HooDoo 500 2015 – Prologue and Day 1

Before I get going – and this sucker is kinda long (sigh) – I’d like to start with some thanks.

• Thank you to Maria and Jim Parker for trusting me, in May of 2014, with a special, game-changing, treat.
• Thank you to my brother, my cousin, and my dad – as my first ‘crew’ they saw me through my first ultra-event and from that (and discussion afterward) I learned a bunch of things I applied to my training and directly to the HooDoo 500 – my longest event evahhhh!.
• Thank you to my mom, her sisters, and several other friends and family members who worry. They make me remember to be cautious and safe.
• Thank you to my many online (and a few local) biking friends, the Cruzbike Tribe, and IRTG – your advice and expertise pointed me towards so many solutions to problems I did (or would) have – I can’t even count them all.
• Thank you to my in-laws, whose home base in St. George was an absolute oasis for my family during a somewhat chaotic and anxious time (for me anyway).
• Thank you to my daughters – for putting up with my absence on many a weekend day spent riding or recovering – we watched a lot of movies. 🙂

And

• Thank you to my wife – for almost all of the above PLUS being my very own uber-attentive, self-sacrificing, and endlessly positive Crew Chief for 520 miles over three days.

Wow – you guys are awesome.
But…this isn’t an Academy Award fer cryin’ out loud so, without further ado…

The Bike

Vendetta 2.0
11 speed (11-28) cassette
Compact double Q-rings (50/34) – which I’m told is like a 52/36 during power
SRAM Rival 165mm cranks
Schwalbe ONE clinchers (latex tubes) – 110PSI each morning
Rear disc (homemade covers)
Scabinetguy special headrest cage mount (AWESOME!)
Tube, minimal tools, phone, etc in a large topeak bag
Straight drop bars
Dry weight ~25+ lbs

Rider weight 12 hrs before the race – 168lbs
Rider weight 24 hrs after the race – 173lbs

The Prologue

It may not sound like much, if you’ve not done it, but shipping a bike and the necessary supplies, with redundancy, shipped separately,
for racing over three days,
in another state…
…is a lot of effort.

I did it willingly, and I wouldn’t have missed it but, be ready – it’s work.

Lucky for me, having family only 2 miles from the start/finish line meant I had the time and a place (air conditioned auto shop) to get set up and do a couple test rides. They were my first rides in about a week.

Stage 1

At the starting line I found my way next to Rich Putich on his Bachetta CA2 and, after a grand send-off, we started on the 10 mile lead-out through town.

We hung back and started talking respective strategies in hesitant, competitive terms. I was not confident in my abilities over a course of this magnitude; I mostly wanted to make a good showing and not bonk or be pitiful in any way. Recumbents can climb.
Rich had pre-driven the course and had well-thought-out plans in place to change his wheels quickly to suit the terrain – namely aero (disc) wheels for the flats and descents and lighter wheels for the climbs. It’s probably a good idea to pre-drive a course if it’s new to you – his knowledge of what was coming was a boon.

My general idea was to maintain an average of 150-160 watts and stop less frequently. I thought reducing my total stoppage time and lowering my typical “training” wattage output my overall time would be better over the course of three days.

When the 10 mile lead-out was over, the “race” began, Rich surged with two strong looking upright riders, Shawn and David, and made his way to the front. I latched on and settled into 4th place. After trading pulls with Rich, at the first real hill I was in front. Shawn told David, “go ahead and pass them now – I think we can climb faster”.

I’m not gonna lie – he was right – and it was exactly what I didn’t want to happen.

As Shawn and David slowly pulled away from us I resolved to maintain my wattage and endurance targets. I fully expected the remainder of the field to catch up.
Just then Rich spoke my thoughts out loud “We’ll catch them on the 40 miles of flats to come.”

I felt reassured until, moments later, I realized I didn’t have any electrolytes – I suddenly didn’t feel reassured.
I’d have to get some from TheChief at the 90 minute mark.

Rich and I tried settling into a pattern of 3 min pulls and I considered modifying my bottle exchanges to every hour to match his. I thought if our stop times were synchronized it would increase our ability to work together and decrease stops, but I maintained 2 hour slots as good enough.

TheChief and I muffed our first-ever handoff. Note: practicing hand-offs was on the list but was never done. Racing/crewing rookies should always practice this skill ahead of time. Probably take about 5-10 min to get good enough. During the race, it took probably 5 or 6 attempts (that’s about 7-8 hours of a race day) to get good enough – by day three though…we were machines.

A slow-ish handoffs and a hill – Rich pulled ahead.
A change to his aero-wheels – I pulled ahead.
Second verse, same as the first.
We merged up again just as Shawn and David appeared on the horizon.

A couple of harder pulls (210W in front, 170W in back) brought us up to 300 yards and Rich went to the front so we’d intentionally blow past them at 260W/220W at ~30mph. We agreed they shouldn’t be able to latch on.
Leaving them behind with about 20 miles of flats to go I noticed that that my cassette was erratically skipping, half-shifting. Enough to be bothersome – but not problematic.
I’d check it out that night.

Near mile 60 I started feeling twinges and cramps – Not a good sign.
Rich was riding strong but I had to back off and do some cramp management; soft-pedaling.

Based on a tip from the day before TheChief had stocked a jar of pickles and a visine-sized dropper of sea water. By the time I hit mile 80 I felt pretty bad. Rich had taken a sizeable lead and I was getting overheated. My legs were cramping in front and also in my hamstrings. TheChief insisted that I increase my salt intake by 2-3 times. I stretched a bit and after only a 5 min break Shawn and David passed me by.

I viewed that as the beginning of the end of being competitive.

10 miles later I’d again bridged up to Rich and we reeled Shawn and David right back in – at the start of the major climb of the day. Shawn and David took a wrong turn so Rich and I took the lead up the hill – for about 20 minutes. Rich pulled away from me and when Shawn and David passed me they looked like a million bucks. I felt like a mangy dog but amazingly my cramps were beginning to flat-line.

I rode patiently and waited for the inevitable DF riders from behind to catch me on this long, uphill slog.
To maintain any speed I was pushing ~180W and I was sure I wouldn’t last.
I backed off a bit further.

My memory is hazy in here but I remember catching up to Rich again, my cramps nearly resolved, somewhere between 130 and 160.
I noticed on some descents that I thought I might be rolling faster than him but couldn’t be sure.

Rich said the most brutal climb of day one was pending and he thought we wouldn’t catch the leaders that day.
His crew chief confirmed; we were an astounding 13-17 miles behind the leaders – wow.
Further, we were perhaps that far in front of the next racer – WOW!

We rode the Bryce Canyon uphill rollers together and kibitzed (between gasps) about recumbents and the view. Rich pulled ahead at the end of the Bryce Canyon trail and it took an effort to retrieve him.

Nearing mile 180 we agreed to finish together, neither of us felt like “racing” the other one up the hill.

We rode together until I couldn’t maintain his spinning pace with my 11-28 cassette.
Rich had, early that morning, graciously offered his spare 11-36 cassette to me but it wasn’t plausible at this point because that alteration would require more chain, a longer derailer, and a 10sp shifter.

I’d resolved to suffer the steeps my way.

In the last 5 miles of the climb I put a bit of distance on Rich – I was still pushing about 170W to maintain 6 mph and, thanks to Seargent Sodium (Chemical element NaZi), my cramps were gone.
My quads were straining and when I came to the final grade, between 10% and 14% (depending on your source) I was needing 300W at 60RPM for 5mph.

I figured burning that match now wouldn’t help the next two days so I walked the last half mile at 2.8mph. Heart rate, 150bpm.
When I crested, Rich’s chief told me he was walking with his girlfriend about 1/2 mile back and I said I would wait for him.

You don’t have to do that.
It’s ok – we made an agreement.
Really?! – Oh kay?

I waited about 10 minutes and when Rich crested the top we rolled out together.
He said,

I thought you’d give up on me?
It’s ok. I try to do what I say. Besides – some things are bigger than one stage of one race.
Well, I’ll hang back at the end and give you the stage as a gesture.
Cool! Thanks.

We proceeded to coast down the remaining 17 miles into Escalante enjoying the view, hardly pedaling and easily maintaining speeds in the mid thirties.

I was rolling faster and further than Rich (just a touch more aero) and with a couple miles to go I engaged the pedals briefly only to find that my legs felt like they’d been hammered flat – to the bone. They only felt good now when they were moving so I soft pedaled at 100W-120W and put a minute or so on Rich, I rolled in about 19:30, 20 min behind second place David and 40 min behind the leader Shawn.

All day I ran a 95% liquid diet of Perpetuem at 270 calories per hour. But NOW I was off the bike so…
I enjoyed an excellent turkey club, a whole pitcher of lemonade, some potassium fries, a few posts to social media, some deep stretching, and BINGO! I was asleep hard by 10:30, hoping I’d be ok for day two.

My strava page for (most of) Stage 1

My strava page for (the rest of) Stage 1

To be continued…