Deer Valley NORBA Nationals June 28th

How did the race go? In short- it was lonely... the next place in front of me was 4 minutes away and the guy in back of me was 4 minutes away. I came in 6th in a field of 12. So it really seemed like a good fast 2 hour ride. I pushed hard but didn't cramp up. I was feeling pretty good despite not being sure whether I recovered completely from the HUC the week before. I came out strong at the start and was in fourth for most of the first long climb but then at the top was passed by two guys and I never saw them again. I did hit the wall on the last couple switch backs of the last climb which made me nervous since I was not sure how far the next place was behind me. What I liked about the NORBA race is that they put your group number on your leg so you know when you pass or get passed whether they are in your category. It makes it easier to guage where you are in the race. Ultimately, I think again it was lack of the climbing legs I had last year. I got to get them back.....





The rest (Carson) of the Arantix team did well. Carson got the Arantix converted over to the 69'r and a new derailer hanger put on and seemed ready for the race at the start. I asked him how he did and he wasn't sure. Well wouldn't you know it he pulled out an AWESOME 2nd place!


So I had to get a picture with him for posterity sake. Way to go!
Chris and KC raced also. Chris place a repectable 7th in a large semi-pro group and KC did awesome in her national pro debue at 15th in a 30+ numbered group.

ARANTIX MILES TO DATE: 888

High Uintas Classic

Well a roadie I ain't. 4 hours on a road bike?...... Well the picture about sums it up.

It was an unusual start this year in the fact that the whole large group stayed together until the big climbing started. There were no small factions taking off. There did seem to be more of a headwind on the ascent from previous years. Well finally about 1:20 into the race the climbing started and the group broke apart. I was not used to going so slow off the start so my legs were itching to go. The first ascent at Provo falls went really well and I was hopeful but by the time we began the next ascent my legs were feeling it. This tells me the rest of the year will be climbing training. That's about when Bruce Lyman passed me and I never saw him again. (Bruce, you got a time of 3:59 and 5th place). Once I got to the top I hooked up with one other guy in the group and we worked our way down. Once we got past Bear River lodge we took on another rider and a tandem couple. Wow they kicked, Butt! They pulled the group for at least 50% of the time. I hung on until about 7 miles left and the legs gave up and cramps set in. I was able to work them out by doing alternate leg pedaling but I had no power left. I turned in a time of 4:02 and 7th place. All in all I felt I strategically raced it well, staying in the front with the main group and finding a strong group the rest of the way to pull me on. I just wish my legs had a bit more in them. I've never had my quads ache so much as right after this race.

Interestingly, my time last year was 3:46 and 5 th place but comparing the times of the first place finishers between the last two years showed this years times to be about 10-15 minutes slower.

The Arantix got a break this week but we are planning on hitting the NORBA race at Deer Valley this Saturday. Hope the legs recover.

PRICELESS

So what's the value of the helmet below? PRICELESS!

This morning the wearer of this helmet was brought in by ambulance after he was hit by a car. He had multilple fractures of his face but his brain was OK. HE SURVIVED BECAUSE OF THIS $30 helmet! The patient's son was sitting next to his father holding this helmet as if it was made of gold. But I guess he new it was worth even more.

One of my biggest pet peeves in the ER are injuries sustained because individuals didn't wear helmets. Today was a good day because of someone that did wear a helmet.

3.5 HOUR SATURDAY

A group of 7 Mad Dog riders got together for an epic 3.5 hour (actual ride time) tour of Corner Canyon. We warmed up in the "Vizmeg Pasture course" and tried out my new teeter totter.



Below: Me going off of it a bit fast. It's a bit short so if you don't go slow it's more like a ramp and a jump.


ROUTE:
We head off from my house to start off with Clark's TT. I lead off and blew up half way into it and pulled a 12:25. 3 day before that I did it in 11:38. Carson was behind me pushing me and finally got tired of me and passed. His monitor was broken so we don't have an official time but I suspect he was sub 11 minutes. He'll have to do it again soon. Scott beat me by about 30 sec also. I''ll have to work on my sprints.

We headed over the mountain and hit a great banked downhill gully ride into Alpine. I crashed (the Arantix survived better than I, OUCH!). Then we headed back up Hog's hollow for a nice steady climb. From the top of Corner Canyon we tried the new Ghost falls trail. Dwight crashed and dislocated a finger. I should have taken a picture before I reduced it. All was good and we were at about the 1.5 hour mark. Next, we cut across to BST North and down the fun descent to Orsen trailhead to refill our water. We then climbed Corner canyon back to the BST and headed South. We crossed Rambling road and then went up, Up, UP to the suncrest trail heading towards the Glider park. At this point we were just about 3 hours into it and we were dragging since the pace was NOT a slow one so far. I think the ridge ride to the Glider park is extremely fun so I kept pushing the group. We got out to the point and despite the long ride so far, riders were smiling. We backtracked and dropped down through the golf course section of the race course and headed home. The Ice cold watermelon afterwards tasted AWESOME! I heard suggestions that we should make this ride a yearly tradition.



Picture #2 Brad finishing the Clark's TT. Although, he didn't do the TT part this time.


Picture #3
L to R: Carson- Arantix #2 , Scott- still smiling after 3 hours, Bill-give me some legs, Brad- I think I'll do intervals before my 3 hour ride, Dwight-crooked finger, Tim- I'm spent but I'll keep going, Me-in disguise!




Bueatiful Day, Great course, Good company, Tired legs, Cold watermelon after the ride, What else can a MTB rider want?.....




Arantix logged miles over 800!

DV UPDATE

Check it out! http://intermountaincup.com/2008Race/PedalfestResults08.pdf I placed 4th! So is it a trend? 6th Draper, 5th Sundance, 4th Deer Valley? The next MTB race If I can beg the time off from the wife will be DV again in three weeks, although I will be doing the High Uintas Classic in two weeks. Check out the deeeeeep snow still on the pass on their website.

I am not sure whether getting passed at the end hurts more or less knowing I could have podiumed.

DEER VALLEY June 7th

What a crazy weather day. Yes the picture shows snow at Deer Valley and IT WAS 36 and SNOWING when we got there!

Thank goodness Dot still wanted to go ahead with the race, else I might have bailed.

However, by the time the race started the sun was threatening to come out. The course was in pretty good condition despite the snow and rain over the last week. It was only slightly tacky and really only a rare puddle. The turnout was actually pretty good despite the weather. I think people must of been preregistered and had no chose.

I got off to a good start that lasted maybe 20 seconds then I dropped to something like 8th. It was cold and difficult to really warm up which my legs need. I was, however, worried whether I might have enough time to catch up since the expert and pro races were shortened to 2 laps due to the weather. It seem like 75% of the climbing at DV is in the first 10 minutes and I hate it. But the nice thing after that is the rest seems all downhill. It really is a nice course. There are plenty of fast descents on single track with a few hairpin turns thrown in to give us a challenge. The last half of the course was new this year and I actually felt it was an improvement. There was a steady climb up that didn't really kill ya but made you wonder when it was going to stop. Then came the down hill which consisted of 3-4 very high banked turns that were a blast seeing how high I could take them without going over the edge. I passed Darren on the first lap going up the new section. He was always the one ahead of me with the bullseye that I'd aim for. I can't tell whether I am getting faster or he is struggling (although, he did say he was wasted as I passed him) OK so then I wondered where to go after that. I didn't see anyone in my category ahead of me nor have any idea of how far they were. I did finally catch up with a couple guys I thought started with us (there were some new faces at the start I didn't recongize). I continued on the rest of the race in a sense alone. I wasn't feeling bad but again I wasn't feeling to good either. I wasn't sure what postion I was in. I passed some riders from different divisions and was working on another about 2 miles from the end of the race when I saw on the long stretches and some turns that there was a racer closing in on me. I got nervous and just had the sense he was in my category and so I turned it on. But I had trouble passing the guy in front on the single track downhill. I tried at one point and was surprised when a big 1 1/2 foot rock came up out of the deep weeds which I had to hop at a fast downhill speed. Well if it wasn't for my 29 inch front wheel it would have been over. The 69'er ARANTIX popped over the rock smoothly and I continued on, although with a little tighter sphincter tone and I missed the pass. I finally passed just before we hit the pavement towards the finish but I sensed I had lost a lot of time because the other racer had closed the gap. As I hit the pavement I stood up and tried to sprint it up the last quarter mile but I could hear him right behind me. And as hard as he was pushing towards me I just new he was in my category. I blew up about 200 feet from the finish and as he passed my I saw the blue tag. CRAP! I lost it.......

I'm not sure where I placed since we had to take off right away so that we could make it to John and Gitta's wedding. I am hoping I was in 4th and dropped to 5th but it could be worse. I'll check the standings tomorrow.

I'll give you all one guess how Dot did..... Yup first, but her nemesis Tasha no-showed. OH and by the way I had the question again today of how muddy the ARANTIX gets in the mud. I compared the ARANTIX with Dot's specialized and her's had quite a bit more mud stuck on than mine. Mud is Not an issue.

OVER 736 miles on the ARANIX and I'm lovin it!

ODDS

Just an interesting event......

The other day we had two patients with the same name come in for the same problem and had to have the same surgery!

What are the ODDS of that?

Thanks for coming.....

SUNDANCE May 31st

Mad dog sponsored this race so our team had a good turnout.

RACE IN BRIEF

I had a slow start at the back of the pack. It just has not been worth it for me to try to keep up with the front pack lately since they head out so fast. It might have cost me 4th this time, however. I got caught behind some single speeder on the singletrack uphill and the front guys got a lot farther ahead earlier than usual. Once I passed through the log jam it was a great race. I noticed I was feeling pretty strong. After the first lap I caught Darren Cottle who has consistantly beat me this year. I was feeling good. After the second lap I realized I had no cramps and I got this rush of excitement and rode even harder. The trouble was there was noone behind me nor in front of me and I didn't know how far out I was. But as I was finishing the last climb I saw Fred Porter ahead of me. I couldn't beleive it! I've never even been near catching him. He was chatting with some 'girl' biker as he passed her. I thought if I could sneak up on him I'd have a chance. But he saw me as he made a hairpin turn and smiled in suprise stating, "Karl, you tried to sneak up on me!" And he took off and I couldn't close the gap on the downhill. He finished about 20 seconds ahead of me. I got fifth, but it was a very good feeling fifth that I had not felt for many a race.

IS IT GETTING BETTER?!

I didn't cramp up this race! That's the first time since Old Pueblo. I really felt good the whole race. The trouble is in my desperation to fix it I changed so many things that I am not sure which of them did it. Here in bullet form are some of the things I changed or tried that "may" have helped. They are in order of most likely to not sure.

1a. REST: Since even before Soldier Hollow I have really been only doing light spins of max 1.5 hours except for the races. I have not felt this lazy in my riding for a long time.

1b. ARANTIX 69'er: I've never felt stronger on the downhills since putting the 29in wheels on. This course had a lot good singletrack down hills. I rolled over a lot of rocks and roots that were stickier last year on the stumpjumper.

2. BREATHING: My theory here is that I tend to hyperventilate during the races. Some hyperventilation is good in blowing off the CO2 from lactic acid buildup but severe hyperventilation can cause muscle cramping as well.

3. ELECTROLYTE: I have been loading up on Carbo Rocket and Endurolyte before and during the race. Although I did that during the Draper race with some cramping still.

4. FUEL: I have increased my use of gels during the race.

5. TONIC WATER: (Dot's idea) Quinine which is in tonic water has been used for prevention of night time cramping. This was the first time I tried it (taken before the race). Hey if is works for the old folks why not me?

6. ASPIRIN: First for this race. It thins the blood and improves circulation.

7. JOGGING: I went for a short jog two days before the race. I have been riding so much this year that my cross-training has been lacking severely. It's a proven fact that this helps in performance and recovery.

8. FULL BLADDER: I forgot to pee before the race and had to go pretty bad when we lined up. Theory; increased sympathetic tone needed to "hold it" which increases adrenalin (who knows..).

9. PRE-RACE CRAMPING: I was cramping pretty bad before the race in my calves. I couldn't stretch them out until the race started then I forgot about them and had no problem. Theory; none.

10. SLOW START: I got caught behind some single speeders in the single track up and was forced to start slow and at the back of the pack. I usually take a while to warm up and maybe this gave me time to do so and forced me to pace myself.

OK so what do I do now? Do I have to replicate all 11 points each race? If I have to....