Test Of Endurance 50

Test Of Endurance 50 is a 50mile MTB race with 8500' of climbing. The climbs are mostly dirt roads with some single track, and the descents are all technical single track.. with plenty of mud. Its a brute, and the relentless climbing makes lap 2 seem like it never ends. With Adam Craig, Carl Decker, Ryan Trebon and the likes setting the pace for this mass start event, its EZ to get caught in the wheels and try to "hang" with the fast guys.. which is everyone's first mistake!

This year I brought my rim brake Powermeter bike so that I could not only capture the file, but also use the Powermeter to pace my effort. With a 4hr+ ride time, this race has the potential to become an All-Time-Best ride file for 4hrs, and with that in mind, that's what I set out to achieve!

The start was predictably as hard as I expected, and I tried to hold back, but early position is important. I didn't need to be at the front, but definitely needed to be somewhere near the front so I wouldn't get hung up in the early single track. So, I burned a few matches early, but as soon as possible settled into an output that I knew was within my ability for the 4hr duration.

I approached every climb riding right around threshold, and was careful not to go much above, or try to follow a wheel of someone creeping away. I let everyone go, I rode my own race and really had to have faith that lap 2 would reacquaint me with all these riders that were leaving me behind.

250+ riders, plenty of fast pro's, and a bunch of Cat 1's.. that's a lot of riders to watch ride off into the sunset, but I was committed to the strategy. I have done countless 4hr training rides through the hills with a Powermeter, I know what happens.. ATTRITION! We fade, we are only capable of so much work, and when that limit is reached.. Perceived Exertion increases and Speed decreases!

The strategy worked, and on lap 2, particularly the final hour (of 4hrs), I really brought back a ton of riders. Made my way to the middle of the Pro field and Finished 13th overall and 30sec back of the first Cat-1.. dang! I thought I brought em all back, but there was still 1 Cat-1 rider, fortunately not in my age group. I finished 16min up on the next 45+ rider, and 11min behind Ryan Trebon.

So how did the ride rate? Well, I was a bit limited in my ability to let it all hang out on the descents. My wife and youngest are in Chicago, and I had my 23yo Autistic Son waiting for me at the finish line. After the finish we had a 5hr+ drive home and work on Monday, so today wasn't a day to get hurt, or initiate a crisis. With the greasy/muddy conditions, roots, waterbars, steep descents (8500ft of descents), I really had to keep in mind that dad had post race responsibilities that would not allow for injury.. so I used plenty of brake on the descents, which somewhat affected my elapsed time. But elapsed time wasn't my goal, a GREAT RIDE FILE was my goal. I wanted to capture a huge ride, and taking the descents a little slow would have minimal impact on the quality of my performance when it comes to the numbers.

So how were the numbers? For 4hr20min I expended 4094kj of energy with the highest 4hr Normalized Power I have ever done. It was the strongest 4hrs I've ever done, and is now the new "Ride To Beat". Average power was solid, but with all the descending, the Average was pulled down. that's where Normalized Power (NP) becomes such an excellent measure. NP represents the physiological load of the event, and closely predicts what one could have done with the same effort level if the event was steady power (no coasting). For efforts over 20minutes, NP is pretty much the same as the power you could generate at a steady pace for that same duration. NP is also used to help quantify the physiological stress of the event. Well, for the Test Of Endurance, both my NP and TSS (Training Stress Score) reached new highs, and raised the bar for what these legs can do for 4 hours. I like it, it was a great ride!!

Mud + Rim Brakes:

Kilojoules and Anaerobic Capacity

My son and I formed a 2-man team for the Six Hours Of MT Hood Race. Jimmie is 15, and rides a bit, but has recently picked up his interest and has been joining me at several events, both MTB and Road Racing. He loves the Road Bike! But he is really good at MTB, just needs to keep working on the fitness, and I guess nothing beats a good ol' Long Hard Ride to improve the fitness!

Our plan for the 6hr relay was 1-lap Jimmie, 2-laps dad, and I was hoping to do around 4hrs and 3200 kilojoules. I figured at a robust pace, 3200kj would be about right for me, and that's a good days work. So we set out on our adventure!

The course was tough! Technical, but flowing and featured countless short climbs that really dug deep into the legs in short order. These short, hard bursts are high powered, with power outputs falling squarely in the Anaerobic Capacity (AC) power zone (zone 6). This effort level drains the legs quick, and can make for a long day if fitness is lacking and the duration is long. And once you exhaust that Anaerobic Capacity, short bursts of power become brutally tough! Well, that's the way this race played, and Jimmie had exhausted his AC after the first lap (45min)! He agreed to do a second lap, and he slogged it out, but dad was left with the task of accumulating more laps.

My goal was to get in a good ride, have fun and not go to deep. Been doing a lot of racing, so no need to bury myself. But with the "Test Of Endurance 50" the next Sunday, a good hard ride would be excellent prep, and 3200kj of work is good hard ride. I took my rim brake Power Tap bike to record the ride data, so it was EZ to watch the work accumulate, and when I hit 4hrs, I had 3400+kj.. that's enough for me! Shut her down, ate some good food, and looked forward to the file download later that eve.

The file was startling, I haven't recorded a ton of races, but generally the amount of time spent in Zone 6 (AC) seems to be limited (for me) to around 25min. On this ride I logged almost an hour of Zone 6 time! Zones 2,3,4,5 were all equal (at about 25min each), and Zone 1 was the largest at 1hr30min. So I was either going real hard or going real EZ, not much in between. This seems pretty obvious for an MTB race, but I certainly expected much more time in the Threshold/VO2Max zones (zones 4&5). Whatever the case, it seems that my capacity to continue to take on those short efforts was real good this day, and although power did fade, I was still hitting it hard after 3hrs at a very high (for me) Normalized average power.

How did the Powertap do? Well, there was a water/mud hole that completely submerged the hub on 7-laps. The course was rocky, had running water in places (from melting snow), and a fair amount of mud. It was the kinda course that tests your bike build, and the Powertap Bike performed excellent, with no issues whatsoever!

I guess in retrospect I should try and see what I can learn from this and maybe address it in training. But the reality is, I think I wouldn't change a thing. Train a big base, work on threshold and then let racing build the capacity for high powered efforts. That's what I've done this year, and I have felt great! Lots of racing, pretty much every weekend for the last 2 months. I've done several Mid week time trials and been to numerous Mid week group rides. I really did a solid base this year, and the dividends are paying off. I am recovering well, my performance is holding, and I continue to feel motivated for another race. I contribute this to a great base. Also, my volume of intensity during training was at a level that exceeds the volume of intensity I am accumulating during racing. So the body is well adapted to the weekly workload while racing and riding. Its a great time of year.. race, have fun, let the racing sharpen the fitness, and enjoy the ride!

How Much Power?

Wouldn't it be nice to know just how much power you are producing during the difficult sections of a race.. or for the entire race? Well, all you need is a powermeter. I use Saris Powertap hubs to record my training, but due to the weight of the Disk Brake MTB version of the Powertap, I leave it at home when racing. But now that has changed, I've built up a few MTB's over the years that use the road version of the Powertap hub along with old fashioned V-Brakes on the rear. The road Powertap is fairly light, not quite as light as a racing wheel, but getting close. Built with light rims and spokes, I can get a MTB Powertap setup that comes pretty close to the feel of a full on lightweight racing wheel. Now, I just need a bike with the same feel as my race bike, but capable of utilizing V-Brakes.. and now we have it:



This frame is built by Rock Lobster Cycles, and it features Scandium Aluminum for a nice lightweight feel, and a fit/geometry that is a carbon copy of my (carbon) race bike.. SWEET! Schoolbus Yellow is the color, it really looks great. Notice no Disk Tabs? Just V-Brake Posts!

With the "Bavarian Bike and Brews" race on the calendar, I decided that would be the perfect race to use a Powermeter, for a couple reasons. #1, I just want to gather some race files, and #2, this race features 3x 1800ft ascents! Yep, a pure climbers race where steady power, and a lot of it, will be required to stay in contention with the NW Pro's. I raced the Pro class cause the field is smaller, less traffic, better and faster riders (to watch and learn), and also because I can usually hold my own quite well.

So I built the bike, but with only 2-days to get it together, test ride and race, I opted for stuff that would be quick to assemble, including a full rigid fork that was ready to go. Full rigid is great for climbing, but definitely horrible for the 1800ft decent that followed each climb. Oh well, I am more interested in the race file for the UPHILLS, I can sacrifice the downhills.

I was able to get the bike together, but couldn't get the rear brakes to work.. so those 1800ft descents would now be with a rigid fork and virtually no rear brakes! Oh well again, we're doing it anyway!

The Pro field of 18 toed up to the line, which was at the foot of the first run up the climb, the gun went off and oh my.. this is fast! I look down at the Powermeter to see we are holding pretty steady at 400watts.. and I weigh 152lbs. This is serious business, and more power than I can hold to the top, so I dial it back to what i know I can do and settle into my rhythm. Of course that places me DEAD LAST, but remember, we have 3 trips up this baby. Now here's the part to think about: I doubt that anyone in that field was able to hold 5.8watts/kg (400 watts divided by 152lbs) for the 25min climb, and for sure wouldn't be able to do it 3x, so whats the point of such a brutal pace? That's just the way MTB races start, happens every race.

Anyway, I rode my pace and by the mid-climb was bringing guys back. By the top I had passed a few and then on the descent, well I got passed back. That's OK, those young bucks are willing to take risks I can't even imagine, and in addition, I'm on a rigid fork with no brakes, and these repeated waterbar jumps are pretty scary at high speed!

So 2nd time up the ascent I bring more guys back, and of course lose some places on the descent. But, whats exciting is my average power for climb 2 was 10watts higher and a minute faster than climb 1.. and I still feel good! Can I top the power for climb 3? YES! 8 more watts to the average, a bit quicker and more riders passed. Of course I get passed back on the descent, but when it's all said and done.. I placed 7th.. not bad! Worked from last to 7th with the help of a pacing tool and a strategy, and in spite of the rigid fork and no rear brakes.. which by the way turned out to be the lever bottoming on the shifter. My friend Dan Cooley grabbed an allen wrench, twisted the shifter.. fixed! I felt dumb!