Sea Otter Classic Recap

Headed out to the SOC Thursday morning by my lonesome self.  I actually enjoy going solo on road trips.  I get to crank the stereo, sing out loud, and stop whenever I want to.  No catering to others needs.  The downside is it can get pretty boring as well when the stretch of road just seems endless and never ending.  One of these days I will make time to stop at one of the many wineries off the 46.  I knew the weekend was going to be a good one with my good friends (Ryan, Sarah, Frank, Brian, Bill, and James) making the trip to the SOC as well.  I arrived in the afternoon and suited up for a mellow pre-ride of the course.  I stopped by the Santa Cruz booth to check out their new rides, the Nickel and the Butcher.  They look pretty sweet and the APP concept sounds good, but the weights of the frames are a little on the heavy side.  I still wouldn't mind having a 6" all-mountain bike for some trail thrashing.  The weather was absolutely perfect for the whole weekend.  Temps in the 60's and 70's with fairly calm winds.  Sea Otter is famous having extreme weather at either end of the spectrum.  Last year temps were in the 80's and 90's, while some years it's just a deluge.  The course had a couple of small changes from last year, but overall...it seemed easier from the last time I rode it.  I remember it being more fun, but the fun appeared to be lacking this year.  To make things more challenging and miserable, the race would have me completing 2 laps of the 19 mile/2600ft course.

This post will be visually disappointing.  I really didn't end up taking many pictures at all.  I'm horrible when it comes to taking pictures.  I was able to meet up with the Shea's after my pre-ride and we caravan'd back to the hotel.  I got all checked in, showered up and we headed out for some really good Sushi at this place called "OH Sushi".  I love good sushi and a tall beer.  It just so happened to be Ryan's birthday as well.  I told the waitress that it was Ryan's birthday and they busted out the most awesome Japanese techno version of happy birthday.  It sounded like something out of an anime theme song.  It was quite hilarious and for some reason Ryan became a RE-tard as shown below.

RY-tarded

It was nice to relax without worrying about waking up at the butt-crack of dawn to go race.  The CAT1 race didn't start until 2pm on Friday which allowed me to get plenty of rest and relaxation before then.  I woke up at a decent hour to go for a light spin downtown Monterey with Ryan and Sarah.  This was the first time I actually got to see the city of Monterey during the day.  Last year, I stayed in the not so pretty town of Salinas.  Monterey is much nicer.  It was another beautiful day and the bay was awesome with the sea lions sun bathing.  After that, we headed to the event since Ryan had a practice/qualifying session for Dual Slalom.  I didn't get a chance to see Ryan on his qualifying run since I had to get to the start of my XC race.

I saw some familiar faces at the start line and it looked like a pretty decent sized field of about 25 or so.  The race started off at a nice warm up pace.  I stayed towards the back of the pace line while on the track.  The pace started to pick up as we approached the turnoff onto the dirt.  I didn't want to be in the back of the pack so I decided to jump up towards the leaders and I managed to squeeze into the top 5 and avoid the bottleneck while turning off the track.  I was having so much fun battling with James Walsh for what I believe was the 4th and 5th position at the time for the first lap.  It was cool pushing each other and trying to work together to catch up to the leaders.  I was feeling strong and felt the flow on the singletracks.  I tried to pull away from James towards the end of the first lap, but that's a tall order.  He's a strong rider.  Before I knew it, James was on my wheel and behind his wheel was Griffith.  They both went by and I grabbed Griffith's wheel just as we passed the 2nd lap interchange.  I didn't exactly know where my feeder was so I slowed up a bit looking for Steve in the crowd of others in the feed zone.  I found Steve and grabbed my 2nd bottle.  Little did I know at this point that my 2 bottle strategy for a 3 hour race would be the demise of me.  A small gap opened up between Griffith and I was able to keep him and James in my sights until after the beach descent.  After that, I lost contact with them and then I really started to feel the effects of fatigue.  My water bottle was almost gone as I approached the aid station.  I passed on any type of offerings and looking back at it now, that was a mistake.  Shortly after that I ran out of fluids.  Dehydration/Cramping decided to join me for the rest of my race.  Halfway through the 2nd lap I start to get passed left and right.  I was completely blown.  I pedaled the rest of the race in survival mode.  I was really looking for some more gears to gear down to, but some jackass built his bike as a 1X9...lol!  I still love the 1X9 setup and I won't change it.  I still would have been going slow even if I had a granny ring.  I was no longer in contention and all I could do was just finish.  As soon as I thought I was near the finish, the organizers decided to add an additional 2 miles of up and down bullshit in the grass.  I was so demoralized at that point, but I pressed on and fought through the cramps.  The 2nd to last turn, my right calf just locked up hard which almost left me wanting to cry.  Finally I reach the end with a crappy time of 3:02.  That placed me 14th out of 20 finishers.  :-(  I was pretty trashed and to my surprise, there was no aid at the finish.  No water, no recovery, no food, no nothing.  I thought that was quite lame since I know I wasn't the only one suffering to finish.  If I was able to maintain my pace of the first lap, I believe I could have made the podium or be close to it.  Another lesson learned.  I do plan to take this experience and redeem myself next year at the Sea Otter.  My poor planning of fluids did me in.  I don't know what I was thinking trying to get away with 2 bottles.  I really didn't want to carry that extra bottle in my jersey.  Typically, I consume 1 bottle per hour.  The upside to all of this was that I was done racing and could enjoy the rest of the weekend!  :-)

My crappy XC photos

I picked up James from the airport that night and we had some good eats at Peppers Mexicali Cafe.  I had swordfish fajitas which was quite tasty.  Definitely going back there again.  The next morning we took some time visiting the exhibist.  James got his rear hub rebuilt at Enduro and it was time to hit the course again.  James was racing the CAT3 race on Sunday.  This was his first time at Sea Otter, so I showed him the course while giving him pointers on certain sections.  After the pre-ride, we all went back to OH Sushi for some more tasty raw fish.

Next morning saw us getting up early.  James' race started at 8am.  As he was racing, I decided to drop my shock off at Rockshox to service the air seal.  I also grabbed an IS front brake adaptor for Ryan as he swapped out forks on his Blur 4X bike the night before.  He was racing in the afternoon.  I watched James finish his race and to my surprise, he wound up winning his age division.  He was stoked!  Not bad for guy who'd been riding for less than a year.  I met up with Ryan and we finished assembling his brake.  He was ready for practice.  We all watched Ryan compete in his first Dual Slalom event and first ever MTB race.  I volunteered to push his bike up the hill after each of his runs.  He was looking good until a crash in the semi's which bumped him out of the finals.  I'm sure he would have made the finals if it wasn't for that crash.  He was able take home 3rd in his finals.  By the time Ryan finished racing, the event was already being torn down.  The Sierra Nevada beer garden was still open.  I had a Brown Ale and it was by far the best tasting Sierra Nevada I've had.  I used to love the Pale Ale years ago, but I think I got burned out on.  I have yet to see this Brown Ale in the stores.  That pretty much ended our weekend at the Sea Otter as we left for the long drive home.

Ryan in the starting gate

James is the winner! (sandbagger! ;-))

Next year I plan to enter in more than just XC.  After watching Dual Slalom, I really want to give it a go next year.  It's time to elevate my skills in different disciplines.  I would also love to give the DH a go, but I would like to have a little bit bigger bike for that.  For now, I'm planning to build a Santa Cruz Jackal DJ bike to hit the pump track and maybe the jumps if I feel brave enough.  The next event is one of my favorites.  The Idyllwild Spring Challenge stage race.  The race consists of three events, XC, Super D, and a Time Trial.  I'm really looking forward to this weekend.

Santa Ynez Valley Classic Race Recap

I've been lagging with race updates, but better late than never, right?  The weekend started out by driving up Saturday with James, Heather, and JD in JD's Fun Mover RV.  Thanks for hooking that up JD!  When we arrived at the venue, the weather was great with some gusts of wind.  We all did a pre-lap and as soon as I finished with my lap, I ran into Nick D. who was getting ready to get his lap in.  I was only planning on doing one lap, but he said it would be a mellow ride.  I decided to join and off we went.  Little did I know that shortly after we pedaled off, the effort would start to increase.  I don't know what it is, but whenever Nick and I pedal together, we just can't take it easy...lol!  I did go much harder than I wanted to and I was hoping there would be no ill effects come race day.  The day ended with eating some horrible AYCE spaghetti and beers around the campfire with good people.

I didn't get a good nights sleep as I was too paranoid about the bikes locked up and hanging on the Team Velosport EZ-UP outside.  I could hear the wind picking up as morning approach and that led to more paranoia of the EZ-UP just blowing away.  The morning approached and of course my paranoia was in vain.  Everything was fine.  I suited up and began my warmup for my 8:30am start time.  It was brisk but not terribly cold outside.  The winds were fairly calm, but the clouds looming above looked very threatening.

The race start for once was not a blistering pace.  I was able to squeeze into the top 6 or so in the initial paceline.  Things didn't start to break up until the first legitimate climb.  Barbee and I traded spots back and forth for most of the race until shortly after the beginning of the third lap.  I think this was the first CAT1 race where I wasn't in no man's land.  It was really fun battling for position with Barbee.  He would edge me out on the climbs mostly, but I was able to reel him back in on the singletrack descents.  I tried to attack him a couple of times, but I couldn't shake him that far off from my wheel.  The wind was pretty awful on some of the ridges.  At times, I was fighting to stay upright on my bike as the cross wind was that strong.  Barbee got away from on the 3rd lap.  I felt I had the strength to fight on, but mentally I was done.  My brain didn't want to suffer anymore and because of that, I lost the fight.  Barbee wanted it more than I did.  I ended up taking the 6th spot with a time of 2:10:39.  Looks like I continue to be worst of the best.  The next closest competitor was over 11 minutes behind.  I'm always hovering right below the podium.  It's in my sights, just need to push through the pain for a little bit longer.  I'm hoping I can get there soon.  I think my best chance is going to be at Elings Park, Santa Barbara come June.  I really enjoy that course as it suits my style of riding much more with it's punchy climbs, tight switchbacks, and 95% singletrack.

The next SoCal State race is Big Bear mid May.  The BB races are my least favorite of the series.  The format is a big loop with no laps.  It's funny, I used to like the big loop format last year, but this year I'm more in favor of the lap format.  I think it's because there's less inexperienced traffic on the course at one time.  The big loops generally are more of problem since all amateurs are sent off in waves instead of seperating the different catergories into two individual races.  Congrats to James on his win as well as JD and Heather's podium appearance.  Stay tuned for my Sea Otter Classic writeup.

Barbee on my wheel.

Can't shake the Barbee.

Fontana National Race Report

My race weekend started off pretty busy.  I decided to drive up to Fontana Saturday morning to pre-ride the course.  I got a couple of laps in and then I had to jam back home to head over to the ADT Velodrome in Carson for my first track race experience.  Track racing is such a different exeperience and I'm looking forward to hitting the track more often.  There's plenty to learn about the track.  Overall, my first experience went well.  No mishaps and a decent overall result.

I was hoping not to burn out my legs too much at the track.  Lots of full effort sprints at the track takes a toll.  I still needed to be fresh for the Sunday Fontana XC race.  My legs felt a little fatigued the morning of, but they quickly felt better after a nice 20 minute warmup.  The weather was looking great, the wind completely died out for Sunday.  Saturday had gale force Santa Ana winds blowing dust and dirt everywhere which is never fun to race in.

On to the race start.  Thankfully, the pace didn't seem to be blistering fast this time.  The pack stayed together up until the big National Hill climb.  I kind of got stuck towards the back of the pack which didn't work so well for me on that climb.  My 1x9 gearing makes going up the steep hills a little quicker than some with shorter gearing.  I ended up running into the back wheel of the rider in front of me while in tough loose section.  I just couldn't go any slower while maintaining traction.  This resulted in me having to dismount and hike/run up the rest.  Of course, this created a chain reaction for the riders behind me.  There were some words of dissapointment by some, but in all reality, it's a race.  I hate dismounting my bike as much as the next guy.  We all get stuck behind slower riders holding us up out there sometime on the course.  After the climb was over, things started to spread out a bit.  I was sitting in around 7th place or so and trying to hang on to the lead pack.  They gapped me and I settled into my own pace.  My first lap was my fastest lap coming in at 24:21.  We had to do 4 laps.

Boy my gut is fat...lol

The 2nd and 3rd lap were pretty uneventful, but I do remember Justin Mann just leaving me in the dust halfway through my 2nd lap.  That guy was on his game that day and just kicking ass.  BTW - as of writing this, Justin had a bad bicycle accident just yesterday fracturing his neck and kneecap among other things.  I wish him and his wife the best and I'm hoping for a speedy recovery.  I hate it when bad things happen to good people.  I felt good and kept my pace consistent throughout.  I was able to keep the 2nd lap in the low 25 minute range while my 3rd was in the higher 25 minute range.  I remember getting held up by some slower women riders after National Hill, which probably attributes to the slower time.

The 4th lap was starting to get hard.  I remember seeing Barbee about 30 seconds ahead of me.  Maybe I could catch up to him?  Not if Big National Hill has anything to say about it.  The climb kicked me off my bike earlier than previous laps and was sucking the energy out of me.  I was glad to be over with it, but I know I lost time to Barbee.  I was just imagining him pedaling up the whole climb without a hitch.  He's a strong climber.  I still need to find more speed on the climbs.  I crossed the line in 7th place with a time of 1:40:53.  Less than a minute behind Barbee.  I'm happy with those results.  I hope to one day reach the podium this year and I think I can do it.  I'm really not that far off from the podium finishers minus the top 3 guys.  I wonder what would happen if I actually followed a training schedule or hired a coach?  I don't want to do that because that would take the fun out of it for me.  I just like to ride and have fun while riding hard.

Los Olivos in Santa Ynez is up next followed by the Sea Otter Classic the following weekend.  I love this time of year.  Can't wait for the SOC!  For now, I'll keep on riding and enjoying my bike.

PS:  Thank you Frank and Alissa for cheering me on!  Great to see you guys out there.

2010 Vision Quest Race...err..."Event" Report

I'll be honest.  I really had no intention of signing up for the 2010 VQ, but yet for some reason I did.  I just happened to be up at midnight on the day of registration and just did it.  I didn't expect this event to sell out in 15 minutes or so.  Each year it has gotten harder and harder to get into this event due to the popularity.  Just to recap; the Vision Quest is a mountain bike event put on by the Warrior's Society.  The event travels 56 miles and climbs over 11,000 feet across the Santa Ana mountain range in east Orange County.  This happens to be in my backyard.  Most accept this challenge just to finish it, which in itself is an awesome accomplishment.  2010 would mark my 3rd attempt.  After much thought, I set a couple of goals for myself.  A really hard and almost unreal time of sub 6 hours with a secondary goal of 6.5 hours.  Last year I finished the VQ on a single speed in 6:53.  This year, I decided to do it on a geared bike, well...partially geared.  That geared bike happened to be my new Santa Cruz Tallboy which is setup as a 9 speed.

As the day of reckoning grew closer, I felt less and less motivated to do it.  This winter brought us lots of rain and very limited training time on the dirt.  I really didn't train or get the base miles in that I wanted to for the VQ.  The last time I was on a bike for at least 4 plus hours was about 2 months before race day.  I really didn't feel confident about the race going into it, but I would put down my best effort, regardless.  It was great to have Alping Rob repeat as sag support along with newcomer Matt.  Matt failed during the registration process and decided he would just support his fellow riders.

Of course the day started out early with a 3:30am wakeup call.  The worst part about VQ is waking up.  Damn 5:30am start times!  I grabbed my gear and headed off to the event.  Luckily, it only takes me 20 minutes to get there.  The morning was cold, but not too cold.  The forecast called for nice sunny weather in the upper 70's!  Yet another great day for a bike race.  As the start time approached, I headed down to the start line while making sure I gave my feed bag to Matt.  In years past, I've always started towards the middle or back of the pack.  This year I made sure to start out in the front.  If I was to put in a good time, I had to make sure I would be out of harms way this year especially with the extra hour of racing in the dark up Blackstar due to DST.  I brought my MagicShine bike light which was more than enough light.  I was surprised that others opted not to bring a light at all especially a couple of the pro's.  It was pitch black at the start.

After Chris Vargas's encouraging words, which I didn't listen to at all, the race was on!  My start was a good one and I was able to latch on to the back of the lead pack of 15 riders or so.  We stayed together pretty much until the first switchback when the really climbing began.  The pro's took off for the races and I decided I would try to stick to Tim Z's wheel for as long as I could.  Tim eventually started to pull away and it would have been a wasted effort to chase.  I settled into a ryhtym that wasn't comfortable or excrutiating.  I wanted to keep the pace high without killing myself.  I came upon a rider about a 2/3's the way up to Beek's that didn't have a light.  As I passed, he stuck to my wheel so he had a line to follow.  Turns out this rider was James Walsh.  Super cool guy.  I've never met him before, but I knew we race in the same age group and category at the state races.  We were chatting a little bit back and forth.  I felt he was pushing me a bit while we were riding together.  As we approached Beek's, I looked at my split (44ish) and I was off to a great pace!  Eventually, I lost James after a climb (turns out he took a piss) and I was on my own for my journey towards Maple Springs.  It was no longer dark at this time as there was enough daylight to see.  I kept the pace high and the legs were feeling strong.  I passed another rider while bombing down Motorway.  That was the Tallboy's first time down that trail and it was quite impressive.  I got to the base of Maple Springs in 1:47ish.  Wow...this has to be a personal best.  I found Matt in his bright orange jacket at the first aid station.  I took off my lights while Matt and Rob exchanged my water bottles.  Off I went for the 2nd leg.

Motorway

Motorway again

Climbing up the pavement on Maple is my least favorite part.  I despise that pavement.  For some reason it's just harder until you hit the dirt 4 miles later.  I decided to scale it back a little bit to take in some much needed fluids in the form of Vitargo and EFS.  Not too much longer after I started climbing the pavement, the rider I passed on Motorway catches up to me in no time.  He complimented me for hauling ass down Motorway.  Turns out this rider was Guy Sutton.  I complimented him as he was hauling ass up the pavement.  He's a really strong rider.  It started to get lonely riding by myself.  I remember looking down on the ground and seeing some writing on the ground in chalk.  I look and see my friend's name Ryan Meyer.  I thought to myself...that's cool!  As I rode on I saw more familiar names written in chalk with words of encouragement.  Then I came across my own name and seriously was laughing from what I read.  It said, "Jason Rusnak, Where's the wig?" and I knew exactly who wrote it at that point.  There's a whole inside story behind that.  That really did put a smile on my face and helped me forget about pedaling that damn pavement for awhile.  Finally, I reach the dirt and press on.  I see some people hiking up the dirt and turns out it was Ryan's friends.  I think they were surprised to see me this early in the day and actually I was quite surprised to seem them this early on as well.  Their cheers were awesome and I heard they cheered everyone that went by!  Those guys rule!  Check out this video they made.  The rest of the climb went well.  It took me 58 minutes to get to 4 corners.  Climbing up towards the peak was another lonely adventure.  I couldn't wait to get up and over as most of the climbing would be over at that point.  I bagged the peak and headed down to Upper Holy Jim.  The trail was in great shape and this was the first time I have taken the Tallboy down it.  I had some trouble making it around a couple of those tight switchbacks which ultimately led to a small down for me.  I tried to dismount during a switchback and I had trouble getting unclipped.  My front tire decided to wash out and well, that's all it took for me to crash.  Just some dirt rash.  I got up and was able to ride out the rest of the trail.  Kind of bummed I crashed since it's not very often I crash.  Proceeded down Holy Jim and was having a good time, but I was really starting to get sketched out by my front tire (Maxxis Aspen).  It really was starting to push and washout.  About halfway down, it pushed hard and the tire just folded over.  Aaargh!!  Damn VQ gremlins!!  Front tire was flat.  It was my fault.  I forgot to check my tire pressure that morning so I'm sure I was down a couple of PSI or so.  As I was fixing my flat, 1 rider passed me.  That probably cost me about 5 minutes or so.  Once the flat was repaired, I made my way to the 2nd aid station.  Again, Matt and Rob were just great!  They lubed my chain, check my tire pressure, and changed my bottles out.  Top notch service.  Matt told me I was in 10th place overall!  I was quite surprised.

Now, the toughest part of the race was ahead of me.  Riding up Trabuco at this point is really tough.  The trail is technical and loose at times which require more strength and concentration to pedal through.  I had a couple of dabs, but overall I was happy with my performance.  Legs still felt pretty good at this point.  Once I reached the dreaded hike-a-bike in West Horse Thief, I had aspirations of pedaling it.  That was not to be with my 1x9 gearing.  I pedaled a couple of sections on the HAB parts, but mainly was hiking.  The weather was still nice and cool.  It felt great to have a little bit of a breeze up there.  Again, I was by myself without hearing or seeing another soul.  WHT went by surprisingly fast.  It took me less than 40 minutes to get to Main Divide.  Once to MD, I was informed I was in 9th place overall!  Wow!  It was due to Manny Prado dropping out of the race because of mechnicals.  As I reached the top of Trabuco Trail, I realized that I actually may have a chance of breaking 6 hours.  I let if fly down Trabuco.  I was pushing trying to make up as much time as I could.  I still felt fairly fresh, but fatigue was starting to set in.  As I came flying by the 2nd aid station for the 2nd time, I had about 10 minutes to get to the finish to break 6 hours.  That would be pretty tough, but I tried really hard.  I got to the finish about 2 minutes after 6 hours.  At first, I was bummed, but later I was stoked to have put in such a awesome effort and to finish in the top 10.  If only I didn't get that flat!!

Pedaling to the finish on Trabuco

To recap, the event was awesome and the weather was absolutely perfect.  I was amazed on how much easier this event was from years past.  I didn't feel completely wasted at the end.  I kept my nutrition and hydration spot on thanks to First Endurance's EFS Sports drink as well as Vitargo.  I didn't eat any solid foods or use any gels.  I got all my calories through my drink and it really does work.  My Santa Cruz Tallboy was an absolute joy to ride and with it's sophisticated VPP suspension, I was able to stay fresh and strong for the entire ride.  Thanks to Rock N' Road for being an awesome bike shop and always taking care of all of my biking needs.  Top notch customer service!  Thanks to Matt and Rob for the awesome sag support at the aid stations.  You guys truly did make a difference.  As for next year, I'm on the fence about doing another VQ.  I really would like another crack at breaking 6 hours, but I wouldn't mind taking a year off and give another rider a chance to complete the Vision Quest.  Congratulations to all the finishers this year!  It's awesome to see everyone meet their personal goals.

2010 Vision Quest Results

Man and machine