Mr. Kerkove and I woke up at 4:30 in the AM on Sunday to prepare to suffer for the entire time that the sun would shine that day. I downed as much as I could for breakfast (2 eggs, coffee, and a peanut butter sandwich) knowing that I wouldn’t be able to consume much in between our 45-58 min laps over the course of the day. We had to use our headlamps as we scooted to the tent around 6 AM to race in the co-ed duo category.
Getting set up, bright and early…before the sun shines.
The start was at 7 AM, and it came up really quick. We decided it’d be best if Jeff rode the first lap.
I am cornholio! I need TP for my very cold bunghole!
There was an insane amount of media at the event due to the appearance of Lance Armstrong. It was pretty cool to have front row seats. Is this a world cup or a charity endurance event? 🙂
Yuki Saito, Lance Armstrong, Jeff Kerkove, Jay Henry, and Brett Morgan take the first call-up spots.
Ready, steady, go! The start of the 12 Hours of Snowmass. Giddy up!
Jeff had a really good first lap. I headed on out up the big hill. I did ok, but for some reason my breakfast had not quite digested and I was barfing peanut butter sandwich in my mouth just a little bit. eeewww. I didn’t feel great the first lap, but that was expected.
VUUURRRRP! Uhhh…I don’t feel so good… but I am wearing my new Smith Toasters. Yeyeah!
Jeff was turning pretty consistent lap times and was doing awesome. My second lap was my fastest and ironically my last lap was my second fastest…and the most fun. We were winning until halfway through the race…The middle of the race was a trying time for me. I was bonking because I didn’t know how much I should be eating in between laps and during the laps. I would take in 2 gus per lap. A lap was 7 miles, 1500 feet of climbing and my times ranged from 52-58 minutes. Apparently that wasn’t nearly enough (I am still learning about this endurance stuff), so I ate some Cherry frosted pop tarts (I heard this is good to eat during long races) and a piece of bread with honey at another time. It was definitely some mentally rough times during some of those laps which will make me so much stronger in future races to come. My legs were dead and felt like they weighed 10000 lbs each and I was barely turning it over. Granted the first 30 minutes were a huge climb, it still hurt and felt so much harder than it should have. It was also challenging because you would ride for 50 minutes, then stop for 50 minutes, then try to start again up a granny-gear-riffic rode. I wished I had a great granny gear 😉 Even the fast guys were in their granny. Near the end of the race, Jeff decided to make a tactical decision and ride a double lap. I took off for my last lap and suddenly my legs felt light and I was able to blast through the climb and singletrack. Too bad it took so long for me to come back around. We ended up doing 13 laps for second place in co-ed duo and were about 7 minutes back from first place. Not half bad! Jeff also wrote a post here.
Our little shelter for the next twelve hours…
Podium. Second place.
Other notes:
On the drive up:
Ummm…. dude… I smell brakes.
Mountains are getting some snow….!
Big props to Yuki Saito for taking the win in the men’s solo race and a big thanks to Nat Ross for putting on a well organized, super fun event!! See ya there next year!!!
Tomorrow, it’s off to Winter Park. We are starting in Boulder, going over Rollins Pass, part of the Continental Divide Trail, and into town for some R&R. Wednesday, we will ride back and give you the scoop.
Very nice! (Borat voice)
Dude, congrats on your results! And I have never seen a truck on one of those ramp doohickeys. that’s so weird. At first I thought it was one of your famous traffic pictures but the traffic didn’t look bad. Yeah, I’m good with details. Ha. Have a fun ride tomorrow!!!!! Muah!
Awesome job you two!
That picture of Jeff at the start line with Lance is funny…..what the hell is Jay doing? All you see is his arm and it seems like he is kissing his crank or something….where the hell did the rest of his body disappear too? ha, ha.
congrats on second thats a huge accomplishment!!
I have ridden with all the guys on the call ups and I can say that they are all nice guys, can’t say anything about that lance guy have not riden with him. Heard that he is not so nice.
Good job way to stay warm.. Enjoy the fall.
On the food deal…
I know I’m a newbe and I’m sure you know all this but. My coach told me on hard efforts I should consume 60g carbo and hour. 1g per minute is the maximum uptake rate so there is no point in consuming more. she recommended a combination of gu and gatorade endurance ( has carbo in it). I’ve found it’s a little rough on the digestion and you’ll pay for it later. but will keep you on your feet.
So 2 gu’s and two bottles gatorade gets the 60 down. tho I can’t imaging this regiment for 12 hours… longest I’ve done this is 4 or 5 and my stomach was getting pretty touchy
just a thought that poped in my mine reading your post.
Congrats on your ride.
Congrats on the second and great blog entry. The very end of the start vid catches a glimpse of the strange Lance man servant. The same weird handler from Leadville. Great work Ms. Zapruder. Cough, cough… again, you two need just one blog.
More on the food….
You gotta start trying a different breakfast. That’s WAY too much protien. That would be a big protien breakfast for me….which I only do about once every 2 or 3 weeks and definitely not on race day. Your body takes hours to digest protien.
It’s all about the carbs for breakfast. All that protien ends up wrecking your kidneys or turning to FAT.
You should think about getting a glucose monitor. You probably aren’t nearly as low on sugar as you think.
Also stop buying the crap with PHVO’s…..which is definitely in Pop Tart brand bullshit food (there are good organic toaster pastries out there) and probably in your peanut butter unless you do the organic/Adam’s/or totally natural. That stuff will mess you up in many different ways.
…I should be charging you for this advice.
Keep the rubber side down.
Well, Dave, diet is a pretty personal thing. If it works for her system, that’s the most important thing. Your comments on protein are not inline with some of the new protein-focused diets of our Olympic swimmers (not just M.P). Again, it’s what works that works.
Ok, Sonya I love you. You’re so passionate about the bike but I am going to have to side with Dave. Just by reading your comments about digestive trouble I’m guessing the PB and eggs for breakfast is not a good thing for you. Speak with a sports nutrionist! I want to see you get faster so you can help us kick ass at the Gila next year.
Nice work!! But be careful with endurance racing, before you know it you’ll be riding all day and night….and smiling the whole time!
JK is a bad influence 🙂
Hey guys!
Thanks for all your help! 🙂 Dave, I agree, that is too much protein. I thought since I would be around or on course for 12 hours, that some slow digesting food would be wise. I actually can count the number of times I have had pop tarts on my hands so… yeah. I usually eat super healthy, non-processed foods. Just thought I’d give those a go b/c a lot of people seem to like them. I am partial to bread and honey. 🙂
Joel, thanks for your input too…that’s usually how I roll in an XC, but was not sufficient for this type of event. I guess I have to do more to figure it all out. 🙂
Hey! Great job for both you and Jeff at the race. Reading about your breakfast before the race made my stomach hurt a little bit. ;o)
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