TD'12 Race Discussion

[Adrienne]

O.K. here goes...a little history about Craig. I hope he doesn't get mad at me for writing this, but I guess that is what little sisters are for. Craig grew up loving motor bikes. We all road them at our family farm. He entered many cross country and motocross competitions and did very well. In his late 20's he and his buddies decided to take up mountain biking. I am not sure if it was just for fun or for training purposes. I never imagined he would be doing what his is doing right now. That year they entered the '24 hour of adrenaline'. I was their pit girl...so much fun! They called themselves the 'Motorless Dirt Bike Riders'. I thought they were awesome! I am sure they didn't have the greatest equipment or training and for sure very little experience. I guess that was the beginning. I am amazed to see how far he has come considering he started riding so late. Good luck Craig...we are all cheering for you. I wish I could be there to see you at the finish line.

[Russ Kipp]

Michelle D just passed through the Grasshopper Valley on her way to Lima.  She said she is having a blast and plans to be back next year!

[caseygreene]

Love all the stories and photos of racers. Keep em coming!

Russ: I'll try to stop in next time I'm in the Pioneers. Forgot you guys were there. Also, you'll be on the next map update, which will happen sometime before next summer. Riders should know about the Lodge though. It's been on the addenda since last summer.

[mtbcast]

Calls overnight and this morning - Tracey Petervary called in from Steamboat Springs and recaps her last couple of days since Pinedale. She’s been sleeping a lot and mentions the great folks at Orange Peel! Heading into the night. Cjell Money called in from the Montana High Country Lodge. After a great dinner, plans to push out for the night. Rants: South Bounders, spot stalkers and saddle sores. He lost his cell phone – it’s not the pink case one. Mark Farnsworth called in to say he’s entered Colorado and again from Steamboat!

[LyndaW]

I'll share a little about Eszter (I'm her coach). We made a deal that she had to be really disciplined with her diet for 100 days before TD and then on TD she could eat absolutely anything she wanted. Her call ins are cracking me up cause they are ALL about food - that girl loves to eat and to pedal. I think she is in pig heaven right about now :-)

So impressed and proud of her blazing trail across the nation. She is amazing.

Zoom zoooom EZ

[RootingforEveryone]

Cjell: You do have spot stalkers... we're just not in a spot where we can physically stalk you! :-) You've been doing an awesome job. Enjoyed the blog & pictures as well. :-)

[SimonK]

OK, I think I just found these lines. They're the Speed & Speed/Time Plots at the bottom of each Rider's page, right? Yeah, quite different for those 2 guys! If you toggle windows b/w the two it's easy to see. Hard to imagine they've been riding together. Craig's is hugely more ragged and tends to look taller but I suppose the lows are also lower. Are they yo-yo'ing? That's how I'd read it.

What is riding a Rohloff like? I think I tried one a few years ago, along with a bunch of other hub-gears, for a couple days, and they ALL seemed to be noticeably inefficient except for their one direct-drive gear. I was shockingly underwhelmed. I'd been hearing how good the new hub-gears were. Like, I wouldn't want to try to ride hard on a hub-gear due to resenting the work-loss -- felt like 1-2mph at 20mph. But I was mostly using one (forget the name) and maybe didn't give the Rohloff enough of a try. The R also seems heavy-ish (rear-heavy, anyway). ...I see that a R system weighs 1800 gr vs 1600 for derailer sys, but that's with a chain on both. Apparently belts are lighter than chains.

Gotta be carefull reading too much into those while they're in such choppy country. One pair of readings might be from a ridge to a valley (giving a high speed) while the other riders might be from halfway down the hill to halfway up the next. And the individual SPOT performance & placement on the bike will effect how frequently the readings come through. More frequent readings will give greater variation in speed estimates.

[ride MT]

I'll share a little about Eszter (I'm her coach). We made a deal that she had to be really disciplined with her diet for 100 days before TD and then on TD she could eat absolutely anything she wanted.

was that 100 days for purposes of reducing body mass?

[SimonK]

'brevet' as in randonneuring events?
Or something different on the other side of the globe?

The dirt brevets in New Zealand are inspired by the original European brevet concept and the Great Divide Race I did in 2008. Here's the one I organise:
http://www.kiwibrevet.blogspot.co.nz/

[Jilleo]

I'll share a little about Eszter (I'm her coach). We made a deal that she had to be really disciplined with her diet for 100 days before TD and then on TD she could eat absolutely anything she wanted. Her call ins are cracking me up cause they are ALL about food - that girl loves to eat and to pedal. I think she is in pig heaven right about now :-)

So impressed and proud of her blazing trail across the nation. She is amazing.

Zoom zoooom EZ

Before Stagecoach, Eszter told be she had a bit of gluten intolerance and tried to follow a Paleo-like diet when not endurance racing. I wondered how that would affect her during the Divide because it's not like those issues go away, and suddenly you can just eat a big stack of pancakes without feeling a little off. I understand as well as anyone how difficult it is to stick to a remotely balanced diet on the Divide, but still wonder if recovery would improve if one somehow could. I had this conversation with a Pacific Crest Trail through-hiker recently, a guy who was putting in big miles — 25 to 30 a day on tough terrain. He kept his diet really simple and mostly natural — oatmeal, rice, beans, nuts, dried fruit and the like — and claimed he felt stronger every day. I ate pretty much entirely candy on the Divide had felt the opposite — Increasingly run down, sickly, fatigued. I convinced myself diet didn't matter as long as I was getting calories — and still think calories are the most important thing — but now I wonder if daily recovery would improve if one didn't have to eat so much high-sugar, high gluten, processed food. Divide lore places heavy emphasis on how awesome it is to eat so much crap, but for me, the intensity with which I was craving vegetables toward the end speaks volumes about the importance of quality food, not just quantity.

But, yeah, giant burritos make me very happy, too, so I totally understand Eszter's mindset. I also think burritos fall into the healthy zone, at least they're balanced with actual protein and some nutrients. My problem was too many meals that consisted entirely of candy bars and Sour Patch Kids.

[durtgurl]

I'll share a little about Eszter (I'm her coach). We made a deal that she had to be really disciplined with her diet for 100 days before TD and then on TD she could eat absolutely anything she wanted. Her call ins are cracking me up cause they are ALL about food - that girl loves to eat and to pedal. I think she is in pig heaven right about now :-)

So impressed and proud of her blazing trail across the nation. She is amazing.

Zoom zoooom EZ

Lynda, when you say disciplined, what was her diet pre tour like?

Before Stagecoach, Eszter told be she had a bit of gluten intolerance and tried to follow a Paleo-like diet when not endurance racing. I wondered how that would affect her during the Divide because it's not like those issues go away, and suddenly you can just eat a big stack of pancakes without feeling a little off. I understand as well as anyone how difficult it is to stick to a remotely balanced diet on the Divide, but still wonder if recovery would improve if one somehow could. I had this conversation with a Pacific Crest Trail through-hiker recently, a guy who was putting in big miles — 25 to 30 a day on tough terrain. He kept his diet really simple and mostly natural — oatmeal, rice, beans, nuts, dried fruit and the like — and claimed he felt stronger every day. I ate pretty much entirely candy on the Divide had felt the opposite — Increasingly run down, sickly, fatigued. I convinced myself diet didn't matter as long as I was getting calories — and still think calories are the most important thing — but now I wonder if daily recovery would improve if one didn't have to eat so much high-sugar, high gluten, processed food. Divide lore places heavy emphasis on how awesome it is to eat so much crap, but for me, the intensity with which I was craving vegetables toward the end speaks volumes about the importance of quality food, not just quantity.

But, yeah, giant burritos make me very happy, too, so I totally understand Eszter's mindset. I also think burritos fall into the healthy zone, at least they're balanced with actual protein and some nutrients. My problem was too many meals that consisted entirely of candy bars and Sour Patch Kids.




Jill, I think you're very much on to something there with the diet/nutrition.  This part of the equation is very interesting to me so thanks for sharing.

[mtbcast]

I'll share a little about Eszter (I'm her coach). We made a deal that she had to be really disciplined with her diet for 100 days before TD and then on TD she could eat absolutely anything she wanted. Her call ins are cracking me up cause they are ALL about food - that girl loves to eat and to pedal. I think she is in pig heaven right about now :-)

So impressed and proud of her blazing trail across the nation. She is amazing.

Zoom zoooom EZ

I've heard about your restrictions! I recall Krista Park saying, "I can't eat anything here. I don't know what it is!"

But, yeah, giant burritos make me very happy, too, so I totally understand Eszter's mindset. I also think burritos fall into the healthy zone, at least they're balanced with actual protein and some nutrients. My problem was too many meals that consisted entirely of candy bars and Sour Patch Kids.

It makes sense. You can only "speed" on sugar for so long and doing so repetitively would logically result in feeling run down. At some point having a balance of some kind of nutrition that is more slowly processed would seemingly mean a more constant and consistent amount of energy.

[Russ Kipp]

We have had lots of TD riders stop by the lodge this year.  We put a flyer up at the Outdoorsman and Wise River market.  We also put a bike on top of our sign.  We have had TD riders and riders just riding a portion of the trail mention they noticed us listed on the addendum.  Thanks!  

Please do stop by on your next ride in the Pioneers.  FYI...This Saturday is RATPOD (Ride Around The Pioneer's in One Day) and again we are the breakfast stop.  We're planning on 700 for breakfast.  Should be a huge success / fund raiser for Camp-Mak-A-Dream here in Montana.

Love all the stories and photos of racers. Keep em coming!

Russ: I'll try to stop in next time I'm in the Pioneers. Forgot you guys were there. Also, you'll be on the next map update, which will happen sometime before next summer. Riders should know about the Lodge though. It's been on the addenda since last summer.

[Boney]

Awesome photos of and call in from Cjell Money! It's great to see a native Minnesotan tearing things up out there. Did anyone else notice his request for a spot stalker to 'drop him some nuggets'? Maybe Tetontodd? 

[RonDog]

Eszter is making it up to Canero Pass now. I did that a couple of years ago and remember what a blast it was coming down to La Garita. That was the second day of a four day ride where we took a shortcut before Sargents and went up Seven Tanks over Sargents Mesa. That was the longest day I've done on a mountain bike at 77 mi, which doesn't seem like much by these TD standards, but taught me to drop the BOB and half my gear (including a six pack of fat tire for the evening).

[MidSouth]

Tracy B appears to be at the Butte airport...

[LyndaW]

was that 100 days for purposes of reducing body mass?

Partly to improve body composition. Primarily, as Jill mentions, to speed recovery, stay healthy and adapt to big training blocks.

Jill - I have no doubt that better fuel = better sensations on TD. During the race obtaining better fuel has availability and time limitations. There has to be a sweet spot in there just like the give and take of rest/ride time allocation. So many decisions and parameters in a race like TD make it totally fascinating.

[RyterFanClub]

Speaking of food - I would really love to know what Jarral is doing. You all probably know he's Type 1 diabetic and has been for 18 years. He has to somehow calculate how many calories he's burning, how many he's eating, how fast they will digest, look at his blood sugar level at the moment, figure out what it might do in the next couple of hours, and dose himself with insulin to deal with the food and the activities both past and upcoming.  He hardly ever eats processed junk food or candy - but where along the trail can he get real food?  It is something our whole family has been wondering, and hoping for the best. We're all from the remote reaches of Colorado and know what sort of thing is on offer in the "outback". I was guessing he would mail himself loaves of his famous whole wheat and honey home made bread (yes, he bakes bread) at every little post office along the way.

[LyndaW]

Lynda, when you say disciplined, what was her diet pre tour like?

Mostly Paleo

[Coop]

Cordillera - Volume 3 has arrived!  Thanks to all who put this together.