I speak in massive superlatives. Sunday was the best hill clinic EVER! Well, it was the largest, at least, with 41 participants. I'll need to start getting permits if the clinics grow any more. We had a great time in the Headlands learning the finer points of climbing and descending and making friends with gravity. Thank you to all the participants. I personally had a super time meeting and talking with all of you.
Everything is crashing in this week. Tomorrow at 6am I head down with Tanford to San Diego for the 12 Hours of Temecula MTB race. And the minute I get back I have to load my car and move back to Colorado for a bit (found a sweet little cabin at 8,600 feet elevation to live and train until Leadman - Rocky III style). My training on the bike has been solid for 12 weeks now and, so, there are no excuses. Top goal is 120 miles. "General" goal is at least 100 miles. Base goal is not breaking my neck and just riding consistently all day. I got out today and nailed a 2 min PR on a 16 mile course with 2,700 feet of climb and felt like I wanted to go another couple hours, so I'm at least in the right frame of mind for a 12 hour trail ride.
I'm mostly interested to see the difference between riding these endurance races now (after running so many ultra races - some lasting WAY over 24 hours) compared to when I last raced a mt bike seven years ago. Mostly, I see the advantage of understanding dead time (like aid stations, sitting around between laps, etc.). To mitigate this, I'm planning on doing two laps at a time, minimum, without stoping for food, etc. Each lap is nearly 10 miles and probably 50-60 mins for me, so it shouldn't be difficult to carry 600 calories and enough water for two laps at a time.
As fascinating as all this is, I mostly just want to set myself up for a badass shot at Leadman and this is the first major test.
Have a great rest of your week. Run (and bike) strong!
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