Epic week of anxiety as I entered the race block. No matter how old I get, how many races I win, how fit I think I am or who I'm racing, this has been my Achilles heel since Pirtle took me to my first race at Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky late in 2002.
Both of the previous races I did this year were in the middle of training, so I was going into this with a clean slate and not a bunch of confidence you get from racing. After two good workouts last weekend and enjoying myself a little too much on Fathers Day, I took two days of rest as my plan was to do the XCM race, which would surpass the planned TSS for the taper week and since April 1, with one or two exceptions, I have stuck exactly to the plan. I felt amazingly good for the openers workout on Sat morning, but at that point wasn't certain which race I was going to do for a few reasons; mainly the heat and not wanting to do the XCM if there wasn't much competition, but at that point there were only 3 people in the XC race. I drove to Columbia and pre-rode. It was brutally hot and the trail was far more technical with a lot more climbing than I remembered. There wasn't much flow on the downhill sections for recovery, which had a lot of switchbacks and tech section. The climbing was step with hard switchbacks, very technical sections and lots of it. Climbing 8/10, flow 4/10.
I thought the XCM race was at 9 (didn't find out it was at 11 until about 5p the day before when I went into Walt's in Columbia for some grips) so was leaning towards that due to the heat and some fast kids registering by Saturday after my pre-ride. My mind was blown when Sam told me the XCM start was at 11 and the XC was at 1230 as it was going to be brutal heat either way, so I stuck with the plan and registered for the XCM.
I did a minimal warm up, set up my ice socks and nutrition cooler and lined up. They reduced the time cutoff time to 2:30 due to the heat, which was fine with me. It was a long gravel/grass start before the single track and I was expecting all the young guns to go for it so I led it out hard and sprinted once we hit the grass. Isaac was on my wheel but didn't try to jump me. We had a gap immediately which grew to over a minute on the first lap. Isaac seemed calm, on my wheel and very chatty, which definitely worried me as I was going pretty hard. I generally don't talk to much but was trying to be friendly. Left quad was a little locked up from the lack of warm up, but I was riding really well, the bike felt good and I never reached the unreversible boiling point. I did a quick 5-10 second pit to grab an ice sock and took off on lap two and Isaac let me pass to stay on my wheel, which he did for about 5 minutes into the lap when he told me he was feeling the heat. I respectfully, since he is a kid, told him that it wasn't my first rodeo and wasn't falling for the mind games. Shortly after, he was gone, I made a few efforts to extend a lead, and I never caught sight of him again.
I pitted again, as I would every lap and ticked out another good lap to finish my 3rd lap in 30:05, 1:28 total, which would have put me in 3rd OA in the Cat 1 race results. Lap 3 was uneventful and I still was sweating and handling the heat well.
Lap 4 was more of the same with a 30:08 and my average times for the first 4 laps was 29:36+/- and pretty consistent. I started to realize that I was going to come very close to the 2:30 cutoff and was prepared to do a 6th lap.
Lap 5 was harder. Power was dropping and I wasn't sweating as much but my legs felt great, just not capable of pushing as hard at the same HR, which was also staying steady. Historically I haven't been able to maintain the same HR without it falling off or skyrocketing, so I think this is a good sign, especially given the heat. I was caught by the front two riders in the Cat 1 race and was able to stay in contact with them for a bit. I was pushing about the same power on the climbs, but wasn't able to maintain it though the flats, etc, as I was early in the race. Lap time was 31:22
I came through the start finish on the heels of the two cat 1 guys so people weren't sure of which race I was doing and it was unclear to me what the time was. my lap time had slowed by over a minute. Someone said keep going. I didn't have any bottles or heat socks left, which was poor planning, and had no idea whatsoever of how close anyone was. I wasn't getting any help from any of the teams there, so I dumped a cooler of ice on my head and took off. Seeing the results it turns out I was 13 seconds before the cutoff and had over a 13 minute lead.
I felt pretty confident I had a lead and just needed to protect it going into the last lap. I wasn't powered down and HR was still responsive, but I had no water to cool and wasn't sweating much. I had some motivation when two of the Cat 1 riders came up on me halfway through the lap and I was able to stay in contact to the finish. Lap time slowed to 31:34, so two minutes slower than avg for first 3 laps, but really not terrible.
Overall, super stoked to take a win in exceptionally hard conditions and glad the nutrition, bike and fitness all felt great. It's a little tough to see / watched the power drop steadily, way more than usual, over the course of the race but the fact that I could keep my HR pushing is a good sign in heat like that. Seeing how recovery goes before calling the next 3 races.
I had 3 gel blocks an hour before with a Red Bull, a Enervit Cheer pack 15 mins before= 80 grams pre-ride hour. I finished 3.5 bottles at 80 g each total 280 by 2:30 mins, one 40 gram gel at ;45, one 40 g gel at 1:30, one 30 g caff gel at 2:15 for 390 in 2.5 hrs/ 156 hr and then had 3 Clif Blocks on the last lap. I felt a tinge of belly upset after the first gel but think it was just going hard and eating, no issues after that and was always thirsty for the mix. I think I drank a few bottles but also used a lot of water for cooling.
