12 Hours of Temecula MTB Race

Much like the Mike Nosco ride earlier in the week the 12 Hours of Temecula mountain bike race was not on my radar but with the Everesting ride being delayed 5 weeks and Becca passing on her fall Marathon due to her collar bone this opened up to me.

It was never that it was going to be a race bit more of a long day in the saddle for me. Knowing what I know about Mountain Biking 12 hours on the trails would be around 100 miles. That would be if I managed to stay the entire duration. This would be the first time riding this duration of this race, the last time was the 6 hour race last June where I tapped out after 4:40. This time I had a much deeper cycling specific base having switched over the bike proper in April this year.

Becca and I headed out of town on the Friday to get as close to the race for Saturday morning. This meant we didn’t have to leave at the crack of dawn, the race site was about 2.5 hours from our home. Even though the race didn’t start until 9am getting there in good time meant we could stake out a pretty good site to the side of the course which would be home base for me to stop at each lap to refill.

The format of the race is simple, 12 hours, as many laps as you can. Start at 9am, finish at 9pm. Make sure you have your lights fitted by 4:30pm.

So with that, a low key briefing we were on our way. The first lap is called a parade lap and misses the first couple of miles of the actual course. This allows beginners to complete an entire lap without getting caught up with the general population. The course is an 8.5 mile loop with about 1000’ of gain. It basically a 4 loop cloverleaf course with the leaf being blown from the SE to the NW. Roughly anything NW was up and anything SE was down. The terrain varied from sandy fireroad to 12”singletrack strewn with rocks with a 50’ drop on one side! The grade maxed out around 27%...and that was going up!

The course had slightly changed from last some of it was easier and some was harder. On the whole most of it was fun in one way of another. For a loop I was able to ride about 80% of it, the remaining 20% was too steep to ride up or just too hairy to ride down. Once again I was humbled by other riders abilities to throw their bike off of a mountain and hang on till they landed. That’s just not in my skills base and as this wasn’t my main event it would serve no purpose in doing something silly and breaking either myself (or worse) the bike! There’s no doubt that with practice my skill and confidence would grow but MTB time this year has been next to nothing!

With all that said I still managed to crash two of three times. Fortunately all I picked up was a couple of choice bruises which are now turning several shades of yellow and purple!

This was also an opportunity to test out my Everesting lighting solution, I had 2 Bright Eyes CREE Spots on my bars and a Chinese knock off on my helmet, the lights worked out really well but I determined that they need diffusers to spread the beam rather that have it focused on one section of trail. This will be even more important on the road when the speed is greater.

In addition this was really a test of endurance and with that in mind I was pacing myself as best I could and ensuring that I was eating and drinking enough along the way. To be honest I went out a bit light but I improved my hydration as the day wore on and I was trying to drink a bottle a loop alternating Skratch Pineapple and Raspberry with a mix of BASE Amino powder. As I was able to stop every lap I didn’t feel the need to wear a CamelBak (actually mine is FOX, but you know what I mean). This was supplemented with a firm favorite Mexican Coke (real sugar) and Sprite. In terms of food, I stuck with real food with PB&J rolls and several other items from the Skratch Portables book. All of this worked really well and will be the foundation for the Everesting ride, I’ll be adding warm Apple Skratch during the dark sections…because well 45f!

I chipped away at the loops and the day passed by. I gained confidence as I went round and that helped with some of the trickier sections. Once the 6 Hour riders left the trail opened up and not having someone breathe down your neck helped too. I had set a mental goal of 10 in the 12 hours in total. This was adjusted as I got an understanding of the course and realized what I would have to navigate in the dark down to 8 laps. By the time I started my 7th lap the sun was setting and 3 miles in it had set. The lights worked great but as mentioned they need to have diffusers fitted. The other main taking away is that I need to bring my clear lens glasses, riding at speed in the dark without glasses just results in my eyes tearing and streaming…no fun! With that in mind and after discussing it with Becca I decided to call it after the 7th lap. 60 miles 7:57 moving time, 8:46 total time on course, so three hours longer riding time than last year! For reference these are my splits;

Fairly consistent all things considered.

One of last year’s takeaways was to change the set up on the bike and I have added a lockout for the shocks, this allows me to set the suspension rate on them depending on whether I was riding up or down or along. This is a simple lever on the bars and works great! It took a bit of time to get used to it and once I had the finger and thumb co-ordination figured out I was good to go. In much the same vein as last year I did spend my time in only 3 or 4 gears, again a complete waste of the 26-27 I wasn’t using. With this in mind the next change will be to make the change to a 1x10 set up which reduces complexity and weight!

Overall it was a good, solid day. As always Becca was there to support my craziness, cheering and taking photos throughout the day, hers are above. There were also a couple of Professional photographers on course, here are the best of their photos!

With less than 3 weeks to Everesting this was a good day’s worth of training.

Mike Nosco Memorial Ride

So on Tuesday I took the day off work to join 400 or so other likeminded individuals and ride the Mike Nosco Memorial Ride. This was never on my radar as I had planned for my Everesting ride to have been on October 23 but with Becca’s mishap resulting in me pushing it out five weeks this seemed like a great opportunity to get some mid-week miles and test out the final pieces of gear that I had assembled for the event. In addition to this I was able to support a great cause and pay my respects. You can read more about Mike on the event’s website.

The weather had been pretty crappy the prior couple of days and it had even rained some but the morning was bright and clear. There was also a chill in the air. I figured I would skip a vest or arm-warmers and go with just my usual jersey and undershirt. That proved out the best decision although it was super windy and as a result got a bit cold at the end of the day, but that was really an incentive to HTFU.

I drove out to the start which was only a 20 minute drive, parked up and then rolled to the start. A few words were said and without much ado we were off. I placed myself firmly at the back; risk mitigation. I wasn’t worried about being “last”, it wasn’t a race and I expected to catch a few folks on the climbs..

The route was one I was very familiar with, there was one climb, Deer Creek, which I had never ridden but the second climb will be my Everesting Segment and the third I have ridden only twice before but both rides were in the last 4 weeks. The one real concern was the first descent which is a twisty steep drop from the Conejo Valley down towards the farmland of Camarilo.

To ensure there were no disasters the organizers had slowed everyone down until the bottom had been reached.

From here we rode out to the actual Memorial site where more words were said. The entire peloton then bunched up and broke apart in the space of 2 miles. Sometimes I have glimmer of what riding fast could be like then I see what others can do and I crawl back in my shell. So with that said and having been caught at a set of lights and stopping to pee I was pretty close to being the Lanterne Rouge. Well apart from the 20+ flat tires in the first 10 miles (people look after your gear!) I caught up with a group of ladies and just as I was in the just in the draft zone we got to the first climb. Oh well.

Deer creek wasn’t too long it was more a short sharp climb, 2.2 miles with an 11% grade. At the top it leveled off and then there were a few ups and downs before the descent.

As this was new to me I used my on board Virb and filmed the entire thing, it’s below at 600X. It’s hard to tell but the descent was very rough, the road could certainly need a new surface. I was happy with my climbing and the way the bike handled things, I passed a lot of people and no one passed me…well on the climb at least.

At the bottom it’s a left turn onto PCH and it was a 2 mile stretch to the left turn into Mullholland. This was the KOM segment for the ride and obviously a stretch of road I was very familiar with. I rode it hard. Passed many people and even sprinted for the last 50 yards or so against someone. I bested my Strava time by 18 seconds down to 38:17, the winner oh he cruised in in 25:35!

Some rollers at the top and it was another decent back to PCH where we turned left again for a 6 mile stretch to the last climb Latigo. This was the third time of riding this in the last month or in fact ever. With that in mind I sat in and rode up, passing people and rolling through the Aid Station at the top. I eased off the gas vs the Mullholland climb but had in mind a target of an hour to the top; 9.2 miles 1982’ of gain and average of 4%. Mission accomplished.

Let’s talk quickly about Aid Stations. All the local bike shops were out in support for this ride. AS were placed strategically at the top of each climb. There was at least one maybe two guys on mopeds checking in with riders on the road. A couple of other motorcyclists were providing roving support. Mavic had a car and a motorcycle too and then there were a few repair stops that also had light provisions and water. There was also plenty of support from the local Police and Fire departments with crossings and turnings mostly covered. All in all the support was great and you never felt out of touch or abandoned. That said I was entirely self-supported throughout this ride, I had 5 Lara Bars and two bottles of Skratch. The weather was not hot, not even close, the average temp for the ride was 67f with a low of 55f and as I wasn’t sweating (you know what I mean) I drank only one bottle…yes one in 6 hours. I’ll say now don’t do as I do! Finally there were a multitude of photographers out and about, here’s a couple of great shots of me…if I say so myself. One was free and the other I am waiting for the download link.

Ok back to the ride. At the top of Latigo, you’re not actually at the top. There are a few more ups and downs to get to the start of the decent which is, by comparison to the climb, short at 0.8 of a mile! Right turn on Kanan, left turn on Mullholland, right turn and back down Decker. Here I dropped my last Lara bar so I stopped to pick it up and grabbed a couple of bars from the AS/Repair stop just in case.

At the bottom of Decker that last stretch home was through Hidden Valley and the wind was blowing a gale. Mostly a headwind which was better than a side wind. One final climb out of the valley and it was a nice decent back into Newbury Park and to the start finish. Here’s the overall breakdown of time/elevation;

At the finish there was hot food, a silent auction (I missed out on the Road Bike Magazine jacket) and Beer! I was cold and so I ate, waited for the auction to end and then headed home.

All in all it was a great day, a challenging ride and 80 solid miles in the bank. The website stated 11,000’ of gain but I only managed 8300’ even so it was the largest gain on a ride…so far! It was also a great day to test out my final gear check for the Everesting ride in three weeks which all worked really well. 

As you have probably realized the ride was amazingly organized, more so than others that I have ridden.

When this comes around again next year I’ll definitely add it to my schedule.

Here’s the Strava data for the day.

Everesting Week 17

OMG the end is in sight…the end of the month! Thanksgiving, Turkey, sitting on my bike for 17 or so hours! Yes I will be thankful! Week 17 built on the previous week. Here’s the details;

Monday. Recovery Ride. Easy one hour recovery ride. Muir dialed down to 80% and then ridden at 80% of that, just let my legs set the pace.

Tuesday. Trainerroad Reinstein. Reinstein is 3x12-minute over-under intervals alternating between 2 minutes at 95% FTP & 1 minute at 105% FTP with 6-minute recoveries between intervals. Extra 15 minutes warm up and couple of miles cool down to roll up to 35 miles. Fell off the back during the second interval and couldn't bridge back or hit the 105% efforts.

Wednesday. Trainerroad Townsend. Nice Z2 ride, couple of miles to warm up and I was into it. very pleased with the consistency across the main body of the workout. Townsend consists simply of 1.5 hours of Aerobic Endurance spent between 60-70% FTP.

Thursday. Givens 1. Left Vector not talking to the right one so the power measurements are all 50%. Tried to get it to work and gave up and just rode. Added 15 min warm up and a couple to round up to 25. Givens -1 is two sets of 3x2.5-minute VO2 Max repeats at 122%FTP. 2.5 minutes of recovery falls between Intervals and 8 minutes of easy spinning separates the sets.

Friday. Dropped off my bike at Win’s for the final piece of Everesting equipment. a compact crank with a 50-34 spread, this combined with the 12-30 cassette should let me spin up most climbs! I will get to put it to the test at the Mike Nosco Memorial Ride on Tuesday, 80 miles and a posted 11,000 of climbing! Also changed out the batteries on the Vectors.

Saturday. The Sufferfest. Get to the other side. The third new ‘fest in the last two weeks. Nice solid tempo ride with a 15 minute warm up added on.

Then jumped on my Mountain Bike and went out with the kids for 3 miles!

The Sufferfest feat. The Col Collective - To Get To The Other Side - Sample Footage from The Sufferfest on Vimeo.

Sunday Trainerroad Rafferty. Rafferty consists of nearly 3hr45min of Aerobic Endurance spent between 60-70% FTP. Sat in for the duration, with a bit of standing climb and a couple of sprints. Nice solid week with 12+hours and 213 miles, first 2 miles were with GPS on which why this is short.

So another solid week in the bank, all on the trainer so all quality work.

Talking of trainers, I have gone over the the dark, smart side. I stumbled across a deal in a Facebook group and picked up two new Tacx Smart Trainers, early Christmas presents for Becca and I!

Now to spend a day setting them up!