Dirty Spokes - 12 hours at Fort Yargo

Raced 12 hours at Fort Yargo Saturday.

Weather turned out better than I expected. The rain held off and it was sunny and warm all day. The course was a little slippery from rain earlier in the week but not too bad.

It was really cool to see Tinker Juarez there. Before the race people were taking pictures with him and shaking his hand. I really enjoyed being passed by Tinker. He was always really nice and said something encouraging. I want a jersey that says "I got passed by Tinker Juarez".



The race started with a parade lap on a dirt road through the campground. I started in the middle of the pack and rode conservatively.

Everything was going good till we hit the singletrack. I didn't feel very comfortable on my bike. I almost fell down 10 times. I was sliding out in turns and skidding over roots. I wasn't really going that fast, I think I was just nervous. I tried to talk to myself and calm myself down. It helped a little bit but not completely.

There were so many riders on the trail. It was asses and elbows for the first hour. The pace was probably a little faster than I wanted to go. Whenever there is group of people riding my wheel, I have a hard time going my own pace. I don't like holding all those people up.



Finally we got to the big hill and people really started to spread out. I was relieved to finally get some breathing room, but I also started thinking about having to climb this hill multiple times.

My girlfriend and my best friend were waiting for me at the start/finish line. They handed me a new bottle, and I was able to keep riding without stopping. I think this saved me a ton of time. I was very lucky to have them with me.

The course started to dry out on the second lap, and I started to feel more comfortable. I also think being a little tired from the first lap helped. I focused on keeping a good tension in my legs. I reminding myself over and over again and forced out any other thoughts that would distract me.

After about 4 hours I started to get nauseous. My stomach felt like it was the verge of cramping. When I was going downhill the bumps would cause my stomach to shake and make me feel like I was going to throw up. I ended up braking on the downhills so that it wasn't so bumpy. This wasn't great for my time but I was just hoping to finish at this point.

I did a lot of research and trial and error and decided the best way to fuel for this race was to use a food replacement drink made by Hammer Nutrition. The one drawback I found with using this drink is that in training I found it would make my stomach hurt every once in awhile. The first time it happened I thought it was because I had gulped down too much drink at once. When it started to hurt I tried to remember if I gulped any drink but I don't remember doing that so I decided it must being something else causing the stomach problems.

I decided to make my drink a little thinner thinking maybe my stomach was getting too much food and not enough water. Luckily my friend had run down the trail to see if I needed anything. I told him to thin out my drink. He took a short cut back to the start finish line, and my thinned out drink was waiting for me at the start/finish line. Now that is service.

The thinned out drink helped a little but not enough. The next time around I told my friend to give me a bottle of water and a bottle of drink. I drank the whole bottle of water before I started on the drink. By the end of my 5th lap I started to feel a little better. I asked my pit crew to keep giving me both water and drink bottles for the rest of the race.

By the time I hit my seventh lap I was feeling really good. I thought I had licked the nutrition problem. My stomach felt great. My energy felt great. My legs felt great. I turned in one of my fastest laps.

Coming into the pits for the start of my 8th lap, I had planned to put on my lights, put on my vest, and oil my chain. I talked about this with my team before the race and I thought we were on the same page. As I rode across the line, I couldn't find my pit crew. Finally I spotted my girlfriend, and I rode around the barrier to try and get to her.

Once I rode around the barrier I noticed she was on the other side of this huge mound of dirt that I could not ride across. She took off running to try and bring my light to me. Once she got there, she handed me my helmet with the light attached, but the battery was missing. So she ran back across the mound to get it while I put my helmet and vest on. When she got back, I hooked up my battery and off I went.

I didn't get to oil my chain, but all in all it really wasn't a huge loss in time. I was only in the pits a couple minutes. At the time though it seemed like an eternity. I kept going over and over in my head what went wrong. Even though I know now it wasn't fair of me to feel this way, at the time I was pretty pissed. It took me about 45 minutes to calm myself down.

Finally I realized how lucky I was to have a pit crew at all. I thought about how many minutes they saved me on all the other pit stops, and how they adjusted my drink concentration and saved me by giving me water as well as drink. I felt better after that and went back to focusing on the race.

While I was busy over analyzing my last pit stop, my bike developed a problem. Turns out my rear brake line got wrapped around my suspension linkage. This caused my rear brake to compress and drag against my rotor. The whole time I could feel like that it was much harder to pedal. I thought I was hitting one of those false walls I had in training. So I just tried to focus and power through it. I blamed my lack of focus on my pit stop.

Well turns out it wasn't a false wall, I was actually riding with my rear brake 75% engaged for at least half of lap. I am also not sure my training false wall were real either since I learned last week that my trainer is malfunctioning and needs to be sent back for repairs. Finally I got off my bike and spent several minutes figuring out what was wrong and adjusting the cables so it wouldn't happen again.

The eighth lap was definitely my slowest/hardest lap. I am not sure what caused it. It could have been that I let myself get so upset over my pit stop. It could have been that I was drinking more water and less energy drink and I just ran low on calories. It could have been that I rode for more than a half a lap with my rear brake on. It could have been that it was getting dark and harder to see. It could have been a mental let down since I had set a goal for 8 laps and I was quickly approaching that goal. Or it could be something simple like I just got tired. I don't know for sure.

Finally I got to the last lap, my pit crew did a great job of motivating me to finish strong. I rode the best I could but my legs had trouble on the climbs. I ended up walking at least 4 times. I kept telling myself that if I could just get to this section by this time then I will make the cutoff.

Somehow I kept it together and as I made my way to the final climb, I saw this girl talking on her cell phone. I couldn't imagine how anyone could have the energy or time to stop and take phone calls at this point in this race. So I slowed down and listened to what she was saying.

Apparently her light malfunctioned and she was calling her husband to come get her. I turned back around and offered her my handlebar light. After some back and forth with her husband she accepted. I took off my light and put it on her bike.

The handle bar light is really small light that was meant to be used for a commuter but doesn't really give enough light to ride on a trail. If she would follow close enough to someone to share their light though, she would probably have just enough light to get her back. She seemed to understand this without me telling her, and she followed me half way up the big climb. At this point, another rider passed. I told her she should probably follow him because I was tired and would be walking the rest of this hill.

She took off after him, and I had a nice walk. 5-10 minutes later I see her talking on her cell phone again. I slow down and look at her, but she keeps talking. So I keep pedaling slowly waiting to see if she will latch back on. 30 seconds later she is back on and asks if she can ride the rest of the way with me. I say sure as long as she doesn't mind going slow. She happily agrees.

Besides one minor fall on the last section she had no problems keeping up with me and I rode my normal pace. Having her talk to me and just having someone behind me probably actually helped me go faster. I think the time I gained by riding with her more than made up for the time I spent swapping the light onto her handlebars. Plus it made me feel good that I wasn't so wrapped up in the race that I wouldn't stop to help someone.

Finally I saw the finish line, and I did my best to sprint it out. My pit crew was there to congratulate me and refuel me with recovery drink and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I got a little award for third place in my class and had lots of people cheer for me. It felt really good.

Pedal Stroke

Discovered some new things with my pedal stroke last night. By concentrating on where the pressure is applied in my pedal stroke I found it easier to hold my core interval. Here are the comments I sent to my coach.

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I had a great workout tonight. Kept my heart rate up for all three
intervals. The best part is that I was playing around with pedal
stroke a little and found something that made me feel a little more
comfortable and smooth. I normally press my toes down into my shoe.
At the end of my rides my big toe is raw on one foot. Tonight I
lifted my toes up a little. I focused on feeling my heel press into
my shoe as I pulled back. I felt the tops of my toes push into my
shoe on my upstroke, and I felt the balls of feet press into my shoe
on my downstroke. I also noticed that it was easier to maintain my
cadence if I paid more attention to the tension in my hips and shins
on my upstroke. I think the push intervals really helped me focus on
keeping tension in my hamstrings and tonight I was able to maintain
that tension even though I was really focusing on the tension in my
hips and shins. When I started doing this I noticed I didn't hit as
many false walls. When I did hit one it was much less severe and only
made a minor change in my cadence 5-7 RPM instead of 10-15 RPMs.
Also it was much easier to maintain my heart rate. I didn't feel like
I was pedaling straight up in hill in BR 12. It felt more like I was
hauling ass on some rolling singletrack in my middle ring.

Attitude and Shifting

Had some revelations on the bike about attitude and shifting my front chainring. I learned if I act like I am tired I will tired. I also learned it feels much more efficient to ride in my middle ring unless I am climbing something really steep. Here are the comments I sent to my coach.

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My workout yesterday was more laid back. I didn't pay too much
attention to my heart rate. I glanced down every once in a while to
make sure I wasn't slacking too much or using too much gas on the
hills. I tried to be as smooth as possible and not waste any
momentum.

After about 4 hours I started having a little pity party in my head.
Telling myself how hard this was. Thinking about how I was tired.
Then 30 minutes later this little kid sees me go by for another lap
and comes flying up the trail after me. I let him go by then take off
after him to see how fast he is. Turns it out he was fast. I stayed
behind for about 10 minutes. I glanced down and noticed my heart rate
was about 180 and I could feel how much this was taking out of me so I
let up. It was a lot of fun trying to keep up with him though. I
also noticed as soon as I heard coming after me I was no longer tired.
All those bad thoughts were instantly pushed out of my head. Even
after I let up I felt a whole lot better than I did 30 minutes before
I saw the little kid.

I thought about one of my bad habits yesterday. I hardly ever use my
front derailleur. I normally keep my bike in my granny gear and only
shift in the back. I think I started doing this because my front
derailleur would never shift. Plus when it did there was about 50
percent chance that it would throw my chain off onto the frame or I
would get chainsuck. Only using my granny gear makes my riding pretty
inefficient though. I mostly coast on the downhills and spin out on
the flats. Then on the climbs, I probably go harder than I need to
make up for being slow everywhere else.

I tried yesterday to use my front derailleur. I did feel faster and
more efficient in the flats. I ended up not downshifting though. I
started climbing everything in my middle ring. After awhile this
started making my back hurt because I lost my form and posture. After
that I switched back to my granny gear and only shifted back to the
middle ring a handful of times. I will keep working on this in future
rides. Plus I think I will buy a new front derailleur. Mine is 7
years old. Probably hardly used though. :)

First Core Interval

Did my first core interval. It was much easier for me hold this pace than the push pace which is weird because the core interval is at a higher intensity. Made a mistake and gulped this Hammer Nutrition stuff between intervals. It ended up giving me a stomach cramp and forced me off the bike. Here are the comments I sent to my coach.

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Here is my summary from last week. Sorry I took so long to get it to you.

The workout tonight didn't go so well. It started off pretty good. I
bumped my EM heart rate up to 135-140. I didn't hold 140 the whole
workout but it was better then it had been. I also did the 3 x 2 core
interval warmups. I found a gear where I could hold 90 RPMs and still
get my heart rate up. After a couple core warmup intervals I noticed
it was much easier to spin in my EM gear. I was able to hold 95 to
100 RPMs where before the core warmups I was probably only pedaling 75
- 80 RPMs. Also the false walls went away.

Then I did my first 8 minute core interval. I was able to get my
heart rate up in a couple minutes and I was holding around 95 RPMs.
My heart rate was staying around 163-165. I felt good the whole
interval. It was much easier for me to hold this pace than the push
pace. The push pace always feels like I am bouncing in and out of
working hard. This pace I was able to just dive in and relax. It
felt normal and familiar. After my interval was over I sat up and
pedaled with my arms off the bars. After a minute or so my stomach
cramped. It was really high up almost in my chest. I couldn't take a
deep breath or bend over and hold my bars. I kept slow pedaling for 5
minutes hoping it would go away but it didn't. So I got off and layed
on the ground for 10 minutes until I felt better. Then I got back on
warmed back up and did my last two intervals. My RPMs dived with each
interval. It went from 90-95 to 80-85 to 70-75 RPMs. I was able to
keep my heart rate up for all three intervals. It wasn't overly
painful. I felt like I had plenty left but I could tell from the RPMs
dipping that I wasn't as fresh as my first interval.

First time feeling fast

Sunday I felt fast for the first time. I could really feel the effects of my training on the trail. It was a huge motivator for me to keep working hard. I pasted my comments to my coach below.

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Sunday I rode my mountain bike. I felt a little run down before I got
on the bike. My legs were snappy but I think mentally I was just
tired. I couldn't really ride at 120 AHR. I was in the granny gear
the whole time. I basically tried to it in the smallest gear possible
that I could still keep a smooth pedal stroke. Every time I looked
down though I was doing at least 150 AHR (unless I was coasting
downhill). I kept working on it the whole day. I think it is just a
matter of me keeping a more constant effort instead of my rapid
acceleration/decacceleration thing that I normally do.

My pedal stroke seemed choppier than I expected. Also the back of my
leg above the knee was sore after Saturday's recovery ride on the
mountain bike. I wondered if I should lower my seat a little. Felt
like I couldn't pull my pedal stroke all the way back. When I got to
the back of my stroke (after pulling through the bottom) my leg would
be pulled up back to the handlebar. Didn't mess with the height
though because I wasn't sure if this was the way it supposed to be or
not.

I did the Snap Intervals in my big ring. Man it was fun to go that
fast. I am not sure I have every gone that fast on flats and up hills
before. I was catching air going uphill. Pretty cool.

I broke my training on the second interval. This guy was annoying me.
Riding my wheel and skidding all over the place. He claimed he lost
his riding buddies on wanted me to pace him. So I messed with him a
little. Every time he would get on my wheel I would speed up and ride
him off my wheel. After I gapped him a couple hundred yards, I would
slow down and let him catch up. I did this 3-4 times before he
finally popped. I probably wasted about 15 minutes and I saw my heart
rate go as high as 180. Not good for training but fun none the less.
I was surprised at how calm I was when cranking up hills. I knew I
was working but I never felt out of control and sloppy.

After my little racing session, I went back to doing my snap
intervals. For some reason I thought I was supposed to do 5 sets of
snap intervals instead of 3. Once I got on to my fourth set, my mind
started to get a little hazy. My handling was degrading as well. My
legs never felt tired. Again I think it was all mental.

When I got home I felt spent, I just layed around for a little while
and sipped recovery drink and ate some pasta. It took a couple hours
but finally I snapped out of it. I feel fine today.

Mental break through with push interval

I think I had a mental break through. I have been fighting the pain caused by the push intervals for the last couple weeks. Last night I just accepted it for what it is and that made all the difference. I pasted the comments to my coach below.

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Had a really good experience with my workout last night. Just thought
I would let you know about it.

On my first push interval I did not get my cadence up to 70. It was
like I was avoiding the pain caused by getting out of my comfort zone.
My heart rate was also staying low. Most of the time it was around
140. Sometimes dipping down even lower. Finally in the last 10
minutes I just decided to go for it. I ramped up my cadence. When my
legs started to burn I just held it there. Heart rate went up but
never really got above 155. After my legs burned for awhile my heart
rate came back down in the 150-152 range. My average heart rate for
the whole interval was 141.

On the second interval I pushed it right up to 150 AHR and held it
there pretty much the whole time. It was my best push interval yet. I
pushed my candence past 185 and held 182 for several minutes. I did
this in the same gear I was fighting to hold 65 RPMs in the first push
interval. My average heart rate for the second interval was 147.

In the second push interval, I was able to move my heart rate up and
down. I did this by paying attention to the the burn in my legs. If I
wanted a higher heart rate, I focused on my pedal stroke until it
burned a little more. If I wanted less heart rate, I would ease the
burn up a little.

It was like a mental game to accept the pain and hold cadence. Almost
like holding your hand over a candle. There is a certain distance
that you can hold your hand over a lit candle where it is
uncomfortable but it is not really burning/damaging your hand. Last
night I felt like I was trying to hold that distance on my bike by
trying to find the effort level that would burn my legs a little but
not so much that I felt like I had to quit.

I also was able to predict my heart rate moving up or down before it
happened. If I was riding along and noticed my legs were not burning,
then I would look down and sure enough in 20 seconds my heart rate
would start to drop. If I picked my effort back up, 20 seconds later
my heart rate would go back up.

I still could not hold my heart rate constant for a long period
though. My heart rate did stay between 147-152 for the whole interval
with only a handful a very brief exceptions. Even though I couldn't
hold my heart rate at exactly 151 the whole time, only varying 5 beats
is huge improvement over any previous push interval I have done.

I also noticed weird changes in resistance. I would be pedaling along
like there was barely a chain in then all of sudden I would hit a
wall. I am not sure if it was a change in my position or pedal stroke
that caused the change in resistance or if it was just all in my mind.
It was strange though. I am used to these changes when I am on the
road. I always assumed it was the hills. On the trainer though with
the same gear and same cadence I wouldn't expect to feel a huge
difference in resistance all of a sudden.

First applied push interval

This weekend I think I actually applied a push interval to real life situation. I was just riding along on the road started to climb up this big hill and felt myself fall into that push sensation without even trying. Here is comments I sent to my coach.


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Sunday's ride went well. I was less imitated by the
cars after the beating I took on the trainer this week. I had my
doubts on whether getting clipped by car would actually hurt worse. I
guess everything is relative. I found a nice long flat spot to do the
circle intervals. I probably looked like Dorothy on the Wizard of Oz
because I was pedaling so fast and not really moving. The other
roadies must have thought my chain had fallen off or something. I
noticed soreness on the back of my leg just above the knee area
(especially when doing the circle intervals). I must be working some
new muscles. I also noticed something new while climbing this long
intermediate grade hill. I started off in my typical quad only
erractic pedaling. I must have had a flashback to my push interval
because all of sudden my hamstrings decided to take over and I felt
the smooth push interval rhythm I had the other day. It felt like
someone had attached a rope to the front of my bike and was gently
pulling me up the hill. Cool feeling.

Thanks for the explanation. Even before I started working with you I
noticed that the more I tried to be efficient by focusing on my pedal
stroke and breathing the more my heart rate climbed even though I
couldn't really notice a huge change in cadence or gearing. I think
this quote from you describes best what I was noticing.

"your heart rate will usually increase because you are being more
consistent and not giving it the mini breaks usually that occur when
we are being inefficient"

Even though I didn't see an increase in instaneous speed, I bet I
would see an increase in average speed if i had sustained my focus for
30 minutes to 1 hour. I also bet I would see less deviation between
average and instaneous if I maintain my focus.

Putting all my energy into the pedals instead of most of my energy in
the pedals and the rest in clenching the upper body makes sense too.

First time in zone

I actually felt what a push interval is supposed to feel like tonight. Instead of being so spastic and jumping around all over the place, I actually got in a groove for a little while. I hope I can recreate the feeling in the future. Here are the comments I sent to my coach.

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ust wanted to give you an update on my workout tonight.

55 min @ 95 RPM @ 111 AHR in BR/21

Actually had to start in 23 and spin a little while to get my legs
warmed up. Still having problems with my saddle I checked it with a
level and checked the distance from my pedals to the top of the
saddle. It is set up just like my mountain bike. Feet and
unmentionables would go numb after 10 minutes. Had to stand up and
keep adjusting my position front to back on the saddle.

40 min @ 75 RPM @ 137 AHR in BR/15

Took a long time to get heart rate up to 150 maybe 25 minutes. First
I tried to watch my cadence and picture my heartrate going up but that
wasn't working for me. Heartrate stayed below 120. Next I tried to
focus on my pedalstoke and find a pressure that would just start to
make my legs burn. I ignored my heartrate and would only glance at my
cadence every couple minutes. This worked better. I could feel the
tension slowing building with each pedal stroke being a tiny bit more
difficult. After awhile my heartrate plateaued at about 135. So I
focused more on pedalstroke. I tried imagining rolling a log like you
suggested. I pictured this big log that would take lots of power to
budge. I imagined that I had to keep the momentum of the log rolling
by keeping a steady rhythm and not cheating any of my pedal stokes.
It made think about rowing a boat where you can't just make spastic
powerful strokes you have to have well timed fluid stokes. After
awhile my hamstrings relaxed a little and I dropped my heels a little
and it felt much more natural. My head went in a different place. I
would glance down every couple minutes and my heartrate had fallen
right at 150 and stayed there for maybe 10 minutes. After awhile I
lost my focus. My feet went numb from my saddle. I had to stand up
for few seconds. Never got back in the same rhythm but it was still
more consistent then Tuesday.

55 min @ 95 RPM @ 111 AHR in BR/21

My mind start to wander on this last part. It was hard to stay
motivated. My saddle was annoying the crap out of me. Was happy when
this last part was over.

First Workout With Coach

Did my first workout with my coach. Pasted my comments I sent to him below. This was the first time I rode with a cadence meter. It was also the first time I tried to hold my heart rate in that range. My coach calls it a push interval. Not sure how that relates to other people's terms.

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I got a late start but did get my workout in.

46 min @ 118 AHR @ 90-95 RPM in BR/18

First 10 min was in BR/21. Heart rate topped out at 114. Tried to
shift to BR/18 but legs started to burn a little at this resistance.
Switched back to BR/21 for 10 minutes at 95 RPM. After 10 minutes
switched back to BR/18 and legs felt much better.

25 min @ 146 AHR @ 72-74 RPM in BR/15

First 5 min heartrate topped out at 138. Switched to BR/14. Legs
started to burn heartrate went up to 152. Held this for maybe 5
minutes. Then heart rate headed up to 158. Switched back to BR/15.
Could not really keep heartrate fixed. Would bouce around from 143 to
155.

8 min @ 123 AHR @ 90-95 RPM in BR/18

Took about two minutes for heartrate to come down to 120. Easy spin
to hold 120.

25 min @ 144 AHR @ 72-74 RPM in BR/15

Kept tighter control on heartrate. Still bounced around from 146-154.
Found that at 147 I didn't really feel like I was working. If I
tried to just nudge my heartrate up a little bit, my mouth would open
and my breathing would increase. In addition my legs would just start
to burn and resist. A couple times I was able to hold this "just
barely uncomfortable" intensity for maybe 2 minutes and my heartrate
would be 150 or 151. Most times though I would overshoot or back off
too soon and my heartrate would jump around.

46 min @ 120 AHR @ 90-95 RPM in BR/18

Heartrate came down in two minutes. Pretty much easy spin to finish workout.

Legs were not wobbly when I got off bike. Energy level felt fine.
Butt felt sore/raw. Also would go numb if I didn't stand up every 5
minutes for a couple seconds. I have been playing with my seat angle
but I guess I haven't found where I am comfortable. I have the same
saddle on my mountain bike with no problems.