6 Hours of Cathedral Pines
2010: very happy to finish in just under 6 hours (18 out of 24 in SS open). hit my targeted splits and overall time perfectly! cramped at very end but did 20 more miles than I've ever done. nice way to finish a disapointing season
2011 goal: 7 laps (70 miles) in 6:30 would make me very happy, but doing 7 laps in quicker per lap pace than 2010 would be just fine.
what are your goals?
I did this race this year, too! Very different from almost any other race I've ever done. It almost seemed like that entire park was built with SS in mind. I had so much fun, even though Uno, the vengeful god of singlespeed, decided to demand his annual sacrifice that day (I spent the whole day battling a nasty sinus infection, and then both pedals separated from their spindles during my fourth lap, which cost me about five places alone.) Still, it was a lot of fun and the people there both in the race and along the course were really cool, and I still managed to hang on for tenth, so I can't complain too much.
As for 2011, I've got a pretty full schedule already. I'm going to do this Singlespeedapalooza race, and I've got a couple of NUE races on the docket again (Mohican, Wilderness 101, and Shenandoah.) I'll be competing in the MASS as an enduro SS again, and then there is one other race that's completely up in the air at this point but would be tougher than anything I've ever done. I'm not even sure I can do that one yet, so I'll just call it "the race that dare not speak its name" for now and that would make me "the idiot who is biting off waaaaaay more than he can chew". I don't have any time goals or anything like that. I mean, I'd love to go sub-10 hours at Shenandoah, but there are just too many things beyond my control in an ultra like that to make a specific time goal reasonable, especially if I decide to do it SS -- I just want to avoid mechanicals and keep nutrition flowing into my body. If I dial those things in, I should have a (relatively) good day (unless, of course, Uno comes back in all his glorious anger.)
I guess the one specific goal I have right now is to race lighter than I did last year. Last year was my first full SS season, and I race at around 160-165 all season. My goal this year is to race at around 150. I've got a whole nutrition and workout plan set up, so we'll see how that goes. I figure it either works really well and I hit my target by, say, April, or it backfire completely and you'll see me riding along the trail eating a slice of chocolate cake and pushing 250. You know, one or the other ...
