Meltdown Report

Front Squish (Manitou Tower Pro, more on that later - the post is still in draft), 34x20
Wolverine 2.2s
     36 psi front / 38 psi rear (first 4 laps)
     33 psi front / 35 psi rear (second 4 laps, I reduced the fork pressure too)
Course condition: Very, very good.  Not enough racers to sweep the pine straw off, though.

Note the number plate placement so I can avoid scuffing up my new pretty Thomson bar. The Tower Pro is a 100mm travel, with an XX-Firm spring installed.  I've ridden it on one long ride prior to the race. There is still tweaking left to do.

Four races into the season and I've yet to begin one feeling well rested and prepared.  This time it was the splitting headache (no - alcohol was not consumed last night) that woke me up from my sleep and still lingered in the morning.  I took some Vitamin I and drank a lot of water before heading out the door.

Racing singlespeed has led me to believe that the long gravel road lead-in to an endurance race is the dumbest idea ever.  It exists not to space out the racers before entering the singletrack, but to penalize the singlespeeders for having the talent to ride one gear.  Still dealing with my headache, I took it easy on the lead-in and waited long enough until I thought the racers were spaced out enough that passing wouldn't be a complete chore.  I picked up the pace to one that was unsustainable (for me at least) and worked my way up the field for about half the lap before I settled into something more realistic.

The headache dissipated by the time I finished the first lap and I turned out 3 laps without stopping.  The only real issue going on was the bike felt too firm and my back was starting to bother me.  I know where the back issues were coming from.  Lots of stress going on and I'm tending to roll my shoulders forward.  I was having to make the conscious effort to pull my shoulders back and locked down, as well as leaning from the hips and driving my chest toward the stem instead of rolling my back.  Unfortunately, it's pretty tough to consciously focus on body position for 6 hours straight. (Anyone who has made the mistake of asking about the kettlebell workouts has heard a long-winded testimonial about how awesome James Wilson and his programs are.) At the end of the third lap I grabbed more bottles, took some more Vitamin I, and set back out.

Sometime during the first half of the fourth lap, someone jammed a screwdriver through my spine.

Well, maybe it wasn't that bad, but I decided that I needed to take an extended break at the end of the lap to try to soften the bike up and maybe stretch the back out.  I let some air out of everything and grabbed some Biofreeze for my back.  I have a tube of Biofreeze and even carry a single-use packet on the long mountain rides.  It's awesome; similar to Icy-Hot, but better, tingly, and it smells minty versus like medicine.

I got going again and the Biofreeze and Vitamin I started working.  The bike felt better and I turned in laps 5 and 6 without stopping.  After lap 6, I grabbed the last of my bottles and ate a PBJ. Pulled out of my pit with an hour before the cut-off time knowing I'd make it in time to pull an 8th lap, which I did.

I believe I did the 8 laps (apparently ~54 miles) in 5:54, or so I'm inclined to believe when someone said I had 6 minutes to spare.  From what I understand, I was 3rd, but the singlespeed field was fairly small.  I'm more interested in seeing my splits, knowing lap 5 should be a good 10-15 minutes long.  Bob Moss turned in 10 laps, and Jeremy Morgan turned in 9 laps.  MAYBE if I didn't have the headache and the back issues, I would've gotten in a 9th lap.  It's still pretty unlikely that I would've kept up with Jeremy though.

I've given up on Strava for now.  I wasn't about to carry my phone around so it could log the same loop 8 times.  I am anxiously waiting for the Cateye Stealth 50 to come out (supposedly May). It's half the price of a Garmin 500 and still has GPS and ANT+ capability.  I just want the GPS to log the ride, so I don't need the mapping functions.