Lumberjack 100 race report
My 8th finish for the Lumberjack100 Mountain Bike race was completed yesterday in eleven hours and two minutes. Not only was this my 8th finish for this event but is also the 15th 100-mile mountain bike race I have finished since completing on in 2009. ( I finished five in 2011).
I feel like went into the event in good shape. I already had 1692 miles on the bike at that point. 783 miles in 27 real rides including two fifty milers, a sixty miler and one for 106 miles. Training rides on the zwift program totalled 908 miles over 67 miles. I don’t think ride time was an issue.
The course this year was clockwise and not my favorite direction. Below is an image of the course profile clockwise with counter-clockwise below it. At a glance it may not seem different but a closer look will reveal that clockwise profile has a lot more long climbs with fast steep descents whereas the counter-clockwise direction there are some steep climbs but the descents are long and fast. Counter-clockwise suits my riding and physiology. Let me explain.
When performing athletic events, your muscles burn glucose two ways: aerobically, which means with oxygen, and anaerobically, or without oxygen. Start with VO2. This is the maximum of your body’s ability, your motor to speak which you cannot exceed. The anaerobic threshold is a number below that. Superb athletes have a large gap between their AT, the point at which they burn energy without oxygen, and their max motor. This is why you see athletes in running and biking being able to surge with power- they went anaerobic before backing down again into the aerobic level. For mountain biking this enables a rider to power up long hills at a faster pace. Years ago I took a VO2max/AT test. AT is anaerobic Threshold. The test found that the gap between my AT and my VO2max was only about four points, whereas some athletes have a much larger. This small gap means that on long climbs I am at the max of my body’s motor.
On to the race. I made a couple mistakes right away. First, technically, I brought my lower end Garmin 210. This unit is much less accurate in the woods than my Garmin 530. Garmins ping the GPS satellite and regular intervals but with a twisty course, the pings will result in a straight line distance from ping to ping, thus recording a shorter distance than you actually are riding. My Garmin 530 is linked to a wheel sensor and adjusts mileage based on wheel rolling distance. So with the distance off I didn’t really have an idea of my actual position on the course each lap until reaching the countdown signs placed on the course starting with five miles remaining etc.
The second mistake I made was over-dressing, which is unusual for me. I don’t like to be cold and when I got out of the car in the morning it was chilly, perhaps 47 degrees. I didn’t anticipate how fast it would warm up. After the first lap I went to my tent and refilled on bottle and stripped off the base layer and wind breaker as well as arm and leg warmers. Back on the bike heading out for lap two, I felt sluggish and questioned whether I was able to keep going. But as I rode and got a bit breeze, I began to feel refreshed. I also realized I had not drank enough fluids. I was carrying three 24oz bottles with me- two with Heed hydration powder mixed and water only in the third bottle. I realized I’d only drank about 20 ounces total on lap one! I was going into a hydration deficit and determined to deliberately drink more. Thus on lap two, I had emptied one 24 ounce bottle of hydration and emptied another as well as a quarter of the bottle of water by the time I ended lap two. Also on lap two (and three) I stopped at the aid station positioned about halfway on the course and had a couple dixie cup shots of Coca-Cola and a banana and water melon.
I had no spills or crashes on the entire course, though I had to hard brake couple of times over-doing it on a downhill curve.
Another note about the climbing. On the counter-clockwise course there are a couple of climbs nearly all riders have to walk because they are so steep but the pay-off is a fast long downhill on the other side or flat winding trail. On the clockwise course, there is one climb that is particularly difficult. I rode it on the first lap, but ended up walking on laps 2 and 3. Walking was about as fast as I was riding it anyway without expending so much more energy pedaling.
The most annoying aspect of the race was the gnats. They were persistent. There was basically no breeze the entire day so when climbing those long climbs at 2–3 miles per hours the gnats would come swarming your face.
This is my eight time finishing the race. The first race was held in 2005. I raced the first five in 2005–6–7–8 & 2009. It wasn’t until 2009 I finished. I had no clue what it took to ride for 100 miles. But in 2007 I started racing 12 & 24 hour mountain bike events. I also bought a cyclocross bike on which I would put road tires in the summer and do longer steady tempo training rides. I think both contributed to ( Covid canceled 2020). Out of 18 races, finishing 8, I think I dropped out on one due to fitness issues. At least one due to weather related. And at least one due to mechanical (my fork broke). I missed several others due to family obligations.
Two more and I get the saw and be on the saw-wall- check the link below.
LINKS:
https://www.lumberjack100.com/
https://www.lumberjack100.com/saw-wall
https://www.racetecresults.com/myresults.aspx?CId=16371&RId=6164&EId=3&AId=73821
