25 Hours of Frog Hollow

For a long time I had a 24 hour solo race on my bucket list, that was until I met several riders at the BC Bike Race who had raced one.  They said it was the hardest thing they’d ever done and they’d never do it again.  So last year when I was invited to join a 4 man team to race the 25 Hours in Frog Hollow mountain bike race I figured it would be as close to a 24 hour race as I’d get.  We ended up having a great time and planned on doing it this year.

Towards the end of Summer I started asking my teammates from last year’s 25 hour race whether we were going to get a team together.  Nobody was sure what the plan was this year until unexpectedly several riders entered the race in the solo category.  I was stuck with the decision to either race solo or forget the race.   Since misery loves company, I decided to go for it and race solo alongside the others.

After forking out my entrance fee, I had to figure out how the heck I’d train for the event.  Not only will I be riding hours and hours, I'll climb over 1000 feet per lap.

By the third lap my back was killing me.  I couldn’t figure out why only three hours into the race my back would hurt but training rides up to 5 hours long didn’t cause any problems.  This also happened a few weeks before at the 6 hour race.

Laps 1/8

I kept telling myself that I would take a break after 8 laps or approximately 100 miles.  Laps 7 and 8 were tough because I didn’t eat or drink enough.  So after the eighth lap I was ready for a break and hopefully re-energize.  I decided to lie down for an hour.  Lonnie brought an extra cot so I wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor of the tent.  I unrolled my sleeping bag, hopped in, and tried to zip it up – nothing.  I could not get the two pieces of the zipper to stay together.  After several minutes of trying I gave up and lied down.  I was freezing.

Laps 9/10

Laps 11/12

The numbers:

12 laps

155 miles

13,000 ft climbing

18/29 riders

0 mechanicals

What I learned from my first 24+ hour race:

1. Make sure to pack warm sleeping stuff.
2. Drink two water bottles per lap
3. If you feel good keep riding
4. Bring a bike work stand
5. Never go out without both bar and helmet lights
6. PB&J works
7. Eat – stupid – 250 calories/hour
8. Bring 2 bikes
9. Start slower than you think you should
10. 5 hour energy worked

6 Hours of Frog Hollow

After Race

To prepare for the 25 Hours in Frog Hour race this year I decided to sign up for the 6 hour version.  I've ridden several 6 hour events in the past few months but not on a mountain bike.

I was interested in several items:

Which bike?
Should I the full suspension 26 or the 29'er hard tail.  The trail is not too technical.  I rode the 29'er which handled great.  It was much easier getting up and over the rock sections.

Nutrition
One bottle per lap along with a bar or a couple of gels.

Results:  5 laps in 5:30 hours

I definitely need to adjust my riding position.  After 3 hours my lower back was dang sore.  I'll probably bring both 26 and 29'er to the 25 hour race.

Bear Lake Monster Cross

16 riders for the 1st annual BLMX

I signed up for the Bear Lake Monster Cross to get an idea how a gravel grinder race would feel.  I'm really interested in riding the Dirty Kanza.  This ride would be the longest I'd ever done on my cyclocross bike.

The BLMX was initially scheduled for August but was postponed which caused most of the riders to cancel.

I was really excited to ride the dirt and gravel roads around Bear Lake and nearby mountains.  This was the longest ride

The temperature at the start was in the upper thirties.  The 16 of us headed south from Montpelier through gravel roads until we hit the causeway from the east side of Bear lake to the west.  After more dirt and gravel roads we hit the mountains at Paris, ID.  The views awesome.  The leaves were turning colors and there was snow at the higher elevations.

A view from some of the back roads

The ride was great.  I'll definitely do it again.  I could have used more gears for climbing and wider tires for the gravel roads.

Lotoja 2013

This was going to be my sixth and last year of racing Lotoja.  I was ready to move on to other adventures. The previous year was my fifth which qualified me for the 1000 club.   I didn't have any goals this year other than finishing.

On the day of the race, there was a chance of rain along the route.  The route had changed slightly for the race classes.  Instead of riding through Benson and the other farm towns we rode from Logan through Smithfield and on to Preston.  In addition, our first feed zone wouldn't be until the feed zone at the top of Strawberry - 60 miles from Logan.  I really liked the new route.  We were able to stay in a race group longer.

I felt great on the three major climbs and was on my way to finishing with my fastest time.  As I rode into Afton, WY in a pace line of 6 others, the rider in front of me quickly swerved.  Right in front of me was a large orange construction barrel.  I didn't have any time to react.  I hit the barrel straight on. I felt myself doing a superman through the air.  I landed partially on my head, face, arms, and knees. As I laid there on the ground, a pool of blood formed behind my head.

Several people stopped to help and call my parents who are waiting for me at the Afton feed zone only 5 minutes away.  As we're standing alongside the road another group rode by and hit another construction barrel which caused about 6 riders to fall.  After loading my mangled bike into the car, we drive to the emergency room.  I received 25 stitches around my eye but luckily no broken bones.  My front fork is completely destroyed.

Dang, I guess next year will be my last.

Red Hot 55k

I decided to run another ultra-marathon.  I heard the Red Hot 55K was a great run.  The route follows some of the mountain bike trails in Moab.  The race is in February so it may be tough to train outdoors. My longest training run was 19 miles on a treadmill.  If I can do that, I can run 33 miles through gorgeous views in Moab.

The trail was great.  We started at Gemini Bridges and finished at the Poison Spider trail head.  Running on the slick rock was hard on my feet.  I was in pretty good shape from running on the treadmill with the exception of running downhill.

55K Starting Line

I finished in 5:45.