Fall in the Rockies

he he--- so much fun when the dirt is damp from day-before-rain

I seem to keep sneaking in one more fall ride—but soon it will just be hotel cardio workouts and the occasional warm finger glove ride

Woke up to fresh snow on Pikes Peak.  

But the lower elevations were perfect for 3 hrs on the KTM followed by 3 more on the new 29er. 

Last big ride before snow & rain

Tidied up some Friday type work stuff and then rode away at 5pm, pushed hard till 11:30pm.  Set the alarm for 4:30 in anticipation of a TDR type day/effort. Rode steady all of 2nd day and camped up at 10:30. Slept in till dawn and rolled home around 9am

 

So--my last big ride of the year went something like this:

Warm to cool to cold.   Sun and blue blue sky to mountains against fading silver horizons to a sliver of moon and black all-around with bright stars.  Elk bugling in the distant dark.  Sunrise creeping up on me along a remote, lonely dirt road. 

Colorful balloons breaking free in the crisp morning air.

 

Strangers at resupply points telling me what a perfect day for a ride, wishing they were out with me.  Huge flock of wild turkeys scampering out of my path. 

 

 

Softly who hooting owls and shiny scary eyes in the dark sharing my camp.

 

  Frosty breath, crunchy yellow leaves and crackling ice in some puddles.  

Moving Forward

Dropping out itself doesn’t bother me per say, it was the right call given the circumstances. However not accomplishing my 2014 goals has been a huge and ongoing mental burden.  I have lost most of my interest in what other TDR racers did in 2014 and what 2015 racers are currently doing to preparer.  (I did finally find the time to read through the bikepacking.net 2014 race thread and sort of get caught up on our little ultra-race world.  Quite interesting to read TDR's Matthew Lee finally come clean on all the behind the scenes crap he has had to deal with over the years.  Mat's one of the few multi-day guys who almost always gets it right....he truly has found some balance in the wacko underground race world we all thrive in...... )

 

Anyway, rest assured I am working along at a low, simmering boil preparing for 2015.  Pacing my training and bike/gear prep efforts and obsessions so as not to burn out, yet do all I can to meet my 2015 goals………..

As soon as I scratched, literally the next day, I was planning my re-do. And before the dust had fully settled I decided I needed to consider a new frame.  My Ti Carver frame is close to perfect but when I ordered it back in 2009 I spec’ed it with a BB30 BB.  Well the non-MTB style BB30 design finally caught up with me in 2014.  The BB deep water crossings on day 2 washed out all the bearing grease and by Helena the bearings were trashed, by Wise River the crank was toast.

The solution you ask?  Well nothing is guaranteed during a TDR.  But for 2015 I will be rocking a Carbon 29er Scott Scale HT with a wide & stiff BB92 bottom bracket with a press fit Sram GXP.  Is this the best, most reliable BB combo?  Heck I don’t know but it’s got to be better than the BB30 set up.  I don’t plan on doing any submarine rides to test its reliability but I can attest to its stiffness.  During ‘stand & pound the pedals’ climbing the carbon Scott frame with its BB92 seems much stiffer and more efficient.  I can also attest to how flattened seat stays smooth out the washboards and small rocks.  Like butter on a biscuit …….

I have not decided on a rear wheel/hub combo just yet.  I was extremely disappointed in my 240 DT Swiss bearing failure. I suspect it was the new/rebuild bearings more than the hub. Still thinking about it but leaning towards a light carbon rim with DT style hub internals--

So, sense I am spending all that money on a new frame/build I guess its time to happily play that bike racer's favorite "weight weenie game". 

It’s been years sense I truly played the weight weenie game but what the heck, why not….when finished I anticipate a sub 20 lbs naked bike and a sub 30 lb TDR ride.

Will the lighter weight approach solve all my 2014 “issues”?  Ha, not hardly, but losing about 10-14 lbs in bike and body weight should help alleviate a bit of stress and effort.  And besides, I really need the mental distraction………………..

Small things add up…..

I really hate writing this one, but here goes………

Eventually I would up using these fancy gloves under plastic baggies to replace my fancy high end but worthless waterproof over-gloves

So where did it all go wrong?  Several have asked what happened, why did I drop, what gear did or did not work etc etc.  Good questions, ones that I have pondered deeply over for the last month or so.   

I am going to break down what went wrong into sections; they are not necessarily in order of magnitude. 

Rain Gear, clothing:

1: ¾ length rain pants—Fail

May seem minor but this was actually a big deal.  With all the rain (and even a bit of snow) on day 1 within 2 hours of the start I was stopping and pouring cold icy water out of my water proof socks.  Why?  Well the rain would run off my ¾ length rain pants down my calf and right into the tops of my waterproof sock.  Then the sock would soon fill up with water.  ‘Best’ would have been full length rain pants.  I bought some trash bags at Elkford and with some trial and error learned how to make them work quite well.  But the damage was done by the end of day one.  Such a simple thing but it lead directly to a late arrival into a now much needed hotel room, 20 miles short of plan.  Note: the Gore-Tex brand pants worked fine—the problem was simply my choice of ¾ length vs full length  

2: Light weight arm and knee warmers--Fail.

I ran with very light weight arm and knee warmers.  Again minor items but the constant rain on my extended arms made them cold.  My rain jacket worked fine and kept the rain off but with a bit of perspiration on the inside and cold constant rain on the outside my arms were noticeably cold. The legs were not so noticeably cold but I am sure warmer legs would have meant better overall body temps. For this particular year ‘best’ would have been thicker wool arm warmers and probably full length leg warmers.

3: Mountain Hardware waterproof gloves using OutDry®---Fail

Not only did these overgloves wet out before the end of day one, by day 4 the inner liner had literally ripped apart.  In the end I was using convenience store work gloves and plastic baggies to keep my hands in the game.  ‘Best’ would have been simple trash bag pogies and a spare set of ‘camp’ gloves.

 Wrong pacing:

Scott, day 3

 

I rode the first 3 days with Scott Williams--Fail.  In the end trying to ride with Scott was a major mistake on my part.  Our individual, natural paces-comfort zones were just not compatible.   I kept trying to force a workable solution to an unsolvable dilemma.  By the end of 3 days, accommodating each other’s non compatible paces has cost us both massive amounts of lost time, sleep and significant mental stress.  In the end ‘best’ would have been to just go ahead and naturally drift apart the first time we deviated in pace.  My heart felt apologies Scott, I feel I screwed up both of our attempts big time…………..

Mechanicals:

By Basin my rear hub was shot from all the submersion/water and my crank and bottom bracket had also failed.  I tried to have them repaired in Butte, but without the proper parts the Outdoorsman bike shop was helpless.  They tried to rebuild one of the bearings but in the end, without parts, there was little they could do.  By Wise River my crank was wobbling so badly I was concerned it would totally fail on the way to Steamboat.  Note: The crank shaft was so worn I wound up throwing it away when I got home.

 

Yes yes I could have spent several hundred dollars and had parts sent in, but why?  Just to ride the rest to the route again, just to finish again? 

Frankly a mediocre finish time was not enough to keep me going.  And on top of that negative mental state an open and growing saddle sore (been there done that thank you very much) was the last straw.  

 So to summarize, between wet feet, hands and cold arms and legs I found it difficult to just ride.  For 4 long days, in the back of my mind, I was constantly worried about hypothermia and twice got to the point where I dug out my down jacket while riding.  As most know using down as a under layer in cold wet sweaty conditions is a very short term ‘stop-gap/emergency’ way to add body warmth.   The mere fact I felt the need to do so tells all one needs to know about my mental state and how close to the edge of hypothermia I was those two times.

But in the end the real damage was not the wet and cold so much; I dealt with it as needed.  No the real damage was what all the lost time did to my mental outlook.  I couldn’t stand how much time I saw slipping away each day.  And how much recovery time I gave up trying to get back on a legitimate race pace.  And later on the mechanicals added on top of a now open saddle sore were too much. 

 

At Wise River I gladly tossed in the towel.  I could clearly see I was not going to accomplish my goals and I would be better off scratching.

 

And---towel picked up off the floor for 2015. Yup, before I was home I was planning for 2015.  Have ordered a new frame, just about new everything bike wise etc etc (pictures will be coming) 

So, work/vacation request permitting I will be back in 2015.

FAIL Fail fail

One of several time eating snow slides on day 3. 

 

 

 

Fail, fail,fail

Still working my way through all the screw ups that led to my scratch in Wise River. 

Grrrr--fail by flailing around instead of focused racing…………….ahh, no one to blame but myself…………..

In a nut shell I made a few incorrect choices regarding some of my gear and bike set up.  But more importantly I spent precious time and effort focusing on things that did not move me forward in an efficient manner.  Basically I squandered any prospect for a good result early on and could not keep my head, body and bike in the game. 

I believe I know what I did wrong, how to correct things--and yes, work & personal circumstance’s permitting, I plan to try again in 2015.

TDR DAY 2

This is a picture from the first day taken off of the forum from ABfolder.

Yesterday was another long day.  I received a text from him around 2 am this morning when they made it to Eureka.

Here are some pictures he sent this morning from yesterday's ride.

 Marshal's words about this first one were, "This is about the only sun we saw all day."

Marshal has been riding off and on with the man below, named Scott.

TDR Day 1

While Marshal is gone I am going to try to update his blog.  He sent a picture this morning, 2 am, from a hotel room, trying to dry out his gear.  From his text last night he said, "We got so wet and cold it's not even funny."   The day started out in the rain, then they had snow and rain off and on all day long.

 He is already up and moving this morning.  He is hoping to make the border and beyond today.  Hopefully the weather will be a little more cooperative today.