Hi All. I had to call it quits yesterday at Buena Vista. My legs just gave up and my body in general couldn't recover fast enough. Yesterday I was walking a lot and making a lot of mistakes, even riding very slow (some because I was riding very slow). At this speed/in this state I didn't want to go into the mountains again. The penalty for mistakes on these trails is pretty serious most of the time and I didn't want to risk having a bad accident. I spent several hours in Buena Vista eating and resting to see if I felt any better but that wasn't the case. Even after calling my wife to see if she could pick me up in the evening I did a few miles to try it out and I felt without anything on the tank/tired even though I was riding on the road.
The lack of physical preparation caught up with me and and the lack logistical preparation cost me a lot too. My training for this had been going OK up until 3 months before the race. Then I had a stupid/bad accident that put me out of a bike for 5 weeks. After climbing 25 miles and doing all the work that counts, I went down way too fast a very steep and windy paved road and went down hard at a hair pin. To be honest, the stupid part is because I was racing a car down. I crashed when I hit 45 mph at the hair pin, according to Garmin. I had a separated shoulder, a concussion, 3 jammed fingers and several scratches. Never happier to have been wearing a helmet with MIPS.
Not having studied the route was a big problem. I had a spreadsheet with distances, elevation gains and the main resupply points, but that's not nearly not enough info to do this. The HABs in this route are insane (not only long but there are a lot of parts that you're climbing stuff with your bike) and weather variability can also throw any calculation out of the window. Knowing how to budget food for 2+ days/eventualities is key. I made another mistake here on the second day. I jammed pack my bike with stuff that morning, but it wasn't the right stuff and it wasn't enough for what I had ahead and the speed at which I was riding. I also made a wrong turn I took an 8 mile detour (4 mi climb and back!). As a result, I ran out of food the day before yesterday and had to make a 10 mi detour to get some - silver lining is I got to meet Jimmy
- Speaking of random encounters, the same day I ran into Jimmy someone comes to me at the bottom of a DH run and asks me if I was on the MTBNJ team. It was Ben Tufford, whom I had talked about coaching several years back but never met in person before. Those two encounters gave an emotional boost in shitty day even though they were very brief.
Overall, it was a great adventure for me. The places I was to, and the trails I rode were incredible. I don't think I'd ever go there or ride those type of trails "on my own".
Thank you for all the support and messages!