Bushman Blow - CORC Rd 3.3 Stromlo West

I was excited to go to work today, not because I’m a professional windsurfer living in Maui, or a professional skier on training camp in Aspen. I was excited about coffee and because the weekend just gone was so full of action packed racing I just wanted to sit down at my desk and reflect on how good it is to be Aussie.

The racing kicked off on Saturday afternoon when we all got in on the action with the CORC Rd 3.3 race. Then after a home cooked cassoulet, we watched Mark Webber get pole at the German Grand Prix, he went on to get 3rd in the race. A quick flick to SBS had us back onto the Tour de France, we watched Cadel Evans smash the time trial (and the haters) to take him to the pinnacle of his career. Then it was MotoGP in the USA, qualifying on Sunday morning and Casey Stoner started from 2nd and went on to win.

CADEL, Aussie! WEBBER, Aussie! STONER, Aussie! Good little Aussies racing in Canberra, OI! OI! OI!

Race Preparation

Not much to talk about here, I slept pretty well through the week and my diet was pretty solid and fibrous. Thought about riding everyday but didn’t actually turn visualisation’s into effort until Thursday. Felt a little sore on Friday so decided to rest easy and then race day had swung around. Poor effort I know, the lure of a frozen bike seat in the garage just wasn’t enough to get me out there on the trainer. Just a little too much of everyday life stuff getting in the way, longer warmer days aren’t too far around the corner and I’m sure this will get easier. Right?!

I recently read that if you want to get the full effects of coffee for performance enhancement in sport, you need to abstain from drinking it for at least 5 days before the event. I haven’t actually tried having a few cups before a race or hard ride and most definitely didn’t abstain from coffee during the week. I’m sure I’ll try this one day but it wasn’t to be for this one.

The Race

I rocked up with my family and bike at the ready. With a comfortable 30mins spare to sign on and to get that race plate on I went for solid warm-up just before race start. I made sure I cracked a good HR in the warm-up, an older, wiser, faster guy told me that the warm up is key to getting a good lap. Thanks Dylan you old man.

I thought that I had a pretty good idea on the track layout from studying trail maps of previous races at Stromlo-West. I was spot on for the 1st half of the circuit but the 2nd half presented trails I haven’t ridden before and ended up contributing to the most testing MTB race/ride that I’ve done so far.

The way the starter lady let us off was surreal and ended up being a perfect paradox for what was about to unfold. She was so relaxed, so at ease with her job that she pretty much let us start ourselves. She called the A graders up and said “Oh well, rightio, just go then“…I can understand not having a gun but you have to say ‘Ready, Set, Go!!!’ Come on…

The course ended up taking me over 2hrs and was about 40kms long. Normally its 90min race and maybe about 30kms. The extra distance and challenging track made it a big effort. This link is to a GPS track of a guy who also raced B grade, he finished a few minutes in front of me.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/101622778

As per usual the first lap pace was fast and I was on full throttle, and with a start straight that gave us few hundred metres of climbing I barely held on to the Top 5.  But once we set into a groove, and the corners started getting tighter I managed to pull them back a little. Ended up riding the 1st 2nd and 3rd lap with two other guys but half way through the 3rd lap they left me to ride out the rest of the race by myself.

There were some awesome sections on the track, the undulating Willow Link was fast and flowing. Terminal Velocity is an intense little bit of track that is basically a top gear roller coaster dipper that is fast enough to shoot you back out on top of a rocky hill. I remember feeling my grips compressing as I was holding on over the 100s of 1 inch marbles that were trying to send you off the track. With a few nice jumps and berms down the last section you were left with a smile on the dial ready to do it all again.

The last lap was killer for me, I’d had a GU before the start and one during the 3rd lap. I think they might have helped a little but I was really feeling it. It was the first time in ages that my shoulders and arms were actually getting tired from riding. My calves hinted at cramping at one stage but I managed to spin them out a little and didn’t have to stop. Lucky I wasn’t actually racing close to anyone at that stage because it could have been the end of my race. Coming down the hill to the finish was a great feeling and I was greeted with a bunch of fellow riders all looking very pleased with themselves. I stopped, looked around and then got slapped in the face with my own 3 inch snot worm. This seemed to please the crowd for some reason and they began clapping and cheering like something shocking had just happened. I was the last finisher in B grade and with a few DNF’s behind me I ended up in 8th. There is no doubt this game is tough and everyone out there on Saturday did well to finish, or nearly finish as the case may be for some.

Another race down, and I’m looking to the next month of training for more good times on the trails.

Until next post
Ride on
Dave

Manna Maniacs - CORC Round 3, Manna Park, South Coast, NSW

Winter has come, and it has hit really hard, with some days seeing temps drop to zero before the sun has gone down. We can see snow on the Brindabella Mountains which means the ski season has kicked off, and the tracks are consistently moist and grippy. Riding and training is still possible but I’m finding it hard to stay motivated. I came down with an URTI (Upper Respiratory Tract Infection) in the days leading up the 7hr so I had to make a last minute decision to pull out. Thanks to Matt for stepping in to race for me, I think he had the sniffles as well but pushed through with the team to complete with a good result.

As per usual I’ve had a mixed bag of training ‘weeks’ over the last month or so. I ended up losing 2 weeks of training with being sick, but then made the most of the weekends with some good interval sessions and spun out the stationary trainer during the weekdays. On average I’m doing 4 sessions a week with about 5 – 6hrs in the saddle. Now that I’ve locked myself into B grade for the rest of the year I’ve been trying to push out the sessions to 90mins to 120mins. Hopefully this will improve my endurance and give me some more ammo for that last lap. My diet is a little better but this cold weather just makes me want to eat Double Cooked Pork belly all night long. I’ve dropped another skin fold down to 84kgs but still have my eyes set on sub 80kgs by the end of the year. TLC Cycles have been maintaining my Scott to near perfection. The shop hooked me up with some new Ritchey grips and a new Maxxis CrossMark tyre, all at the right price. Thanks for the help team TLC.

We have started a facebook group as a gee-up for friends who ride and race to get organised with rides and weekends away like this. It’s proving to be a handy tool and we ended up with 8 like minded Track Elves making the pilgrimage to sunny Merimbula. It’s refreshing to be hanging out with easy going folks who like to race hard when the gun goes off.

The Race

I’m still at bit puzzled at the rationale for having an ACT round of the CORC series in NSW, but for me, to get a taste of a new track and score some points at the same time seems like a great idea. So with no better excuse, Cathy, Callum and I packed up the car as a family unit and headed to the coast.

The Race was held at Manna Park which is situated about 15mins north of Merimbula. The park presented typical Aussie coastal flora and fauna with ferny gullies, loamy blackened soil then to tall eucalypts and rocky trails on the top of the mountain. Driving into the park I could feel every little tight and sore point in my legs, my hamstrings felt a little tight, my throat felt a little sore and my body was trying hard to convince my mind that flogging around single trail for 90mins isn’t a good thing. Bad luck body, because my mind knows better!!!

http://www.mannapark.com.au/

It wasn’t a huge turn out of riders and the officials decided to run A and B grade together. It was a bit hard to know who entered what grade but some familiar faces told the story fairly well. I went in with the attitude to keep the lead riders in view for the first lap, find a good pace for the middle 2 laps then punch out a quick last lap. Without a practice lap I also committed myself to hitting all the A lines at pace, that’s logical isn’t it?!?!

The first lap went to plan, I found myself towards the back of the pack but with a few riders behind me. I was pushing and breathing hard at a HR of 175bpm and made a little space between me and 5th place. On the descent I managed to recover into a manageable 165bpm and was feeling ok. The A lines were designed well and you didn’t really need to be 100% committed to make it over them, the drop off’s were actually steep down ramps and the rocky descent was smooth enough to hit with speed without losing it. Lots of fast flowing berms were you could carry heaps of speed but as per usual the downhill just wasn’t long enough.

Early into the second lap and with the last lap in mind, I told myself to conserve and recover. I locked into a pace that was still pushing hard but without going anaerobic so my legs could clean themselves out a little. It didn’t take long and 5th place was on the move and got past me up the steep switch backs. I let him go and convinced myself that any chance I had would be to get him in the finals stages of the race when he wrecked himself. Well that didn’t happen, he got faster and I had a mechanical.

The third lap is a bit of a blur but I got passed by another rider and was riding in 6th, or last as there were only 6 riders. I remember feeling a strong pain in my hip down to the outside of my quads so I’m going to have to get some advice on that one. I changed up gears, down gears, and back up again until I found a cadence that didn’t hurt as much. Being a bit slower on the steep up hill section I knew I had to punch out some strong downhill action to have any chance at getting that place back. I locked in, thought about being smooth and fast, thought about Luke Skywalker and the force, and hammered the descent as fast as I could. Man it was a fun track, off camber long turns, gullies into tight berm’s and wide open big ring sprints through grassy firetrail’s, it had it all.

The last lap, time to give it everything. Near the top of the climb right when I had punished my legs as much as I could, I noticed my front tyre was going down slowly. It was only a minute later and I had my bike over my shoulder and was jogging through the bush from one single trail to the other. I found a friendly marshal (Andy), on the track and asked him for a tube. He said no but ‘take my front wheel if you want’. Sweet….After a quick pit stop, I was back on the trail, but his front disc was smaller then mine so I had to hit the downhill with only my back brake. All good, ‘channel those BMX days and find your inner bandit’ I said to myself. Also had to repeat out loud, left brake only, left brake only. I knew if I grabbed my front brake it may lock up and leave me on foot again, or my pads would seize together leaving me with a trip to the bike shop. Luckily Carmel (fastest lady on the track) rode past just as I pulled back onto the trail and she was able to get me back into a nice pace and give me a dusty warning on fast approaching tight corners. After a couple of moments and massive skids, I made it to the finish. I probably lost about 6mins with the flat but at least I finished. I’m hoping all this bad luck will come as part of my steep learning curve and next year will bring better luck and better results. Might even get some better luck in the next race :-)

Andy my savour

Race Work Rate
Max HR: 179bpm
Average HR: 165bpm

Highlights
- awesome track with heaps of technical stuff
- fun steep and fast downhill section
- Saturday night dinner with the gang
- coming into 2nd lap ahead of a few quick B graders
- hanging with my little family and having them at the race
- currently running 11th in B grade standings

Lowlights
- steep switchbacks wasn’t very well suited to a heavy climber like me
- downhill was over way too quickly
- bloody puncture, going tubeless soon for sure
- back axle is still slipping in those carbon drop outs
- B grade first lap pace is still well beyond me

Next race is CORC Rd 3.3 for locals who couldn’t make it the Manna Park. It's on this weekend. My goal will be similar to the last, Top 10 will be good but Top 5 I’d view as a win.

Until next post.
Ride On!!!