Going Long and Hard.

Steve Vai

Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
It's the confusion and distractions at the checkpoints that will undue the best planning. I read of folks leaving crucual items behind only to realize many miles down trail, and always zip packs back up! Consider tethers to things easily dropped into the snow, like your GPS.

#facts.
 

Steve Vai

Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Hey. Here's a thing I wanted to test. I keep a couple extra Salsa straps in my kit just in case something breaks. This morning I used them to strap the stuff sac I keep my big coat in to the rear rack, leaving the frame bag 100% empty. I'm not sure if this is useful but I could take my entire drop bag and put it in here if needed. The first section of the ITI up to Finger Lake is pretty fast so my bike should be pretty full, which will make taking that 5 pound drop a little hard. Again, probably useless because this all assumes I'm riding in a short sleeve jersey, and that most likely won't be the case...

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Steve Vai

Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Wendigo Ultra 155k, eh.

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Me and Sven went to Canadia to race bicycles. Actually, race is a bit of a stretch, I went to ride in snow and test my ITI setup. My plan was to ride this unsupported, carrying everything I'd need for the day from the gun.

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The morning was a tad cold and windy. Single digits. Trail was pretty blown out from snowmobiles and required a few stops to air down. Once I got the pressure right the bike was tits.

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About 10 miles in the trail became clean and fast. I knew it wouldn't be long before the snowmobiles were out and it would get slow again, so I tried to cover as much ground as possible. A rookie mistake would leave my Camelbak frozen solid and I had to stop to change my layers. I put my 686 jacket from the morning into my frame bag, put my Camelbak under my hoodie, and then swapped my outer shell for my Patagonia NanoPuff. My plan was to ride hard for an hour and melt my frozen pack. It worked. Once that was done I strapped my 686 jacket to my rack and threw the Nanopuff in the frame bag. It warmed up to 15 or 16 so I only needed the hoody and my sleeveless base.

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After the turn-around, the trail got soft again and my speed slowed down about 2mph. Not quite Liong speed, but slow. I stopped to take pictures and say hi to people as I was just out for a cruise.

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At about the 50k to go mark, my pack ran out of water and I switched to my Yeti. Being later in the day my Nanopuff was back on, leaving room in the frame bag for the Yeti. A huge plus having straps for my extra layers on the rack used in actual conditions!!

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I wanted to finish under 12 hours so after my final stop I picked up the pace to get it done. I rode Tempo for almost 2 hours but just missed the 12 hour mark because the last 5k was pretty chewed up.

I got 4th overall and was the only to ride unsupported. I felt good the entire day and just had fun out there before the big show in 2 weeks. This really helped calm down some concerns that keep replaying in my brain.

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Here's what I had on my bike, the empty bag was filled with peanut butter pretzels. I only ate 2/3rds of my M&Ms, the Reese's and 1 Red Bull were during the beginning of the race as breakfast. I didn't touch my bag of Swedish Fish. 136oz of water w/3 Propels mixed in. Somewhat impressive for 12 hours, eh.
 
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