Today, I completed a 50 mile gravel race in Lakeville MA. This 50 mile race had about 20 miles of decent roads, 10 miles of decent dirt or single track and 20 miles of non-graded, washed out gravel or single track. This is pretty common on gravel adventure races in New England.
Background: For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a 51 year old female mostly mountain bike rider. I also ride a fair amount of gravel.
Last year I rode 5000 miles and have been coached by Theia since last January.
I have been struggling with sciatica which got much worse about 2 months ago. I am in PT for it.
I have had a hard time training consistently due to this injury.
Also, I am riding Rasputista (again) in northern Vermont in 2 weeks. This is a famous gravel race or should I say 43 mile, 4000 ft of climbing in mud, snow, and dirt. There are places you walk a mile through 18 inches of slush. It is quite the adventure.
Like last year, I do a long gravel event to dial in my setup and see what I need to change for equipment and fueling for one of my main events.
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Since I am coming back from injury, it was important for me to “take it easy” and just see what my leg and back can tolerate and to complete the event.
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Having done the Theia workouts for over a year, I am better at using the tools in my toolbox regarding cadence, VO2 work, climbing and pacing. This race had many surface changes -dirt, pavement, 3” loose rocks for roads, rocks and roots, sand, mud, and pine grove. Unlike, pavement, different surfaces require different power, pedaling and torque to get up. I thought I did pretty well here.
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The first 4 miles were a neutral roll out. Like Zwift, there were people racing from the get go. My goal was to find a group to pace-line with at a speed and tempo that I could do comfortably. We stayed in a fairly large group for 10 to 15 miles- then came the single-track and dirt (mud) roads with giant puddles. Picking good lines through the bombed out roads was quite difficult.
This course, rattled the bike pretty well. ( Thank you core training). -
What could have gone better:
- Fueling and drinking. I had 2 water bottles on my bike with scratch. A 2L camelback with 1.5liters of water. Two pickybars. 1 pack of gels. 1 stroopwafel.
There were long stretches of riding when you could not take your hands off the handlebars. Because of this, I did not eat or drink as much as I should have. I cannot only drink water for endurance events. Unfortunately, I didn’t drink enough water or skratch.
I ate the waffle, and pack of gels and half a peanut butter jelly sandwich at the one rest stop. I will definitely bring a cut up sandwich to Rasputista. Real food on long trips is a must. - Change what is on my wahoo screen. This was a well marked ride but I always download the map to my wahoo elemnt. On the map screen, I need to add time. I did not eat every 20 minutes like we planned since I didn’t know what time it was.
- Clothing- I had my clothing choices nailed down except for my glasses. I forgot to put my photochromatic lenses into my frames. This could have been a huge problem if it was sunny. We were lucky 50-60’s with no wind. Only needed arm warmers early in the ride. I wore light wool socks and toe covers.
- Bike- Tires were the right pressure - 40psi and right tread for conditions (Schwalbe G-one tubeless). My handlebars were not set correctly. The brake hoods were too high causing my wrist to be at the wrong angle. This was my fault from working on my bike earlier in the season. I leveled them out as soon as I got home.
- Fueling and drinking. I had 2 water bottles on my bike with scratch. A 2L camelback with 1.5liters of water. Two pickybars. 1 pack of gels. 1 stroopwafel.
My leg started burning around mile 43, which I actually expected to happen earlier.
I was happy with my effort and we had a great time!