Wilderness 101 2012

Strava GPS Data

Gearing up for these 100mile races I try to eat a huge breakfast the morning before.  I take the advice of Gerry Pflug's Endurance Race Preparation blog post.  Gerry has done about a million of these races and seems to win most of them so I figured he knows what he is talking about.  He is right.  Eating a huge breakfast 2hrs before the race is the only way to survive!  If you do it you will have a huge base of extra calories to dip into throughout the day.  I had 2 huge bowls of Bob's Red Mill oatmeal, 1 Probar, and 1/4 of a Jewish Apple cake.. whew... and I felt great!

I loveeeee oatmeal!  Bob's Red Mill is the only way to go!  They are huge cycling supporters and their oatmeal is better.

I ate about 6 of these in my race.  You have no idea how good they are.

During the race I ate Probars, GUs, and lots and lots of CeraLyte/CeraSport.  CeraLyte has a ridiculous amount of electrolytes and it goes down smooth... never upsets my stomach and eliminates any chance of cramping.

CeraLyte and CeraSport

The race started very slow for the first 20miles.  The lead group was about 50riders deep.  It was not until after the 1st aid station that things started to get a little faster.  There was a steep climb out of that aid station and the leaders set a decent pace with Justin Lindine (my cyclocross hero) leading the charge up the hill.  I was so happy to be racing right next to him (well at least until the first major downhill when the leaders got away).

After that first hill, it was myself and Gerry Pflug who were leading the Single Speeders.  I didn't see any of the other guys but I figured they were not far behind.  I just kinda followed Gerry's lead and I tried to never go above threshold pace since I knew it would be a very long day and I didn't want to burn any matches until the very end, and only if I had to.

On the 2nd hill I was able to get a small gap on Gerry but he closed it back down on the following flat/downhill.  It was not until after aid station 2 and the 3rd hill (bigger than the first 2) that I was able to get away and stay away from him.  After the race he told me that he flatted 2x soon after that hill... that sealed the deal.

I rode by myself for much of the day.  I had a few riders who I worked with but mostly I was by myself.  This made it really hard on the flat sections, having a geared rider to draft on on the flats is a HUGEEE help but I did the best I could and spun my single speed as fast as I could when the road was flat.

The last hill was the most fun one of the day!  I let it all out and went above threshold for the first time.  I had 2 geared riders breathing down my neck and I figured I could beat them on the hill for sure and that if the finish line was close enough after the hill that I could win.  I did get a sizeable gap on Garth Prosser and Simonson on that hill but afterwards there was about 5miles of flat and they caught and passed me with about 400meters left in the race.  I lost my top 10 overall placement at that point but still 11th was good enough and beating the other Single Speeders was just great!

2nd Gerry Pflug, 3rd Matt Ferrari, 4th JPock, 5th Hal