Austin Rattler 100k MTB (Leadville Series)
Race Report - Austin Rattler 100k MTB
This all started about 2 years ago when a neighbor got me into mountain biking. Shortly thereafter a new acquaintance seduced me with the prospect of doing the Leadville MTB100. Last year I secured an entry into this year’s race as I attended the CAF gala dinner in NYC where a silent auction prize was a LV100 entry. I was advised that to have a shorter day it is immeasurably important to do one of the qualifiers despite having an entry and obtain a time that would get me into a higher starting corral position. The only qualifier that fit the calendar well was the Austin Rattler 100(k).
The Austin course is different than most of the other qualifiers in that it doesn’t have the long climbs that are the hallmark of the Leadville race. It does however have lots of short ups and downs that keep you going constantly.
Training for the race was a bit hard with a few ski trips interrupting the OS and no real high volume rides. I managed a few 2 ½ to 3 ½ hr Saturday trainer sessions that consisted of the advanced Saturday alternate wko of 1.5hrs of hard intervals followed by 25(5) minute intervals at .70IF for another 1 – 1.5 hours and usually a 1+hr MTB ride in a local MTB park either after the trainer session or after Sunday’s long run session, in other words, MTB always done on tired legs.
Jill & I flew to Austin on Friday, arrived at the race site at 5:30, checked in, assembled the bike, had the bike mechanics help me re-inflate the tubeless tires and get everything all set. Checked into the hotel, went for dinner, went to sleep early.
Arrived at the race site at around 6:30 am, set up my cooler stocked with 2 bottles(per lap) of 200 Cals of Gatorade each, clif bars & gu (1 each for each lap)
The race takes place on a ranch about an hour outside of Austin. The ranch is a long rectangle and the course is a combination of long fire roads and twisting, turning single track. I seeded myself in the starting corral a little more than half way back. The start is what one expects and for the first lap is on a longer fire road since the field is a big crowd. The weather was warmer than previous days as it was more humid(not by east coast standards) with a potential front coming through and I was able to start wearing just a jersey & bibs, quite a bit warmer than I have been used to coming from the Northeast. Predicted highs were in the low 80s.
The pace was pretty strong and there is little you can do to slow down on the single track as you are just slowing down others. I also found it very hard to find places to pull a bottle off the bike and drink. The big debate going into this race was whether to set up with bottles or a camelback. A little more than half way through the first lap, during a twisty section of single track, I hooked a small tree and went down, taking the guy behind me down as well. I pulled myself out of the way, what was surprising is that my leg just immediately cramped up. I can’t remember, but I am pretty sure I was feeling some cramping before this happened.
The first mile of the course is the longest climb on the course & the last mile is the corresponding downhill which provides a great adrenalin rushing white knuckle, exhilarating descent. I rolled into the support area. Got my new bottles from Jill and took off for lap two. This lap proved challenging as I found myself cramping pretty badly. I stopped one time for a natural break and I was shocked by how standing up caused virtually every muscle in my legs to cramp up. This time around, I navigated all of the single track sections with ease. I rolled into the support area completely sapped of positive thoughts. My goal for this race was to break 5 ½ hours. I had almost two hours to do that and felt it shouldn’t be an issue. Jill asked me at support if I wanted to drop off when I stopped for my bottles. I responded with a look that clearly spoke volumes(it was her first race with me), as she offered up that many people were dropping out.
I started lap 3 and had to walk a short section of the initial climb. Just stopping caused everything to cramp up and I questioned the sanity of going forward, but I knew I just needed to keep drinking and keep pedaling! I found myself getting into a rythym with a group of guys leapfrogging each other as people took various stops & just got ahead or behind on the climbs and pretty much everyone I saw was suffering. Typically I’d come up on someone and they’d ask if I wanted to pass, rarely did I feel I had the match to burn as riding on the grass to pass is more of an effort than riding on the dirt. Usually I’d say that I was good and would let them know.
I know during this point I was a combination of over-extended on my fitness and dehydrated as I was feeling a bit loopy. Not hallucinating, saw no elves or gnomes, but the internal dialogue was pretty bad. If it wasn’t enough, it started to rain. Given that there was some lightning & thunder it wasn’t as hard as I would have expected, and it wasn’t solid as there were breaks in it. The course did get sloppy, but the rain and increased focus on finishing my two bottles before the last half hour of the race caused my legs to improve. Improve is probably the wrong choice of words as things didn’t get better, just more bearable. I watched as 5 ½ hours expired knowing I still had a few miles to go.
At this point, the course was getting sloppy, I made sure I stayed focused on bike handling and slowed down the pace choosing routing over roots in particular so as not to wipe out. Walked one short steep section that it appeared no one could get traction on and entered the bombing downhill section. I was thankful to have someone right in front of me going at a good but careful pace and not letting it fly through this section. Sometimes caution is better. Finally to the final flat section before the finish and finished in 5:48. This was still good enough for 60th percentile in AG & a two corral move up in Leadville this summer.
I did feel a sense of victory in learning that about a third of the field DNFd, This clearly was a very long hard day, in hindsight I think the mental training we do in the OS, in interval sessions & our mental training on race execution here in the Haus, more than anything, was responsible for allowing me to finish this race. I am quite sure that the "me" from my pre-EN days would never have finished this.
Comments
Lookin' pretty tough there, hombre! You weren't too far out of it, you could smile for the finish photo.
For the "shorter" races like they have in Xterra, I used bottle, but for long MTB expeditions, Camelbak is the only way to go. I'd find myself going through my 100 oz bladder easily on 4 hour/4000' climbs.
No heroics in Leadville, just keep peddling and sucking wind...
I cannot wait to tackle this even next year!
Great report. Thanks for sharing. I so enjoy sitting back and reading all the crazy/stupid sheet people do that I don't have to experience first-hand. A tree ended my MTB racing career when my kids were young and I thought they needed me. Now that they apparently just need me for $ and keys, I may look into adding some knobbiness to the two-wheel collection.
Can't wait to read your Leadville report.
MR
Since I just got my P1 pedals, I'll probably use mine for some gravel grinders for all the power geekiness!
One reason is the shoes, the other is the type of MTB you are doing. Any MTB, like the rattler, that has short steep sections is going to spke your power.
Also, if you try to ride the EN way of even power, you will mess up a line of hundreds trying to pass you on hills and you will have trouble pedaling on DH as you are often just blasting down them anyways. That said, many of the hill sections were wider fire road types, as were some downhills. In MTB the terrain very much dictates the traffic, hence why I just spent $2k on a weekend to improve my corral position for LV.
Back to the pedals, you either have to mount them on road shoes, not ideal for any MTB race as whether you like it or not, there are hike-a-bike sections, sometimes caused by traffic regardless of your skills or power. Or modify an MTB shoe(dremel tool). I will post pics of what I did to my winter MTB shoes which is what I modified to use the bike for commuting to work, which only happened 1x.
I found a few adapters out there to mount a road cleat on an MTB shoe and tried them, this is the one that worked best:
http://www.amazon.com/Road-Cleat-Insert-Three-Hole/dp/B008BWM8FY?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00
I won't take the pedals out on my local MTB rides, they are very rocky single tracks, and pedals hit a lot of rock... not ideal for the P1s I suspect...
Great report!
Who's the bad ass in the MTB pic with Bib 184?
Most don't appreciate how damn tough these events are as well as what you go through on the 3rd lap.
Just damn well done man!
SS
Great write-up. Leadville is gonna be a TOUGH race, but you'll get 'er done. Definitely go with the Camelbak... I'd start using it for all of your local rides as well just to get used to it. Nice work man!