2010 Squiggy Classic

This past Sunday was the make-up date for the Squiggy Classic. My goal for the day was to complete 5 laps and to not die.  I can tell you, I reached my goals. Both of them. Unfortunately, I am still left feeling disappointed.

I got to Morris Bridge park quite early.  It only took about an hour and twenty minutes to get there from my house.  Amazingly, there were a ton of people already there, and I had to park quite far away.  Getting signed up was no problem, I just told them my name and I got my 'race packet'

My 'Race packet' contained very little.  I got a hammer gel and some clif and larabar samples. No t-shirt.  Really?  No t-shirt? After getting the packet, I had to walk my cooler down to the staging area.  My cooler has no wheels.  That means, I would have had to struggle with my cooler from my car - which was a million miles away - had it  not been for Tony.  He helped me with the cooler when he saw me struggling with it

The Squiggy Classic has a LeMans type of start, meaning, I had to run a good 100 meters to get to my bike - in carbon shoes. That was a comfy way to start off the day. haha. Here's me just after getting on my bike and making my way through the crowd.

Ahh how fresh I look.  This 'freshness' would only last about 3 laps. The course was nice, but had alot of sand. There were some really nice fast sections of singletrack a few ups and downs and a few rooty sections.  Right at about mile 8 started a section called 'heartbreak ridge'. This section sucked. At least, it sucked for a guy on an aluminum hardtail. I run around 30psi front and back with 29 inch wheels - usually roots dont bother me that much.  These roots were okay for the first couple of laps, however, after that they lived up to their name.

I rode 2 laps straight through without stopping.  I felt great after the 2nd lap, stopped and refilled my camelbak bladder, got another bottle of accellerade (I had prepared 3 bottles with the plan of drinking one bottle and one camelbak full every two hours or so) I was in the 'pit area' for only a couple of minutes.  My first laps were good, I averaged under 50 for the first and just over 50 for the second and third.  However, something weird  happened on my fourth lap.  I started feeling bonktastic.  I was on my second bottle of accellerade and second camelbak bladder. I had been hitting the gel or clif bloks every 30 or so minutes.  I tried to eat a clifbar, but it tasted like eating crackers in the desert. I was actually feeling a bit cold, even though it was in the 80s and I started to feel nauseous.  I was guessing I was getting dehydrated, or electrolyte depleted.  I stopped for a second and ate half a package of the margarita clif bloks and had a few swigs of water.  Was not feeling much better.  I struggled back to finish this lap.

Luckily, most mountain bikers are cool.  I got back and was feeling a little terrible.  The guys who were sitting next to me were riding as a team.  They had an extra folding chair that they let me use.  Thanks guys!  I laid there for about 40 minutes trying to recover.  Since I did pretty well for my first few laps, I had plenty of time to get out and finish up a 5th lap.  I gutted it out and finished a 5th lap with 40 minutes to spare.

Here I am after my 5th lap looking not so fresh.

Looking back, I should have had more electrolytes.  I had almost a full bottle of acellerade left after the race, and a good amount of water in my second camelbak bladder.  While riding, it really felt like I was keeping up on my drinking/eating.  However, now looking back - I wasnt drinking enough after the 3rd lap.  After the race, I went to the bathroom and my urine came out brown.  Thats a good sign that you didnt drink enough liquid.  The first 3 laps I seemed to be keeping up really well with the drinking, and must have just lost focus and paid the price.  That wont happen again, I hope.  If I would have kept up with my hydration and feeding I would have finished 6 laps with relative ease.  The garmin says - even with the last two laps of over an  hour - that I had a riding time of 4 hours and 20 minutes. The next day I weight myself, and came out 10 lbs under my every day weight.  Thats a hell of alot of water loss. I gained it all back by 9pm.

All in all, I am very happy with my performance.  I did what I set out to do, and then some.  50 miles in the woods at 4:20 is nothing to sneeze at. I have been mountain biking for five months and have come a long way. Next year I will get 6 laps without a problem.  Tomorrow is Santos for the prep for the Hammerhead 100.

Something Delicious.

I am a big proponent of making sure to keep hydrated and fed during bike rides.  Most of my road rides have always been around 1.5 to 4 or 5 hours. My average mtn bike ride so far has been about 2 hours.  One bottle of water/sports drink and about 600-800 calories consumed per hour is the norm - depending on effort. Im not anal enough to whip out a calculator during a ride to figure out my nutrition, though. For 'liquid food' very little beats the sustained energy levels that Hammer Nutrition's Espresso gel gives me.  Problem is - it tastes alot like salty bongwater after it gets really hot sitting in your jersey and its all you have been eating for the last two hours (Not that I know what salty bongwater tastes like - just so you know). They have a raspberry flavour that I just dont like so much.

For solid food I rely heavily on clif bars (unless I stop and pick up a sandwich or something at a 7-11).  Clif bars are downright tasty and provide great energy.  I have literally eaten a chocolate brownie clif bar for breakfast. They are THAT good. The downside?  They are hard to eat,  dry and dense in your mouth, and hard to swallow after a couple hours in the saddle. I dont feel like playing the 'whistling game' on the bike. You know, when you were a kid and the game is to eat some saltines and try to whistle?  Nothing comes out but crumbs and a whooshing sound. Thats kinda what it feels like, except clif bars are much heavier in texture. I have suffered through this thinking there was no real alternative.

Lo! I have found something that may be the cure for my ills!  Clif shot bloks!  I had heard of them through fatty (fatcyclist.org) but always thought it was a gimmick.

They are no gimmick.  These little beauties are 200 calories per package, and are like eating squishy, delicious gummi bears on the trail.  I tried them out for the first time this weekend and found them to be super easy to eat.  I alternated between a package of clif shot bloks and Hammer gel.  This was an excellent combination.  The flavour I tried was 'cran-razz' - and have since picked up some black cherry with caffeine. 

Supposedly caffeine helps you utilize carbs better when exercising or something.  Im sure next year they will say caffeine will cause brain damage when used in conjunction with exercise.  Oh, science! I will put these babies to the test this weekend - I plan on going up to Santos and putting in some serious saddle time. I am curious to see how I eating these after a couple of hours. I see heavily weighted jersey pockets in my future if I am sans Camelbak.