[the toninator]

I saw a couple of you guys talking about it so I thought I’d ask a few questions.
What cats are you guys racing?( elite, age groupers and age)
do you have an ultimate training goal? ( like if I was able to ride X amount of miles in X days I’d be on top for sure)
where are y'all from?

I raced last year and had an ok race but I think I have a better idea on how to train and race for it this year, after having completed one there. See they have these things called 'mountains' I know it's a funny word but a pertinent one none the less, see I live at sea level and my office is only 35' above sea level and that’s just because it's on the 3rd floor

Anyhoo just looking to start some dialog with some of the other racers.

Tony

 

[the toninator]

Ok since mr Kerkove got 12 in the elites last year and mr Allen WON last weekend we'll place them into the Elite catagory.
Way to go guys!

 

[KERKOVEJ]

Whistler rocks!

Whistler is a pretty neutral course. It does not favor one certain type of rider/racer. It has everything....long climbs...short climbs...rocks....roots...wood bridges...awesome flowing single track. Hell, I am from Iowa, and I managed just fine.

As far as training...
I hit up 12 and 24 hour races around the country through out the year. I also ride my mnt bike on the road group rides. That really teaches you to suffer
Just make sure you have the time in the saddle.

 

[the toninator]

I’ve been reading your blog a little and i also just went to the RLT 80, it roxors! Now i just have to find a new frame to go along with it, the FSR is getting a little old. The RacerX is pretty nice but hard to get ahold of. I also run maxxis tires the mimo in the front and the TT in the rear i've had pretty good luck with them. At whistler last year i ran the mimo and the minotaur in the rear they worked well. (saw kabush's set up at the national and i think he was running tt's)

Yea well the only hills we have here are the over passes but i'll be spending quite a few hours out where the biker dude from austin trains.

I've done a few races already this year (100miler, 12-Hour and Norba Marathon) but only have 1 or 2 left before whistler but have some really nice long rides planned. I also ride my FS on our club ride to get bike specific saddle time.
we were supposed to have a 4 race 12-hour series this spring but it got cancelled and i've had to adjust my schedule.

I'm also I’ve changed up my prerace preparation. Last year i showed up the week before the race and road all those awesome trails all day every day. Might have been a little tired going into the race. This year i'm going up 2 days before preride, setup and then race. I'm going to ride and party like a rox star afterwards, not before.

 

[toddcarpenter]

Good Work

Sounds like your on the right track with your training. Like anyone will tell you it's miles, miles, miles. It dosen't hurt to mix in a bit of weight training too. I've found it helps a lot with the upper body later in the race. It's a good idea to take it easy days before any race. Take advantage of the taper, you and your body have earned it. Keep on rolling!

 

[whittij]

good luck with the training and all that. where do you live that there are no hills? that dude jeff k lives in iowa and somehow gets it done. living in iowa is insanity in itself. i travel to moline occassionaly and just want to get out of there! (sorry jeff). if you ain't got any hills, there's always the indoor trainer with the resistance maxed-out! man, that blows though. training goals? mostly about staying healthy - pushing as many miles (hours) as life and the body will allow.

 

[the toninator]

good luck with the training and all that. where do you live that there are no hills? that dude jeff k lives in iowa and somehow gets it done. living in iowa is insanity in itself. i travel to moline occassionaly and just want to get out of there! (sorry jeff). if you ain't got any hills, there's always the indoor trainer with the resistance maxed-out! man, that blows though. training goals? mostly about staying healthy - pushing as many miles (hours) as life and the body will allow.

Houston, Texas. I do leg strength on the bike where I'll sit in a 53/12 for a mile then stand for a mile. Then I'll sit for 2 miles and then stand for 2. I repeat like that until I cant stand it anymore.
I'm going to Austin tomorrow and do some hills at a low HR. The road loop is 30 miles then I'll jump on trail and do 16 miles of moderate single track. I'm going to do 2 or 3 laps of this. Sunday I'll rest or do a couple of hours urban.
I'm also working on dropping a little weight (very little) but it should come off pretty easily when it starts heating up again (next week will be in the 90's.)

 

[Eddie O]

Sounds like you are making the right steps toward a good race. I raced Elite last year and had a pretty bad race. I had a hard time in the cold at night. I'm from GA as of a year ago and FL before that, so I hadn't seen winter/cold riding in few years. If I did it all over again (not this year) I'd go up a week to 10 days before to acclimate a little better. As for not having hills to train on...I wouldn't worry too much about it...keep in mind you also don't have descents to rest on. Definitely taper before hand. You're doing all this work now, so allow your body & mind a chance to recover a little before you race. Think about how good you feel after taking a couple days off after some hard riding....I'll willing to bet it's pretty good.

Good luck,

Eddie O

 

[the toninator]

Sounds like you are making the right steps toward a good race. I raced Elite last year and had a pretty bad race. I had a hard time in the cold at night. I'm from GA as of a year ago and FL before that, so I hadn't seen winter/cold riding in few years. If I did it all over again (not this year) I'd go up a week to 10 days before to acclimate a little better. As for not having hills to train on...I wouldn't worry too much about it...keep in mind you also don't have descents to rest on. Definitely taper before hand. You're doing all this work now, so allow your body & mind a chance to recover a little before you race. Think about how good you feel after taking a couple days off after some hard riding....I'll willing to bet it's pretty good.

Good luck,

Eddie O

thanks eddie the cold destroyed me. I just dont/didnt have the right clothes for it. I'd totally over heat on the climbs and totally freeze on the down hills. I'm going to invest a little more time in clothing research and employ a little of my snowboarding clothes in the race (just picked that up 2 winters ago and only done it twice.)
I have more winter clothes right now at age 34 than I have ever owned cumulative my entire life.

 

[Eddie O]

One of the tricks I started doing later in the night when I was freezing was to stick a newspaper up the front of my jersey as I exited the pits. It did a good job of keeping the wind off my chest and I could disgard it at the check point by the river before starting the first climb where I could really warm up. That drop down the ski hill right out of the pits left me shivering too many times....

Eddie O

 

[skinl19]

I hear you on that first downhill, froze on the way down. Not the best way to start out of the pits each lap. For me the race was OK to do for the experience but the expense and time invested traveling from Michigan did not make it worth doing again. I can do a lot of other races all year for that amount of $$. Maybe if they move it to the east side I would reconsider.

 

[the toninator]

I hear you on that first downhill, froze on the way down. Not the best way to start out of the pits each lap. For me the race was OK to do for the experience but the expense and time invested traveling from Michigan did not make it worth doing again. I can do a lot of other races all year for that amount of $$. Maybe if they move it to the east side I would reconsider.

It's real expensive to get there but i do get a little help from my team. They cover the entry fee and the pit canopy and tables and chairs. Last year I had a friend come and be my pit person. She rides the same size bike as me so I got lucky and only had to fly one bike out. This year it's looking a little sketchy on pit help but instead of flying a bike out I might just rent one from the village as a back up.
I also use this as my vacation so I'll be there the whole week after for some fun in the sun and some schweet single track lovin.
I'm also going to try to fly in and out at a time that I can take advantage of the shuttle bus that runs from Vancouver Airport to the village so I can save on rental car costs.

 

[Eddie O]

Absolutely skinl19, I'm skipping it this year and for the foreseeable future....too expensive, too much travel. Like you stated, I can do 4 or 5 races in the Southeast for the same cost and with more support. Most of my sponsors are regional at best, what do they care about exposure in BC? Bring Worlds or Nationals to the East coast and I'll go (I'm sure I'm not the only one). 24 HOA are you listening?

Eddie O

 

[Soloracer]

24 HOA are you listening?

Eddie O

Ditto on the cost for me as well, but 24 HOA already knows that from my survey. I was bummed not to be able to compete in worlds this year, but then I found this G 24 World

Nice, right in my backyard! Adrenalin used to have a race in this area, but they stopped it a few years ago. Nice to see a race back in the valley!

Jim

 

[the toninator]

Ditto on the cost for me as well, but 24 HOA already knows that from my survey. I was bummed not to be able to compete in worlds this year, but then I found this G 24 World

Nice, right in my backyard! Adrenalin used to have a race in this area, but they stopped it a few years ago. Nice to see a race back in the valley!

Jim

where's the rest of the events?

 

[the toninator]

Absolutely skinl19, I'm skipping it this year and for the foreseeable future....too expensive, too much travel. Like you stated, I can do 4 or 5 races in the Southeast for the same cost and with more support. Most of my sponsors are regional at best, what do they care about exposure in BC? Bring Worlds or Nationals to the East coast and I'll go (I'm sure I'm not the only one). 24 HOA are you listening?

Eddie O

but bringing it out there only helps you, what about where i live or the people in europe that come over? Also i do not believe the Nationals are a 24HOA event so i'm not understanding your point there.
i think next year i'm going to do a 24 hour is europe. that would be bad ass.

 

[Eddie O]

Sorry I though 24 HOA did the nationals...still they are always out west too.

The local races are getting bigger and better, BURN 24 Hour Challenge, Southern Lights 24-7, 24 Hours of Pisgah, 12 Hours of Razorback and we do have the 24 HOA at Conyers, so I'll stay "home" hope some of the rest of you come play in my back yard.

The G24 Wolrds thing is very cool. It should add some competition to the 24 HOA Worlds race, which can only be a good thing. Kona is a big sponsor, so maybe next year they'll hook me up (one can hope).

Eddie O

 

[PaddyH]

'raced the singlespeed cat last year at my first world's but crashed my Gaint 2 to 1 about 3km from the first feed station on the course, and wrecked my rr triangle...that was at about 12:30 am..soo it was a loong night, and I had two buddies racing as well(Dallas was in 1x1 and Jonah was racing elite) and we all shared the same pit guy, so it was only right to help out after DNFin'....Man, I can't wait to get back to Whistler and bust one out!

 

[Soloracer]

Also i do not believe the Nationals are a 24HOA event so i'm not understanding your point there.
i think next year i'm going to do a 24 hour is europe. .

Adrenalin does a U.S. and also a Canadian national championship, then their is the Norba National 24 hour Championships (roundandround.com).

The cool thing about the kona deal is that is is actually going be on a different contenent every year for the next 3 years. I believe the schedule is Australia in 06, and England in 07. I've begun saving money for the Australian one, I'm going to combine a vacation and a bike race. England, well we'll see, that is a long time away.

This whole thing gets confusing, it appears that anyone who wants to can have basically any event and call it whatever they want. I like Kona's idea of having a world championship that is actually outside of North America. I like to travel and do bike races at the same time so different locations each year is cool with me.

jim

 

[whittij]

Absolutely skinl19, I'm skipping it this year and for the foreseeable future....too expensive, too much travel. Like you stated, I can do 4 or 5 races in the Southeast for the same cost and with more support. Most of my sponsors are regional at best, what do they care about exposure in BC? Bring Worlds or Nationals to the East coast and I'll go (I'm sure I'm not the only one). 24 HOA are you listening?

Eddie O

No doubt - big dollars for this one... A couple of us asked Stuart what the chances were World's could be brought to the east coast for a year or two and we got a thoughtful, yet expected answer - why? and where? Whistler is a very accomodating venue and from Stuart's response (it was too long ago to remember exactly how he responded), there was no plan to move the venue anytime soon...

The biggest benefit of "World's" is the level of competition - but is it the level of competition or all the marketing Adrenaline does that draws racers to the event?

I'm certainly torn on wether it makes sense to head-out to Whistler again this year. Last year I said it was a one-shot deal due to expense - but i then managed to space-out and take a header on the 3rd lap which put me in the ER and out of the race - which now creates a desire to return to the race to have my vengence on the course... but that's not the most mature reason to do a race...

What do folks think - is the expense worthwhile considering the competition this race draws - and the exposure for yourself as a racer (and for your sponsors)?