Wilderness 101: Whisky Tango Foxtrot!

Ah the feeling of my first DNF! How it really sucks!

Wilderness 101 was not very kind on race day. I had done a ton of training leading into this race in the hope that my performance would be better than Cohutta back in April. But you just never know what will happen on race day...NEVER!

The venue for this race is pretty epic. The landscape is awesome to look at and damn demanding to ride. Coming from Raleigh, (where the idea of actually riding up mountains is not going to happen), when I hit the climbs my legs rebel big time. This doesn't mean that I can't climb, it just means that my climbs are a slow grind instead of a Lance style speedfeast!

The race started off great from Coburn park in PA with about 300+ riders toeing the line on a cool and comfortable Saturday morning. We had a lead out pace that went through some small town roads that led us onto a fire road and the first climb of the day. It felt like I was blowing up and I was starting to go backwards in the pack which was alarming. It took me a good 40 mins until my legs really came around and I started to feel good to go! At the top of the climb was a bombing downhill on fire road where I made up for the time I lost on the climb.

The descent was fast and on gravel which made for some hairy turns. Some riders misjudged in front of me and off into the wood they went. Tony, who was a little bit behind me, said he had seen those two guys walking back up the fire road so they must have had some big troubles.

After the descent were a few more climbs before the 1st aide station. Then we turned into the woods on some single track that was slightly technical because of the rocky terrain. I was still feeling good at this point and continued to hold my pace. We did some more back and forth with the fire road and single track and then had a screaming single track decent on a crazy rock cluttered overgrown path. If you thought you could relax on the down hills at this event you were WRONG!

Not only were the single track descents fast, but the rocks where everywhere. From big bobbles to slippery scree...and most of it hidden in the underbrush and overgrowth! Some serious shit here folks...!! This would have been a great place to stock up on water bottles since I must have seen at least a dozen...and one with the cage and all!!! Hummm!

But out of the woods and onto another fire road that led into aide station 2. I was totally on a great pace at 13+ MPH. I stopped for about 6 mins to refill water and the nutrition in my drop bag. So quick stop and we rolled out heading to aide station 3. I was with a group of about 4 riders and leaving out I asked the guy I was with what his GPS was reading and he had us at 35.8 miles...so we were moving and had what I though was 24 miles to go to the next stop!

It wasn't long before we hit 6 mile climb. This was a non stop fire road climb with some switch backs that reminded my of an Alps stage in the tour. I was going steady when all of a sudden the walls came tumbling down.

My HR climbed into the 160's...NOT good!

My power dropped to a granny with her walker...NOT good!

My gut shut down and started sloshing what was in there already...NOT good!

My stomach started to cramp up..NOT good again!!

So WTF? Everything was going awesome...the planets seemed to be all in line and standing at attention and shit....WTF?

I stopped and took a little breather and watched with angry eyes as rider after rider rolled past...even the FAT GUYS! WTF!!

So now it was a game of survival. I was in the smallest gear I had...grinding slower and slower hoping the climb would end. Finally, FINALLY, the climb ended and we turned into the woods again on some single track for the descent.

I thought I would now have some recovery time and maybe get myself back into it but I was sadly mistaken. This downhill was even worse than the earlier ones. I mean white-knucking and out of the saddle for the whole deal. I don't think my HR dropped more than 10 beats. More big rocks...more scree..logs...people...I mean shit throw in a bear why don't you an call it a day!! I would have welcomed being slapped off my ride by smokey....I was already smoked anyway!

At this point I already threw in the towel. I just needed to get to aide station 3 so I can make it official. I was out of water....bonked big time...and my gut was still sloshing its contents with every move...so I was truly DONE!! Stick a fork in me bro...WELL DONE ANYONE?

By the time I limped into the aide station I was in bad shape...not sweating any longer I knew I was one step away from a bus ride to the ER so I called it and sat with a cold towel on my head and began my water sipping regiment to get my hydration back in check. It took me 7.5 hrs of sipping fluids and taking in some food before I was able to piss...I was DEHYDRATED folks...with a capital DUH!!!

Lessons learned:

1. Never trust the stated distance between aide stations...it's like the weatherman, sometimes he's right and sometimes he's not...most of the time he's not!!

2. When someone DNFs because they are too tired for the next downhill section it's a tough course...so be prepared for that and practice those downhills!!

3. Always, ALWAYS, bring your iodine tablets to a hundie...just in case...I crossed a lot of little steams that would have been right on time!

4. Find out in advance if there will be an EMT unit on site...if not, Uh, know where you are so you can call for extraction!

5. DNFing is one of the worst feelings I have ever had...now I'm pissed...now I want to kick Wilderness' ass...TWICE!

Next year I have to go back and do this race. Not only to redeem myself by finishing this one, but because it really was a great race venue...so check it out!!

Into the Wilderness

Finally the recovery/taper week is here. This is almost as exciting as Christmas morning. REALLY!

I've had some serious volume and intensity over the past three weeks and this is perfect timing for some rest. I only hope that all of this effort will show some improvement in the Wilderness 101 this coming weekend!

We plan on traveling up to PA the day before to check in and scope out the race location. After the 8.5 hr drive I'm sure we'll be ready to stretch out our legs...might even spin a little on the bike! But maybe not!

So now it's rest time and I'm going to make the best of it...so feet up...head back...ahhhhh!

Phase three...MORE HELL!

After having a few days of rest and recovery focused workouts I'm feeling much better. The last two weeks of training was really pushing me to my limit. Although this training is fucking hard, it's exactly what I need to move my performance to the next level.

I have found that, (although these training sessions are extremely hard), I'm enjoying them.

This year more than prior years I have been pushing through the periods of threshold pain in order to see how far I can actually go. In the past I've felt that lactate building up and started to back off before going over the edge. I was sort of using the "live to fight another day" argument in order to prevent injury or something. But these days I have pushed my boundary out farther and I'm feeling stronger for the effort.

Now we'll see how the feeling of power actually translates on race day! Wilderness 101 is just 10 days away so we will see soon enough if things are paying off compared to my effort at Cohutta.

2nd Degree Burns

Finally finished with the second phase of hell training and boy are my legs tired. Yeah I know, sounds like some sort of stand up routine but no joke here. I was blasted with about 250 miles of riding in just 3 days. And that's not all, I was also thrown some swimming and running just to keep from getting bored of course!

What put everything over the top was the 12 miles run yesterday. I was feeling pretty good, surprisingly, until the last 20 mins when I was ready to be laying down drinking a cold one! Although if I were laying down I would be more likely to be pouring it onto my face instead of actually drinking it. But that would have felt just fine too.

But most of the hard stuff is behind me for know. A few hard sessions next week and then we taper into the Wilderness 101 race. I'm ready to get this one under my belt and start focusing on the end of the season!

Hell week

Last week was what my coach called Hell Week #1. It was the perfect name! I did 250 miles of riding, 2hrs and 45 mins of running and 6K of swimming.....whew! I'm tired again just thinking about it.

Now I've had some nice relaxing recovery days to get all amped up again about the next Phase of training....you guessed it Hell Week #2. It's not exactly a week but really 4 days of jam-packed training. Now I'll have 275 miles of riding, 2 hrs and 30 mins of running and 5.5 K of swimming..oh yeah throw in 2 sessions of core strength and mix it all up...simmer for few hours and your Hell Week is ready for tasting!!! Emmm tast the pain?

So that's it in a nut shell...!

One more Hell Session before Wilderness 101 and then we are getting down and dirty for the Peak at the Duke Half in September. My plan there is to tear myself apart to go under 5hrs!