One of the main things that I have been struggling with the past 2 weeks is my “dead legs.” I put in a solid 20 hour (really 25 hour if you count the day before) week 3 weeks out. I took a very easy week last week to recover and this week have been taking it easy. The thing I’ve noticed though is that I’ve got dead legs from even just an hour of riding. Two things I think are at play here. It’s really freaking hot and I’m riding late morning instead of EARLY morning and I’m probably not really getting warmed up. Even in my training I would take about an hour to really get warmed up. That’s my hope, is that I haven’t peaked to soon and will ease into it come race day. My “coach” Mr. Keith (Bigred) Grey has told me to chill out because it’s normal. It’s hard to chill out when I haven’t felt like this in a long time with a big ride coming up!

Another thing that kind of drives me nuts is the amount of secrecy that goes on with the ultra-endurance crowd. I mean, they keep their gear/equipment list close to their chest. I’ve been following many of the racers blogs and through on-line forums but they pretty much refuse to say what they are using. This is so opposite from the hiking crowd. Maybe because it’s somewhat of a new thing? I don’t know. The main excuse people give is that they don’t want to give it away because they’ve spent a lot of time and money testing their gear and they would like to hold on to that advantage. The other reason is that they don’t want to recommend something for someone when it may not work for them. Horse poo I say! Hey, listen, if you want to know what I’m using, I’ll tell you. Yes, I’ll say it may or may not work for you, but I’ll still tell you. Hell, I’ve already posted it up! I’ve got a bit of homemade gear as well, I’d be happy to show you how and why I think it’s good. I realize not all racers are like this. There are a few that will tell you straight up what they are using. It took a bit of digging to find out, but you can still find it. I’ve spent a pretty penny with equipment this year, and I could easily go drop another $500 right now for the CTR and get the gear I really wanted but couldn’t really afford. No worries. My gear will work perfectly fine (I hope!).

Anyway, thank goodness for the Tour this year. It wastes half my day. Otherwise I’d be sitting around watching The View and Elen and getting bored out of my mind. Did you know that the Today show goes on for like 5 hours? Al Roker has got to have the best/most boring job in the world. Best because he say’s basically the same thing and only actually works about 20 minutes a day, worst because he say’s the same thing and has to be around all those screaming people trying to get on T.V.

My mind is set right and my goal is simple. 8 days or less, but ultimately to finish. I know day 2 and 3 will probably be the hardest, once I make it past that I think I’ll be good. It’s hard to say though. My 2 biggest weaknesses are the heat (I’m REALLY sensitive to heat exhaustion and get migraines due to them, got a small one earlier today in fact) and the altitude. We’re gonna be pretty high that’s for sure! I keep thinking of that movie Spaceballs where they open a can of fresh air and breath through it while in space. I wish there was some way to do that! I’d love to be able to sit on top of the Continental Divide and open up a fresh can of Whip-Air! What a concept, the ability to breath.

Well, thanks for reading, I’ll see you.

Sherpaxc

Just over one week from now I’ll be on vacation in the mountains…err…umm…I mean I’ll be racing in the mountains. Really, the CTR is both a race and a vacation to me. Yes I am going to do the race as best as I can but I’m also going into it with the approach that I get to go ride my bike in Colorado for 8 days. How many people get to do that?

The biggest obstacle for me to prepare for this race has been choosing my gear. Not my gear that I pedal with, but the gear that I have to carry. Every person that has ever done anything that will require carrying extra gear has gone through this. I’ve flip-flopped on several key pieces of gear. I’ll discuss those in this post.

The biggest gear choice that I had a dilemma over is shelter. My choices were super-duper light but uncomfortable yet fast, super light but uncomortable yet fast, or lightish AND comfortable but not as fast. Here are my three options.

Option one: Bivy
I used a bivy when section hiking the Appalachian Trail when I was in college. I didn’t mind it at all. As a matter of fact I remember sleeping pretty well in it. I purchased a high end Bibler bivy bag last year to try out on an overnighter and slept like poop. My shoulders were sore and I felt like a fat kid trying to squeeze into some jeans that are 3 sizes to small. It just wouldn’t work.
Sold it.

Option 2: Tarp
Very light and easy to put up and plenty of room to move around. The issue I had once again was the comfort. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a wuss, I could handle it for a couple nights but it honestly just didn’t appeal to me. In the end, the biggest issue I had with the bivy/tarp/tarp-tent is the fact that I am sleeping on the ground. Not only do I have to worry about not getting much “good” sleep but I have to deal with finding a good spot to lay down. That lead me to my final option.

Option 3: Hammock
I’ve spent a few weeks sleeping in a hammock and I love it. At one point I layed in my hammock for 14 hours straight. I’ve never even been in my bed for that long. I had 2 issues to overcome with my hammock. Weight and insulation. The one’s that I have made are double layer and on the heavy side at around 2 1/2 lbs each. That doesn’t include the 13 oz. rainfly. I didn’t want to use a single layer hammock because they are really hard to stay warm in because the sleeping pad will slide under you. I woke up one morning after having poor sleep because I knew I wanted to sleep in a hammock during the race. I got up, pulled out my lightest single layer hammock and started cutting it up and making it smaller. The reason is that since it is smaller there won’t be as much wiggle room and my thermarest will be able to stay under me better. My hammock weighs in “I think” at around 1.25 lbs. and is very compact. There are plenty of trees so finding a spot won’t be a problem. I think and hope this is my best choice.

Clothes:
I will be wearing a HH jersey and Performance ultra bibs. I have an extra long sleeve wool top to pull over that if needed.
Arm warmers/knee warmers
Cheap water reistant Sierra Designs rain jacket that I have seam sealed. I went with this because it is so light and very cheap and VERY compact. We’ll see if it works. No rain pants.
2 wools socks and a wool beanie
1 synthetic Moonstone jacket. I wanted a down put couldn’t find one in my price range.
Long Peral Izumi leggings. I wasn’t going to bring these but decided that since it’s my only other bottom that I should in case I decide to wash my bibs (so I’m not walking around nudey-frooty.

Gear:
Ergon BD2 pack
Princeton Tec Eos 1 watt light (with extra double A batteries)
Small pen light clipped to pack
Carousel Design Works handlebar bag and rear seat bag
Jaand Frame pack
hand pump/tools/tube/patch kit
small first aid kit
cat can stove/ti REI cup/ti spork (storm proof matches) and 8 oz of fuel
8 cotton balls soaked in Vaseline for emergency fire starter
bandana
Prolite 3 short Thermarest
REI sub kilo 20 degree down bag (wish I had a 40 but it’ll work)
Custom Hammock and rainfly for hammock (6 stakes)
I-pod/cell phone/SPOT/GPS/camera (yeah way to much technical gear but it’s all super light)
maps

Food:
After hearing some stories of some racers running out of food last year because the trail was tougher than expected and it took them longer than they thought, I’ve decided to bring as much food as I can carry. Here is the problem, I went out and bought a lot of food and added up the calories and only had about 2800 calories! I need about 3 times that much! So I was pretty worried and did some research. I hate gu’s and stuff that looks like it was made for astronauts. Even on regular rides I’m a peanut butter and crackers kind of guy. I spoke with a couple people and they told me that the best way to get the calories in is to buy cookie dough. Sweet, I can eat cookie dough. I went to HEB to see how many calories are in a tube of dough and there are over 2000. Sweet! I’ve got food figured out (I hope).

One thing I am keeping in mind is that plans change. Really, they hardly ever pan out like you’d planned. You can plan what you want to eat, where you’ll sleep, how many miles you’ll ride but until you get on the course and get going you have no idea what will happen. Getting lost, hurt, or a store closing early. All these will factor in to my race.

I have done the work on the bike, the organizational task of getting the gear sorted and packed, maps read and checked, and now all I have left is to ride an hour or 2 a day for the next week and sit and think. I’m not scared at all. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous but compared to an XC race I not near as nervous. Those things make me want to poop my pants. No, I’m as ready as I am ever going to be. Cody has played a really big role in helping me get prepared. From helping me with equipment to being someone who I can talk to, he’s filled a role that I didn’t know I needed. My wife can only take so much of my CTR ramblings.

I’ll update one more time before I leave with a website that will have updates of the races. I’ll have to call in from a few towns so you can hear the pod cast of that as well as follow my SPOT on google maps. I’ll also try and call Cody a couple times. My goal is 8 days and I think that is a very reasonable goal. There is at least one other singlespeed racer and I fully expect him to beat me. He is mucho expierenced at this kind of thing. I also just heard there is going to be a couple chicks there. One who is a Great Divide Race finisher and will also more than likely chick me. Oh well. I just want to finish strong.

Have a good one,

Sherpaxc

After reading Sherpaxc’s post below I decided to go back through my records (August 06′) and see if I could find my original email that began the “Hard Men” topic.  Well I was in luck and its posted below.  Feel free to chime in on the comments below.  I’d love to get some feedback re:this topic.  Its something that I’ve been really facinated with.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=220121  5-9 days, Colorado Trail, unsupported, during the month of…you guessed it…July!  The organizers of this event are proposing a July start date and this coincides with our annual trip to CO.  I’ve already done a few of the latter segments of the CT and while this trail is defintely not easy, its also not overly hard.  It seems that everything could already line up for me (us) …instead of camping at Junction Creek for 8 days and riding out and back, we camp on the CO trail for 8 days and ride point to point. Sounds easy huh?