12 Hours of Temecula #2 Recap

Another weekend of racing done and I'm finally getting around to blog about it.  12 HOT #2 is in the books and it was an awesome race day blessed with awesome weather.  The weeks leading up to the race, I was expecting your typical 80 to 90 degree weather.  We lucked out again with the high somewhere in the high 70's.  The weekend started Friday after work.  I met up with Mike Z, his wife Lisa, and Tracy for the carpool trip out there.  James and the rest of the crew were already out there with their homes away from home.  We arrived at a decent hour and I proceeded to carb load with a couple of brews and some pasta.  Thanks JD!  Then it was off to bed.

I awoke the next morning to a somewhat overcast and cloudy morning.  This was a good sign indicating cooler weather for the morning until it would burn off later in the day.  9am was the race start and it would run until 9pm.  I would be running my single speed "Rita" for the whole day.  By the end of the day, I would be wishing for a full suspension bike.  This would mark my 2nd attempt at doing a 12 hour race solo.  I lined up pretty close to the front seeing all the usual racers out there including the geoladders notables.  Of course Tinker was there ready to put down some serious laps.  My primary goal was to complete 12 laps with a secondary goal of 13 or more!  My downfall at the Jan. race was taking too long of a break more than halfway through the race.  I knew I would have to keep my breaks to a minimum if I wanted to get 13 laps in.  Nutrition is very important and often complicated for a race of this duration.  I still haven't figured it out completely, but my plan was to somewhat mimic the food I brought out last time.  Boiled red potatoes, hard boiled eggs, turkey sandwiches, peanut M&M's, and the ultimate lifesaver in Coke.  I would heavily rely on 1st Endurance's EFS sports drink for my hydration/electrolyte needs as well as 1st Endurance's Ultragen to replenish the glycogen stores.

9am came and the race was off with the parade lap to spread out the field.  There were alot of racers out there.  I didn't know exactly who was my competition, but I did see a few single speeders out there including "Fuzzy".  Turns out he was racing on a 2-man (co-ed) for Team Niner.  I kept my efforts fairly hard for the first lap, but still comfortable.  It was going to be a long day in the saddle.  No point in going out hard chasing the fast guys.  I was on a one water bottle per lap strategy.  Thank you to Lisa and Tracy for cleaning and refilling my bottles.  It was really awesome to have their support for the day.  Of course the guys were extremely helpful as well.  This worked well for the first 5 laps or so.  It started to get really hard to keep drinking on my 6th lap.  This lap would be my slowest lap of the day.  My stomach became upset and my pace quickly dropped to a "crawl" by my definition.  This lap would also burn the image of local Pro Allison Mann go by me at a blistering pace in the go fast skin suit and all.  Thanks for the encouraging words!

I finally finished off lap number 6 and it was just before 2pm.  6 laps in 5 hours.  I was on pace for 14 laps, but there was no way I could get back on my bike and keep moving.  My plan was to take a break after #6, but try to keep it to 15 minutes or so.  That was not going to happen.  My stomach was still upset and if I continued on I would be going backwards.  I was depleted of energy and forcing myself to press on would be futile.  I grabbed my Ultragen hoping it would make me feel better.  15 minutes quickly turned into 30 and 30 turned into an hour.  During that time I tried to eat some light chicken pasts with avocado and tomatoes.  It was hard to eat, but I needed to force some calories down.  I had a small coke and that seemed to settle my stomach down a bit.  I knew I had to get back on the bike because I was starting to get too comfortable relaxing.  It was just after 3pm and it was time to press on.

"Is it over yet" face palm.

Lap 7 was a decent lap.  I was able to clear the steep climbs again and I felt stronger as more time passed.  I made small stops at the pits after each lap from then on.  I got a second wind towards the end of my 9th lap.  I guess everything started to digest.  I was having a small 8oz kicker of coke between laps to keep the energy levels going.  I swear, coke is my savior.  I wasn't drinking much from my bottles.  It became pretty hard to suck down more liquids as the day was coming to an end.  Now by the end of my 11th lap, I was really starting to feel the punishment of riding a hard tail on this course.  The course, yet really fun, became really beat up and the breaking bumps kept getting worse.  My back was sore, my shoulders were sore, and my neck was sore.  It also didn't help that I left some dna (not that kind) on the super rutted out switchbacks on "Tarantula".  Fatigue was really wrecking havoc on the handling skills.  As I came around the pits, I saw that my younger brother Greg made it out, I didn't even stop as I said "Hey Greg" riding on by.  I continued on for my 12th and final lap giving myself extra time to finish.  I had an hour and fifteen minutes to complete the lap.  I knew I could take my time and try to enjoy my final lap.  That was hard to do as my ass was completely chaffed from the abuse my saddle gave me.  I forgot to Chamois Butter up before the race.  Ouch!  I came across the finish line with 15 minutes to spare before 9pm.  It was so awesome to hear everyone cheering me onto the finish.  I was so glad to be done with that.  At the end of the day, I rode for 108 miles with over 13,000ft of climbing.  This was my biggest and longest day on a bike yet.

So much dirt on my legs

Chanson showing me some love.

It felt so nice to take a nice hot shower, but boy did it burn where the sun don't shine.  I cracked open a Stone IPA while waiting for the awards to start.  I finished 3rd in the solo single speeders class!  I was down a lap from the 2nd and 1st place guy.  The winner had enough time to do 14, but chose not too.  It turns out the winner was a former national 24 hour solo champion by the name of Cameron Chambers.  He was riding a full suspension Stumpjumper converted to single speed.  He had the right idea for sure.  The next 12 hour race in November, I will be converting my Tallboy to single speed.  Screw this hardtail business for endurance races.

Ruh-tarded podium pic.  Don't know why I'm in the middle.

I would like to thank James, Tracy, Mike, Lisa, Derek, Jeff, JD, and Heather for all of their support over the weekend.  Of course I can't forget about all of my racer and geo buddies out there as well.  I can't thank James enough for allowing me to use the facilities of his trailer among other things.  Everyone was so helpful.  Heather, your Spaghetti was delightful for pre-race fuel.  JD, those burgers really hit the spot after the race.  I'm so fortunate to be surrounded by such awesome friends that are just as crazy about mountain bikes as I am.  The best part, we get to do it all over again come November!

Santa Barbara Bike Festival Recap

I look forward to the Santa Barbara Bike Fest every season and this past weekend was no different.  Santa Barbara is such a killer ocean town and Elings Park offers some pretty fast and flowy singletrack with steep pitches as well as numerous switchbacks.  A course that seems to bring out the best in my style and skills.  I made a goal to make it on the podium before the season's end and this race IMO was going to be my best chance.  I was almost heartbroken to hear that this event was almost cancelled a week prior due to some legalities of some sort.  I don't know all the details, but the end result was a green light for the SBBF.  Hopefully, next year all those issues will be sorted out with usage of Elings Park.

The race weekend started out by driving up with JD and Heather (thank you both!) late Saturday morning.  We all wanted to get some good time on the course prior to the XC race on Sunday to see what was changed from last year.  Due to the legal BS, the Start/Finish was moved to the south side of the park and it was quite a pleasant change from years past.  The parking was not the greatest, but it was nice to be hanging out on a nice grassy knoll.  I decided to sign up for Super D since I was already there and I had such a blast racing Super D in Idyllwild last month, so why not?  I tried to get JD to sign up, but I guess he was too afraid to have fun...j/k man!  The Super D course was about 2.5 miles long with just over 100ft of ascent.  My pre-ride times were right around the 11 minute range.

How did I manage that sick number plate?

They were sending everyone out in TT fashion with 30 second gaps between racers.  I started somewhere in the middle of the field.  The countdown began and off I went on the last beep grabbing a couple of gears almost immediately to bring up my speed.  I dove into the first turn skidding out the rear wheel trying to carry as much speed as comfortably possible.  Swooping left, right, up, right, down and all over the place.  I caught up to my 30 second man within 2 minutes.  I passed 2 more 30 second men on a long pedaling section and bombed down the pavement climb towards the finish line.  I crossed the line with a time of 9:04 which was solid enough for a 1st place in my AG and the 3rd best amateur time of the day.  A great start to the race weekend!

After the awards were announced, we checked-in to the Oasis Inn off State Street (2 miles away from the venue), got cleaned up and headed out to Edomasa Sushi for some tasty eats.  1 bottle of Nigori sake quickly turned into 2 bottles thanks to JD's drinking problem.  ;-)  The sushi was excellent and to top off the night, we each got crazy with a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream for the walk home.

The next morning we got off to a slow start but made it in time for the Cat3 races starting off at 9am.  It was overcast and chilly, but I knew the sun would be full on raging by the time the Cat1 race started.  Heather did a fantastic job tearing up the course earning a 1st place.  Next up was the Cat2 race which saw JD and Matt (coming out of retirement) participating.  It was fun working the feed zone and encouraging everyone as they came by.  JD had an awesome showing and took home 3rd even with a small mishap.  Matt had a decent top 10 finish which isn't bad for his first state race of the year. 

Everyone seemed to be in good spirits while waiting to be sent off.  My strategy for the race was to keep the lead pack in sight for at least the first lap while trying to manage my efforts to keep from blowing up.  The race start was a good one and I found myself sitting in 6th or 7th.  I knew the pack would break up on the 1st climb of the day which came in a minute from the start.  Griffith dropped a chain on the climb and I was able to get around him...sorry Griff.  I found myself in 5th place and I could see Marco and Gerry not too far ahead, but the gap was increasing.  I traded spots a couple of times with a Platinum rider on the first lap and eventually I got the best of him to move into 4th.  I was able to catch up and pass Wes on the 2nd lap.  I increased the gap while attacking and sprinting up the climbs knowing I could recover a bit on the descents.  It appeared to be working.  "NICE! I'm sitting in 3rd."  I started to run into the younger AG's that started a couple of minutes ahead which did slow me down some.  It was hard to pass at times as the course was mostly singletrack and doubletrack.  I was on my own for the 3rd lap.  My legs were feeling strong thanks to 1st Endurance's EFS, so I continued to push the pace where I could.  It's really easy to sit up and relax the effort when all alone.  If it's one thing I've learned this year, it is to not ease up.  If you do, there will be a rider on your wheel before you know it.  As the 4th lap came around, I did a quick look over the shoulder to see if I could see anyone behind me.  I didn't see anyone, but I pushed on remembering not to let up.  This lap was also the warmest of the race.  The sun was beating me down on areas of the course with no ocean breeze.  Things were still going well.  I even caught up and passed a couple of slower Pro's.  Good things always come to an end though, right?  About 3/4 of the way through the lap, my left quad started to have the cold tingly feeling to it.  Usually that is a sign of something much worse to come.  Yup, a moment later my leg started to cramp a bit.  I said out loud, "You got to be kidding me!"  I backed off the effort a bit, but kept pedaling.  As soon as I would stop pedaling, the cramp would get tighter.  It felt better to pedal.  I took the last swigs of 1st Endurance's EFS from my bottle and a weird yet amazing thing happened.  The cramp immediately went away.  That was a first.  I kept pedaling and brought the power back up a bit.  I brought it up some more.....feeling good still.  Hmmm..."Ok, let's finish this off strong."  I made my way up towards the final descent and told myself "F it!"  If I cramp, I'm just going to pedal through it all the way to the end.  I hammered up the short climb to the final descent and the legs were feeling back to normal minus the fatigue.  Stoked!  All I had to do was finish off the final climb of the day which happened to be the longest of the lap.  I reached the bottom of the pavement and began the 3 minute journey up.  I got about halfway up and took another quick look back and I was home free.  I approached the turnoff to the grass and JD was there.  He said out loud, "Come on Rushak, grab a gear."  I did just that.  I clicked 2 gears and got out of the saddle to finish off the climb.  I didn't have much left, but turned those cranks over until the crest.  I crossed the line in 3rd with a time of 1:51:09.  The announcer confirmed my 3rd place over the loud speakers.  I won my battle and reached my goal this season.  I was 3 minutes back of Marco in 2nd place and Wes was 45 seconds behind me.

First climb

Dripping sweat, eating tons of dust, and suffering.

 1st-Gerry, 2nd-Marco, 3rd-Me, 4th-Wes (not shown), 5th-Griffith

Here's the stats from the race:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/36000102

I was able to increase my average speed by almost 1mph more than last year over a longer distance and a slightly longer lap.  I also compiled my total time for 3 laps to see where I would have sit if I raced Cat2 and that just confirmed I'm racing in the correct category.  Oh yeah, I also started running again about 6 weeks ago in the search for more fitness.  I believe that it has helped increase my performance on the bike.  In addition to running, I haven't been training as hard on the bike.  I've been getting alot more recovery time and I think it's been working out better for me.  12 HOT is next followed by Round 6 of the state series up in Big Bear the following weekend.

Thanks you JD, Heather, and Matt for the fun weekend!  A special thanks to Warped1 for supplying the action photos.