Five days until the Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race… Wow, how did it get here so fast? Conversely, will it ever get here? I am currently in Durango, staying with my daughter MK. She has very kindly opened up her home to me so that I could come out early to acclimate to the altitude. She has also offered to be my support crew for the race. Lucky me!
Leadville was not even on my radar when 2011 began. I was, however, thinking that it would be super to do the Mountain Bike Marathon National Championships in September, a 50 mile race. My body responds well to long hours of training on multiple days, so my coach Mark Fasczewski, who I’ve been with since 2004, sees that I get my fill of long long rides for most of the year. I figured that as long as I had built up lots of endurance I might as well do some long races.
But Leadville? Naw, that race seemed too hard to get into, you had to enter a lottery or something. It sounded like too much red tape for me. Still, I wanted to do some long races and kept my eyes open. Then, in late March, I was stunned to read that there would be three 100 km qualifiers for the Leadville race. One was in Lake Tahoe, one was in Crested Butte, but one was in Lake Placid. Lake Placid? Three hours from my house? It took me about 1.5 seconds to decide that I really wanted to do the race. What an experience! I would get in a long mountain bike race in preparation for the national race in September.
I called Mark the next morning, got his OK, and training was ON for the Wilmington/Whiteface 100km. My goal was simply to finish the race, nothing more, and to see if I really liked racing endurance events. Mark piled on the hours, I focused on the Lake Placid event, and visualized it with every ride and race that I did. Even when I flatted only 4.5 miles into the road race at the Killington Stage Race and endlessly chased the pack I was thinking that I had to ride hard and strong in preparation for “the qualifier.”
Two weeks before the big day Corning/NoTubes road racing teammate Paul Speranza and I met at Whiteface and did a preride of the course. The out and back course was challenging, but nothing that was beyond our abilities. The climb up Whiteface Mountain, at the end of the race, would be the icing on the cake, and it worried me the most. However, I was now very excited for race day to arrive, and for the first time I was actually thinking and hoping that I would qualify for the Leadville race.
The Wilmington/Whiteface 100km was the perfect race on the perfect day. I could not believe how good I felt or how happy I was riding my mountain bike in such a beautiful place. I found myself smiling a lot as I worked my way toward the finish line. I finished 5th overall for the women and 100th overall, winning a belt buckle in the process, and I had qualified, and registered, for the Leadville Trail 100.
OMG, now what? More training, more mountain bike racing. The next on my list was Race the World at Windham. Not my best race, to say the least. While my climbing was good my technical skills showed the lack of singletrack training. I had been focusing on road riding to get my endurance really up to par for the Lake Placid race and now it was time to get my mountain bike technical skills in order. I drove home from that race a bit disappointed, but determined to get my skills up to where they needed to be for me to race well at Leadville.
The following weekend was the Six Hours of Power in Ellicottville, NY, and it was another picture perfect day for mountain bike racing. Not only was the course dry, but it was fast, flowing and fun! I did not doubt my skills, I rode nice even splits, finished fourth overall for the women, and even got a compliment for my descending skills from a guy who knew me years before. OK, I guess I was on to something!
All that racing and training tires me out, though. That is where my acupuncturist Mackay Rippey comes into play. I go for regular treatments almost every week, and he has seen me through some pretty exhausted times. I dragged myself into his office the Tuesday after the Six Hours of Power and even Mackay had his doubts about how quickly I would recover. However, he came up with just the right combination of treatments and I recovered so quickly that I had my third fastest time trial ever on our local 10 mile course that evening. Wow! Needless to say, Mackay has been as integral in my training for Leadville as he has been for every other race and training session since 2003.
There are so many people who have been supportive of me in my push toward these endurance events. Hammer Nutrition has sponsored me since 1997, and these days I go through a lot of fuel. Dick Sonne’s Cycling, Fitness and Skis, my local bike shop, is always there for me. Specialized helps keep me in bikes while Terry Bicycles keeps me in saddles and clothing. Stan’s NoTubes helped me with wheels, tires and sealant. Dr. Norm and Valerie Cognetto have gifted me with lodging. My husband Phil and our daughters love and accept me despite this craziness! My family and friends put up with me being out of the area or too tired/busy/brain dead to get together on the spur of the moment. It all adds up to the supportive atmosphere that is necessary to enable me to reach such challenging goals.
So here I am in Durango! Friday and Saturday I did laps on one of my very favorite trails – the Dry Fork/Colorado Trail/Hoffhein’s Connection Loop, which tops out at 8500 feet. Sunday I rode up the Dry Fork Trail, turned left onto the Colorado Trail, and rode through the Aspen trees between 9000 and 9500 feet, riding up to the high point in that area three separate times. Once I got up there I did not want to head back down to the heat that would meet me at a mere 7000 feet.
Yesterday, MK and I drove up to Molas Pass, which is not too far from Silverton, and rode out and back on a section of the Colorado Trail from Little Molas Lake. That was the most spectacular trail I have been on yet. It is a flowing ribbon of singletrack flanked on either side by wildflowers, with vistas galore of peaks over 12,000 feet high. We rode for only two hours, but were riding the entire time at over 11000 feet. It was a magnificent ride, and thoughts of exploring more of the Colorado Trail’s 400+ miles danced through my head.
Today is a very much needed rest day. MK and I head to Leadville tomorrow, so I will start to pack for that trip in a little while. We will be camping at 10,000 feet or so, which should feel quite “interesting.” Fortunately, I have been back and forth to Colorado at least once a year for many years, so my body and brain knows how to deal with it. Still, it takes much longer than this to become fully acclimated, so I will just have to deal with things as they present themselves and be even more careful about how I pace myself during the race.
1 comment:
Fantastic! Such hard and dedicated training. Can't wait to hear all about Leadville.
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