Tahoe 100K MTB race report - Matt Limbert
Tahoe Trail 100k Race Report — Matt Limbert
Garmin File: http://tpks.ws/QBJLEN2XCAP5774RCDCIKQKOWM
Goals achieved: Moved up in my Leadville starting corral. Test drove my nutrition and hydration. Bonus: got a slot for Leadville 2020.
The good:
- Pre-riding the course - totally worth it.
- Met my goal to get out of the White (lottery/last) starting corral for Leadville this year
- Bonus: moved into the Green Corral with a sub- 6 finish
- Nutrition worked great. Eating and drinking went as planned.
- Evenly paced.
- No serious crashes. No mechanical issues.
- Bonus: Scored a slot for Leadville 2020 in the lottery.
The not so good:
- Still need to improve my high speed cornering on gravel/fire road + keeping momentum on downhill singletrack - way too much braking and re-accelerating. There is more efficiency there.
- Tire choice – need something with a bit more traction for the corners
- EN Team mate EB – had a tough day with a couple of crashes (but still managed to qualify in her age group for Leadville 2020.)
Course: 2x 30+ loops, 62 miles total, 7,667 elevation gain, 50/50 fire road + singletrack, dry/loose dirt. Based around Northstar Ski resort at Lake Tahoe, avg elevation 6737
The break in the elevation profile is the stop between loops for access to your drop bag.
Pre-Race:
I got to pre-ride the course several days before the race. Here, the two loop course has the advantage that you don’t need a big expedition or multiple days to check out the course. Huge bonus to get feel for the terrain – fire roads grade, technical single track, etc. I liked knowing how long (in minutes) the biggest climbs and technical descents lasted. This helps me gauge my effort. For example, the first climb was about 35 minutes and last climb 25 minutes, followed by the break for the drop bags, back into that first climb again at 35+ minutes.
Race Day:
Woke up at 3:45 am as planned. I ate my normal breakfast, got dressed and realized I couldn’t find my heart monitor. I don’t have power on my mountain bike, so heart rate is the only other "data" that I have. After several frantic minutes of searching all my pre-packed bags, I was resigned to race without it. I planned to race largely by RPE anyway, but knowing my heart rate is always reassuring. As I picked up my bags to leave, there it was under the bag! We have data! We left to pick up Emily Brinkley, drove to the Northstar resort, dropped off drop bags that we would use to resupply hydration and nutrition for the second lap and went back to the car for the final bike checks, clothing choices, etc. Around 6:30 we rode down the hill to the start line.
Temps were in the high 40’s. I wore a thrift store sweatshirt over my bike kit and ditched it just before the start. The start was split into 3 different self-seeding corrals. Sub 5, 5-7, 7-9 hours for the 100k. They had the 50k and 100k starting all together which was a bit challenging with folks starting at different paces, I was concerned about starting too hard.
The first 10 minutes are the only road section on the course. After that it’s a fire road climb, with the steepest section in the middle for a total of 35 minutes of climbing out the gate. I felt good, my RPE felt right – but my heart rate was higher than I expected. I wrote it off to nerves, but was concerned that I got sucked into a fast start. The rest of the course it a combination of fire road and single track. After a long dusty descent, which makes visibility a bit more interesting, to about the 8 mile mark there is a rolling single track section that is really pretty. During my pre-ride, I felt myself relax after all the climbing and bombing down dusty fire road. I felt this was a good place to get the nutrition and hydration in and stay on the gas as a lot of folks did what I did during the pre-ride, relaxed and backed off.
The middle of the course has a several shorter, but steeper climbs and technical singletrack switchbacks or downhill. The downhill before the final climb is fire road that gets steeper towards the bottom. After the final long climb, they dropped us onto the groomed bike park trails with some banked switchbacks into the bag drop area. A volunteer lubed my chain while I dumped my trash, picked my nutrition and swapped camelback bladders. Then we do it all over again for the second lap.
I tried to maintain my same effort with the idea that I would give it full gas for the last 1:30 minutes. I went through my hydration faster on the second loop. I stopped to fill up my water bottle with the on course GU drink for the final climb.
I was happy with my effort. I pre-rode a single loop in 2:46 and my effort was "just ride" and no heroics. So to be able to ride two loops at about the same pace was awesome. I was 18% aerobic, 20% tempo, 30% sub-threshold, 30% threshold. My peak 1 hour average heart rate was in the middle of the race, and the final two hours were only 5 beats higher.
I was also happy with the way my nutrition plan worked out. I have to thank Pat Morton @Pat Morton , Shelia @Sheila Leard and Tom Leard and Emily Brinkley @Emily Brinkley for their help. We did a video call a week before the race and the conversation was really helpful for me dialing in my plan. Throughout the spring, I experimented with Maurten, GU roctane, Scratch and combination of bonk breaker bars, gels, shot blocks and SNICKERS for nutrition and hydration. My BWR and Al Camp 200 Withrow ride were all 7+ hour efforts that were challenging my fueling and hydration. Following a suggestion by Pat and Shelia, I went with a single bottom of Maurten (580 calories) and 2000ml of Scratch in my camel back. I used the Maurten for fuel for the first 1.5 hours – which was great because I didn’t have to chew while I was climbing and I drank from my camelback with additional salt stick tabs. I switched bars and shot blocks for fuel to finish the first lap, then reloaded with another bottle of Maurten for the second lap and more climbing (and no chewing). On the second lap, I used more shot blocks, caffeinated gels and more salt stick tabs. Emily Brinkley wrote an awesome race plan which was really well thought out and I totally stole. https://endurancenation.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/25913/eb-race-plan-for-tahoe-trail-100k-mtb#latest
Lessons Learned:
- Pre-riding is a huge win.
- MTB tire pressure and selection is an art and very personal (like nutrition). This course has alot of loose fireroad, little or no paved road - so a more aggressive race tire would be helpful.
- Dropper post is worth the extra weight – makes me more confident on downhill fireroad and singletrack. Big help to have a lower center of gravity and gets the seat out of the way so I can drop behind the seat.
- Getting better at keeping my head up and looking down trail for the longest possible sight line - still need more practice at this but, it makes a big difference in balance and setting up for the right line on the trail
- There is no way I can ride Leadville that hard, but it is nice to know I can sustain the higher heart rates for longer periods of time at some altitude.
- My nutrition and hydration plan can work for Leadville
Results: 5:21, 13/93 age group, 60/296 overall
Comments
@matt limbert Matt, reading the reports from you and EB got me all nostalgic for the races I did 15+ yrs ago in Tahoe. Perfect weather, wide open views, rocks and roots, good gravely fun. It always seemed less intense then road cycling or Ironman racing. Hope it stays fun for you as well.
Sadly, though, I think it's just one more thing I;ve retired from. But your report did get me to grab this picture I still have stuck to the wall:
Matt congrats on a successful race.
Corral bump check! Nutrition check!
Sounds like you worked out the starting effort just about perfect. I understand the concern about starting out too hard, but that is racing. With your fitness , understanding of that fitness data, and now increasing experience in this arena , I think you can afford to push a little at the start. This pays dividends in lots of races and is sometime necessary to stay in front of those that will be definitely going too hard but should be behind you when you hit the hard to pass areas later on. Again with your fitness a good hard push at the start of any race is not going to ruin your day. Heck we all start a IM swim that way right? Maybe work in a few days like that, sub threshold hard start for 15'-20' then into your long day race pace ?
Tires/Tire Pressure - My guess would be most MTB'ers do the same thing most triathletes do and that is put too much air in the tires... did you consult the tyrewiz app? When I talked to Marvin at Leadville he confirmed tire selection to be course dependent, he even uses different tires in Leadville on the Silverush 50 vs. the Leadville 100, but he does use that app for TP.
Impressive results . Like @Al Truscott I went back and looked up my one and only MTB race results, although I dont have the same fond memories. I raced an "easy 40 miler" at the McDowell Mountain park in Fountain Hills AZ and placed 125/230 OA, and 115/194 Gender :-)
so stoked for you and EB with the 2020 thing... Makes me want to join that party and come out for it as well!
great ride! great report! as I wrote on EBs plan, I am willing to bet the HR elevation was likely due to the elevation. I think people don't think of it, but anything over 5000' will induce a noticeable affect. In Boulder I can feel it on the swim and a little on the run, not so much on the bike, but it IS there.. you know this from all your time in Al Camp.
Looking forward to seeing what you do at Leadville. I am 100% sure that the road surfaces at LV are better than what you and EB described in your RRs. what tire are you using? can you post a pic of it? As I said on EBs plan, the ONLY place on the entire LV course I felt a danger of sliding out was in the turns on the way down the lower 2/3 of Columbine (below treeline) above tree line there are a lot of fist sized rocks, but on top of a hard surface if that makes sense..
I am looking forward to seeing you grab a big buckle at LV, you've done the work and the homework on this one!
@Al Truscott What a great picture! I would have thought that picture was taken last week. Thanks for sharing. You are right the view and the vibe haven't changed. You said you even raced XTERRA in Maui - now that is a seriously muddy race. Its the like the exact opposite of this one.
@tim cronk Thanks for the encouragement. I'm happy with my new corral. I was 5 minutes away from a Red Corral which would have put me in the first wave with the Gold ( sub 7:45), Silver (sub 8:45), Red (sub 8:30) guys. Now, those guys are serious mountain bikers! My wave is Green (sub 9:00) and Purple (sub 10:00) - still plenty of folks to ride/draft from on the road sections - but fewer folks surging too much at the start. Point taken though.
I checked out the TyreWiz app - that's pretty cool. I have digital tire pressure gauge that I used to dial in the pressure, but this takes it to a whole new level. I was pleased to see that their recommendations were really close to what I rode that day - I'm going to continue to check it out.
@scott dinhofer More Leadville! The year of the mountain! My Tahoe tire was a Maxxis Ikon 2.25. For Leadville I plan to use the Aspen 2.25. Bigger outside traction, lower middle traction to keep the rollling resistance manageable on the road. Even the Leadville podcast guy (Eldon Nelson) rides a different tire for the Silver Rush 50 in Leadville vs. Leadville 100 just because the course is different. On this tire, the little knobbie things are all the same size. Next time, like EB said maybe a bit more aggressive on the outside for the cornering. This thing was awesome climbing, descending as long as it was a relatively straight line - or maybe I need a bit more skill :) Either way, it was fun! Work in progress.
Here was my selection for this year:
@matt limbert Great RR and sweet that you got all you were after. You are so fit on the bike and I'm sure your MTB skills are better than you are giving yourself credit for... What tire pressure did you actually run on the day? and was it the same on the front/back? And what bike were you using (FS or Hardtail)? And would you change that if you could?
Can I ask some dumb questions on the Leadville Qualification? Do/did you need to finish in a certain "place" in your AG to get the LQ (or under a certain time)? You mentioned that you got a slot for 2020 in the "lottery"? what exactly does that mean and how many people get those? The only comparisons I have are BQ where you need to meet a time threshold for your AG no matter where your marathon is... Or Ironman or 70.3 where you need to place in your AG (or get rolldown) regardless of what your time is because it's so course dependent. Is it like BQ or KQ? and/or do they also give "lottery" slots at the races as well. Trying to reconcile your time being only 5 mins away from the Red Corral with two full Corrals behind you and you saying "lottery". And/or do they change the times for how people did on the day (i.e. making the cut in a golf tournament)? or is a 6 hour finish on a give course the same if the weather is perfect, compared to if it happened to be a muddy slow mess...?
@John Withrow Thanks for the note and encouragement.
Tire Pressure: I ran 17/18 psi for tire pressure. I have experimented with higher and lower. I settled on 17/18, that is what TyreWiz app also recommended. The app recommends tire pressure based on your weight, bike weight, tire diameter and width. After all my experimenting - TyreWiz recommendations seem like a good place to start.
Hard-tail vs Full-Suspension. This is really personal - it really depends on what kind of experience you are looking for. When I got my bike I wanted something that I would enjoy riding in places other than Leadville. But, Scott Dinhofer and other swear by the hardtail. So, I rode a full-suspension and hard-tail during my recon. I rode St. Kevin's up/down several times and Powerline up/down on hardtail and then next day rode the same route on the full-suspension. I was faster climbing on the hardtail, but faster descending on the full-suspension. Overall, I was faster with the full-suspension, and just a bit slower climbing. I have a Scott Spark - that locks out the front and rear suspension at the same time with a lever on the handlebar. So, I can make the bike rigid for climbing and soft for descending - while never taking my hands off the bars. (Scott is the only one that makes the dual lock with a single lever.) The really fast folks will ride hard tail - but it is pretty rough on your body. Some of those same guys will put aerobars on the the bike too!
Leadville qualification/entry: You can qualify/gain entry several ways: place well in your age group at one of the Lifetime MTB events, get a lottery spot at a Lifetime MTB event or General Lottery. Each event will have say 50 spots. Those 50 are divided in half. So, 25 spots are allocated to the age groups based on the distribution of participants (just like ironman). Those spots also roll down like ironman. The other 25 spots are then allocated to the race lottery, so ANY finisher under the time limit goes into the lottery drawing held right after the awards ceremony race day. So, 25 folks get a chance to go to Leadville regardless of finish time, as long as they finished under the maximium limit. The final way is to apply in the General Lottery - which opens in December and announced in mid-January. If you volunteer at least 12-15 hours at a Leadville race event (Leadville 100 MTB, Leadville 100 run, Leadville 10k, Leadville Marathon, Silver Rush MTB and the Leadville Stage race) - it almost guarantees you entry into the next year's event.
Corrals. If you are a lottery entry you go in the White Corral. Meaning you start at the very back. If you do a Lifetime MTB race - your finish time seeds you into corral with other folks of similar skill and fitness level . This is based on their analysis of previous years and average finish times at Leadville of those that have done a qualifier. There a plenty of arguments about how accurate the seeding process is, but in general you get to ride with other folks of like ability. Drafting is allowed and encouraged, so finding a group of like ability is a great advantage. New for this year is "waves" - now they have grouped the corrals into waves and have spaced the wave start times in order to reduce congestion early on the course. It would be like ironman putting small time gaps into the swim seeding corrals. I was 5 minutes away from the first wave - which is the pros and REALLY fast folks, a bit out of my league. So, I'm happy with my new corral and wave because it got me out of the last corral.
Well done Matt, all in all it doesn’t sound like it could have gone any better!
I bought my first mountain bike last Winter and loved being able to ride off road. Being a complete mountain bike novice its a great insight to read about your planning, strategy, concerns etc for this event. Congratulations on getting into Leadville 2020 👏🏻
Abbey, thanks for the note. I have really enjoyed the challenge of riding off road. I started to ride with a local group of mountain bikers and those guys really have some skills. It has been an fun additional to training. I would recommend following @Emily Brinkley she has taken up mountain biking for Leadville too and has written a great race plan and report for Tahoe.
https://endurancenation.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/25913/eb-race-plan-for-tahoe-trail-100k-mtb
https://endurancenation.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/25922/tahoe-trail-100k-eb-race-report
Also @Pat Morton is a Leadville veteran and is going back this year. He and @John Stark have a ton of experience with mountain biking. Keep those folks in mind when you have some questions. Good to hear from you.
Congratulations on Roth. I have always heard great things about that race and was really interested in your report. That photo from the bike is awesome. Thanks for posting.
@matt limbert . Thank you for a great RR and congratulations on 2 superb races @ Tahoe and Leadville. I searched your thread because I wanted to pick your brain about using a PM for MTB races and training.
I know that you raced HR and RPE, but would you consider using a PM for future MTB training and races? Any advantage soon over using HR?
Thanks for your advice,
Nam
@Nam Lam @Emily Brinkley @Pat Morton Anything to add?
Nam - Thanks. They were both fun. I would consider a power meter because it might give a better estimation of the cost of my training rides. Here is what Emily and Pat have said about using a PM during/after the race. I agree with both of them, so maybe I would consider it in the future but I don't consider it urgent right now. If I did, it would be a Quarq - a bit more expensive - Stages produces too many power spikes from impacts that throws off my max power charts in WKO4. FWIW.
Matt limbert
What about the Power meter? Did you use it much during the race? Post race - what did you learn?
Pat Morton
Ha! I'm a Power Meter guy. No so much for race day, but for training. Training on the road bike never quite duplicates your mountain bike.
\I learned that decreasing my power from 230w to 210w on St Kevens only cost 53 seconds and decreased my HR by more then 10bpm
I'd take a power Meter over carbon wheels
The Real EB
Yes, it kept me in check for the first half of the race. I was right in my wheelhouse until I had to hoof it on Columbine.
Next year I would try to lap it when I’m walking and have NP read for current lap.
Wow. Thanks for a prompt reply @matt limbert . That was very helpful. I was considering a pedal based PM. I’m glad I asked you. I guess I’ll keep an eye out for reports that compare the different types of PMs on trails. Thanks again.
Here’s an XX1 Quarq for $500. https://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Classifieds_F2/Bike_Lights_(variety)_//_Quarq_MTB_Eagle_XX1_P6856784/?search_string=quarq#p6856784