Sometime in the spring I got the idea in my head that since my racing age would be 50 next year, I'd like to take a run at Nationals. Prior to that my focus had been more on XC type racing/training but when I quickly realized that the modern XCO courses and 1:15 minute races weren't my thing, I focused on the XCM. I bought a USAC license, put a few USAC races on the calendar to accumulate so call up points and started focusing on 3 hour races. It was going well and somewhere along the way, in June I think, the Burnin' race was scheduled in Sept and I got over my lack of enthusiasm for point to point style races and registered for the BT Epic for the first time. I changed my plan, which had revolved around the Miner Tough XC race the first week in July, and started doing marathon races. I lost sight of any A priority race and changed the training for the Burnin' and BT. In the back of my mind I was thinking about seeing how I compared to the 6 HR solo Burnin' in 2008, but it wasn't until mid August that I started to consider I had a chance. A few before the race I went down to Council Bluffs, rode 4 laps and realized I had the fitness to do it and also came to the realization that if I rode the race with a very specific pacing plan and didn't have any issues, it almost seemed like it would be easy.
Everything leading up to the event was perfect. There were so many key aspects of training that didn't exist back in the day that I was able to incorporate and was noticing the gains. We had some issues with our flights to the Cape and I was able to get in 2 bonus days of hard training, knowing I would be off the bike for a week, and got after it. By mid August after about 8 weeks of reverse periodization following the last race in July, my top end loss was noticeable, but the diesel over drive was insane. I was ultra optimistic. 200 watt average, 10.5mph or better and nothing extended over 300 w was the plan.
Once I started tapering the anxiety started to creep in as did another heat wave. My goal was to get in under 6 hours and do the 6th lap, which really meant no issues whatsoever. Council is tough on tires, tough on the body and easy place to make mistakes and I've had too many of those experiences leading to 2 DNF's and two of the hardest crashes I've taken on a mountain bike. I couldn't shake the anxiety and then the weather shifted with a heat wave rolling in and a high of 95, before the heat index, on race day. I had had a tough time maintaining 3 hr race pace in the heat early in the season, but have been sticking with the heat training and knew that if I was riding tempo it wouldn't be as bad.
Casey and I went to see Ryan Adams on the Tuesday before the race, I had two whiskeys and apparently not drinking much and being in race shape was a bad combo and I had a rough next day but didn't miss the key workout. By Friday I was a little worn out from the anxiety but feeling fresh and ready for race day.
I took in a massive amount of cabs on race morning, had Casey and Amelia to help with ice socks and cold water at the beach and had the backups at the campground. The plan was pretty much perfect, I just needed to execute.
Luckily there wasn't a Lemans start! I got a really good jump and had a few seconds gap by the trail. On the first climb I could see Alessandro and another rider before I turned the corner, maybe 40 seconds back, but that was the last I saw of them. Very smooth and what felt like a easy first lap turned out to be 1:08. My only real hiccup came on lap two about 100 yards down the trail, right after you turned from the campground drop in onto the lake loop. I saw someone fishing and when I looked up I grabbed a fistful of brakes and went straight into a tree. It jacked up my computer mount but I didn't drop anything. I focused on focusing and went back to work.
On lap 3 Casey had gone for a swim and missed the hand up so I stopped for 10-15 seconds to grab two ice socks and a bottle, but aside from that, it was the only time I was off the bike. I was having weird issues with my right big toe, maybe from crashing, but other than that was feeling really good and was turning sub 1:09 laps, which still felt easy.
By lap 4 I had to focus a little more on drinking but was still feeling fresh and asked Casey to stick around as I was going to go for 6 and had a big enough gap that unless something really went wrong on lap 5, I would easily make the cutoff. Lap 4 was just over 1:10.
Lap 5 became hot and harder, but I was having no issues with my legs, just my hands. I have been working on my triceps quite a bit after having issues earlier in the season but the roughness of the trail was causing some nerve related pain in my left hand and it became harder to concentrate. I was pretty confident that I had a big enough lead by the lap times alone, but I had no idea. I came through somewhere around 5:50 and Matt was getting people riled up that I was doing a 6th but when I heard that Tom was in second and had pulled the plug, I did too. Maybe a touch anti-climatic but doing a parade lap would have really put me in the hurt locker and I'm glad I didn't.
This is likely the most perfect race from start to finish I've had from training, nutrition, execution and race specific fitness. Aside from the issues with my hands and losing from focus on the last lap it felt easy and short. The heat never affected me, and the fact that I was able to turn 5 laps within 3:30 of the fastest and slowest with a heat index of over 100 is still hard for me to believe.
I almost executed the plan to the minute.
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