Scott Thompson and I did the Leesburg Bakers Dozen on Saturday. We finished 9th in a stacked field of 25 Male Duo teams. We had signed up for Geezer Duo (combined age of 80+), but the promoter eliminated our category when a couple of teams dropped out.
My goal was to push myself as hard as I could without going over the edge and to have a much fun as possible. Racing as a duo team was strange – I only saw Scott at the beginning and end of the race and for less than a minute during lap transitions.
Quick Summary: I managed 10 laps, 6.5 hours ride time, and nearly 70 miles.
Now, two days later, my legs are tired, but the lower back, hands, and shoulders are really sore. I snuck in a nap on Saturday but could have used another one on Monday!
Nutrition:
I opted for real food for the race – my aim was for “comfort” foods that would satisfy cravings for either salt or sugar. I reasoned that the high exertion levels would suppress my appetite, so rather than struggle to choke down unappetizing conventional “race” foods (gels, Perpetuem, carbo drinks, etc.), I would have some of my favorite foods available.
JeanBean – the queen of cuisine – prepared everything and fed me during the breaks between laps.
- GORP (Good Ol’ Raisins and Peanuts, with M&M’s thrown in for good measure).
- Turkey and cheese sandwiches on natural whole-wheat bread
- Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches
- ProBars (400 calories of concentrated natural goodness from Whole Foods)
- Small 10 oz. Cokes
- Water and Nuun in the Camelbak
- Endurolytes and Motrin (a.k.a. Vitamin M)
Lap by lap report:
First two laps. These may been the quickest, but they're weren't the smoothest. The first one was particularly choppy because I was really trying to "force" it. The flow was a little better the second time, but not much. I ended up doing 10 laps on the day; I think my teammate Scott did 9, for a total of 19. I haven't seen the results, but I guess the winners did 25.
Laps 3 & 4. These were pretty solid. I started to get the course dialed and was picking up some good flow through most sections.
My laps 5 & 6. These may have been my best laps on the day. I was feeling some twinging cramping during the break, but the legs were great during the laps. I also had the course dialed in and was starting to really experience “flow.” Quickness, not speed, was my mantra.
After doing double laps, we switched to singles. We were finding that our second lap was a few minutes slower than the first (Scott described it as a “death march”), so we switched to singles to keep the speeds up. It worked, until Scott’s stomach went nuclear on him.
Lap 7. I struggled with an over-full stomach this lap. Feeling low on calories, I ate way too much in the 35 minute break between laps. About 2/3 of the way through I got sideways and I “burped” some air from my front tire, leaving me with about 20 lbs of pressure instead of 30. I was forced to slow down a bit through the turns. Combined with the stomach, this lap was a few minutes off the pace.
My eighth lap. Much better lap this time. My stomach settled nicely and the legs were pretty good. I didn’t force any of the uphills - I just shifted down a gear or two and kept the momentum going.
Final two laps, both at night. The first lap was at dusk and I crashed hard on a bermed right-hand corner in the second set of woods. I was unhurt, but it killed my rhythm. The second lap really sucked. I stacked it into a rock and bloodied my elbow, and then I crashed in the exact same place as the previous lap, despite slowing down. This time it burped air out of the front tire, again leaving me with no more than 20 lbs of air in the front and forcing me to slow down through all of the corners. I was getting really tired and making stupid little mistakes (and some bigger ones). If I’d gone out again I would have really hurt myself.
We ended up calling it quits at about 9:20 pm with 19 laps in the bank.
Race Notes:
- Scott’s first lap time of 33 minutes was our fastest on the day. I correctly predicted that he would be 2 to 3 minutes faster than me on average. I hope I made up for it with consistency.
- The course reminded me of a cyclocross course. It definitely rewarded smoothness and quickness over brute force. My lap time for my later laps were comparable to my early laps, but my heartrate was 10 beats lower on average.
- Judd Milne and Mel Swartz were in a heated race in the Coed Duo category with Terri Spanogle and Jeff Dickey of NCVC. Both teams ended up with 22 laps and Terri & Jeff edged out J & M by only 23 minutes at the end. If weren’t for Judd & Mel having to disrupt their riding schedule to deal with an issue at home, it might been even closer. Judd had his warrior face on every time he went by our tent – but he and Mel still cheered whenever I went by on my laps.
- We received a lot of friendly (and unexpected) Coppi support during the day from Meg, Adrianne, Jon, and George – all of whom came out to cheer, buy food, hang out, and support us. That was seriously cool.
More photos here.
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