Year: 2007

24 hours in 5 weeks

Yesterday I finished my first 24 hour event of any kind, the 24 hours of Grand Targhee mountain bike race. It was a spur of the moment thing. The race started Saturday at noon and I decided to do it Friday afternoon….for that matter I was still wavering on Saturday morning. I’ve had 5 weeks of training on the road bike, riding most of Lisa‘s training rides for the 508 with her and crewing longer rides. I mention the crewing, because watching Lisa on long rides, enduring cold and dark and boredom, and at times severe back pain and very bad saddle sores, contributed as much to me finishing the race as my time on the bike. When I wanted to crawl in the back of the car and sleep instead of going back out on the trail in the dark, when the saddle hurt, when I felt just too tired to keep riding, I thought of Lisa, continuing on and never complaining, and kept plugging away as well as I could.

I don’t remember the last time I rode my mountain bike on a trail before we checked out the 7.3 mile course loop on Thursday. I do have some pretty gnarly trail rides in my memory bank, most of them trying to keep up with my friend Abi. I wished that Abi was here. She might have been able to win the solo. More about the results later.

I really did not feel like I had enough training for this. My longest training ride was 5 hours. Lisa, who is also my coach, said go slow and steady. My goal was to not feel it in my legs at all for as long as I could and I was going very easy. I didn’t seem to be losing much time on the uphills, but my lack of any recent trail riding, and possibly my 15 year old bike, meant I was getting passed a lot on the descents. After 12 hours, I was no longer able to pedal up some of the big hills. For the purposes of conserving my NiteRider batteries, neither of which could make a full lap, it was more efficient to walk the slowest sections and turn my main light off anyway.

I was there for one reason, to win. I was second. One of the late entries in the women’s solo division was Rebecca Rusch, the winner of the 24 Hour World Championships in Laguna, CA, September 1-2. The results may show she only beat me by two laps, but she did that easily and could have beaten me by many more. Her lap times were about half of mine. To get in 19 laps, I was on the course the entire time except when I was eating, changing clothes, or working on my bike.

I had great crew support from Colleen and Jay and Lisa and their kids!!! Colleen was helping me nearly the entire race and when she showed up with peanut butter and jelly it was a wish granted. I had spent much of the lap before wondering how I could have forgotten to bring peanut butter. They also made hot split pea soup and hot coffee and brought fruit, potato chips and hot water for tea. Colleen brought me yummy, hot burritos Sunday morning. That was a real treat! She must have driven up and down Ski Hill Road ten times getting hot food and supplies for me. I also want to thank Mike Evans who was on the Badwater crew relay. He was a race volunteer, but almost like another crew person helping me with my lights at night and cheering me at the start and finish of every lap.

One thing is for sure, it is MUCH easier to eat during a bike ultra, as compared to running. I never felt sick, where I have always been sick during long running races and training runs. In addition to the smorgasbord mentioned above, I drank a mixture of Hammer Sustained Energy and HEED the whole race and was taking a couple Endurolytes every hour or so. I also ate Clif gels, GU and Sharkies and took a few UpTime during the night to help stay alert.

I was tired after the race especially my back and neck and arms, but my legs were not sore. And wearing my Russ Bollig orthotics, I had zero foot pain. We had perfect weather. I added a couple layers on top and switched to knickers and then shorts and tights at night, but I never needed gloves or a hat.

I guess I am supposed to make some kind of “race report”. Well, it was easy and then it was not. It was scary riding at night, mostly because of my poor lighting system and not being able to see the trail well a lot of the time. I fell twice. Once at the turn around, and once going off the trail at night. The last 6 hours went by much faster that the first 6!!

Happy Jack Road

Wyoming Headquarters TrailI have spent the last couple of weeks in Idaho. I am on Lisa Smith-Batchen‘s 508 crew and I have been doing some training with her and helping with the Grand Teton Races that Jay, Lisa and Zach put on at Grand Targhee over Labor Day weekend.

The races were great. One of the highlights was getting to meet Olga. She wasn’t able to run this year and many of the competitors can be thankful for that. She was out the entire 36 hours of the race giving runners great assistance at the main aid station. She was filling water bottles, helping with drop bags, taping feet, giving massages, encouragement, ultra-wisdom and smiles. I don’t know how many shoes and socks I saw her change. Her energy was amazing. She never seemed to tire.

Bonnie on at Happy Jack WyomingOn the drive from Colorado to Idaho Bonnie and I stopped and for an early morning trail run near the “Lincoln Monument” east of Laramie. There are some beautiful single track trails in the area. From I-80 West I took a right from the Happy Jack exit and another right past the Lincoln Monument and about 1/2 mile on a dirt road to a trail head. I started on the “National Headquarters” trail and looped around on a couple others for about a half hour. Bonnie loved it and helped me find the way back to the car. I had just picked up my orthotics the afternoon before. They felt great.

Keeping your pup cool

Bonnie staying cool. 28 July 2007.I really don’t recommend taking your canine family members to an extreme climate like Death Valley. It is very stressful to realize that even a few seconds lack of vigilance could result in severe injury to your best friend. I had hoped not to have Bonnie in the hottest parts of Death Valley, other than driving through, but I did not know what temperatures we would encounter on our California trip, so I prepared as well as I could. It turned out that she was near Badwater, Furnace Creek, Stovepipe Wells, and Panamint Springs for over 24 hours in 100+ F degree heat, with maximum temp of about 126 F. At times the car A/C was on. At others it was not.

In the photo she has been sitting in the car with windows and back open, no A/C, for about 20 minutes. The temperature was about 105 F. It helps that my car is white and has maximum legal window tinting, but the first line of defense when it was really hot was a space tarp clipped to the outside of the car on the sun side. These cheapo, small clips, and one of these ball bungees, secured the tarp at maximum speed of over 40 mph. If you you want to use the clips more than one day, it’s probably best to go for the larger, heavy-duty ones. The cheap ones were falling apart after a few hours in the heat and sun. It was amazing HOW much cooler it was in the car with the tarp in place.

She also had a small Cool Core Bed. She didn’t particularly like it at first, but as the temps rose, she was on it all the time. I kept it in a refrigerator overnight when I could and re-filled it with chilled water a couple times during the hottest day/evening. I think you could also put small ice cubes in it, but that would not work great with the foam core.

The towels are Cool ‘n Dry which I had first seen one of the CDD Frisbee dogs using earlier in the summer. I tried one for a few moments myself to see how much cooler it was. I did not want to give it back. Knowing humans are much more efficient at cooling themselves than dogs, I did. : ) I could tell that she felt noticeably cooler with one or two of these towels over her.

For additional ventilation, a few times I used one of these to keep the tailgate open, but secured. I have used that device much more in Colorado. I also brought along several battery operated fans, inherited from my grandfather, similar to these, but I never used them.

Those are all my canine cooling tips. Bonnie hardly panted the whole time we were in Death Valley, mostly when we were on a moonlight walk in 107 F, so I think we did a pretty good job keeping her cool. Bonnie is a naturally low key dog and I think that made it much easier to keep her cool. She was content to lie on her cooling bed and rest under her cooling towels. It would have been much more difficult to keep a dog like Jessie cool, who would have watched, and mentally taken, every step with the relay runners.