John Curtis — Mountain Bike Racer

Comfort Mountain Bike Marathon

Comfort Mountain Bike Marathon

Event

I attempted to keep a sustainable pace from the start, and resisted the temptation to take off with the leaders. I felt good, and think that the pace I had set should have been sustainable throughout the entire race.

The last 1.5 hours of the race were very difficult, and it is hard to put into words how I felt. Every time I increased my heartrate up to usual race-pace of 183, I had to immediately back off. It was not that I felt pain at 183, it was more like my body was telling me that 183 was not an attainable intensity at this time. After a few minutes of riding at about 170, I was able to make very short efforts up to the mid 180’s to get up a short climb or over a rock, but was shut down after a few seconds up there. There were a few moments after an effort into the 180’s where I just had to stop pedaling for a few seconds after the hard effort. I did not stop pedalling because I was attempting to pace myself, it was more like I had no conscious ability to tell my legs to pedal anymore.

I also experienced a small loss of motor control. For example, I clipped out of a pedal for some reason, but found that I was unable to clip back in. At that moment, my leg would only move in a pedalling motion and I could not control it to manouver my foot over the pedal to clip back in — my leg just kept going around in circles, disconnected from the pedal. It was actually sort of funny, and I could not help but laugh at how comical I must have looked. After a good 15 seconds I was able to to get it working again and manage to clip in. It did not hurt, my leg would not respond to my requests.

I rode in 6th place for most of the race, but lost 2 places in the last lower loop, while I was suffering.

The purpose of this analysis is to determine what course of action should be taken to ensure that I do not hit the wall like this again, as I know that I am capable of performing better than I did here.

There are essentially three changes that I can make

1. Modify Training
2. Modify Race Nutrition
3. Modify Race Pacing

Obviously option 3 is not one that I want to do, as it would mean racing at a slower pace.

Factors

Training

My training has been a bit inconsistent for the last 3-4 weeks. I was sick about three weeks ago and had to drop out of the Warda race. Here is a summary of my training for the past month. You can see that I have many days in a row without riding, and not a lot of structured hill work or steady state rides. Warda was on 3/5 and an expert XC race at comfort was on 3/19. All other rides are training efforts.

Race Nutrition

• Water and calories were consumed at a steady rate from the start of the race up to the end. Enduralytes were consumed at 3 instances, when the onset of cramping became apparent.
• Water was consumed by camelbak and in bottles mixed with Sustained Energy.
• Calories were consumed by 2.5 servings of Sustained Energy and 4 servings of Hammergel.

Race Pacing

I believed that I was setting a sustainable pace. I was about 3-5 bpm lower than than the HR I usually set for a 2 hour expert mountain bike race, and percieved that I was putting out about 85% of the effort that I would use for a 2 hour race. These levels have worked for me during past Terlingua marathons. I made sure that I went as easily as possible in the sections that require a high energy output, such as a short climb, or a rock ledge. I also rode my own race, and did not attempt to match the pace of any other racer.

I am learning that I excel at steady-state efforts, but races with many pace changes are more challenging for me. For example, I always do well at the Terlingua and Double Lake races, as there are very few pace changes, and require a strong sustained effort. I attempted to race Comfort at a consistent pace, but the nature of the terrain is such that explosive efforts are required on some of the technical sections and steep climbs.

Other factors

Conclusions

1. Caloric intake was appropriate and should not be increased
2. Water intake needs to be drastically increased
3. Training should be modified to improve HR response to short hard efforts
4. Training should be modified to improve utilization of fat for energy
5. Training should be more consistent, with less days completely off the bike
6. Enduralyte strategy of mixing 8 scoops in a flask with water and taking when cramping was starting was highly effective.

Questions

1. My lab-measured LT is 174, so how am I able to maintain low 180’s before the wall, and 177 after?

Sources

E-caps

Ironstruck

Flat Rock Ranch

Results