AM: ~2.5 hours total. 215W. HR 166.
ICEMAN!
I first did this race in 2019 on a borrowed fat bike. Did it in 2021. 2022 I was rehabbing my elbow and could have raced but decided not to. I raced last year and had a pretty good race. I am down about 8-10 lbs from last year and in better shape overall, so I figured I could place fairly high in my division. Usually there aren't too many (30-40), but it is highly competitive. I had the goal to try to break 2 hours, but with the changing distance of the course this mark is even more arbitary than usual.
I was extremely nervous in the morning. I do not recall if I am typically that nervous, but it felt more intense than normal. I tried to eat, but struggled. I think I got down two Honey Stinger waffles and 17 oz of Maurten, so about 620 calories, which isn't too bad. I only got in about 10 minutes of warmup. I really wanted at least 30 but it just didn't happen. Got out at the start okay, maybe a little too conservative. I wanted to be at least 18 MPH going into the single track. I think I was about that for the first few minutes at the airport.
Hit a large sandy section and a guy went down. I braked a bit (I think) avoided him. I cannot recall if I temporarily unclipped or not. Got going without much further issue. I got ahead of some of my teammates and then I went down on a section of single track, sliding out, thankfully just into the grass. I wanted to get back up and go, but I also didn't want to jump in front of the line of people coming, so I had to wait a few seconds.
I felt like I had a better handle on the single track this year. People were definitely holding me up, more so than I was holding others up. I smashed the two-track when I needed to, but could have been a bit more aggressive here too. The hills were not too bad this year, but maybe that is because I would pass a bunch of people going into them and it helped not having as many people in front of me. I don't think I got passed on any of the hills.
I would like to have been closer to 2:08-2:10 or faster but knew low-2:00 would be hard given that the course was longer. My overall time was similar to last year, but I think I was almost a MPH faster. I was outside of the top three in my category by about 12-13 minutes, which is a ton. Next year I move the the 40-49 category, which is even more competitive. I'd love to have a hardtail to see what I could do on a regular mountain bike, but I don't think that will be in the budget for a bit just yet.
I feel like I had a decent race. Satisfied with the effort. Power could have been a lot higher. Seemed very low. HR was decent, though that could have been in the upper-160s or even low-170s.
I am already looking forward to the race next year. I am not really energized by the prospect of running races, though I am enjoying running and training still. I think I will do a little more of an emphasis on bike stuff for the first six months of the year, while working on bringing my 5k time back down and then transition too more of a running emphasis the second six months of the year, while still riding a bit and racing bikes, but with the A race being a running race. I don't know if or how it will work, but it is more or less what I am currently doing now, but with a bit more focus and planning.
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