Monday, July 31, 2006
Wilderness 101 - 2006
It's Monday, and I'm pretty beat up... my legs are a bit stiff, and I need to stretch a couple of times a day, just to keep "limber" enough to walk. But I'm a happy with that.
Why is this? Two days ago Chris D. and I "raced" in the Wilderness 101 which as the name indicates is a 101 mile mountain biking race.
I say "raced" only figuratively because I "raced" against myself, not against the other 200+ riders. It was a race against being "DFL" (dead frickin last). It was a race against my mind telling me to "quit" and "throw that bike into the Coburn river". But after 71 miles of fireroads, 30 miles of sweet singletrack and about 10,000 vertical feet of climbing, I still have my bike and great memories.
Take a look at these hills:
(Source for profiles: http://www.nittanymba.org/maps2.php)Wilderness 101 race stats, map and profiles on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilderness_101
In a word, I am numb. My body is numb from pedaling for 14 hours, my mind is numb from the fact that I finished this thing at all. Yes, I trained for it, yes I took longer than I thought I would, but no I had no idea how hard it would actually be. This is clearly the hardest endurance event I've ever attempted. Even though my time of 14 hours, 40 minutes is a big disappointment to me, I still gain some satisfaction from the fact that I did not quit (even though, truth be told, I thought about it on more than one occasion). What got me through? A fair amount of training, and a bit of gumption, being able to "share the punishment" with a fellow rider (Chris D). Riding that course alone would have been twice as tough mentally. Together, pushing each other, quitting simply was not a true, viable option for either one of us. I realized to myself that if I quit, I would forever see a "DNF" next to my name on the 101 website and I can't have that.
Here is some miscellaneous commentary of the day:
Besides, my legs my triceps's are really tweaked which I didn't expect, but should have. 30 miles of technical singletrack will do that (not too mention another 71 of double track, 1/2 of which was fast descents). The rest of the day was spent on some of the longest climbs I've personally done east of the Missisippi. I now know what 10K of climbing is and its not a joke, its punishing.
- the two single track downhills were incredible... i was too tired to truly enjoy them at full speed but i got going pretty darn fast on them. i was amazed that a 101 mile course would have such technical descents, but I am glad they are on there because they were memorable!
- the 2 climbs after checkpoint 2. these almost broke me. but i suffered through the next 45 miles anyway.
- the technical single track was amazing, probably some of PA's best stuff there. man, if only i could remember where it was so I can return and stomp it (without being so drained from 60 miles already under the belt). Sadly, i actually dismounted some stuff just to stay safe and get home.
- the rattlesnake at mile 80 or so, that "sat up" dead center of the trail and said "hello". I've never seen one in the wild before and def. never heard that rattle either (it sounds more like a hiss than a rattle) and I have to say, its loud and it was an attention getter! i heard it before i saw it and when i did i had to screech to a halt, and stop Chris who was just 10-20 feet behind me. had i not heard it, I might have managed a bunny hop over, but I'm not sure, and I would have not wanted to hit the li'l beauty, or get bit. to get by the rattler, I had to gently toss a half doxen sticks toward it to get it off into the bushes, where it stayed rattling like crazy as we jetted past. I googled the closest picture I can find of what I saw:
- the amazing technical singletrack sections after the checkpoint 3. just great great PA singletrack... bit like "American Standard" but 10 years ago before it widened and was dumbed down a bit. I must get back here and ride this with fresh legs. just amazingly fun.
- the downhills! did i mention the downhills?? some of this stuff was so tricky, i really wished I had some pads but we cleaned all but the one loose off camber section (where we did a safety dabs only to prevent catrstrophic injury ;) ). my triceps are so sore from these dh's, i can actually feel them when i type this.
- chris' announcement at mile 88 that he just had his "first official hallucination of the day". "the road wavered back and forth", he said, "kinda like doing shrooms" (not that he would know). (my hallucination came at about mile 95 when I looked up to see chris about 1/4 mile up the fireroad, climbing away... the problem was I saw two bikers climbing, both wearing chris' jersey).
- riding along "fisherman's trail" in the dusk. geez, that was a technical finish. under normal circumstances, i'd like to spend some time cleaning that thing (which I rate as doubtful for me under non-race conditions!) but instead we walked the worst section and just looked at each other, laughing at how frickin hard it was, esp. after 96 miles or so. (i read that some riders are cleaning that section, like eatough last year's winner, which I find utterly amazing. total kudos to anyone with the skill and strength to clean this section after stomping all those climbs beforehand.)
- the "wrong turn" shortly after fisherman's trail in the dark that added anywhere from 3-5 miles to our day. somehow we ended up going straight after a railbed stretch and ended up on a fireroad that put as part way up the road toward Millheim. The wrong turn was at least 6 miles from the finish, with another climb whereas I think most people took a 2-3 mile rail bed back to the finish. geez, i needed this extra climb like a hole in the head. technically I should be DQ'ed but I don't care; I finished this sumb!tch.
Luckily, i had no mechanicals, except for an annoying squeak in the pedal or crank for 100 miles, bike held up great. it was the rider that wobbled in around 10:40pm. About 2 hours longer than I thought, but what the hey, I'm here able to type about it and these wobbly legs of mine keep the memories fresh in my mind.
thanks to Chris, my partner, in keeping me on the straight and narrow and waiting for me on the climbs.
all in all, a GREAT day on the bike which I will NEVER forget.
Some photos:
JimG crushes the rock garden after 3 bridges:
Kudos to you Jim! As you can see Chris and I had less sack and chose to walk it:
Friday, July 07, 2006
Bike Commuting to Work
In order to keep my fitness level up for a few endurance races I am doing this summer (Longest Day, Wilderness 101, 24 Hours of Allamuchy), and to save a little money from fuel costs, I have been part-time commuting by bike to work.
I tend to drive in with the bike, ride home on the bike, then the next morning I ride the bike into work. I do it about 2-4 times a week now, but as I get faster, I'll do it more often.
Its about 22 miles each way with the climb up and over Skyline Drive being the crux:
Oakland side: ~ 736 feet climb/6600 feet distance = ~11% grade.
Ringwood side: ~ 544 feet climb/3696 feet distance = ~14.7% grade.
Yes, my commute literally is "uphill both ways".
Here is the elevation profile and map:
This morning my commute into work (West Milford to Midland Park) was about 1 hour. Yesterday's ride home was about 1 hour 15 (there are more hills on the way home than on the way to work as the profile above indicates). When I first started doing this back in April and May it was taking me almost 2 hours to get home, so my fitness level is improving. When I can get this down to under an hour I know I'll have become a true "roadie" (God help me ;) ).
I tend to drive in with the bike, ride home on the bike, then the next morning I ride the bike into work. I do it about 2-4 times a week now, but as I get faster, I'll do it more often.
Its about 22 miles each way with the climb up and over Skyline Drive being the crux:
Oakland side: ~ 736 feet climb/6600 feet distance = ~11% grade.
Ringwood side: ~ 544 feet climb/3696 feet distance = ~14.7% grade.
Yes, my commute literally is "uphill both ways".
Here is the elevation profile and map:
This morning my commute into work (West Milford to Midland Park) was about 1 hour. Yesterday's ride home was about 1 hour 15 (there are more hills on the way home than on the way to work as the profile above indicates). When I first started doing this back in April and May it was taking me almost 2 hours to get home, so my fitness level is improving. When I can get this down to under an hour I know I'll have become a true "roadie" (God help me ;) ).
