure. Low pressure is good but too low and your tires will roll on tight turns and the bike will lose traction. The pressure recommendations on stans no tubes website, for instance, are too low. I followed their advice and crashed numerous times. I talked to my coach and he recommended adding 5 psi  and I've have no traction problems. Of course, don't go too high else your tire will bounce around. But keep in mind that there is such a thing as too low tire pressure. I weigh 150lbs and ride 24-26 psi. Previously I was at 19-20 psi and wasn't very happy.

Full suspension or hardtail. My first bike was a hardtail and my new bike is a full sus. I am biased. All else equal, I do not see why anyone would prefer a hardtail over a FS, especially since the newer FS models can be completely locked out to replicate a hardtail, or even a rigid bike. Yes, they are a bit heavier, but only just, and the advantages of rear suspension in technical terrain outweigh the costs. But others may disagree. Hardtails are cheaper though, so there's that. But know this -- a hardtail can go anywhere a FS can, so don't be held back if you prefer a hardtail. My gf and I even saw a fully rigid bike on slickrock -- go figure.

Happy riding (and less crashing)! 

Alps Alps

More detailed report to come later, but here's a vid taken on the climb up the backside of Alpe d'Huez (Col de Sarenne) with Becky. We'd climbed the traditional route the day before and despite the hype and Tour de France tradition of the 21 switchbacks, this alternate route was significantly more scenic and challenging... 

2013 so far...

I haven't posted here in a while but a lot has happened this year. The collarbone is healing well and I'm glad the metal plate is out and the bone is almost back to full strength.

On training, I've been focusing exclusively on the bike and with a new cycling coach and my power numbers have improved substantially over last year. That's good because I'll be racing a lot this year, on the dirt, on the road, and on the grass (cyclocross). For various reasons, triathlon will be taking a backseat for now as I enjoy my time on the bike and the occasional running race.

Here are some travel, training, and racing highlights from the year thus far: 

Redefining Badass -- The Masai Warrior

A conference in Nairobi in late January offered the chance to visit the Masai Mara National Reserve for a couple of days. Given my strong aversion to following the tourist herd, I managed to find a remote safari camp nestled at the border of the Mara and thankfully away from everyone else. Needless to say the camp was awesome. Anyone thinking of a safari should seriously consider the Enkewa Mara Camp. Apart from personalized attention (they only have room for a dozen or so people at a time), the safaris are on legitimate 4x4 vehicles and not in minivans cramped with 15 other people as in other "resorts". We rarely spent any time on the regular dirt roads, rather paved our own path through the Reserve. While others strained through binoculars from afar, we managed to get within a few feet of lions, rhinos, elephants, giraffes, etc. Further, we had a former Masai Warrior as our wildlife spotter and he had an impressive knack for finding all the cool animals one would want to see. 

The lions couldn't care less that we were sitting 5 feet away from them!

For me personally, the most interesting aspect of the trip wasn't necessarily the wild animals, but rather the community of people who live with them. The Masai people have traditionally lived in villages on the outskirts of Mara and interact almost daily with wild animals from the Reserve. The Masai hold a special bond with their cattle; in fact, they believe that the entire world's cattle belong to them! A select few become Warriors in their prime years who are charged with protecting their villages and herds from wild animals and rival villages. These are legitimately badass dudes! As a rite of passage in the past, warriors were required to engage and kill an adult lion with their bare hands -- not sneaking up or spearing from afar, but face to face. Our spotter had killed 3 lions in his days as a Warrior. Thankfully this practice is now on the decline because it is cruel and unsustainable, but it gives you a sense of how tough and fearless these guys are. 

While badass sort of comes with a Warrior title, these guys are also incredibly friendly and welcoming. I was lucky to spend one morning climbing a big hill just behind our camp with two of them and we had a great time. I'm pretty fit so stayed with them as they set a torrid pace up the hill and in some little way I think they respected me more afterwards. We also visited one of the local villages and helped boost their economy by buying some of their handicrafts. I came away fairly intrigued by their way of life. I can't say I would go back for a safari as sitting in a car watching wild animals, as awesome as they may be, isn't exactly my idea of fun. But I did it once and its marked off the bucket list.    

This is my favorite picture... Notice the stuffed sheep key chain on this Warrior's backpack. Turns out this lion killer is a big softie!  

At the top

We got stuck a few times...

First Race of the Year: Bakers Dozen 13 Hour Mountain Bike Relay

Shifting gears completely, the cold winter days spent training indoors on the bike trainer culminated in the start of racing season. Becky and I were signed up as a co-ed team for the 13 hour Bakers Dozen race out in Leesburg, VA. The event is incredibly fun, very well run, and a blast to participate in. 

This was my second mountain bike race ever so I was a bit nervous about my technical skills. Thankfully the course isn't terribly technical and I had great fitness going in from months of focused training. And we did pretty well -- managed to snag 4th place which is pretty good given than the top two teams consisted of pro riders. I was a bit nervous about night laps but managed to borrow a gazillion lumen bike light from a friend which lit up the trail better than sunshine and all was good in my world! Becky came into the race a bit under-trained given her habit of skiing rather than biking most of the winter, but she rode like a rock star and even went out for a final lap just before the 13 hour cutoff. 

This was an awesome race and can't wait to do it again next year!  

Excessive Training Syndrome: Colorado Climbing Trip

Normal people spend long weekends sunning themselves silly at beach resorts, but Becky and I plan 19,000 feet of vertical gain cycling trips to far away destinations. This time, our target was the small cycling mecca of Boulder, CO. If one can ignore some of the silliness that abounds in the city (like a triathlete climbing at 4mph in her aerobars... wtf??!!), there is fantastic riding to be had right from the city center.

We were mindful of the fact that just getting accustomed to the altitude in the valley would be a bit of a challenge since Boulder lies at about 5500 feet of elevation and we live at sea level. And further, all roads out of Boulder go up into the Rockies. But we weren't dissuaded. Neither were we dissuaded by the fact that we were both coming into this training weekend already in the negative on training stress balance, Becky significantly more so than I...

With an elaborate plan to ride-till-we-drop hatched, we hopped on a plane to Denver on a Thursday night in late April, renting a car and driving into our awesome Air BnB condo in Boulder around midnight. The next morning, we were up early and after a hearty breakfast at a recommended local joint, we swung by the Scratch Labs mothership to grab some nutrition. One of the guys there who looked like a serious bike rider suggested a long 80+ mile route that looped the famous Flagstaff climb with Peak to Peak highway and onwards to Lyon. In passing he mentioned a bit of dirt road along the way but dismissed it as being rideable on road bikes. Becky and I decided we'd tackle this monster the next day and spend today on a lighter route getting used to altitude and new bikes. 

Armed with yummy drink mixes and a riding route, we headed over to University Cycles on Pearl Street to pick up our rental bikes. What can I say about this place? Its simply an awesome cycling store. The vending machine outside for bike nutrition and tubes ought to have suggested a great experience inside, but the cake really goes to their rental bikes. I'm talking top of the line 2013 Cannondale Supersix Evos with complete SRAM Red grouppos. Plus the people at the shop were super helpful and nice. They suggested a climb up to Ward and back, about a 75 mile loop so we decided to tackle this as a warmup.

     

Riding in Boulder is fantastic. You take route 36 out of Boulder going north towards Lyon and this road by itself is stunning. The Rockies are on your left and the vast valley stretches out on your right. The road is rolling but nothing significant and soon we made a left turn onto Lefthand Canyon Drive and started a long uphill haul towards Ward. The climb felt great and we made good time towards Ward, though the upper reaches had quite a bit of snow still. We stopped at a great little convenience store in town, a perennial cycling stop and refueled on cokes and snickers (at least I did!). Then it was a short slog to Peak to Peak Hwy, followed by a fantastic descent into Lyon and back to Boulder. We both felt great during the ride and were eager to try the experimental route the next day.
 

yeah, we're goofballs

The views were just magnificent

The next morning started with yummy bagels and cream cheese at a trendy coffee shop where we also bought some additional bars and other nutrition for a long day in the saddle. The climb to Flagstaff begins immediately from the city center and the views along the way are quite stunning. Its a steep climb but not terribly long and we made it to the top in good time. The real tippy top is actually a few miles further up the road than where people normally turn back (as per the Scratch Labs dude) so we only claimed the summit once we hit the mailboxes about 6 miles into the climb.

Pretty nice day to be out on bikes

From here we descended a bit to a dam and then continued on till the road dead-ended. But we were expecting this and looked around for a bike trail and could only see a very sketchy snow covered dirt path. Feeling adventurous we took the path and spent then next 5 miles on trails conducive to mountain bikes rather than bikes with 23mm road tires.

Umm, where tf is the road?!

Luckily, both of us are mountain bikers so managed to ride most of this crap on the bikes and didn't get a single puncture to boot. We were hoping for paved road after 5 miles of rocky snowy ok-we'll-call-it-a-trail, but were only rewarded with a bumpy carriage road for another 5-6 miles till we hit Peak to Peak highway and the town of Nederland. Here we caught up with some Bontrager pro team kids who were out hammering the hills and grabbed some coffee and snacks.

So glad to be on paved road again!

From here there was a major uphill haul on the highway followed by some nice descending till we hit Jamestown road, and after some more sketchy dirt road, we hit the real steep descent and bombed down into town.

At this point, I was feeling a bit tired and would have been happy to spend the next day just tooling around but Becky had other ideas. So off we went on another 90 mile ride on Sunday morning, this time to Estes Park. Surprisingly my legs felt pretty good and we passed Teejay Van Garderen out on a fast bike ride. The altitude got to me a bit at the top as we spent a good chunk of time above 9,000 feet. But this was well rewarded with a bombing descent into Estes Park. The views here were not just magnificent, they were magical. I would go back and do this climb again just for the views.. and the descent. We both hit about 50mph on the bikes on the way down and it was awesome. 

At the bottom of the descent into Estes Park

 We should have realized that cities are built in valleys so naturally the only way to get out of Estes Park was to climb some more. Of  course, this was quite unwelcome but we slogged through it and then descended gently into Lyon and beyond into Boulder. Then it was a quick bike return and drive back to Denver for the flight home.

Two happy campers

Wildcat 100 Mud Bath
It rained and rained and then it rained some more. This was all before we arrived in New Paltz, NY for the Wildcat 100 mountain bike race. Becky had the bright idea of this "exotic" race that has been on her bucket list for a while. I wasn't too keen on 100 miles so opted for the more forgiving 100K option.

Turns out that this is a shit race. Very poorly organized, poor course markings, and terrible trail choices. The rain didn't help at all and made the already make-shift trails through cow patches and orchards into slow slogs through deep mud. A bunch of us riding together got lost due to lack of trail signs, but the worst was having to do 3 extra miles at the end when I had already done 67 of the 66 miles I signed up for (as per my garmin, which always under-reports if anything). Those last 3 were in mud filled single track where it was impossible to ride a bike... Even the pros were crying about conditions at the rewards and the race director was booed onstage...

But it was an experience and I finished despite the trying conditions and some bike problems, which is great. and I didn't have any spectacular crashes. Becky was lucky and found a riding buddy, Greg, along the way and the two of them chewed up the 100 mile course together.

Here are some pics that speak for themselves:

Glad to be done

Yeah.. thats mud!

I don't know why I was smiling here. This must have been early in the race

And she's smiling at the finish. wtf?!

Yeah, long day

Becky with her riding buddy, Greg

A well deserved beer

Upcoming: Cycling in the Alps + Work travel to Lima, Berlin, and Moscow

Stay tuned for a report on what promises to be yet another epic climbing trip in June, this time in the Alps, where it is STILL snowing right now -- the Giro d' Italia was rerouted off the Galibier due to snow. Lets hope it warms up in the next month or so, else Becky and I may just have to ride our mountain bikes up the snow-covered road. Not doing it is not an option... obviously!

Bionic No More... Just Screwed Up!

Before

After

On March 4th, I went into surgery to finally get my left clavicle plate out, just a shade over three months after it went in along with 10 screws. 9 of those also came out with the plate but the doc kept one in that was inserted across the main fracture line. He thought it would be helpful to leave that one in instead of trying to dig it out. This screw will remain with me permanently. 

Actual clavicle plate and 9 screws that came out

So the big question is why did I get my plate out, and why after just 3 months? Insanity! Yes, to some extent, this is quite suboptimal. While my bone fractures have healed, taking the plate and screws out leaves 9 screw holes in the bone that need to fill in, a process that can take 3 months or longer. I have a greater susceptibility of breaking my bone again if I fall on it during this time. 

But the odds are not terrible. The doc's analogy is of a 2x4 with 9 screws inserted and then removed. Yes, there are holes in it and yes its not as strong as a solid 2x4, but its still a flippin 2x4. Absent a spectacular crash, I should be ok even in the next 3 months. 

But why take the risk, you ask? Well I had some complications. First, the plate plain and simple bugged me. Car seatbelts, backpacks, and pretty much anything on my shoulder bothered me. But more importantly, my surgery wound did not want to stay shut -- I could actually see my plate. Apart from the disgust factor, this was asking for an infection. The doc tried to close it in his office (a bloody process, mind you) but that didn't work so well. So he said we'd have to go in under anesthesia to re-close the wound. Hence the discussion of taking the plate out... 

Basically, I wanted the plate out because of reason #1 above. So the choice was to either go into surgery now and re-close the wound and then go into surgery again in 6 months or so to get the plate out. The alternative was to go in now and do both things in one go. One less surgery. One less possibility of not waking up from anesthesia. So the choice to me was obvious. 

Yes, I carry a marginally higher risk of breaking my bone again but I will be cautious and won't be jumping mountain bikes for some time, possibly ever. It would suck big time if I have to do this all over again! 

Part motivation for writing this blog entry is to provide some knowledge and experience base for those facing similar decisions. I couldn't find much objective analysis on google -- conversations and opinions were all over the place and rarely backed by medical advice. My doc thinks I'll be fine, and I trust him -- after all he is the #1 rated sports medicine doctor in the Washington DC area.       

A Season to Forget... Or One to Cherish?

Stainless steel plate + 10 screws in my left clavicle. Plus two broken ribs (one displaced). Fun times!

There's no simpler way to say this other than to admit this racing season has been tough. Injuries have plagued me throughout the year and I'm writing this now at the end of the year with a fully bionic collarbone (after my natural one shattered into 5 pieces) and two broken ribs suffered thanks to a mountain biking crash two weeks ago.

Whats frustrating is that many of the injuries have just been accidental. Indeed, I severely bruised my ribs in March after my dog, chasing tail, pulled me hard into the car door which effectively kept me out of the pool for over a month and put the kibosh on any early year competitiveness in triathlon. Then there was the unfortunate fall off a mountain bike over the summer where I bruised my hand badly enough (couldn't put any weight on bike handlebars) that my big goal half ironman in September (Savageman) didn't happen. And then finally, there was the big accident two weeks ago where I enthusiastically jumped a ramp at Fountainhead not knowing how f-ing steep it was and landed on my side with several broken bones. So my long awaited debut into cyclocross, due the next day, never happened.

There's also been some stupid decision-making on my part that has led to injury. The most telling is my decision to salvage my season after the Savageman debacle by focusing on the Marine Corps Marathon and trying to run a Boston qualifying time. I knew I had it in me to run fast, but I simply did not train long distance until a month before MCM and then tried to cram a 3 month advanced training program into 4 weeks. So of course my legs revolted and the day of the marathon I couldn't even walk without pain and ended up not even starting.

So all this happened in the same season.. Sucks doesn't it? Well it depends... it depends how you frame things and how you calibrate success and failure. Yeah, I messed up some of my racing goals and made some unwise training (rather over-training) decisions, but look where I was last year... Last year, I was about 40 pounds heavier, had been sitting on my butt for the past 3 years, had just had knee surgery, and was coming out of a bad long-term relationship.

Then everything started to change for the better. I resolved to get fit and go out and enjoy athletic adventures. yeah, I rocked Mountains of Misery 200K; and yeah, I rocked the Garrett County Diabolical Double; and yeah, I finished a mountain half marathon (call it a hike) one day and then raced my mountain bike 100K the next; and did a whole bunch of fantastic training with a whole bunch of fantastic people; and I met someone special who loves doing the same kind of stuff... how cool is that?!

So I think not that this season has been one to forget, rather one to cherish. Racing has ups and downs. I'm sure next year will be way better than this one in terms of staying healthy. But I will always cherish this year as a key turning point in bringing me back to enjoying a healthy and active lifestyle.

Double Down Goodness

This past weekend, Becky and I decided that a road trip was in order and what better place to drive than to a mountain bike race in New Hampshire. Now lets get something straight right away -- I am not a mountain biker; although I have recently purchased a nice mountain bike, I've been on it about four times and the first time out I ended up crashing my SRAM X0 derailleur into the wheel spokes smashing it to smithereens! This was followed by a single speed fail, a broken chain, and a walk of shame out of the woods...

Tasty broken chain..yum!

Becky, on the other hand, is an elite level mountain bike racer and can descend the gnarliest of trails faster than most people and she's darn fast uphill too! Clearly I have a lot of catching up to do but that didn't stop me from signing up for a 100K mountain bike race with her in New Hampshire. Luckily, the organizers decided to add to the suffering by offering an extremely hilly trail half marathon the day before and called the combined events the Double Down Crown. Naturally, I had to register for the Crown.

This being the first year of the Highbush Trail Half Marathon plus the fact that majority of the race was run on a mountain hiking trail, it was imperative that racers carry their own hydration. So I debated between carrying my camelback, a waist belt bottle holder, or a hand bottle. Eventually I settled on the hand bottle and went out and bought the Amphipod Hydraform from REI (its the bright yellow/green bottle in my hand in the main picture above).

Turns out this bottle is awesome! I read several reviews online and everyone who has used it raves about it. It feels a bit awkward for about 2 minutes and then you get used to it. The coolest feature is that you don't actually have to grip the bottle as the shape is contoured to the shape of your hand and a very comfortable strap keeps your hand snug against the bottle. It also has a small compartment for gels, although I kept mine in a small waist belt.  Best part is it doesn't feel heavy. Kinda like that big Garmin unit most of us wear -- first time you look at it you say this thing is gonna feel like a brick on my arm, but then you get used to it pretty quickly.

Back to the weekend... Friday morning, we packed up my CUV (compact utility vehicle) -- aka Prius -- with a weekend's worth of goodness and started up north. We drove leisurely and stopped to have a fun dinner with Becky's friend just outside NYC. 

Fitting bikes on the Prius required some creative engineering!

 We got to our campground around midnight and thankfully race start was 9AM the next morning. It poured heavily overnight but we awoke to clear skies. I actually wouldn't have minded the rain apart from the fact that its not particularly fun running in mud!

The race had about 70-80 people in it, with some super fast guys and gals mixed in with just regular athletes out having fun in the woods. I haven't been running distance at all lately so didn't know what to expect. Right at the gun, one fast dude shot out and was never seen again -- I think he finished about 10-15 minutes ahead of everyone else. I merged into the front pack and the trail soon turned to single track and we had a decent pace going through some relatively flat sections. Some of the guys were chatting about how we should add an hour to our expected road half marathon times here. All this talk did not bode well for what was to come!

As if on cue, we quickly took a turn onto a different path and the trail pitched sharply upwards toward Crotchet Mountain. And just like that we were on a proper hiking trail. Many people were walking here but I managed to maintain a steady jog all the way to the ridge. I believe I was in the top 5-6 at this point. Running the ridge was amazing.. Beautiful views and a lovely trail. Soon however, we hit some pretty nasty and rocky trail with some extremely steep pitches. Going up was not so bad but coming down was really hard for me. Given my past issues with my knee, I did not feel at all confident running downhills that steep and jumping from boulder to boulder. It was also pretty wet and slippery. Nevertheless, several people blew by me going at a fairly good clip and there was simply no way I could stick with them.

This went on for about 6-7 miles till we dropped onto a steady trail back to the race finish. Here, I picked up a couple people who had passed me including the women's winner. We actually ran together for a while and formed a nice group together. The trail was fairly well marked but we did get off track at one point, which may have cost us 3-4 minutes. About 2 miles out I caught my right ankle on a rock at just the wrong angle and ended up limping for about 5 minutes but soon gutted it out and started running again. Overall, I finished in 2:24:55, which for a trail marathon like this is pretty decent. According to my garmin, we had about 3,000 feet of elevation gain but it was the elevation loss of 3,000 feet where I suffered more, esp the quads that were constantly putting the brakes on! I also realized running a trail marathon in minimalist shoes is a bad idea.. My calf sleeves helped but my shoes got completely ripped apart with rock edges, roots, and branches. I think I need a new pair before my next race.

Finish line... I was ready for this to be over!

Becky was there at the finish with her cowbell ringing me home and I got top 5 in my AG. Reasonably happy with this result, though one guy in the DD crown category beat me by about 8 minutes and I could have totally had him in a road race. Soon, however, these 8 minutes would be moot as he beat me by more than an hour in the mtn bike race the next day... more on that in a bit...

Feeling pretty trashed, Becky and I spent the rest of the day hanging out at camp and then went for a short mtn bike ride on the trail we were going to race the next day. It was pretty technical -- rocky, narrow, and steep. I should have extrapolated more from Becky's response where when I asked, "Oh so the rest of the race can't be any worse," her response was "yeah, make yourself believe that!"

Becky had really good legs and was rocking the trail having unfair amounts of fun; I think I heard her singing too. I was pretty sure she'd kick ass the next day, and sure enough she did just that.

The next day we awoke super early as race start was 6:45AM, yikes! Becky started earlier with the elites and I told her not to expect me to catch her as I was still tired from the day before plus I fully expected to walk some of the more technical parts of the race.

Oh how should I describe the race? It was brutal, very technical, extremely challenging, and kick ass amazing! I fell off my bike half a dozen times, got right back up and tried again... walked many many times as I could not get myself to jump 2 feet high boulders, plus several hike a bike sections where even Tinker Juarez was hiking his bike!

The best part was riding through a rain puddle that was almost up to my thighs -- somehow I managed to keep pedaling. Incidentally, this washed off all the grime from my drivetrain and the shifting improved quite a bit :) 

Mountain biking is just so different from road cycling. Of course, riding is a function of terrain, but from my limited experience, its more about short, steep, and punchy climbs followed by equally steep descents. On this race, we were on some newly cut trail so it was particularly challenging for a newbie like me. At one point my front tire slid all the way on a root and I tumbled down on the slope below with my bike on top of me. On another occasion, I managed to save my ribs from direct impact on a rock only to land on my hand and end up with a pretty badly bruised right hand (which thankfully is not broken!).

But in general, the riding was so much fun. What was particularly cool was that I learned new things during the ride and applied them as I was riding. So I got progressively more confident tackling technical terrain.

But in the end, I finished in a fairly slow time, in fact more than two hours slower than Becky. And just so there is no doubt, Becky got 2nd in the elite women's race and had collected her podium award, cleaned up, and eaten some goodies by the time I crossed the line!

Becky had to wait a while for me at the finish line

And yeah, the Double Down Crown. I was pretty sure I'd be dead last in that category as pretty much all other people doing it were mountain bikers who occasionally ran. But turns out two of them dropped out and I sneaked into third. Got a sweet EMS biking jersey and a podium picture to boot. I'll take it!

Happy to be on the podium

This was so much fun! Can't wait to race my mountain bike again and try cyclocross this year. In general biking is my main passion and I'm not dedicated to any particular form of it. I ain't giving up road cycling any time soon but mountain biking is turning out to be a whole lot of fun too!

Stoopid’s Guide to Riding your Bike Long

Disclaimer: This stunt was performed by a professional idiot. Please do not try this at home – but if you do and succeed then give me full credit

Step 1: Sign up for a really long and difficult ride, preferably one that is debilitating even in thought. In my case, this was the Garrett County Gran Fondo Diabolical Double (200 km ride with 16,500 feet of climbing).

Step 2: Get sick for 10 days prior to ride and fall off the training wagon. Sit on your butt and feel sorry for yourself.

Step 3: Mentally check out from the ride until the very last moment when you decide you’re not coughing enough that missing the ride would be a shame. Even then, get head in the game only after ride has started.

Step 4: Get sick again less than half way into the ride with possible fever, raging headache, dizziness, and absolute loss of power on the bike. Beg and plead for motrin at a rest stop and offer to marry the lady who finds some for you.   

Step 5: Ensure you have plane ticket to a far flung, preferably shady country for the day after ride so in case your body decides to enact revenge, you’ll be sure to end up in a motel clinic where no one speaks your language.  

Step 6: Stubbornly ignore all above warning signs, whip out all the HTFU you got, keep on going and finish the ride. Enjoy mental high like nobody’s business and eat all kinds of junk food to make up the caloric deficit.

Step 7: Write a cheesy blog about your personal victory so your grand kids can one day read it and think you’re really cool!