Redbud, Race Tactics and Ardmore

Its been a couple of weeks since I've updated the blog and a few things have happened since then. So lets start at the top........

Redbud

The 2011 Redbud Classic got a record number of riders (over 1500). This event is classified as a tour, but usually the fast guys go out front and race it. This year I decided to see if I could hang at the front in the 50 mile tour.

It all went well until about mile 30. I was in the main pack when a guy directly in front of me hit the ground really hard. I managed to swerve, bunny hop and avoid killing him at 27mph. Unfortunately the guy behind me wasn't quite as alert and rammed straight into my rear derailleur. It completely destroyed the back part of my bike and ended my day......I was not hurt, but not happy at all.

Well crap.....

Red River Shootout - Ardmore

This race is somewhat unique in that being equal distance between OKC and Dallas it gets racers from both states and hence a very strong field.

I lined up at the front with 2 full rows of riders and got off to an awesome start, tucking into 2nd as we hit the trail.

Myself and eventual race winner to my right

From the minute myself and the race leader hit the single track we gunned it and opened up a large gap from the rest of the field. The course itself was extremely fast with some great rock gardens that setup perfectly for the 29er to float over.

We started to pass the 20-29 age group and moved through them pretty quickly and settled in with the knowledge it was just he and I. Something I learned during this race is that my race tactics are not great.....that will develop with more races under my belt. Since I sat behind this guys wheel for 95% of the race I was not able to see the good lines over the rocks and was playing catch up after riding over them. Also I probably sat behind the guy for too long as I had plenty of power and energy left in the tank that I could have powered away from him much earlier in the race and put distance between us with an open trail in front of me.

We got up to the last major rock section and the race leader got stuck and had to hop off his bike to get over the top, which forced me off the bike to follow suit. Once I got to the top, he had opened up a 30 second gap on me and we hit the last mile of the course which was a big chain ring flying section. If I had pre-rode the course I would've known this and might have been able to reel him in there......might have.

Burying myself for the finish

All in all I was very happy again with 2nd place, and am learning more and more interesting things in the races, such as how to use other slower riders to your advantage, when to drink, when to pass, where to put in bursts of speed. Technically I'm way ahead of where I thought I would be floating over rock gardens, rolling drops, cornering at speed, etc..etc.

Next up is a power test which is simply 20 mins of pure all out suffering, to figure out what your power to weight ratio is. I should see some improvement there from the last time I did it.

After that is my "A" race for the year down in Austin at the Mellow Johnny's classic. This race is run on Lance Armstrong's Juan Pelota ranch and is a national event with a lot of competition.

The HorseOutside is rollin a little faster!

Postponed Races and Training

Well its been a while since my last post and that is for good reason. Mother Nature has twice decided to interveen in the Team Phoenix race at Osage Hills. Unfortunately when an MTB trail gets wet, it should not be ridden at all as it will get destroyed.....so imagine what 200 racers on a wet trail would do to it.

Training Stuff
Ones of the things I've discovered is that focus on training is extremely important to making progress. You cannot go half-assed at all......if I find myself doing that I'll stop as the time isn't worth it.
These past few weeks, I've been training on the Computrainer a lot. This is basically a torture device into which you place your road bike. The laptop controls the grade (hills) and the power output. The cool thing is that there is zero place to hide on this thing......you're either hitting the workout or you're not.


Pain Cave (AKA Computrainer)

Mark has developed some pretty cool workouts on it, and if you're interested in more info around those contact him http://www.speedworkscoaching.com/

Today I did a singlespeed training ride around Draper which was awesome. Essentially you keep the bike in the same gear the whole way....hills & corners included! What this does is forces you to generate a lot more power up the hills, which I had in abundance today.....it was a lot of fun.

Next Race
The next event on the horseoutside schedule isn't actually a race but a bicycle tour. Every year since I can remember I've participated in the Redbud Classic and this year will be no different. On Sat I'll be doing the 52 mile tour, which I expect my time to be significantly better than it every has. On Sunday I'll be organizing & directing split timers on the course for the runners who show up in force for this event.
If you haven't registered, go here: http://www.redbud.org/

Hopefully next week I'll have something more exciting to post with pics of the Redbud.

Battle at the Bird and Redline

Today was the 1st race in the Oklahoma Mountain Bike Championship series, otherwise known as Tour De Dirt. Lake Thunderbird in Norman was the location for this season opener and the weather was kinda poopy......overcast, grey, chilly....perfect for me!!!
I didn't get much sleep Sat night due to the excitement, so I spent some time doing something I've carried over to bike racing from my soccer playing days is visualizing, whereby I know exactly what I'm going to do and when.

The Birdy

Springing forward sucks. I sleepily arrived at 8am to offload my bike and help setup the Team Phoenix tent. Slowly but surely folks started pouring in......this was going to be a large turnout of racers for the 1st event of the year.

Team Phoenix area

Race time was at approx 11am for me so I set off to get a good warm up in 30 mins prior.....I knew that the start of this circus would be a flat out drag race for a while and I'd need to be good and warm for it.

The Main Event

Around 10:45am I headed over to the start area to get a spot on the front row as this would be crucial to a fast start. It was here that the race organizers explained we'd be doing a little detour to start the race.....ummmmmm ok??

As more and more people lined up, I started looking around and seriously thought my chances were diminishing rapidly here for my top 5 finish. The Off-Camber team had a big presence and chatting to the guy lined up beside me, it was clear we would be competitors for the day.

Eventually the race got under way and I got just the start I wanted.....3rd heading into the 1st corner. Unfortunately this was the little detour we were told about and all of a sudden there's a guy whacking his wheel into my bike, followed by another crashing to my right. I came out of this pile up in 7th place, pissed and headed to the drag strip. I gunned it and flew down this section passing 3 guys to put myself in 4th headed into the real singletrack.

It was me, the Off-Camber guy, black and white shirt guy and a dude from New Zealand racing for Schlegels Bicycle store.

I knew I had to patient somewhat through the 1st section or so and stuck on these guys wheels and settled in for a bit. The 4 of us had already put a substantial gap into the rest of the field, so it was clear this was the competition.

Race Results Posted

White shirt dude had pulled away at the front and was out of sight, so I knew I had to make a move as Off-Camber guy and the New Zealander were starting to lag a little.

We came out of a corner and Off-Camber guy went a little right and I shot past him and started to hammer. I was on the tail of New Zealand and we played cat and mouse for a while with each other. From the training I've been doing and skills practice I knew I had a substantial advantage when we hit the technical sections in the gold.

Sure enough the 1st sets of roller coasters and wooden ramps, he was over cautious and I flew past him.

At this point my sole goal was to chase down white shirt guy and I pushed myself into zone 5 of my HR and stayed there for the duration of the race. It's amazing what training and practice can do.....I hit every line that we went over with Mark, floated over the rocks and flew down the single track. I honestly got into such a flow that the last 1/3 of the race was a blur......I was hammering it and absolutely loving it. I knew I was a different racer when I started going through the 19-29 year old class that started a full minute ahead of us.

I knew I was gaining on white shirt guy in the final section of the race when I could finally see him, but he had too much of a head start for me to catch.

Crossing the finish line I knew I was spent and left it all on the course........my goal was to get a top 5 finish, so getting 2nd and reeling back in the guy in 1st was a huge bonus. All the hard work, training and time spent on the trail clearly paid off.

The best compliment I got was from the New Zealand guy who after the race told me that he thought he could catch me on the flats, but the minute we hit the hills I pulled away big time and he couldn't react.

I now know how much I can push myself at redline.......and thats very important in these XC races.

Podium

Next we're off to Osage Hills in a couple of weeks for race #2 and a very rocky technical course....right up my alley!!!!

The HorseOutside is rollin!!!

Leadville, Mayhem, Rocks and Flats

Earlier this week I received the dreaded email:
Dear Leadville Race Series Family,
We regret to inform you that we are unable to accept your application for the
2011 Leadville Trail 100 MTB race. In order to offer the nation’s highest quality athletic
experience with the utmost degree of safety, medical care, and racer support, we are
unable to accommodate every interested rider. We do not offer a waiting list, and are
unable to accept entries for 2012.

Blah blah...whatever. I wasn't too bothered about it as I've said before just entering Leadville was the catalyst for spawning so much more.

Training this week went really well and I felt ready to tackle the race that was the "Mountains of Mayhem". I was really curious for this pre-season game to test out just how far I'd come and where I was.

Race Day:

On to the day of the event. Myself, Mark Orton and Jeff Sikes all headed down to Ft Sill nice and early and it was freeeeeezing. I'd loaded my bag the night before and put my warm weather gear in just in case. We were 1 of the first there and went and registered, took care of some nature business, then got back in the truck where it was warm.

Me stripping off my warm weather gear (Thanks Tommy!!)

Eventually we decided it would be a good idea to start getting our crap together for the warm up etc. So bikes were unloaded, gear put on, and off we rode to warm up. I decided to tackle the 1st hill as part of my warm up.....holy crap!!! It was steep, loose, rocks the size of some small Japanese cars!!! I was a little nervous at first, but this crap was not stuff I was used to riding on nevermind racing on.

The Race:

At about 10:45am we lined up to start this Mayhem (now I see why its called that), and I moved towards the front of the pack as I didn't want to get stuck behind people who would be walking their bikes up the hill. Come 11am (or so) they shot off the huge cannon and the race was underway. I pushed hard to hit the hill as part of the 1st 1/3 of people and starting climbing......this hill was nasty, gnarly, steep, and loose rocks everywhere. One thing I discovered quickly is that I now have a climbing ability.....holy crap I can climb!!! A 60lbs weight loss will give you a new ability to be faster (who woulda thought that).

I cruised up the hills pretty comfortably, and headed into the meat of the course. One thing I don't do well is descend on loose rocks....so for this race I made it a point to fly up the climbs, bomb the flats and be very careful on the descents.

The Flats:

No I'm not talking about the fast parts of the course. Prior to heading down to this race I had been warned to bring 2 spare tubes and 3-4 Co2 cartridges, which I did but never thought I would use them. About 2/3 of the way through the race I ran over a pretty big cactus....and of course air starts pouring out. Luckily I got the wheel spinning enough that the Stans sealed the hole (yeah for tubless and Stans). After that I started speeding up on the descents a little, and of course I hit the sharp edge of one of those Japanese cars. This cause about a 2 inch gash along the side of my front tire (booooo for tubeless and Stans). So off I got to fix that one by putting in one of my 2 tubes and burning a Co2 to inflate. 10 mins later back on my merry way. Crested the last major hill and riiiiiiiip....another rock rips open my front tire again in a different place and pops the tube.......seriously. Another 10 mins later and telling one of the course marshalls that "no I wasn't going to quit because I flatted", I was on my way again.

I pushed really hard for the last 1/3 of the race to make up time and ended up coming in middle of the pack overall with a time of 2:14:00. If I take away 25 mins for the flats my time would have been right at 1:50:00 which is impressive to me.

Post race conversation regarding flats

Overall I was really happy with the race despite the flats and it was a fun race to do as there are not any others quite like the Mountains of Mayhem.

Next week is the start of the TDD series with a race at T-Bird......with a bit of luck, I'm shooting for a top 5 spot in my category.

Below is the race video I took with my helmet cam. Its not great due to the helmet mount I had setup but you get the general idea.

Its 1 week to go until the start of my 2011 MTB race season. I have been training hard all winter under the coaching of Mark Orton (a pro MTB racer...check out Speedworks Coaching link at the right) and made significant progress. But....right now is kinda like a boxer who has been training very hard for a fight, but has yet to actually fight. I have no idea how I'll do but I know I'm enjoying every minute of the training and will enjoy the racing even more.



For this season, I'll be racing the Niner Jet 9 which is an absolute rocket with full suspension. The bike has won a number of awards over the past few years, so hopefully I won't let it down!!!





Below are 2 very interesting pics....1 of me 6 months ago weighing close to 240lbs, and the other taken a week or so ago weighing 185lbs. My goal weigh is 175lbs.

Fat Elvis!!


Skinny Elvis!!


This week's race is the Mountains of Mayhem (former 12 miles of Hell), which is ironic cause it's never ever been only 12 miles.....usually 15-18 miles. The course itself is an extremely technical course located on the Ft Sill army base near Lawton, OK.

My goal in this race is simple....survive in 1 piece. The season is long, and the races I'm hoping to peak for are the longer endurance races (think 60-100 miles on a bike) along with a few Tour De Dirt races (6-8 miles).

I'll post up later in the week how my training and preparation went this week for the race, then next Sunday with a race report.

Oh yeah....as to the horseoutside blog name.....I may reveal where it came from through the season.